Rhubarb and custard

Love is... blogging even when you really, really don't feel like it.

After My Lovely Fiancée and I had a fantastic anniversary yesterday, life decided I'd had too much fun and gave me a real frickin' nightmare of a day today to make up for it. Not in that great a mood, but I love you guys so I'm not gonna leave you with nothing. Here is panel 3 from the latest il-Logic strip, sans word balloons: Not much to say about this one really. I laid down the colour field with a brush and coloured inks, yellow on the left to indicate that, while he's still willing to play devil's advocate and agree with Edan's inflammatory viewpoint, deep down he's still afraid Michelle is going to hurt him. Red/pink on the right, to indicate that our fiery Michelle (in keeping with Raj's fears) is indeed about to lose her rag again.

On top of this colour field, I did a fairly straightforward brush and ink drawing of our characters... and there you have it.

I hope life has treated you all better than it has me today. See you tomorrow, when, I'll be feeling much better, I'm sure.

il-Logic and all associated imagery © Adam Di Stefano and Paul D. Selman 2010

Ink explosion!

I don't have long to blog today, folks, as I'm celebrating my fourteenth anniversary with My Lovely Fiancée! She's just getting ready to go out at the moment, though, so I've got five minutes to talk about the second panel of the latest il-Logic: So, here's how I did it:

1. I laid down a couple of washes of orange and red ink with a rag, to serve as a background field.

2. I got a tatty, old brush and sprayed black and white ink across the panel to create a feeling of explosive energy (this is to get across the fact that, while Edan is sitting at a table, what he's saying is more than a little incendiary).

3. I blocked out Edan's silhouette in white acrylic with a large brush, but not so thickly that the background colour would be entirely covered.

4. I drew Edan over the silhouette with a brush and some black ink.

5. I scanned it into Photoshop.

Hope that sheds some light on the procedure! Gotta run! Anniversary to celebrate!

il-Logic and all associated imagery © Adam Di Stefano and Paul D. Selman 2010

Spider's eye view

The latest il-Logic installment went up this morning, so hop over to http://il-Logic.com and check it out, if you aren't way ahead of me.

Here's a glimpse at panel 1 of said strip without the word balloons. I was getting a little weary of all the front-on views of the cast sitting around a table for a number of strips, so I decided to shake things up a little with this panel and paint/draw it from a bird's eye view (except I've called it a spider's eye view, because, well... why would a bird be on the ceiling of a restaurant? Somebody would notice, for a start...) and I'm quite pleased with the outcome. It's painted in a mixture of acrylics and ink. I don't like to tie myself to one medium per panel; I just use what I need to use to get the effect I want.

By the by... that's supposed to be tortilla chips in a red bowl that Wid'L is sticking his hand into... not molten lava (which is what I keep thinking it looks like... sigh...) il-Logic and all associated imagery © Adam Di Stefano and Paul D. Selman 2010

Staring

Before I forget a third time (I don't have the world's greatest memory, as some of you may have noticed) I'll post that non-webcomic related piece I mentioned a couple of times this week. I have a feeling I may have built expectations up a little higher than warranted due to both delays of posting this. It's just a sketch of a young woman's profile I did in charcoal and chalk this week, but I thought it'd make a change from all the il-Logic behind-the-scenes stuff. I've called it 'Staring': Drawing © Paul D. Selman 2010

Painter man, painter man; who wanna be a painter man?

I'm lumping the final three panels of the most recent il-Logic strip together in one post, as the process was the same for all of them (and because I have something else for tomorrow's post, as previously mentioned and then delayed and then mentioned again).

To be completely honest with you all, I don't have a huge amount to say about these and there's no intermediate or preliminary stages to show you as I literally just picked up a brush and started painting (in acrylics). I was painting quickly, trying to imbue the panels with as much energy as I could. The reason for this is because, a lot of the time, with these kind of 'talking heads' panels, they end up looking static and a bit lifeless. I wanted these to really possess a sense of kinetic energy, almost as if they weren't just one moment frozen in time, like a photograph, but a representation of a movement, albeit quite a subtle one.

