tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11100777257680644332024-03-13T08:46:22.445-07:00DEATHberryPIEC.Lijewskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14599632365011293297noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1110077725768064433.post-53167956449414673392007-06-09T02:25:00.000-07:002007-06-09T12:03:39.847-07:00FAQS<span style=";font-family:verdana;font-size:78%;" >I get a lot of emails asking me questions about RE:Play and usually the questions fall into the same categories over and over again so I thought I’d clear some of them up here:3<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Q1-</span> When is the next one coming out?<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">A1-</span> <span style="font-style: italic;">March 08</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Q2- </span>Why don’t you make an anime of RE:Play?<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">A2-</span> <span style="font-style: italic;">Because I don’t know how to animate, it’s magic and those who do it are voodoo witches with amazing powers which I very much envy.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Q3-</span> Is Char a man or a woman?<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">A3-</span> <span style="font-style: italic;">It’s actually surprising to me how many e-mails I get about this, it really seems to concern people! The simple answer is she was born male but lives as a woman. </span><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transgender"><br /><img src="http://warnerkirby.blogs.com/photos/uncategorized/the_more_you_know775718.jpg" border="0" /><br /></a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Q4- </span>I think Izsak’s a vampire, is he? IS HE?! OMG TELL ME OR I’LL EXPLODE!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">A4-</span> <span style="font-style: italic;">…uh…please just read the comic, yeah?<br /><br /></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Q5- </span>Will you make an art book?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">A5- </span><span style="font-style: italic;">This isn’t up to me, if you’d like to see an art book from me (or any other merchandise for that matter) please send TokyoPop </span><a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://www.blogger.com/info@tokyopop.com">an email</a><span style="font-style: italic;"> and let them know what you’d like to see :3 They don’t care what the artists want, they care what the fans want, that’s the way of publishers my friends.<br /></span><br />I think those are probably the top 5, so we'll leave it at that for today.<br /><br />In other news I will be hitting up a bunch of conventions this summer!<br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Here's my current con schedule lovingly copypasted from my DA journal:</span><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span></span></span></span><span style=";font-family:verdana;font-size:78%;" > Anime Expo- June 29th-July 2nd<br />Just a fun cosplay and hang out con. No AA table and AFAIK TP will NOT have a booth there so I probably wont have any signings. Say hey if you see me tho! (I'll def. be at the SKIN concert ho ho ho)<br /><br />Otakon- July 20th -July 22nd<br />Work con!<br />I'll have a table in the artist alley as well some some limited prints in the art show.<br />If TP is at the con I'll have some signings at the booth again~<br /><br />SDCC- Thu, July 26 - Sun, July 29<br />Still not 100% sure if I'm going to this but if I am I'll have booth signings at the TP booth and will generally be around to talk to if you need me. Another work con for me~~~</span>C.Lijewskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14599632365011293297noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1110077725768064433.post-25498495257642601372007-04-16T06:29:00.001-07:002008-12-09T02:36:23.859-08:00Process<span style=";font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;" >I get a lot of questions from people on DA asking how I go about drawing my comics and what planning goes into them. So I figured I'd share a little bit of how I work.<br /></span><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:85%;" ><br /></span><span style=";font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;" >I work a little differently for individual issue comics and for graphic novel volumes. Since most of the people who ask me are manga-style writers I'll use graphic novel volumes for this example since that seems to b</span><span style=";font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;" >e the current fashion for the manga audience these days.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; font-family: arial;font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;" >Step One- Plotting </span><br /><br />The first thing I do is draft up a general overview of the volume.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span><span style=";font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;" >Putting events in order and little footnotes to any dialogue/scenes I already have written up.<br />I keep a running document on my laptop that I add to whenever I get an idea for a line of dialogue or a certain scene I want to include in future volumes. That way when I get to that point in the story I can go back to my idea and work it in if it's still applicable.