VARULV Page Creation Process

So by now you've probably noticed the new look VARULV has been given for its latest incarnation on the web. It's probably not hard to guess that it was influenced greatly by the look and feel of traditionally animated films and shows. It's become apparent in the last year that I'm catering to a significantly younger audience than I first thought I would be, and that, if I was going to do an online serial, I'd better put some color to this thing in order to keep up with the competition. Too, I think color lends itself well to the story -- frankly, lots of my characters, in their wolfy forms, look an awful lot alike. Color gives them obvious distinction that I can't so easily achieve in black and white pages, alone. Plus, and this is a big plus for yours truly; changing up the style a bit is a great way to keep yourself entertained as an artist, when you have to draw page after page after page of lots of the same thing.

So! How did I do all this? Let me show you...

As I would were I animating this thing, and as I've done for all the comics leading up to this one, I started with a thumbnail and small-scale storyboard (which, sadly, I can't show you -- I didn't keep any to scan this time around) and through that, worked out the layout of my pages. In VARULV issues 1 through 4, I would head straight to drawing everything -- characters, backgrounds, you name it, directly onto comic board. But I didn't go that route this time:



The image above a good example of everything I put on comic board for a page, this time around. Actually, it's not. It's been cleaned up quite a bit -- I start sketching with blue pencil on layout bristol that's chock full of guide lines and all that other crap... Then take that mess into Photoshop, straighten it, adjust the levels, add the borders and THEN I'm left with what you see above... but you get the point. But where are the backgrounds?! Right here:



For my birthday, Matt got me a set of liquid pencils. They're basically various shades of grey that go on like a mix between watercolor and graphite. When they dry, they're even erasable! I had lots of fun with these and knew they'd have to be a part of my next VARULV story straight out of the box. So! Taking another blank piece of comic board, I painted all the landscapes I'd need for the pages I was working on, and took them into Photoshop to add color. The color layer is a multiply layer, set over the original graphite, allowing the paint to show through. I added very few highlights to that color, and in no time had a full page of various backgrounds I could use over and over again. Now, as for the sky...



I painted that in Photoshop, then adjusted the tones to give it that night time look. As with the landscapes, I have lots of clouds to choose from, and can drop my land overtop of any of them, and adjust the colors of both accordingly depending on what time of day it is. Neat!

So I bet you see where I'm going with this. Mimicking the process of traditional animation with static backdrops and "cels" of characters layered overtop of them was really helping to give me the look I wanted.



As you can see in the above image, the only major thing left to do at this point, was color in my characters...



I started with the base colors. To save time, I find it easiest to line up as many pages as I have ready for coloring, and tackle them all at once, one character at a time.



And when the bases were done, the shading and highlighting was added. Shadow layers were done, again set to multiply over the base colors, with a slight tint of blue added, since it's dark out. Highlights were then placed over the shadow layer. All I had to do after was add my dialogue bubbles.

So there it is! Hope you've enjoyed this behind-the-scenes look at how VARULV comes together. Also hope you'll enjoy the new look of the series. I know I do.

Until next time!