I also wanted these close-ups to look completely different from the pencil-drawn/digitally-coloured close-ups from the previous strip.

When I was painting these, I was inspired by Bill Sienkiewicz's work on 'Elektra: Assassin'. I wasn't trying to emulate his painting/drawing style, you understand, just the way he captures so much sheer energy in a single panel.

il-Logic and all associated imagery © Adam Di Stefano and Paul D. Selman 2010

Back in the saddle again

Welcome, once again, to my humble blog! First off, let me just apologise for the radio silence over the last couple of days. I've been rushed off my feet with stuff that was entirely unconnected to this blog, il-Logic or even art in its broadest sense; I literally haven't had the chance to get to my computer for long enough to post anything. Once again; sorry, folks.

I'm back now, though, so the second order of business is to remind you that the next il-Logic strip went live yesterday, so head over to http://il-Logic.com and check it out, if you haven't already.

Lastly, here's a quick catch-up of the sneak peek, bonus features side of il-Logic. I present to you the rought pencil sketch for panel 1 of the latest strip: As you can see, it's very rough and ready and really just a basic compositional guide for the ink drawing below, done with a brush:

I attempted to put the tables and chairs in the background in with a very faint line and quite loosely, to indicate that (a) they're far away, and (b) they're not that important to the main thrust of the strip.

Next, I scanned the brush and ink drawing into Photoshop and digitally coloured it. You may be able to tell (particularly if you click on the image to enlarge) that I've used some texture filters here for the first time (on il-Logic, anyway... obviously I've used texture filters on Photoshop before). I wanted to continue with the autumnal earth-tones but make them feel a bit different:

I kept the bill white, so as to highlight it as the focus for this particular panel. I hope it worked.

P.S. - I am aware that I said I had something entirely non-related to the webcomic to post on Wednesday. I wasn't telling porkies; I really do. It's going to have to wait until Sunday now, though. I'm sure you can all cope.

il-Logic and all associated imagery © Adam Di Stefano and Paul D. Selman 2010

Three for the price of one!

Presenting a behind-the-scenes look at panels 1 to 3 of the latest il-Logic strip today. Yes, that's right: three panels in one post! The reason for this is that (a) the process is the same for all three panels so spreading it out over three days would be pretty redundant, and (b) I have something non-webcomic related for you tomorrow.

These panels, as is probably obvious, were drawn in pencil (a Stabilo 2B sketching pencil to be precise) in a fairly traditional style. The reason for this is that the script for this script called for three close-ups, so I decided to draw these characters in a slightly more realistic fashion to really get across how I see these guys. I wouldn't want to draw the strip like this all the time, but it was a nice experiment. If you want to see more of this kind of thing, e-mail Adam and tell him to put more extreme close-ups in the scripts!

As you can see, panels 1 and 2 were actually drawn on the same sheet of paper, with the panel border added afterwards in Photoshop:
Now you've seen the original drawings, here's a look at the digitally coloured panels without the word balloons:

I really don't want to over-complicate the colouring at this stage. Adam and I have specific reasons for the colour palette I'm using that are actually related to the storyline, so I want to let the colours breathe and not get overly fiddly. There will come a point in the storyline when this will change and change big time. At that point, all bets are off. You'll just have to wait for that, though, when (with any luck) all will become clear. (I'd love to know if you folks have any guesses as to what I'm blathering on about...)

il-Logic and all associated imagery © Adam Di Stefano and Paul D. Selman 2010

Violence at the restaurant

There's a new il-Logic up today, folks. Go here and check it out: http://il-Logic.com/

Right, I'm still pretty ill, but nowhere near as bad as I did over the weekend, so let's start our little behind the scenes peep at strip 7, panel 4.

Panel 4? Yes, panel 4. I'm starting with the last panel for the simple reason that I started with it when I drew/painted the strip. I then went back and did panels 1 to 3. The reason? Just felt like doing it that way. There's no reason I have to draw these strips in order and you can't make me, so nur.

