Words To Images

Work on Issue 2 is in full swing. I've to begin work on a new scene after this post and I've got to admit- I'm really glad for a change of scenery, was just beginning to get a bit sick of that current scene.

I've never shown any of the process behind the creation of Felicity, atleast- the comic itself. Felicity is a 100% Digital comic, everything is drawn and enhanced on the computer, as opposed to any of my other work which is usually scanned from paper. The reason for this, was initially as an experiment to see if I could do it, how fast it would take, how much worse it'd look than if I'd drawn it on paper.

Now that I have a Cintiq the process of creating the lineart and backgrounds for the comic has sped up... quite abit. It's really quite staggering how much faster the whole process is now, although that could also be because of the experience I've earned from Issue 1.


Above is an example of how the storyboard looks directly opposed to the finished comic(Note that it is the full image cut 50/50 and not Uncolored/colored). Couple of things I want to share about the storyboarding process- first is how I do it. I use MS Paint, which is pretty hilarious but I have to stress that you should try it yourself if you're struggling to get a comic started.

MS Paint is limited in so many ways- it forces you to roll with your gut instinct, which in my experience is often the best. It forces you to look at the page as a whole and not as separate panels(a mistake I made a lot in comics I tested out long before Felicity). I think each page has to look like a full piece of art itself and something in the limitations of MS Paint(Especially the lack of zoom)really helps you to create the best overall guideline for your image.

What would follow story-boarding is rough dialog, often in-correct as I won't refer to the scriptword-for-word until I come to do the final text. Sometimes I change dialog at this stage if I feel it'll help the panel, often though this isn't a good idea so I try my best to avoid it. Then after that I work up the line-art in Photoshop(Essentially drawing the image properly from my MS Paint thumbnail guidelines.) After that the hard work begins with the coloring and backgrounds.The backgrounds are hand painted in Photoshop, sometimes I'll also include textures if it is supa-up-close.

That's a very basic overview of the process, I just think I should really share the fact that MS Paint is a great composition tool, atleast for when you're working completely digitally. I still maintain that paper and pencil is the best method for anything really but when going digi, I go paint for sure. Best of all, it's a program we all have by default!

Okay, time to get to work on the next scene. Oh actually, one more thing-

My brother got me an early birthday gift in the form of a 3D Bust of Mounty! It's totally rad, I can't really explain how amazed I am at the accuracy the sculptor achieved(accurate to the 3D Mounty I see in my head).

I don't know his name at the moment, so I can't thank him personally but I love it, makes me more curious than ever to see if the other cast members can exist in true 3D.

You can head on over to the Felicity Forums to have a look at a textured version of the bust, along with a few more camera angles.

-T