Creative Breakthroughs

[Bustertheclown]

I'm curious about the breakthroughs you lot have had in working on your comics. I'm talking real "ah ha!" moments.

As a guy who takes the artistic process very seriously, I delight in opportunities to see work that display the process of an artist, sans the polish of the expected mode of display. So, imagine my delight when, perusing my school's library, I came across the corresponding catalog to Children of the Yellow Kid: The Evolution of the American Comic Strip, a retrospective exhibit held at the Frye Art Museum in Seattle ten years ago, which I was lucky enough to catch. I've been gleefully studying the pages of this book for about two weeks now, and I must say I've gotten much out of seeing the blemished originals in all their glory.

Which leads me to my breakthrough. While studying the unpolished works of the likes of McManus, Herriman, King, Young, DeBeck, and so on, and seeing the blue pencil lines and notes to engravers, and glue stains and color guides, it hit me that I've been approaching my work with comics quite wrong over the last several years. My work has been getting slower and slower, as I move to smaller and smaller lines, affording my comics the same time and attention to detail I would a fully involved single illustration. Seeing that the originals of our favorite comics throughout time mattered not as much as how well they are reproduced has shown me the error of my ways. As I read this book, I've been looking back at my own work, and I recall that the best pages I've ever done were about four years ago, when a very strict deadline forced me to balance time conservation with my hatchy style, meaning big graphic black and white fills with a Sharpie, thicker outlines, and adding my hatching at the end of the process, only as dressing. It's all well and good that I might spend dozens of hours on a single big pen and ink drawing, systematically scribbling in my blacks with my 0 Rapidograph an inch at a time; that sort of layering produces a very lush and vibrant black that looks fucking great on an original work in a frame, but it all comes out as simple BLACK on anything less than a giclée print. Besides, I simply can't give that sort of time to my comic pages. Giving even ten hours to a page in a comic run that might span hundreds or even thousands of pages is just not feasible to productivity or mental health. So, now here I am, looking hard at my old work, and thinking that it's time to go back to the way I once did things, giving me great looking pages in the span of only a few hours each. Otherwise, I'll never get anything productive done with my comic projects.

Now you share!

[Cope]

Well, I once accidentally bought a sharpie, thinking it was a fineliner, and realised I could use it to place greater emphasis on lines than I used to. Made me think more about line variation, if nothing else.

[McDuffies]

Each comic I do is made through a series of such moments. When I work on a script, often accidental moments of inspiration give me a solution to plot holes, uninteresting parts or generally parts that I don't know what to do with. Sometimes even, some idea will linger in my notebooks for ages, until I come up with something that turns this idea into actual comic material.

[Redtech]

I'm literally a noob to art or writing, so it's still a "Eureka" moment when something comes together and makes sense!
Anti-moron edit:

It's the simple things that I can sit back and go "Hmmm... not bad!" Things like being able to get poses that work or conversations that pull off, I feel it's the more finished things I am proud of, rather than techniques or process.

[Warofwinds]

I had a major creative breakthru when I went 100% digital in my comic making process. I think pencil, ink and paper made me hesitant to experiment (no undo button ), but since the digital process is much more...ephemeral...I felt had a lot more freedom. I feel my art improved a LOT since I got my tablet.

[Pimpette]

Blue pencil.

I'm not entirely sure how or when I picked it up and decided to start using it, but it was definitely a "EUREKA" moment.
The blue mechanical pencil lead is so light, plus when my scanner scans a page, said page has a bit of a bluish cast to it. So after deleting all the blue from the image (hooray also for the tutorial I found randomly that taught me how to do that with Channels), all that's left is my inks. I don't even have to erase any of the pencil before I scan (unless there's a really dark area).
And that's a huge deal to me, as erasing my pencils after inking tended to make my inks really... grey. Sucked a lot of the inky black out of them, and they didn't look as nice even after I scanned them and fiddled around with Levels.

Also, when I stopped doing each comic based on a vague story outline, going on a comic-by-comic basis. Sitting down and scripting the whole chapter in advance is a MUCH BETTER IDEA. Got so used to following a script like I do with Shenanigan that I had to sit down and do the same for Pimpette. I did have fun sort of making up the comic as I went along, but then I went back and read it and realized it didn't make a whole lot of sense.
So. Scripts = good.