Right, so here's my preliminary pencil sketch for the panel. It's reasonably worked up, for no other reason than I was in the mood for drawing: And here's the final panel, sans word balloons and little red border (which were both, of course, added later in Photoshop). This was painted entirely in acrylics and I had a blast painting it. Would it be far too pretentious to say that I was teensy bit inspired by Goya when I was painting Raj? Probably, so I won't.
Some of you with long memories may recognise the waiter. He was my initial character design for Raj, which I posted to this here blog of mine late last year (without telling you that it WAS a character design, of course). Adam and I eventually decided he wasn't really right for Raj, but I liked the guy so much I didn't just want to consign him to Rejected Character Design Heaven... so I recycled the design for the waiter in this strip. You never know; he may even show up again some day. That bartender I designed for an earlier strip may show up again too... I'm not sure how time these guys are going to be spending in this bar/restaurant.

Anyway, come back tomorrow for the skinny on panels 1 to 3. I'll be waiting.

il-Logic and all associated imagery © Adam Di Stefano and Paul D. Selman 2010

Panel within a panel

Still ill.

Here are some pictures.

il-Logic strip 6, panel 4, initial drawing in ink with a brush. No pencils. Drawn straight off with brush: Scanned into Photoshop. Black border added to panel within panel. One panel becomes two:

Computer colours added in Photoshop. Red, pink, orange, yellow:

Done. Going to go and die now. See you tomorrow if still alive.

il-Logic and all associated images © Adam Di Stefano and Paul D. Selman 2010

None more pink

I'm still feeling like death warmed-up with the mumps (I still cannot believe it), so this is probably going to be the shortest post I've ever written.

Here we have panel three of strip 6 of il-Logic: It was entirely painted with acrylics, apart from the line-work on the cute l'il Pegasus, which were added on top with brush and ink. Painted entirely in shades of pink and red, just so I can try and assert the claim to have painted the pinkest webcomic panel ever. None more pink.

I'm going back to being ill now. See you tomorrow.

il-Logic and all associated imagery © Adam Di Stefano and Paul D. Selman 2010

Is it me, or did it just get pink in here?

I'm really ill, this evening, folks, so this is going to be a quick one (bearing in mind I said that last night and look what happened). The doctor has told me he thinks I have mumps. I'm thirty four years old and they think I have MUMPS. Sheeesh... My face is blown up like a puffer fish, though, so who am I to argue?

This is panel two of il-Logic strip 6, which features the first appearance of Ashley. She'd been mentioned in a previous strip, but this is the first time we've actually seen her. For the first stage in creating this panel (other than the script, obviously, but that's Adam's department) I took a brush and some black ink and just drew this rather cartoony image (deliberately cartoony, as my impression of Ashley is that she's pretty much a walking cartoon character): At this stage, I had to add some colour. You may have noticed that Ashley is a very pink individual. I wanted the only colours in this panel to be pink and the blonde of her hair, to emphasise this. I put the colours in with watercolour paints:

As well as being a means of emphasising the sheer pink-ness of Ashley, I wanted the rest of the panel to be greyscale to get across the feeling the others have when she walks in. You ever meet one of those people who just seem to suck the life out of a room when they enter? I figured that with Edan, Lok and Wid'L's reactions to Ashley, she must be one of those people (to them at least). To achieve this effect, I shaded the rest of the panel with a 2B pencil:
... and there you have it. As always, I realise this is not the traditional way of doing things in the webcomic world, but we're trying to be experimental here, both to push the boundaries of webcomic art and see what we can get away with. I hope you enjoyed your look behind the scenes. I'll see you tomorrow with a look at panel 3.

il-Logic and all associated imagery © Adam Di Stefano and Paul D. Selman 2010

In the restaurant half of the pub...

Right off the bat: there's a new il-Logic strip up today, so if you haven't already done so, go to http://il-Logic.com RIGHT AWAY and check it out. Then come back here. (How long do you think I need to keep running these disclaimers on 'New Strip Day' before people get the idea?)

