I mentioned this before, but we’re currently targeting a relaunch date of 12/1/2009 or 1/1/2010. As Dave said, we want to have a backlog of strips before we decide how often we plan to update so that we can keep the update frequency regular for some time. Realistically, 1-2 pages a week is the most we’ll be able to do.
My new process allows me to draw more quickly in most cases, but perspective is problematic. The new strips feature 2 and 3 point perspective, which is difficult to do in PhotoShop.
On paper, for 2 or 3 point perspective, I tape the paper to a large drawing surface. I place small strips of masking tape on the drawing surface far outside the margins of the paper and use a pencil to draw vanishing points on the tape. I then use a large ruler to create the illusion of perspective by lightly sketching the scene by hand, and lightly drawing in any lines that go towards the vanishing points. Once the sketch is done, I can darken the drawing by going over the lines again with pencil, and erasing anything I don’t need.
In PS this is problematic for a number of reasons. For one, my drawing surface is limited to the space on my monitor, which is relatively small at 19″, at least when compared to a drawing table. This means I need to do a lot of work zoomed way out, which makes precision problematic (guides help a lot here). Additionally, I can’t mark vanishing points outside of the edges of the canvas in a PS document.
In order to accomplish something like my usual pencil-and-paper process, what I need to do is create a huge canvas., usually about 4-8 times the size of the original image; this essentially becomes my “drawing surface.” I can then create vanishing points near the far edges of this larger canvas; if the vanishing points are too close to the image, the perspective becomes distorted and things start to look too angular and sharp near the corners. Once I have the vanishing points in place, I use guides (with guide snap turned on) to create “cross hairs” on the points.
Then I use the line tool to begin drawing in the image. The line tool creates a separate layer for each line that I draw, which is perfect because the lines necessarily extend from the vanishing point, out across the canvas, through the drawing area, and often out the other side. Once I have enough lines to start forming the basic shapes, I need to rasterize each line, and use the selection tool to select and clear the parts of the line that are outside of the shape; this is the equivalent of me going over the light pencil lines on paper with a darker line, and then erasing the rest away. Once I’ve trimmed all of the unnecessary parts away, I can merge the layers to create the cohesive shape.
The good news is, there is a lot of room for error. If I start to draw in a shape and it doesn’t look right, I can erase and start over without leaving any trace behind, unlike pencil and paper, which can leave “ghost” lines behind, and/or affect the texture of the paper as you erase away layers of the surface. To much erasing can even effect how pencil appears on the paper, or how ink is absorbed, changing the line quality in parts of the image. The bad news is that I could draw a dozen lines, darken them, and erase them with a pencil and a ruler in the time that it takes me to draw 1 or 2 in PhotoShop.
Where am I going with all of this? Well, the new strips make a lot of use of perspective. The first one has a panel drawn with 2-point perspective that is actually very basic but still took me hours to draw (because I was trying to come up with the best process for me). The second strip has a 3-point perspective panel that is taking me forever to finish. There is a lot of detail work, and drawing every line in perspective is time consuming.
I am still re-learning how to draw inside PhotoShop, and I’m sure I’m doing a lot of things in a lot of very inefficient ways. If anyone has any tips and tricks that might help me and speed things along, I’d love to hear them. In particular, I know I can do some really great things with masks, and I need to reteach myself how to use them. In the mean time, hopefully the end result will be impressive, and subsequent strips will be a little faster and easier to turn out. Also, hopefully it will be worth the wait!
