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Just stumbled on some of the thumbnails I'd used in creating the pages of OXYGEN in the current DIGESTED.03 issue.

Through this free brainstorming, I get the camera angles and compositions right before I begin to pencil in the page for inking. (Notice the thumbnails I've outlines in black. These are the ones that I chose for the final panels in the story). I find this prior thumbnailing step is invaluable, rather than trying to compose blindly onto the finished board and then rubbing & re-rubbing until you ruin your paper in a hundred smudges and smears. Basically, I find I can't 'work it out' on the finished art board. It's too constrained for me. The designer in me would much rather 'compose' the page and get it right before I get to the final art board.

-Bobby.N
www.bobbyn.com

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Worked on cover a little more this evening. Decided to see how adding depth by putting in shadows from the sunrise would effect the composition.

After adding shade to the foreground images, I tried continuing the effect by adding shadows to the upper section of clouds and to the figures in the background (to follow realism of light/shade), but the picture started to look too segmented and messy. What I mean is, it just started to take away the crispness and 'punch' by all the shadowy complexities.

So instead of adding a shadow above each cloud, I simply faded the outline of each cloud to give the suggestion that the top of the cloud is darker than the bottoms. And instead of adding small complicated shadows to each background person, I simply increased the opacity of the grey on them as a flat colour.

Getting the right effect to convey doesn't always mean being literal.

-Bobby.N

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It's 12.20am on a Wednesday night and I've just wrapped up DIGESTED.03! Happy, but spent. Just a 'once-over' to be done by Gestalt & myself (a typo fixed here or there) and it's off to the printers and delivered in time for the upcoming Doujicon convention.

Anyway...which cover do you think works best?

Version-A or...


Version-B

So while you ponder the covers, I'm going to bed. Oh yeah... I may drop in to Supanova this weekend at the Showgrounds to support my buddies. Fingers crossed, eh?

Goodnight all.

-Bobby.N

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The next issue of DIGESTED is almost done. It'll be the same size as DIGESTED.01 (ie: ~24 pages)... followed closely by the fourth issue (due out by year's end).

This is the 3rd issue's cover that I just inked during my lunch break (Monday-12th-April). The page is fresh without any 'clean-up' done to it yet. Now it's time to spit, polish and colour the thing.

I'm aiming for DIGESTED.03 to be available for you all by Doujicon (May-8th)!

-Bobby.N

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I'm in the home-stretch of finishing the next issue (DIGESTED.03). I have about 7 pages left to ink in 2 weeks... as well as the cover. Tight, but do-able.

A page from DIGESTED.03

Ok... back to the drawing board... Literally!


-Bobby.N