Anyway, this is going to be brief today, blog-fans, as I have a blinding headache and need to go and curl up in a dark corner for the rest of the evening. Sorry about that! I wouldn't leave you with nothing, though, so here we have the rough pencils for panel 1 of today's strip: As you can see, I'd also put in the background in chalk before I scanned it. I actually put another layer of chalk on after this scan. If you look down to the panel below, you'll probably be able to see the difference in the background:

The figures and the table are all painted in acrylics. I tried to make the colours subdued, as if they were in dim lighting (as most restaurants tend to have dim lighting... I suppose it saves you from getting too good a look at what you're eating). After I'd scanned this in, I actually played around in Photoshop to make the lighting look even lower... Looking at the finished strip, I now think I overdid it a bit. Oh, well... I never claimed to be perfect... or even particularly great at this stuff.

My sharp-eyed readers will notice, of course, that there's a blank space on the wall, in the picture frame. That's because I composited in a photograph of my painting 'One More Person', previously featured on this here blog, back in its pre-il-Logic days.

Hm. That wasn't that brief after all. I guess I just can't help but be a long-winded bugger...

il-Logic and all associated imagery © Adam Di Stefano and Paul D. Selman 2010

The sordid truth...

Now the truth can be revealed! The last two panels of Thursday's il-Logic strip? I did them on the same page of my sketchbook!

Yes, that's right; as you can see below, panel 3 and panel 4 side-by-side on the same sheet of paper, with just a thin strip of smudged white keeping them apart! Actually, false sensationalism aside, this is the first time I've drawn (well, painted, in the case of panel 3) two panels together on the same sheet of paper. I did it to make sure that my little experiment with putting two tall, thin panels next to each other would work. I was feeling slightly restricted by the whole four panels one-on-top-of-the-other format I'd used for the first four il-Logic strips, so I decided to mix things up a bit. I hope you all approve and aren't leaving in droves in disgust because I dared switch from landscape to portrait!

As far as the technical side of things is concerned, panel three was painted entirely in acrylics. I didn't do any kind of preliminary pencil sketch for this one, I just went straight in with the paints. Panel four was drawn with brush and ink. I hope it's clear that Raj and Edan are those two silhouettes in the foreground...

il-Logic and all associated imagery © Adam Di Stefano and Paul D. Selman 2010

Breaking it down again

Remember last week when I showed some 'more worked up' pencils for il-Logic strip 4? No? Well, anyway, I said at the time that I'd try and show you some of my more typical compositional sketching, that isn't quite as fully drawn out as the ones I showed you last week. True to my word, today, I have for you a breakdown of strip 5 panel 2, which includes a very loose, very rough pencil scribble: As you can see, it really is just a few, very faint, pencil marks to give me a general idea where I'm going with the composition for the panel. In this instance, I follow this with a couple of washes of coloured inks, roughly following my loose pencil sketch:
This should show you how little point there is in doing a more fully worked up pencil drawing when I'm using ink washes in this way. The ink pretty much obscures whatever I've drawn beneath it. In this panel, I then waited for the coloured ink washes to dry before going over them with a nice, thick brush and some black ink line work... finished off with some white ink highlights:

So there you have it: another il-Logic panel sans word balloons. I hope you got a kick out of it.

il-Logic and all associated imagery © Adam Di Stefano and Paul D. Selman 2010

Another strip, another new character...

il-Logic strip 5 went live today so, if you haven't already, go to http://il-logic.com/ and check it out. I'll wait until you get back before I go any further.

O.K., well, you'll now have been introduced to Raj. He brings with him an evolution of the art style I'm using on the strip. There's a reason for this: as you've seen by all the talk of 'the hook', Raj is kind of a... strange guy. I wanted to create a sense of the surreal-o-metre going up a notch just by him entering the room, hence the fact that I've warped the walls of the room and brought in a greater level of mixed-media than I've used before. The colour in this panel is painted on in acrylic. I then drew over it with black and white ink.

Those four at the bar aren't painted, you say? Well, spotted. I drew in Edan, Lok, Michelle and Wid'L in chalk to (a) help increase the sense of the surreal as Raj walks in, and (b) put them into the mid-ground without losing them completely. Drawing them in chalk ensures that, while the focus of the panel is Raj's entrance, the others are still a very noticeable element of the panel.

