Code 911 and the mysterios Inkling

I suppose you're all reading the awesome comics David Heath and I are creating for Bilateral Comics (and if you don't, you're breaking my heart). I'm very happy I found a good collaboration as this, since David is allowing me to experiment a lot with the art and I really hope this will help me grow. Right now the second chapter of Valley-01 is readable online, and Ten Fingers is now available to buy printed.

Now we're starting to build the next short issue - as Ten Fingers, this is going to be a one shot and a break from Valley-01 that will come back with the third issue after Code 911.

Code 911 is a "noir" story (as you can imagine, I can't get away too much), and I thought my usual style wouldn't fit the mood. I've always wanted to try the sketchy style done with ballpoint pen, because I use it for my life drawings and they turn out pretty good. It was time for my Inkling to shine!!!
...and it failed terribly. I haven't had the chance to actually try the pen before now: it has various flaws that make clear why it's not so popular as I believed. This is what I drew (scanned, with black areas outside the panels and text properly added after)

and this is what the Inkling saved.

Now, forget the eye in the third panel, as I moved the receiver without noticing. I'm also ignoring the fact that it doesn't cover the whole page, as it's meant to work on smaller paper. I know that not having the paper infos on the file make a difference; anyway, there are a bunch of gaps between lines that are actually filled, and it seems not to feel the pressure I put in making the signs on paper. I wanted to draw in pen as it's actually the media closer to the pencil in my hands, but the Inkling doesn't make justice to what I can do with a ballpoint pen. It's a pity, as it could have been very practical do to the whole comic without having to scan the pages.

Well, it seems that anyway Code 911 will be done like this. Bonus: the color test.

You all know I hate how colors often destroy my drawings, but this time it quite fits. I hope this turns out to be awesome!

School's out!

I study in the best school ever. This is the final project for this year (for those who can't read italian...well, look at the drawings ._.)

But HOW did we get here? This school year was full of new things to learn from the begininning. I felt like a newbie again, and it wasn't bad, but I think I need a lot of practice to actually learn what we've been taught.
First of all, inking.  I switched from various tecniques (nib, brush, brushpen, pen, digital...), and I'm still looking for the most suitable for my drawings. Anyway, I definately did a lot of progresses: one of the best of 2013 done with nibs, and one of the best of 2014 in brushpen.

Most of all, I think I'm starting to balance the ink with the color, that was one of the most difficult part for me. Color is still a bitch, but I've managed to make some progesses too (spoiler page from Valley-01 #2!):

There's definately a lot of work and exercise to do, as well as in every other aspect of the page (I'm still struggling with backgrounds, and I probably always will), but I got the principles and I think the result is waaay better in just a couple of months.

The most difficult part of this year's studies is that there are a lot of possibilities, both with ink and color, all of them equally useful. I mean, faces and hands and bodies and backgrounds have basic rules to follow, and I'm pretty sure about how I want them to turn out. This doesn't apply to ink, mostly because I'm not sure about the result I want. I like most of the results I can get, and I haven't even started to go into details as mostly of the scenes I draw are actually pretty plain (dialogues, mostly inside, with a few characters). I don't even start to talk about color, you can imagine how many differences there can be in coloring pages. As for now, I want to find at least one satisfying way to have a solid page, and avoid the messy look of my older pages.

Sketchcrawling!

Yay for nice weather and some sun!