On Line and Colors
With every book, I learn to level-up. Here's something to add to your comic-creation arsenal.
Back when I handed out my notice to quit my full-time job as an art director at Sitelines (an event and exhibit firm), I gave the company a one-year notice. It was a great firm with great people, and I wanted to help hire and train designers before I left. It was an amicable transition. The luckiest thing was that I have the time to grab lunches with A LOT of amazing people before my departure, some of whom I have known for years because we shared the same building, but I never got a chance to talk to, except quick greetings in the hallways.
One of them was a founder of a world-class theme-park design firm. He worked with Walt Disney and helped build the original Disneyland. I brought up the courage to ask him for business advice, as I was then about to enter the world of freelancing but was quite clueless. He generously took me out to lunch and shared a lot of his experience as an entrepreneur. (How cool was that!)
After lunch, he gifted me a copy of the DVD Amadeus (1984).
He said, “I learned so much from this movie. It has changed me. Watch this movie twice, Maple. Watch it the first time just to enjoy it. Then, watch it a second time to think about all the lessons in it.”
This, my friend, is a fantastic piece of wisdom I took to heart.
As a comic creator, I naturally read a lot of comics and graphic novels. Because there are tons and tons of great books, my tendency is to consume them as fast as humanly possible, devouring books like a teenager raiding the fridge after school. It’s book after book after book.
That’s not learning though. That’s like running down a museum for the sake of looking at all the paintings, then calling it a day of art appreciation. I might have looked at many things, but I failed to see.
To truly internalize something, you have to slow down.
I never want to rob myself the experience of reading a book just for enjoyment. This is why it’s wise to read it twice. Read it the first time just for fun. Then, read it a second time to think about all the lessons in it: the story arc, the theme, the page turns, the panel layouts, the artwork, the design… etc. There are always so much to learn from all the masters, but I won’t learn until I give it time.
Here is an example of what I’ve learned between working on Monkey King Book 1: The Monster and the Maze and Monkey King Book 2: The Battle of the Beasts.
If you have followed me for a while, you know I grew up reading manga.
The majority of manga are in black and white. The rare times they are in color, they are either afterthoughts (Hey! Let’s convert this popular anime into comics!), or, they are special chapter openings for the manga series.
For the longest time, at least in my head, comics in color simply means adding color to the existing black-inked line-work. My debut graphic novel Monkey King Book 1 reflects this.
But somewhere between working on Book 1 and Book 2, I discovered that there was a slight difference in designing colored comics.
You see, in the world of black and white line-work, you can afford a lot more details and patterns – because you don’t have colors to distract you.
But once we have color, you have exponentially added layers of visual elements to every page. It’s VERY straining and confusing to the eye – unless you do some visual tricks.
As an example, in Monkey King 2, between the panel on the left and the right, can you spot what visual enhancing trick I used in OPTION 2 to “dial down” the visual noises?
It’s subtle, but it’s there!
In Option 1, all the lines are in black. But in Option 2, only the characters and the boat’s outline are in black. Everything else, from the cloud to the wood patterns, are toned down to pale colors. This way, the reader can focus more what are emphasized. I designed this on purpose to subconsciously lead the reader visually in every panel.
With colored comics, the art form is not merely coloring in existing black outlines – the colors of the outlines are part of the layout design.
Did I invent this technique? Of course not. A lot of master comic creators do this. It’s through slowing down and observing closely that I discovered this technique.
Of course, this is not a rule. We constantly make creative-decisions for each book. It is, however, useful to train our eyes and to keep adding tools to our creative arsenal.
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As to what the founder of the theme-park design firm wanted me to learn from Amadeus, I have always wondered. Did he want me to understand that all artists struggle, no matter if you were a genius like Mozart or a hard-worker like Salieri? Was he warning me about professional jealousy, reminding me to never compare my creative journey against the success of my peers? Did he want me to know that a brilliant talent like Mozart could still be a walking financial disaster, as he had no business sense?
I never get to find out what he ultimately wanted me to learn. But I am still tremendously grateful for his sound advice on reading work twice.
First, enjoy. Then, observe and learn.
Monkey King and the World of Myths: The Battle of the Beasts are now available to pre-order at your favorite bookstores! (Bookshop, Barnes & Noble, Target, Amazon… etc.!)
Join Wukong and his three-headed puppy bestie Cerberus on their latest hilarious adventure in ancient Japan! Recommended age 8+.
*** If you order through my local bookstore Once Upon a Time, I can personalize the autograph! Whether it's for you or a gift, I can sign the book to anyone you'd like. Thank you in advance for supporting independent bookstores.
Do you have special tricks or tips to share when you work on your comics? Share in the comments below! I would love to learn from you.
I think I need to rewatch Amadeus now. Great post -- and really nice examples to call out that technique.
Love this Maple! Makes me feel better that I take ages, literally weeks and months, to read a comic or graphic novel. I don’t know how people whoosh through so quickly, there’s so much to see! I like to have a good stare at line weight and then forget the story and have to go back a few pages!