While we have absolutely nothing against all the folks drawing their webcomics entirely digitally (Hell, we read and thoroughly enjoy most of 'em), Adam and I wanted to make it clear from the start that il-Logic was going to be a mixed-media webcomic. I sincerely hope there's enough people who enjoy our approach to create a market for it! On that note: if you're reading the comic, SPREAD THE WORD!

il-Logic and all associated imagery © Adam Di Stefano and Paul D. Selman 2010

Koala spit

Welcome back, one and all, to another sneak peek at the process that goes into drawing the il-Logic webcomic every week.
Like the last panel (featured in yesterday's blog entry) I decided to work up the pencils a bit more than I usually do with this panel. I'm not sure why; it probably just boils down to the fact that I was enjoying drawing in pencil. Anyhoo, here's the pencils for this panel, in their unadorned form: And here we have the image with the ink washes and black and white line work added:

People probably don't pay too much attention to this sort of thing when they're reading the strip (which is exactly how it should be: the story is the thing), but I really enjoyed creating that textured effect on the wall behind the bar. I did it by putting on multiple layers of red ink wash until I was happy with the effect.

The inking on this one was done a bit differently, actually. I experimented with holding the brush differently and applying less pressure but loading more ink onto the brush. I quite like it, so you'll probably see more of this sort of inking (if you even noticed the difference, of course).

This is my absolute favourite drawing of the koala I've done to date (and I'm further ahead than you've seen yet, so I'm including koala drawings you haven't even seen yet). Maybe it's the dribble.

il-Logic and all associated imagery © Adam Di Stefano and Paul D. Selman 2010

Breaking it down

Back again for more, eh? Well, you are most welcome! Today we're continuing our look behind the scenes of il-Logic strip 4. I'm not entirely sure why, but on this strip I decided to work up the pencils a bit more than I normally do (I must remember to scan in one of my more usual pencil layouts at some point so you folks have some basis of comparison). Because of this, I thought I'd show you the rough pencils for this panel as well as the inked version. Here 'tis: And now with inks:

As you can see, the majority of the work is still done in the inking stage. Also, I took a slightly different approach to inking Michelle's sweater in this panel, after the problems I had with it in the last one. Still not entirely happy, but this is what I get for putting characters in black clothing.

Hmm... I can only assume Lok has finished his drink, as his bottle is the same colour as his top. Yes, that's what's happened. I didn't make a mistake, nosirreebob. A-hem...

il-Logic and all associated imagery © Adam Di Stefano and Paul D. Selman 2010

A guy and a koala walk into a bar...

No, it's not the set up line for a joke (although, thinking about, perhaps Adam and I missed a trick with that one) but rather the opening scene of il-Logic strip 4. Needless to say, if you haven't read the strip yet, quickly dash over to http://il-logic.com/ and read it before you go any further here.

Back? O.K. Let's get on with it, then.

I knew that, if I'd done my job right with the initial establishing shot of the bar in the last strip, people would know where the characters were just from the funky arch around the door, the lamps and the painting. Failing that, Michelle has a glass in her hand (presumably a new one, as her last drink was spilled in the last strip) and Lok has a bottle next to him. My primary concern with this opening panel was whether or not Edan's facial injuries would be clear enough, considering his face was going to be pretty small in this panel. As a result, I think I've probably made his injuries a little worse than Adam originally intended when he wrote the script. (I could be wrong... for all I know Adam's sitting at his computer thinking 'Godsdamnit, Selman! Edan was supposed to be WAY more messed up than that! Where's all the blood?')

By the way, I'm aware that the top of the painting on the left of the panel is wonky. I knew that the word balloon would be going there in advance, so I just chucked those lines on a bit willy-nilly. Is that unprofessional? Eh, whatever... I really enjoyed putting Michelle and Lok in silhouette in the first panel, as it puts the emphasis on Edan entering the bar, despite the fact that the other two are in the foreground of the image. This did create a minor problem for me in the second panel, however, as Michelle has a black turtleneck sweater on and I didn't want it to look like she was still in silhouette for the rest of the panel as well. As a result, I used a bit more water in the black ink wash of her top this time around, to make it clear that it's a black top rather than any kind of artistic effect. In hindsight, I think I may have overdone it, as her top looks like it's been washed too many times now. Oh, well; you live and learn.
My sharp-eyed readers will no doubt have noticed that the starfish in the fish tank had the honour of actually being inked this time. (See blog entries from earlier in the week if you don't know what I'm talking about.) Shame about the word balloon being in the way on the final strip, but whaddaya gonna do? Adam WILL insist on having the characters talk!

