No time for me today? Here are the highlights
I break down a single panel from a fight scene that took me well over a week and advice from a pro to get just *chef’s kiss*
NSFW pinup of Tango from Ronin Digital Express
One of the reasons it’s difficult to pin me down on when new Ronin Digital Express is coming is that something that sounds like it takes a day ends up taking a week.
To wit, I’ll sit down with a script description like this:
Simple enough.
Turns out …
Ain’t no “just” about it.
I’ll try to help you see what I saw in my head.
I wanted Qing in the background. Pretty far off. Spurt of blood so you know he’s done for. An afterthought.
In the mid-ground, I wanted the Green-Eyed Ronin, charging like a locomotive packed with dynamite.
Rage.
I wanted him to be the main focus of the panel. And the feeling you get when you see him to be akin to spotting something about to hit you in the face, but it’s too late to do anything but pinch your eyes shut and hope for the best.
Of course, we had to see what he was lunging at, so in the fore, we’d have the two remaining bad guys throwing “oh shit” vibes.
SO I came up with this:
And that’s… y’know…
… it’s alright.
Kinda lacks depth. Kinda leaves you without much to go on from the characters in the fore. What are they doing with their hands? Grabbing for their guns?
So I was feeling pretty
about this panel.
It’s supposed to kick off a kick-ass fight scene! It’s got to have energy, adrenaline, punch.
Instead, I had creeping Momoa.
I don’t want creeping Momoa, I want “about to rip your heart out Momoa.”
I re-drew it a couple of times, but still couldn’t quite get it right.
After about, oh, 6 hours of this (not in a row) I asked my buddy Dave Chisholm what he would do.
I told him everything I told you about what I wanted, and bless him, he takes a minute out of whatever he was doing (probably working on his anger-inducingly good upcoming book Into The Blue, compared to which, I am an ant, and one more thing, pre-order Into The Blue) and sketches me this thumb:
Now that definitely had the kick I wanted. I think the waistline was the right place for the horizon line to fall, but I still had two problems:
I still kinda wanted to see the expressions of the bad guys in fore
I don’t feel confident enough in my abilities to be as dynamic with the ronin as Dave would be
But! His thumb pulled the gears loose. It helped me get unstuck.
Next, I decided to bite the bullet and try some photo reference. For this, I consulted my office mates:
What can I say, options were limited.
But it helped. After some more suffering, I came up with this:
Okay! Now that I can work with.
The characters are in the right place, the depth is there, the flow of action makes sense with the composition and sequence of events, we’re nearly there.
The guy in fore still seemed to be crowding the panel a little too much, so I turned his torso to help the composition breathe some, and…
THERE we fucking go. Everyone’s alive, now.
Well, not Qing, he’s dead as fuck.
Anyway, we’re about 4 days into this now. But we’re on to the easy and fun part now.
Tight pencils:
Inks:
Flats:
Final:
And just so you don’t think I’m leaving you hanging, here’s the next panel:
“Awp” indeed! He’ll be okay.
So anyway, yeah. That one panel took an entire week and that’s why Ronin Digital Express takes so long, next time you ask.
NSFW stuff coming up!
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Alright, your boss gone? Here’s the soft-NSFW Tango pin-up:
And now, the FULL-NSFW version:
That’s all for today. Probably won’t be in touch again until after the holidays. Wrapping up Ronin Digital Express ahead of the relaunch early next year.
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