The Art of Ryan Francis

The art website of Ryan Francis

Tag Archives: Drawings


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Let’s Make A Comic Story Part 3: Penciling

Writing these tutorials is a bit of an undertaking but I’m doing my best to be as clear and informative as I can so let me know in the comments if there’s anything you need help with.

After grabbing ups some references, It’s time to get started laying out the comic in the big paper!

I’m using Strathmore Smooth Bristol Board Paper. It’s lined for comic printing. I use these large binder clips to keep my paper on top of the rest of the pad for “cushion.”

At the start I’m marking down the rough areas of composition with non-photo blue pencil. This part is a bit newer addition to my workflow as I’m testing my ability to do this quickly. I’ll admit it’s a bit hard to see in a photo but I’m doctoring the photo in these demonstrations to hopefully be easier to see.

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Scanning and Editing Ink Art

Many have asked me to do a tutorial on getting good line art and scans from my traditional artwork to the computer. This is my rough workflow for working with my art; it usually takes me around 20 minutes to finish if it’s a smaller piece. I will break it down as much as I can so you too can make good scanned artwork!

Scan your Artwork

You should find a scanner that can fit the paper in the scanner. If the paper can’t fit, scan the page in pieces and edit them together. I’ll make an article on this at a different time.

 

At the moment, I’m using the scanners at the public library. It’s an Avision FB6280E A3 Book Scanner from what I’ve looked up. Able to support pages up to 11 inches by 17 inches and can scan at a resolution up to 600 dpi, which is great for working with art in! Since buying them normally costs a pretty penny, I settle for taking advantage of our tax dollars and using local library resources!

For this scan, I used 9 inch by 12 inch Strathmore Vellum Bristol Paper. It feels good to sketch in it, handles ink decently, and Copic markers don’t bleed through it that badly!

The scan bed is large enough to fit a 11 inch by 17 inch page so it’s large enough to fit comic pages I make!

The library software for the scanner has great options to let me save to my own USB drive or email it to myself if the file size is small enough.

These days, I often scan in PDF since I’m usually scanning multiple pages of art and Photoshop can open the files easily so that’s a benefit for me.

Your scans should be at a really high dpi to work with. The minimum you should scan at is 300 Dots per Inch, any lower and you’ll have to work with a blurry, pixelly mess.. A mass majority of printers scan at 300 DPI, so if you have any that can go higher, you take that up! Though the higher the DPI, the long it will take to scan, so unless you’re drawing a digital Sistine Chapel, you should stick with 600 DPI at most.

In the case of this library software, scan at Photo Quality since it’s the highest it can go.

Back Up Raw Scan Files

These are the raw unedited scans (Reduced for web looking.) I always scan in Color, Greyscale, and Black,  but I tend to always edit the Color scan because I’ll have more control over the post processing. It just feels good to cover my bases.

In case of misfortune, make backups of your scans. You never know if you’ll lose the original sheet or make a change in the future that you regret and want to go back. Email the file to yourself, save it to Dropbox, copy it to an external hard drive, do all of it, slip the files anywhere you can so you can foolproof yourself.

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7/23/2018 Update

I don’t have much to update for this week. I was spending the week doing some clean ups and finishes on an old freelance commission I plan to post soon.

I’ve also did a few turnaround sketches of my Rat Characters so I could have a rough color chart for my painting I’m working on. I feel like I’m just procrastinating now that I’m thinking about this more, especially since I still haven’t got my comic cover ready and my deadline is looming.


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7/2/2018 Lettering Improvements

I’ve been away finishing up commissions but I finally gained the time to stream and put the finishing touches on Shirley’s Day.

It was mostly lettering and adding new dialogue, word balloons and bolding emphasized words to make the speech “sound” better.

I’ve been chipping away at this comic for so long that, I’m a bit mad at myself that I’m taking so long on it.

I’m getting closer to the finish line though. I just gotta keep at it and not get discouraged. It’s the only thing I can do, really.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Chalk Cap


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Art Stuff at Water Tower Place

I’ve been at the Water Tower Place in Chicago doing live art at The Chalk Cap.

It was a fun time hanging out with people and making some cool custom hats! This idea is pretty cool though, as you can buy a cap with a surface on it where you can draw on it with chalk marker and it can be cleaned off with water!

It was a bit getting used to but it’s good to try out new mediums! I drew names, character requests and whatever else I could think of It was pretty great and I’ll totally show up next time!

 

 

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C2E2 Love and Sketchbook Talking

I missed an update due to C2E2 being two weekends ago! I had a good time showing off my work and meeting cool artists there!  Most feedback on my comic just asked me to finish Shirley’s Day and print it myself to give away to people to show off, so despite all my doubts strangers like my artwork.

I despite not speaking to enough artists and attending panels, I had a decent time and I’m glad I went. Hopefully, next year I’ll be at Artist Alley.

As for my comic progress, I’ve made little. My computer crash during the stream and I didn’t save my progress, so I lost a good hour of work. Frustrated with faulty tablet drivers, I ended the stream early that night. I can knock out the comic another time.

Some artwork and sketches I haven’t posted yet.

 

I’d been doing some refinements on Gogh the Goat Wizard and trying to figure out a decent story for him.

One idea I have for a new comic story, is for Cole the Raccoon Merchant to meet up with a party of adventurers to sell his stuff to.

This is the fighter character of the party who is with Gogh the Goat Wizard and Weasel Thief. The most I thought of him is a “generic” super warrior type, like Brock Samson.

He’s inspired by the Guin Saga of books mostly in visuals and is a very minor character. Maybe when I delve more into the story, I could think of a better personality.

I was filling out my Sketchwallet and doodled this jungle cat girl during the train to the convention. I’m feeling the design a bit so I wanted to do some refining.

I did a turnaround sketch for her. I could stand to give less characters bandages though…

I’m currently thinking that Jungle Cat could be a suitable replacement for the big jaguar guy since she looks more interesting as a design.