A DISTANT SOIL: The Gathering Chapter 11 Page 12

FYI: I drew almost all of the pages you see on this site more than 20 years ago. All of the stippling you see here is entirely by hand. For most of the series shown so far, all of the hatching techniques are also by hand.

Back in the day, US comic artists had limited choices for tone sheets. It wasn’t until a trip to Japan in 1996 that I was able to get a supply of Japanese tone sheets. Then I began to use them exclusively.

Later, when Image Comics began producing my graphic novels, I went back and added some tones to earlier pages to spruce them up. But for the most part, I did not use Japanese tone sheets on the first 240 pages of the series.

And yes, all those little dots take a long time to draw by hand. I used to spend up to an hour per square inch. There are now computer brushes you can use to produce these effects, but to this day, I do not use computer tones. I will complete this entire series by hand, and with my remaining Japanese tone sheets. Because I can.

17 Comments

  • bodefan

    Every time I stipple, which I don’t do often enough these days, I’m reminded of an event I attended where someone asked Charles Schultz why he never had an assistant. He replied, “I couldn’t imagine giving up that much fun.” Stipple is relaxing, meditiative, and yield a result that has a specific satisfaction. Glad to hear you still take to the old ways. They’re not inherently better because they’re old, they’re better (at times) because they give very different results. Much like writing an 800 page novel in longhand on legal tablets. When people hear that, they sometimes think the writer is nuts. But when they find out the novel is American Gods, you can see the gears in their heads turning to “wow- maybe it’s not so crazy after all!”
    The right tool, the right technique for the right job!

  • Colleen

    Bodefan, I always appreciate your thoughtful posts.

    You’re absolutely right: the meditative quality of drawing is appealing to me.

    Earlier tonight I was having a talk with a colleague about the advice of another artist who has draconian rules for drawing and being productive.

    And I have only one rule for drawing and being productive: whatever works for you.

    Just because something suits me doesn’t mean it suits anyone else.

    I recall one artist who advised to never erase, never redo, just get the pages out! To me, that is hack work.

    I don’t care if it means sleepless nights, I would rather produce pages where each line or dot was a meaningful moment to me. I’m sure there are a lot of people who would rather just do 3 pages a day, come what may.

    I’m just not one of them.

    And almost every page of A Distant Soil was written longhand on a legal tablet.

  • Arlnee

    will complete this entire series by hand, and with my remaining Japanese tone sheets. Because I can.

    And one day we will have a statue of you erected in the city square with a plaque bearing the words “By Hand.”

    (if anyone gets this reference, I will be mightily surprised 🙂 it’s one of my favoritest books evar.)

  • Miki

    One of my favorite artists is the ‘Master Stippler’ Virgil Finlay.
    I used to try to copy from his works.
    And Scribblerworks, that is a very nice use of stippling!

  • superboylives

    Thanks for info behind this effect being a non-artist. I love the effect, it give the work such movement and quite beautiful….Thanks for sharing all your work with us Colleen and your thoughts plus it’s such a great word….Stipple On !!!

  • Ms Ampersand

    Welll… It’s good to hear you find the stippling relaxing :D. I find that sort of thing a horrible chore. I do it because it has to be done, but afterwards I wonder how I made it through ;-).

    When I look at this page, it seems to me you must have worked on it with angelic patience. But it certainly gets you great results, like in Eschi’s face. It clearly pays off!

  • mamid

    I have a few Japanese tones. I’m terrified to use them. What if I screw up?
    I know how painfully tedious stippling is. My compliments.

  • Colleen

    Oh, OK. I get it. But why have them if you don’t use them?

    If you scan them into your computer at a really high resolution, like 1200 dpi bitmap, you ought to be able to have a good enough copy to use digitally.

  • Colleen Doran

    UPDATED! Love the flexibility of the newer version of this site, if a page bleeds off the edge, I can simply expand the image. Couldn’t do that on the old site.

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