How to fix an inking mistake with out using Photoshop (aka how comics use to be made).
You guys asked for more how to/process stuff so here you go. While working on Missile Mouse Book 2 on Saturday the perfect opportunity presented itself to make a nice “how to.”
Ok, this has to have been one of the most hair-pullingly-frustrating pages I’ve done…ever. Although there are several names I’ve thought to call this little devil it is simply known in the Parker house as “Page 86.” One reason the experience was so frustrating was it should have been a painlessly easy page to draw.
Get in, draw it, get out, on to the next page.
But I ended up spending a whole afternoon on it! Right now I’m averaging about 1.15 hours to ink a page, a little fast for my taste, but the deadline is looming. It is important to note this whole thing could have been avoided if I was working at a more thoughtful leisurely pace. Right now the pace is “highly motivated to meet my deadline.” So, I’ve been using a little more white out than usual.
All right, lets get on to it.
The Set Up:
I started with my roughs. After seeing MM’s robot partner destroyed by the cave monster he positions himself in front of the large pipe of explosive fuel. The monster charges, MM rockets out of the way and BOOM! the monster is toast.
Here’s the roughs. Pages 84-87:
I had a last minute impression to show Missile Mouse in the same shot with the explosion. I thought it might be cool to show him getting thrown off balance by the force of the explosion. So I inked it up, and upon finishing realized the whole sense of scale was off. The explosion looked like happened right under him. That, and MM just looked funny in that pose. Like his head was dislocated.
I hate scrapping a finished page, but I couldn’t stand to look at this one. The errors were too glaring. And I wasn’t going to let page 86 bring the book down. So I started over.
Here’s the new page. This time I made a better boom, and made it look like he was rocketing away from the splosion. Canned the idea of him getting thrown off, and kept him in control of the situation. And using perspective (which I learned in the seventh grade, but apparently it fell out of my head while drawing the last page) I made it look like the explosion was far behind him instead of in his lap. Ah, much better. Smooth sailing from here on out, right?
Wrong. You noticed the page isn’t finished though. That’s because right around now I realized I had forgotten to draw his blaster in his hand. Gah! Closer look:
No blaster.
Also, I showed my wife and she asked what was going on with the smoke exhaust from MM’s rocket. I said he’s winding away from the explosion. She said it looked stupid. Ok. She’s right.
At this point I’m contemplating packing up up and going home. But no, I realize if I do that the page wins. I’m going to bring this battle to the page and fight it on his turf.
Side note: Due to space constraints in my home right now, my computer is up on the second floor in my bedroom. My drafting table and art space is down in the dank dusty unfinished basement. Nestled between the water meter and the furnace. I like it this way because the computer can be a huge distraction. And being down there where no kids like to set foot allows me to get into the “zone” easier. It also has motivated me to keep things old school and fix it right on the page instead of saving it for Photoshop. I like doing it this way because at the end of the day I have a finished inked page, and not some random bits of drawings that need to be scanned in and pieced together.
The Process:
Ok, now to the process boys and girls. This is how your grandfather fixed a mistake on a comic page:
Step 1: Draw!
Make a new layer…I mean, place a new sheet of paper over your drawing and, using a light box for proper placement and proportion, draw the hand holding the blaster how it should have been drawn in the first place.
Step 2: Cut!
Once it’s drawn you’ll use a thing called an X-Acto knife to cut it out. It’s like the lasso tool, but real. (You notice the correction tape on the circle area. I’m even screwing up the drawing I’m fixing my drawing with.)
Step 3: Placement!
You’ll want to make sure it’s going to fit right on the page. At this point mark where you’re going to put it so you know what other parts of the drawing to white out.
Like this. I use the Tombo correctional tape for all my mistakes. Inking mistakes I mean. Glides on smooth and dry.
Step 4: Paste!
My wife had the perfect tool for this. The Martha Stewart glue pen. Worked like a charm! Thanks honey.
Pasted! But not done yet.
Step 5: Seamlesstify!
Ink around the edges of the paper and over the whited out areas to make the addition fit seamlessly with the rest of the drawing.
Also took care of the stupid looking smoke trail. Thanks honey!
Ink the rest and stick a fork in it ’cause it’s done!
Final note: After looking at it again, and rereading the roughs I think the original rough for 86 is right. I should have just stuck to the original idea to have a huge explosion with no Missile Mouse. I’ll come back to it after the whole book is inked and see how it flows with the rest of the book.
January 12th, 2010 at 2:47 pm
JAKE! you just left my desk. This is awesome!! Can’t wait to take a break and really take in what you’ve written. Learning some tricks of the trade from you good sir!! It’s always fantastic to see the techniques that you use, I’m sure many will agree. My blog could use to be updated… the New Years resolution will start soon (should’ve been on the 1st, but I’m working up to it).
January 12th, 2010 at 3:46 pm
Awesome, thanks for sharing the process. Love it. To be perfectly honest with you I think you could have finished with any of the stages and we wouldn’t have thought any different! I really like the final image!
January 12th, 2010 at 4:53 pm
Awesome as always. I love watching the process. You make it look easy. Jonas and I loved the first Missile Mouse (he read it in one sitting). Can’t wait for number 2!
January 12th, 2010 at 5:15 pm
Thanks for the process stuff!