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span><span style=";font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;" ><br />So a basic flo</span><span style=";font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;" >w of events and scenes comes first. This isn’t a detailed dialogue heavy list, it's literally a list of "this happens, then this happens, then this happens." It's basically to give me an idea of what I have to work with and how much I have to fit into my allotted pages for the volume. That way if there's too many scenes to fit into the given page limit I can start trimming back unnecessary scenes now instead of later when a lot more work has been put into them.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Step Two- Scripting and Thumbnailing </span><br /><br />The next step is actually two things at the same time.<br />Working from my plot layout I’ll start scripting out the actual book from page one of the first chapter to the last page of the last chapter. I work from start to</span><span style=";font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;" > finish in order so as to make sure the chapters flow well and the pace of the story works.<br /><br />Scripting involves writing out both the dialogue for each panel and what’s</span><span style=";font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;" > occurring in each panel visually.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"><a style="font-family: arial;" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Kfoqov3LmaQ/RiN-V6a8e9I/AAAAAAAAAA0/lam9y6WR41c/s1600-h/pg18_thumb.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Kfoqov3LmaQ/RiN-V6a8e9I/AAAAAAAAAA0/lam9y6WR41c/s320/pg18_thumb.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5054022121764453330" border="0" /></a><br /></span><span style=";font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;" >----------------<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">EX:</span> <span style="font-style: italic;">Page 1</span> <span style="font-style: italic;">Panel 1- wide full bleed panel, angled, Cree leans forward smiling ¾ at the camera</span> <span style="font-style: italic;"><br /><br />Cree- Of course</span></span><span style=";font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-style: italic;"> it is, I mean what I say!</span> <span style="font-style: italic;"><br /><br />Panel 2- wide outlined panel, angled, shot of Izsak and Cree’s feet on the ground in front of the bench. Cree rolls her feet in towards each other.<br /><br />etc etc etc...<br /></span>----------------<br /><br />While I’m writing the script out I keep my sketchbook next to me so I can thumbnail out the pages as I go. I know a lot of artists are really detailed in their thumbnails, I’m obviou</span><span style=";font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;" >sly not one of them.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span><span style=";font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;" ><br /><br /><br />I just use thumbnails as a way to get my base idea for the panel layout down and to help me remember what I was talking about in my description of the panels in the script.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Step Three- Penciling</span></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><a style="font-family: arial;" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Kfoqov3LmaQ/RiN-gaa8e-I/AAAAAAAAAA8/mDJnC-RS30Q/s1600-h/pg18_pencil.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Kfoqov3LmaQ/RiN-gaa8e-I/AAAAAAAAAA8/mDJnC-RS30Q/s320/pg18_pencil.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5054022302153079778" border="0" /></a></span><span style=";font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;" ><br /><br />After I’ve finished scripting and thumbnailing out the entire book I start in on penciling pages. Again I work from the first page to the last in concession.<br />I’m not a slave to my thumbnails tho, so sometimes things will change as I draw them. In this case I changed panel 2 because I ended up cut</span><span style=";font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;" >ting the main character’s hair in the previous chapter. Something I hadn’t taken into account when I was thumbnailing out the pages.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;"><br /><br />Step Four- Inks</span></span><span style=";font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;" ><br /></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><a style="font-family: arial;" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Kfoqov3LmaQ/RiN-gqa8e_I/AAAAAAAAABE/DVugS_yuNlY/s1600-h/pg18_ink.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Kfoqov3LmaQ/RiN-gqa8e_I/AAAAAAAAABE/DVugS_yuNlY/s320/pg18_ink.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5054022306448047090" border="0" /></a><br /></span><span style=";font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;" >Most artists I know pencil out their whole book and then go back and ink it.</span><span style=";font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;" > I prefer to work page by page, so after I’ve penciled out a page I’ll go straight to inking it before I pencil out the next page. </span><span style=";font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;" >It’s really just a personal preference, I just find it easier to work that way.<br />I tend to do the majority of my BG work and details straight in ink in this step.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:85%;" ><br /><br />Step Five- Tones</span><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">I don’t do this step! HOORAH!! I have an assistant, Catarina, who tones my pages for me. So after I have a chapter’s inks done I send them off to her, along with notes on how I want the tones done, for her to add them in.