Sequential Art & Comic Pages
“Devil’s Night”
This is an example of what the final pages would look like for this in-progress graphic novel project. This 5-page excerpt is towards the climax of the story. (Scroll down for a look into the my creative process for these!)
*All of the Spanish spoken in this story was based on a Dominican dialect, so the translations you see below the pages are written in that cultural context (with help from my lovely bilingual Dominican friends).
(Left Page)
[“¡Coño!” - in this context, equivalent to “fuck!” or “shit!”]
(Right Page)
[“¡Malditos cobardes!” - “damn cowards”]
[“¡Suelta me!” - “Let go!“ or “Let go of me!”]
(Left Page)
(Right Page)
(Left Page)
Process:
First I wrote a script, which I used as a guide to map out the page layouts and some loose thumbnails in a dot-grid notebook.
Next, I pulled those layouts into a digital program where I refined the sketches and did a rough layout for the text.
After that, I printed those sketches out and used them to create all the final linework traditionally with fine liner pens. (I wanted the linework to be rough, organic, and textured for this project, and I found that it was easier to achieve that on paper)
I then converted those ink drawings back into digital files where I was able to adjust the colors.
The text was all handwritten digitally at this stage.
Before doing the final full-color rendering, I laid out the base colors. This helped to establish the mood and to visually separate the different locations we see in this excerpt.
After that, each page was rendered digitally to create the final images you saw at the top of this section!
Sketches & Planning:
(It’s worth noting that the sketchbook for this project was stolen (along with an entire backpack) when I was travelling, so many of the preproduction sketches are sadly either lost forever or not well photographed.)
“Serafina and the Black Cloak”
A one-page comic based on an excerpt from the novel of the same name by Robert Beatty.
“Jack, Jill, and The Reaper”
This was a short visual interpretation of the Jack and Jill nursery rhyme, done with ink.
(My professor at the time that I made this had tried to encourage us to use larger paper, but I have always preferred to work with small sketchbooks and canvases. The final two panels here are actually only 1cm wide…)