AKA the 2011 Comic-Con Demo that wasn't.
At the 11th hours, a few days before Comic-Con, I was asked if I'd give a demo in Artist's Alley about the way I work. For whatever reasons, the demo never happened, and I don't mind, 'cuz I was busy enough at it was.
But as long as I did a little prep work, I figure I might as well show you all what I would have don last week if I'd done it.
It's all over on Flick'r and you can see it here.
4 comments:
Ooh, fascinating! Behind-the-scenes Beanworld! (It really is a process...)
As for using a Larry Marder typeface, this long-time Beanfan says "Respectfully, please refrain if possible." I understand that sometimes ya gotta do what ya gotta do, but your hand lettering is one of the delights of Beanworld.
Larry, in all the examples you've released of pencil sketches, it seems like few, if any, remain unchanged in the final "inked" versions. Is this common for you or am I just seeing a skewed sample? This post is one example, your July 9 blog is another, and there are plenty of samples in the published comics and trades.
By not "unchanged", I'm noting that the dialogue changes pretty significantly and frequently the drawings do as well.
The best way to describe the way I work is: Marvel-style with myself.
I start out with either a shard of dialogue, a visual image or a combination of both.
Larry-the-artist then comes in a blocks out the page. I put in word balloons, but as I've said elsewhere, those might be place holders. Or to be a little pompous, I like to think of them as the sort of the sort of notes notations of dialogue that Jack Kirby once put in the magins for Stan Lee.
Larry-the-artist then begins to ink and tighten up the story within each frame. It is at this stage that I think most of the emotional range of the Bean's body language and gestures comes to life.
Based on the thoughts and feelings that pop into my head at those very moments, Larry-the-writer communicates to Larry-the-letterer and the bulk of the dialogue is composed at the very moment I'm lettering it.
I'm not sure which Larry then works on the flow of balloon placemen. In most comics I believe this is a function directed by the writer but for me these feel like design decisions.
Regardless one of me spends a fair amount of time making sure I can balance the words and art in the best possible flow across the page.
Make sense?
Did I leave anything out?
Very nice, thanks for sharing.
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