This happened last week – I stopped using the therapy light over the long Thanksgiving weekend, and by Monday I was having an almost physical reaction, I was tense, shaky, angry and nervous, and it was like my brain was LOOKING for things to be anxious about. I had caught myself thinking, the week before, that it didn’t feel like the light was making that big of a difference, because I didn’t feel any happier than I normally do. But once I went off it – oh, right. There’s that crippling self-doubt and self-deprecation that usually hits me this time of year.
So if anyone’s curious, the light TOTALLY WORKS, and I will not be forgetting to use it again anytime soon.
So! I promised you guys some process shots. I gotta warn you, this will be really, really unimpressive. I usually work really loose on Sauceome comics, much more loosely than I do on other comics. Here are my bluelines:
Pretty damn loose, as you can see. I usually lay out the strip in blue pencil, and then ink over it:
Again, pretty loose. Then I scan it, and blow out the contrast in Photoshop, usually with a mix of curves and Brightness/Contrast. Sometimes I’ll run a low median filter to smooth out the lines, or dodge and burn over the lines to get rid of any smudges that are still left. Then I set it as the lowest layer, and do my coloring on a layer on top of that, set to multiply. And if I feel like it, I’ll run a little color halftone over the backgrounds, like I did here. Hm. That’s actually a pretty long process, and I don’t have pictures of it. Maybe for the next comic I’ll take some screengrabs of how I color the page.
Oh, and here are some of my favorite tools:
From top to bottom, that’s a pretty standard white-out pen, my very favoritest Kuretake brush pen, two Faber Castell Pitt pens, and a mechanical pencil with blue lead.
Thanks for these. I love seeing process photos. You lost me when you got into the photoshop stuff. I think I’m using only about .01% of what the program does.
I’m a big fan of the mechanical pencil with blue lead. That’s what I use pretty much all the time.
Scott: yeah, I realized as I was writing that out, it’s probably pretty confusing. :D on my next comic I’ll try to be more in-depth about how I do the P-shop stuff!
I also love the process shots! Thanks for the peek!
I can’t wait to see more about your Photoshop process. I just started digitally coloring (because my Copic markers and watercolors never come through the computer quite right).
Is it just regular blue lead or a particular blue lead?
@ Angela: It’s just regular blue lead, from Pentel. I get it at the art supply store, but I bet you could find it other office supply type places too, it’s usually right there next to the normal black lead.
What kind of sun lamp do you have. I am looking to get one for my wife and me and there are quite a few out there. Most seem to have squirrelly promises of making you happy, building good bones, cures debt, etc etc (ok I made that last one up).
@stephen: this is the lamp I have: http://www.day-lights.com/us/product/classicindex.html
(altho my model doesn’t have those robot legs)
I’ve been told that if it’s a good 10,000 lux or so, you only need to use it for about 15 minutes every day. And that it’s most effective if you put it slightly above your head, because the rods that are most receptive to the light are in your lower eyelids. So far it’s been working really well for me! Not making me deliriously happy, of course – but it is keeping away the crippling self-doubt that I usually experience this season.
Thankyou Sarah.
Well that explains a lot…
*grabs spare desk lamp from dusty shelf*
*installs spare daylight artist’s bulb from kitchen drawer*
*plugs it into long extension cord*
now, how can I rig this up into some kind of shoulder mount to provide an extra 60w of up-close sunlight-spectrum illumination that follows me around my apartment?
hate winter just want to hibernate hide in bed tell everyone to get stuffed blurgh why do we have to go outside and go to work its horrible etc etc etc
(the first blue bulb of the pair lives in my “second” bedside lamp, on a timer plug… clicks on a few minutes before the alarm clock goes off. it’s fairly effective in preventing me from being late to work… but only just)