Thursday 19 November 2020

Buster art

Here's a photo I took on January 14th this year, when I'd finished the artwork for the Buster and Delbert strip in the Cor!! Buster Easter Special

This was the top half of page one. I always draw my strips "twice up" (twice the published size) as it allows more detail if necessary and is just easier to do than struggling with drawing tiny figures. This was the method that most comic artists used until sometime in the 1970s when editors preferred pages done 50% up instead. My Combat Colin pages for Marvel UK were done 50% up (ie: A3 for A4 publication) but I changed to twice up (100% bigger than printed size) about 20 years ago.

As you can see, there are no areas of solid black on the drawing. I add those after I scan the art into Photoshop, along with the colours. 

Back in the 1980s and 1990s I had to post the physical artwork to the editors, but since owning a Mac since 1999 it's far easier to email the art in, and I get to keep the original art!  (Fleetway, Viz, and Marvel always returned art to me but it usually took a few months.) This is the method 99% of artists use in the 21st Century of course. 

Here's how the finished job looked in print...


If you missed the two Cor!! Buster Specials, or if you'd like them in one nice package, you'll be able to read them collected into the Cor!! Buster Bumper Fun Book, available in a few weeks! Pre-orders should be available from Rebellion's online shop soon, but at the moment other online sellers have pre-order options ready:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cor-Buster-Bumper-Fun-Book/dp/1781088640

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2 comments:

qamar said...

Hi Lew,
Do you mind me asking what scanner you use ... and do you end up having to do a lot of cleaning up in photoshop?

Lew Stringer said...

It's a Canon Lide 110. Cleaning up depends on the job and how many times I've gone over the line or changed bits in inking. :) I change the threshold to 85 before I scan, and scan it as a bitmap at 300dpi.

As for colouring, I use the technique outlined in The DC Comics Guide to Colouring and Lettering. A great book that's proved very useful.