The mountain
& The Well
is finally finished!
Introduction: I am extremely pleased to announce that you can read the entirety of The Mountain & The Well on my website here and now. It takes a lot of work to create a comic book, and now that I have finished my first there is nothing that I would rather do more than start working on my next story. However, before jumping face-first into the next project, I thought that this would be a good time to take a little inventory of what I have done, where I am at, and where to go next.
I have received some great advice and reviews from multiple different comic book artists about The Mountain & The Well, and that was a very surreal and humbling experience. At this point, the only thing that I may go back and edit in this story, is some of the spacing for the lettering. Most of my reviews were very complementary of the storytelling and developing art style. However, almost everyone said I need to up my lettering game to a more professional level. Taking a quick read through my book again, I could not agree with this statement more. In the coming weeks, I plan on making some edits to awkward text balloons so that the story looks a little more polished. Aside from that I received some great feedback, and it made me really excited to work on my next project. So... what's next?
I have received some great advice and reviews from multiple different comic book artists about The Mountain & The Well, and that was a very surreal and humbling experience. At this point, the only thing that I may go back and edit in this story, is some of the spacing for the lettering. Most of my reviews were very complementary of the storytelling and developing art style. However, almost everyone said I need to up my lettering game to a more professional level. Taking a quick read through my book again, I could not agree with this statement more. In the coming weeks, I plan on making some edits to awkward text balloons so that the story looks a little more polished. Aside from that I received some great feedback, and it made me really excited to work on my next project. So... what's next?
Style Analysis: I am still fairly young when speaking in terms of professional comic book artists. Being only 23 years old, I do not want that to be an excuse for producing inferior products, but just to be used as a point of perspective when it comes to the entirety of my career. I would say that I have been drawing seriously for about 3 years at this point, and I am 1 year removed for college. There is A LOT of comic work ahead of me, and I have to remind myself of that constantly. I selected 5 of my favorite comic book artists, and decided to do some intense studying into what it is that attracts me to their work so much.
The five artists I selected in alphabetical order are:
1. Jason Brubaker
2. Andrew MacLean
3. Mike Mignola
4. Jake Parker
5. Skottie Young
I have found that at this point in my life, these five artists are the most consistent influences in my comic storytelling. What makes each of these artists tick? How are they creating the style they are producing? I had so many questions surrounding each of these artists, and I wanted to dive deeper into what they do. I will talk more about other artists and artistic mediums a little later in this article, but for now let's take an overview of each of these artists individually.
*This is clearly not a full and complete analysis of all of these artists. These lists by no means are meant to belittle any of their talent by something put on or left of these lists, and I have tremendous respect for them all. All images are copyright to original owners.*
The five artists I selected in alphabetical order are:
1. Jason Brubaker
2. Andrew MacLean
3. Mike Mignola
4. Jake Parker
5. Skottie Young
I have found that at this point in my life, these five artists are the most consistent influences in my comic storytelling. What makes each of these artists tick? How are they creating the style they are producing? I had so many questions surrounding each of these artists, and I wanted to dive deeper into what they do. I will talk more about other artists and artistic mediums a little later in this article, but for now let's take an overview of each of these artists individually.
*This is clearly not a full and complete analysis of all of these artists. These lists by no means are meant to belittle any of their talent by something put on or left of these lists, and I have tremendous respect for them all. All images are copyright to original owners.*
Jason Brubaker
Attributes:
- Strong use of negative space
- Heavy use of white
- Strong textures
- Hand drawn balloons
- Color over inks on special effects
- Traditional component - ink
- Floating text
- Lighting
- Boxy shapes with curvy lines
- All straight lines drawn with brush pen (From Sithrah on)
- No perfectly straight lines
- Desaturated colors
- Communication clarity
Andrew Maclean
Attributes:
- Simple and flat shapes
- Flat colors
- Graphic representation of everything (to the extreme)
- Color over inks
- Almost dead-line line weight, but not quite
- Dynamic panel layout, but still square
- Older works is heavily influenced by Mignola, even in the signature
- Minimal tick marks, but used effectively
- Hand-written feeling to lettering and sound effects
- No texture in color - emphasizes texture in lineart
- Clarity
Mike Mignola
Attributes:
- Geometric
- Spot blacks
- Even circular things are built with mostly straight lines
- Flat colors
- Clarity in mark making
- Knowledge of shadows
- Tick marks
- Sense of depth articulated through overlap
- Messy under-drawing, but clean final drawing
- Shadows of any kind, are almost never shown with color
- Strong contrast
- Color focal points
Jake Parker
Attributes:
- Illustrative nature
- High saturation colors
- Brush pen use
- Line weights
- Angled panel designs
- Perspective
- Recent work does not use textures in coloring
- Has an all ages feeling
- Strong use of layering
- Clarity
Skottie Young
Attributes:
- High energy
- Distorted bends
- Baby version and other version
- Deceptively strong use of black
- Good contrast
- Separate colorist
- Pencils are not drawn to completion
- Brush pen
- Line weights
- Bendy and bouncy
- Clarity
What does this all mean for me?
Every once and a while, I plan on doing a little self-reflection like this, I think that after completing a project it is important to investigate what went well, what went wrong, and what it means for the future. All this to say, these are some of my favorite artists, and by studying their work I have learned a lot. The tricky part of all this research is learning how to apply it to what I am doing, without directly taking from something that has already been done. It is a fine line to walk, and I think that it is something that every young artist will go through at one point or another.
This was how I originally looked at these five artists. Each of the five representing a different component on an illustrative spectrum that I was searching for some inspiration and answers from. I noticed some specific traits that manifest themselves as I moved from left to right on this spectrum. Such as, from left to right the lines tend to get thinner and more geometric. There are many other facets and pieces
Ultimately, I think I started to stare at the line too much, but that is when it dawned on me. The line didn't need to be a line at all, it needed to be a circle. A circle of immediate and ancillary influences is extremely important to have, and I cannot believe I did not recognize this fact sooner. Instead of trying to figure out another artist's style, and then end up accidentally recreating it without my own influence, I need to let what I was figuring out wash over me, and become a portion of the choices I was making. If I was asked this question point blank I am sure that this is the type of answer that I would have given, but there is something that I really think will stick with me because of how I organically cultivated this discovery.
Influences!
After looking at a sphere of these five artists, I realized there are many influences that are actively shaping my artistic abilities and vision. If you have not done an activity like this before, I would encourage you to try it out. One of the most liberating feelings is truly learning more about who you are as an artist, and I hope that an activity like this will help you discover that. If you would like to give something like this a shot, here a worksheet that can help you find some answers to these type of questions.
Future Projects
So now that The Mountain & The Well is complete, it is time to move onto the next project. I have a couple of things in mind for the next comic, and a few other types of projects I would like to try out as well.
New Project Ideas/Goals
Comics -
1. Bus Drivers
2. Lady Luck
Children's Book -
1. On an Adventure for Creatures
Other -
1. Wizard of Oz Something?
2. Peter Pan Something?
Brand -
1. Website
2. Store/Commissions?
New Project Ideas/Goals
Comics -
1. Bus Drivers
2. Lady Luck
Children's Book -
1. On an Adventure for Creatures
Other -
1. Wizard of Oz Something?
2. Peter Pan Something?
Brand -
1. Website
2. Store/Commissions?