</span><br /><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:85%;" ><br /><br />Step Six- Text</span><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">After I get my pages back from Cat I add my word balloons in Illustrator. Again I know the majority of artists draw them by hand. I don’t, once more it’s just a personal preference. After I’ve added the word balloons my finished pages and final script get sent off to my editor who hands the pages off to another assistant who drops in the text since they prefer to handle that in-house.</span><br /><br /></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:85%;" >And that’s that! </span><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Generally I finish about 2 pages penciled and inked a day, some days I manage more if the pages aren’t too complex or if I’m feeling especially art-y that day. I very rarely do less than 2 pages as that’ll throw my whole schedule off and I hate to fall behind.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Comics are fun, but they’re still work yo!</span><br /></span><br /></span><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span>C.Lijewskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14599632365011293297noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1110077725768064433.post-41034847831526760322007-04-06T16:30:00.000-07:002008-12-09T02:36:24.132-08:00First post time~<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Kfoqov3LmaQ/RhbYfZCCWRI/AAAAAAAAAAM/EH0ioSAgpHM/s1600-h/QUITE_PIMP.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Kfoqov3LmaQ/RhbYfZCCWRI/AAAAAAAAAAM/EH0ioSAgpHM/s320/QUITE_PIMP.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5050462065949563154" border="0" /></a><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:85%;" >For those of you who know me I’m sure you’re wondering why the heck I need yet another blog.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:85%;" >Well, I’ll tell you why.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:85%;" >Because I need a place where I can talk about comics and work and not have to bring people into my personal bizniz in order to do so.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /><br /><br /></span><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:85%;" >LJ is great, but it’s hard to keep work separate from life there, so that’s what this blog is for.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:85%;" >It’s so even if you don’t know me personally you can still keep up with what’s going on in the Land O’ Comics.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:85%;" >Make sense?<br /></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:85%;" >YES!<br /></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:85%;" >So for a first post here I figured I’d bring everyone up to date on the status of my current series~</span><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /><br /></span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;font-size:85%;" >RE:Play</span><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:85%;" >Right now I’m about halfway thru Volume Two, I just finished up Chapter 4 last night and will be starting in on Chapter 5 today.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:85%;" >After talking to my editor I found out the street date has been pushed back once again. It was originally due out in Dec of 07 but now it’s being moved to <span style="font-weight: bold;">March of 08</span>.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:85%;" >Long time away, I know, but at least the wait between vol two and vol three wont be as long as between one and two since I’ll already be a couple chapters into vol three by the time two hits the stands!</span><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:85%;" >That’s…something, right guys?<br /><br />Also, because I don't think a lot of people realize this, the street date is something that I have no control over. I get a lot of e-mails lamenting my decision to release the books so far apart...yeah...that's not me. It's all up the publisher, the artist has little to no say in it.<br /></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;font-size:85%;" >NEXT EXIT</span><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:85%;" >For those of you who don’t know, I’m no longer publishing Next Exit under SLG. We split a couple months back and I’m currently in the process of moving the series over to a different publisher.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:85%;" >The split was amicable and there was no bad blood or anything, SLG just wasn’t the right publisher for the comic and we both knew it.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:85%;" >While SLG is a great company to work for, and I can say nothing but positive things about my experience there, it’s just not a publisher most people turn to for “manga”. And since that’s the heading most people seem to categorize my comics under, it wasn’t a good fit.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /><br /></span><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:85%;" >That being said when Next Exit does return I think readers will be more pleased with the presentation and format of the book and hopefully it'll reach the audience it was intended to reach this time around.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:85%;" >I’ll be sure to keep everyone updated on the situation of the series and when it’s expected return to shelves will be~<br /><br />So that's where I stand right now, I have a few other side projects I'm working on, and I'll be sure to update here about them as soon as I'm able!<br /></span>C.Lijewskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14599632365011293297noreply@blogger.com14