Can I ask you a couple of questions about the art panel you made for “Pull Me To The Ground” Chapter 2? Apologies in advance, I don’t know much about art so I’m struggling with the right words/terminology.
What did you draw the panel with? Like a sketchbook or a tablet?
I really love all the detail in it. Your depiction of the apartment and later Rumi’s couch/apartment is phenomenal. Every time I look at it I find something else to stare at. In the final panel, the snake plant is in a nursery pot inside the decorative pot and I can clearly see that / tell what it is. I’m not used to seeing such fine details. Do you usually draw/make such detailed pieces?
What was your thought process behind the girls only being in color at the beginning and then the panels slowly transitioning to full color?
Any plans to make another work like this for this story or a different fanfic?
What’s this kind of art/panel officially called? Architecture and character study? Setting study?
Hi anon, great questions, I love to yap about process! Link to the art piece you're asking about, for those who haven't seen.
What did you draw the panel with? Like a sketchbook or a tablet?
Both. I made some sketches/plans on paper in my book. And then moved it to digital. I use an ipad, and both procreate and CSP.
I pasted my sketchbook images into procreate so I could move things around and expand on the ideas. I had a few clear ideas for this comic but the layout, order, and such was difficult and I went back and forth a lot.
Once I felt like I'd nailed down the layout and initial sketch, I exported into CSP to do all the rest.
Endpoints of sketchbook and procreate:
I’m not used to seeing such fine details. Do you usually draw/make such detailed pieces?
Most of what I draw is not this detailed! Generally I'm just goofing around.
I'd also say that with comics, part of the process is figuring out how to be economical with your detail. Generally that means one detailed panel to establish the environment, and then subsequent panels can hint at that environment with only a fraction of the work.
I don't dislike drawing background, but I'd rather be drawing people! So the further I can stretch my work, the more time I have to draw what I wanna be drawing.
Creating a detailed background can seem kind of daunting. But for me it's helpful to start with a vague shape and retrofit whatever fits. I need a vague blob here to break up the edge of the sofa? Okay now it's uhhh…… a basket.
What was your thought process behind the girls only being in color at the beginning and then the panels slowly transitioning to full color?
There's a couple of things going on here. But TLDR is to make the girls stand out against the bg.
In the first panel, it is BUSY. There's a lot of detail, because I wanted their home to feel lived in. The girls themselves blend into the space, which is good because I wanted them to feel like they're a part of their home. They're also small and off to the edges in the panel because I wanted to emphasize the space between them. None of that is bad, but it makes it more challenging to see the girls against the background.
So in visual arts, composition is a broad set of fundamental principles which define, amongst other things attention. Is the viewer drawn to the correct part of the image, and how easily can they pick out the information you're trying to communicate?
Using color and higher contrast in the areas of interest helps guide people to what's important. So in this case, keeping the background both monochrome and with minimal contrast (no super light and dark areas) means that it's super obvious where you should be looking.
It's nice for people to look at the details, but those aren't the point of that panel, so they shouldn't be competing visually with the characters.
If we blur out the details you can see the effect of using color and contrast:
As for the other panels, we don't really have those contraints. The girls are huge and deliberately centered. We can also see their faces (which humans are programmed to direct attention to). All of this means that we don't have to be as careful with where we apply color.
THEMATICALLY, it would have been nice to render Zoey and Mira's home in full color, and then contrast it with washed-out colors in Rumi's apartment. But for the sake of composition, I decided to go with monochrome for panel 1, and contrast a warm tone with the cooler one in the final panel.
Any plans to make another work like this for this story or a different fanfic?
Sure. I always have plans for comics! I don't want to say specific fic because I don't know which comics will get done and when. But yes, it can be hard work, but I love making them.
What’s this kind of art/panel officially called? Architecture and character study? Setting study?
I'm not sure! I would call it an 'establishing shot'. That's probably more of a film/cinematography term, but comics and film share a lot of similar principles.
In an art context, I'd use 'study' to mean a drawing/copy/notes with the purpose of learning something. That first panel is more about setting up their environment and the tone for the rest of the comic, so it's kind of utilitarian.
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