[Birdie]

watching others draw. seeing ustream has been helpful. Seeing the steps people take, and how a sloppy pencil piece can turn into a solid comic has been enough to show me where I can be loose, and where I can tighten my art to make it look as good as possible.

[Dreamaniaccomic]

hmmm... my main breakthroughs came when I actually went out and bought my first serious sketchbook and artsy pencils/inking pens. That's when I really started trying to go for a more detailed style, with some manga influences mainly on the eyes and hair, and started practicing seriously. All it took was that first step.

[Dallawalla]

For me it was finding the format. I have tonnes of ideas, a lot of imagination and a very keen interest in comedy.. but a very short attention span.

I found a way to get my ideas down quickly, with enough room for humour, in a system that is restrictive in a way that encourage more creativity and inspiration within it's boundaries. Like universal constant values that enable life.

[Turnsky]

for me it was discovering graphics tablets, and opencanvas, both allow me to play around with styles and ideas i don't normally put to paper otherwise.

[McDuffies]

Studying academic anatomy books was a big leap for me, from this perspective it seems like before that I simply didn't know what I was doing, and would occasionally draw something decent by pure chance - even though by that point I went through two dozens of "learn how to draw" books.
Getting proper drawing tools was another thing that instantly improved my drawing, being that I spent my youth in province where phrase "art supply store" wasn't in a disctionary, so I learned much of what I know drawing with crappy quills and wattered down ink.
Other than that most of my progress as an artist was gradual, although in reccolection, reading Andrei Tarkowsky's filming diaries and Rudolph Arnheim's theory books could be considered some sort of turning points.

[Bishie]

Opening myself up to new cultures. There's so much out there, if you explore there's loads of discovery to be made o(^^o)

[Levi-chan]

For me, it's when I decided to get a pocket notebook and a pen, and bring it wherever I go. Ideas can strike you at the most inopportune moments - and they can get rubbed away pretty fast. Having a sort of mental backup system means that you get to retain them longer.

[Orinocou]

My most recent "Ah-ha" moment came as a reminder of something I had learned long ago: your drawings come out better when you use references instead of drawing from memory. Yes, you may be rushing to finish a page and it might seem like it'll take too long to bring out that mirror and pose to get that hand gesture right, but it greatly improves the drawing. Even making a little one-minute rough sketch on a scrap paper, then referring to it when drawing the actual lineart. In the hurry of meeting update deadlines, you can sometimes take too many shortcuts and forget about the old wisdoms.

Another "Ah-ha-in-waiting" is this idea I've had about using straight edges and curvy templates with my tablet and pen. I can't for the life of me make a smooth curve while using the tablet, and I can't figure out if Photoshop's got any tools for this. So I figure, why not use the old tools with the new? One day I was daydreaming and came up with the idea. I have yet to try it out.

[Dr Legostar]

periodically i'll start a plotline with no real intention but i end up having an "ah ha!" moment where i figure out almost at random how to tie it in to the larger picture. I get this a lot with random plot elements, not sure if they're breakthroughs anymore.

[Pimpette]

periodically i'll start a plotline with no real intention but i end up having an "ah ha!" moment where i figure out almost at random how to tie it in to the larger picture. I get this a lot with random plot elements, not sure if they're breakthroughs anymore.

haha, I've done that a few times with P&A. A lot of the "hay remember when this happened well that's because of THIS" were really random "hey i can't believe I accidentally foreshadowed this thing I just made up now... awesome"

it rules.

[Dr Legostar]

periodically i'll start a plotline with no real intention but i end up having an "ah ha!" moment where i figure out almost at random how to tie it in to the larger picture. I get this a lot with random plot elements, not sure if they're breakthroughs anymore.

haha, I've done that a few times with P&A. A lot of the "hay remember when this happened well that's because of THIS" were really random "hey i can't believe I accidentally foreshadowed this thing I just made up now... awesome"

it rules.

indeed it does

[Orinocou]

When I drew my first comic, I would sit in my chair for hours waiting for an ah-ha to get the page to make sense with the page before it.

Not the most efficient way to do a comic.

[MixedMyth]

Invariably, all my creative breakthroughs come when I'm in the shower.

[Dr Legostar]

Invariably, all my creative breakthroughs come when I'm in the shower.

1. get a waterproof pen and paper
2. you've really left yourself open for a whole of horrible comments with that one