Here is a page from one of the issues I penciled and inked on my long run on DC's Power of Shazam comic. You can see how loose I would get sometimes with the pencils if I new I was going to be inking the book myself, I could leave some of the drawing to the inking stage. I always liked that book and think both Jerry Ordway and Pete Krause did a great job on it and I had a blast. That was the last regular monthly comic I did before I started mostly working in animation.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Power of Shazam-Pencils and Inks
Here is a page from one of the issues I penciled and inked on my long run on DC's Power of Shazam comic. You can see how loose I would get sometimes with the pencils if I new I was going to be inking the book myself, I could leave some of the drawing to the inking stage. I always liked that book and think both Jerry Ordway and Pete Krause did a great job on it and I had a blast. That was the last regular monthly comic I did before I started mostly working in animation.
I love these Mike, thanks for posting. You say they're loose but the drawing is all there, well except for the bg figures on panel 1, I'd be too scared to go straight in with inks on them.
ReplyDeleteI love the way you do folds/drapery/clothing. It has that real classic feel of Raymond and Williamson. Have you got any tips on this. It's one of the things I work hardest at, but I'm still not happy with my results.
Seeing your looser pencils too reminds me a bit of the way Garcia Lopez works. Have you ever inked him? I bet it would look great if you did.
I second that remark about drapery (though Mr Teague you are no slouch in that department); I think I noted it when you posted some great X-9 pages a while back. Really classic old-school feel
ReplyDeleteThose background figures in panel one are loose! That takes confidence.
This is great, Mr. Manley!
ReplyDeletemike
Smack daddy! That's a great page. Love seeing the pencil to ink comparison. Beautiful drawing.
ReplyDeleteDylan, thanks for the nice words. I learned a lot about drapery from three main artists, Wood, Raymond and then Williamson. Wood combined the knowledge from Raymond and Foster, but also Frank Robbins, another great artist. Also there is that Jack Hamm book that is still out and has a great chapter on drapery, as well as the Famous Artist schools basic book, which you might be able to hunt down. We did a chapter in Draw! using these principles.
ReplyDeletethe thing with Raymond is that like the great illustrators and good cartoonist he understood the 7 basic folds, diaper, Drape,, inert, spiral, etc., then how to dress the figure, and how folds were created by the position of the body, and most important, how to make them elegant.
Once you learn how folds are created, from stress points, compression, gravity, then you can draw them in. I studied this stuff hard---poured over the greats because they drew this stuff flawlessly it seemed, though it's hard. One of the tricks is the variety of line, thin on top, bold on the bottom to create light and shadow, type of material, heavy or silk and to learn the patterns, the S fold, the Y fold, etc. I would copy and study and then I "got it", I could see how all they guys I liked who drew well used the same info, just put it in their style.
I love Garcia Lopez's work, but I've never been fortunate enough to ink him.
Alan, thanks, sometimes I might have to tighten a little face, but after a while when you are in the zone, you just fly along.
ReplyDeleteand like Kirby said, "one man can be a school for another", and Alex Raymond is a whole university.
Thanks Mike, I've got the jack hamm book, I'll keep a look out for the other one you mentioned too. I got a load of Rip Kirbys and some Leonard Starr "on Stage" recently think I'm going to devote some sketch time to doing studies from these.
ReplyDeleteGreat mini-tute on folds there, Mike. Lopez is amazing. Great anatomy - his Supes is a fantastic rendition - used to love it when he did the World's Finest team-ups. I would love to see him do civilian drama.
ReplyDeleteAlan, you should pick up Cinder and Ash if you can find it, all non superhero stuff and Lopez's finest hour imho(his 4 issue Deadman is a very close second). Twilight is cool to see him doing SF stuff too.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the lead, Dylan. Always enjoy your blog too.
ReplyDeleteManley on Lopez would be cool. I thought Sean Phillips did a great job on Lopez; not a teaming I would have expected, even though Phillips' inks are amazing.
I remember this issue. In fact, I remember the whole series, very fondly. Power of Shazam was one of the gems of the dark ages (the 90s).
ReplyDeleteLovely stuff.
dZ
Thanks Danny. I think as a team we managed to keep what was good about the classic version of the character while bringing him more up to date. God only knows now what they have him doing, probably killing people and wearing their skin, hahaha.
ReplyDeleteSeems most fans just want him to be like Batman or Mary like a hooker.