A lesser man would have gone mad. Or, madDER…
January 12th, 2010 at 5:23 pm
So sweet! I remember you teaching me this technique our senior year in Bev’s class. I’ve used it a few times when the drawing was perfect, except for the stupid face.
Nice walk-through. I should be getting my MM TSC books in today’s mail . . . so stoked!
January 12th, 2010 at 5:26 pm
Thanks, this was a great explanation.
I can’t see anything wrong with the smoke trail, nor can I see where you fixed it. What I do see, tough, is that MM has no legs. Isn’t that weird?
January 12th, 2010 at 6:54 pm
wow. i love computers.
January 12th, 2010 at 7:59 pm
Nowadays “going old school” makes you ahead of your time. Not bad, my friend. One day our kids will try going old school by breaking out earlier versions of Photoshop:)
January 12th, 2010 at 8:33 pm
i’m loving all the tips and techniques! you’re really spoiling us, but keep them coming.
January 12th, 2010 at 9:59 pm
Hahaha! Martha Stewart glue pen! You’re hilarious!
Nice process my friend. Shame it had to be more tedious than you would have liked. As for your thoughts on having the page with no MM and just the explosion… usually our first creative instincts are the best ones… We just tend to ignore them or think we know better :S
January 13th, 2010 at 1:40 am
Awesome. Old school is the ONLY school. One of my first jobs was for a printer doing layouts and I would do the same thing all day long. We used hot wax instead of the Martha Stuart glue pen though – that way it was re-positional when the client called and changed everything! Excellent tutorial.
January 13th, 2010 at 11:06 am
I didn’t say it looked stupid! I said, “If something was blowing up, I don’t think I’d zoom around first, I’d just get the heck outta there!”
January 13th, 2010 at 2:12 pm
Bravo! Thanks for the awesome lesson in stickin’ with it! Another moral of this story: Make sure you have an honest wife before attempting this project – otherwise you may not realize your mistakes until it’s too late!
Way to go Jake, thanks for sharing.
January 14th, 2010 at 3:13 am
No way, are you bringing the bat back? I remember an original MM drawing from way back (Jr High?) with MM vs oh crap, I can’t remember his name now. Fire Bat? Or is that just StarCraft coming out?
Just finished reading MM TSC (got it today) and can’t wait for the next installment.
January 18th, 2010 at 8:40 pm
Mr. Parker,
I’m going to pick up Missile Mouse ASAP! I’m listening to your interview on Sidebar as I type this. I’m impressed with your work and you seem like a gentleman. I’m excited to read Missile Mouse and support you in your work.
Congrats on the book!
January 20th, 2010 at 8:37 am
Hey that was a very nice in depth, work in progress sneak teaser!
I’m ready for part 2!
Yesterday I finished reading The Star Crusher. I really enjoyed both, the story and the visuals. Amazing work!
-spoiler warning-
To my surprise you went on with the endangered spices idea. But there must be something more to it, why did Hyde really care about them if everything would have been crushed after all? Well, I guess he needed to stay in his role as GSA Agent, or is there something more to this agent Hyde..? I also really liked Professor Ulrich, he was so much fun.
Very entertaining!
January 20th, 2010 at 4:31 pm
[...] Missile Mouse artist Jake Parker offers up a look at his process in a post titled Fixing It Old School. [...]
January 20th, 2010 at 9:48 pm
Thank you for the step by step. It’s really a treat to see how old school inking is done and fixed. This is a great tutorial for any comic artist and the results speak for themselves. Great work!
January 21st, 2010 at 2:35 am
Hi Jake,
it’s so funny – around twenty years ago, we learned that a ‘lasso tool’ simulates our x-acto knife, now you tell the younger folks the origin of the digital workflow. Thanks for that and greetings!
mtk
January 21st, 2010 at 8:04 am
[...] photoshop Missile Mouse artist Jake Parker offers up a look at his process in a post titled Fixing It Old School. Not only do we see his rough sketches, and editorial process, but he reveals how he fixes an [...]
January 21st, 2010 at 9:22 am
[...] Missile Mouse artist Jake Parker offers up a look at his process in a post titled Fixing It Old School. [...]
January 21st, 2010 at 12:37 pm
Jake, I really hate to tell you this but I LOVED the original page with his body completely vertical and almost going head over heels. I didn’t get a sense of his head being dislocated at all. In fact I’m a huge fan of seeing a character in an odd pose like that one. The revised page looks more dynamic but I’ve SEEN IT BEFORE in all of the other superhero comics like Superman or any other flying character where they’re rocketing away from a blast. It’s been DONE! Your original pose was WAY cooler and reminded me a lot of Winsor McCay’s Little Nemo.
Still a great comic but just wanted to encourage you to go with your gut and don’t overthink things like that. The fans won’t care one way or the other and in my case, might even like it BETTER!
Keep up the good work!
Mr. James
January 21st, 2010 at 1:16 pm
[...] up, Missile Mouse author Jake Parker reveals the secret to fixing an inking mistake without having to use [...]
January 22nd, 2010 at 6:53 am
For very small changes X-acto knife or shaving blade horizontally to scrub off the ink .. and redraw…
January 28th, 2010 at 2:34 pm
Nice brother!
February 3rd, 2010 at 11:33 pm
Light boxes are GOOD THINGS. I had one made for me for less than $40 some years ago. They are useful not just for this, but for say, using clip-art (think fashion mags) to get the outlines of figures and poses before you fill in any details.