Thursday, April 2, 2009

Aliens: Havoc layout

This story required a specific point of view for every panel.  This layout shows my first attempt at pulling it all together but I had to redraw most of it because of the "camera" angles.  If they didn't show the scene from one of the characters' eye level it wouldn't work.

6 comments:

  1. Hello Mr Nowlan, I like your dravings very much particularly I search a Hi-res version of your cover of legends of dark knight 101. In my opinion that robot batman is very stunning. Could you please give me a version of this image without the barcode, dc logo, etc..., a version with only your art in high resolution? Thank you!!!

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  2. It may take a while to find it but I think I have a color copy of it that I can scan. I'll see what I can do...

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  3. I like the head in the lower left hand corner and how it breaks the panel border. Good position and still moves the storytelling of the page on.

    And the extra drawing of the inset was great too.

    BTW, how do you approach layouts? Do you prefer to go in via pencils then rough inks to see for shading or does pencil shading give you what you want? Just noticed that some of the drawings are in pencils, some in pencils then a really rough ink, some in a "tight" pencils, etc.

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  4. I start out pencilling lightly, trying to get the gesture and the attitude, working darker as the drawing is refined and I start seeing the lines that work.

    Some artists literally draw in the air, moving the pencil inches above the paper as they start to compose the drawing. The don't make a mark until they've started to see the image in their head.

    You can also use colored pencils for this stage, like light blue, changing to a different color or darker lead for the later stages. It makes cleaning up the layout easier.

    Sometimes I like to do some rough inks with a marker, especially if the layout is looking a little chaotic. I'll also add some large black areas with a big marker or a brush dipped in ink. If I'm not sure about the black areas I might spot the blacks on a copy of the layout. Tracing paper works too.

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  5. thanks for the step by step...

    really helps.

    can have more of 'behind the scene' here in this wonderful blog.

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