My favourite part of this panel? The faint artexing on the wall in the background. I know, I know... seek psychiatric help immediately.

il-Logic and all associated imagery © Adam Di Stefano and Paul D. Selman 2010

Word Balloons (because, apparently, you NEED to know...)

As I mentioned yesterday, today's post is a little different. Quite a few of you good people have said to me words to the effect of 'OK, you're showing us the panels before you put the word balloons on, which is great, but... well, how do you do the word balloons?'

I can honestly say that I never thought in a million years that anybody would be interested in that side of things, as it's fairly straightforward and, let's face it, dull. As it seems I was wrong about this, I shall attempt, with this post, to enlighten you on the process of lettering il-Logic.

Disclaimer: I am NOT a professional comicbook letterer. I did a module on calligraphy at Art College, but that's a different thing entirely. When it comes to comicbook lettering, I am entirely self-taught and all I have to go on is my knowledge of Photoshop and three decades of reading word balloons in other people's comics. To any professional comicbook letterers who stumble across this post: I am so, so sorry!

Anyway, I shall now talk you through how I letter the strip, with the help of my beloved pussycat, Jemyma. Here we have an unlettered 'panel' (for the sake of argument): The first thing I do is click the cursor roughly in the place I want the word balloon to go (this is all done in Adobe Photoshop, of course). The font I'm using for il-Logic at the moment is Digitalstrip, although I hope, eventually, to get around to designing my own font for the strip. At the size I work on the strip in Photoshop, I need to set the font to be 18pt for it to be legible.
Once I've done this, I then drag the font into exactly the position I want the word balloon to be, like so (sometimes I find myself agonising over word balloon placement for far too long):
The next step is to return to the layer underneath the layer the text is on. This is very important (you'll see why later). I then use the handy-dandy Elliptical Marquee Tool to draw an ellipse around the text, which I then colour black. As you can immediately see, this makes the writing kinda hard to read:

I then use the Polygonal Lasso Tool to add a little pointer to the black balloon, which I also colour black. I try to get the end of the pointer about two thirds of the way between the word balloon and the speaking character's mouth. This doesn't always look right, but it's the general rule-of-thumb I use:

I then go to the 'Select' menu, select 'Modify', then select 'Contract'. This brings up a little box that asks you how many pixels you want to contract the shape by. I select 6 pixels (it's just the amount that I found looked right after much trial and error) and click 'OK'. This creates another balloon inside the black balloon which is 6 pixels smaller in every direction. I then colour this smaller shape white and (eureka!) this is what you get:

Now you can see why it's so important to create your word balloon on the layer underneath the text. If you did it on the same layer as the text, or did it on a layer over the layer with the text on it, the text would be obliterated. By creating your word balloon on the layer underneath the text, the text is then revealed, as if by magic, when you colour the smaller, internal balloon white. Clever, eh?

I do hope this has been somewhat illuminating for those of you who asked... and perhaps even for those of you who didn't. I think the only thing I can add to this is that a general rule of thumb with word balloons seems to be that the more space there is surrounding the text in the word balloon, the better it tends to look. That being said, I have seen examples of letterers who don't follow this rule and still manage to get their word balloons to look good.

Anyway, now this is out of the way, remember to check out http://il-logic.com/ tomorrow for strip 4 in our fledgling saga! Then come back here for more behind the scenes type stuff.

More unlettered il-Logic panels

The other three panels from strip 3 in their unlettered format: This panel is notable for being the first time we've had a proper look at Michelle; she was in the panel one, but only from a distance, and you couldn't really tell what she looked like. You see that hat? By the time I'd drawn it umpteen times, I was really cursing my decision to put it on her. Once this sequence in the bar is over, in a few strips time, I have a sneaking suspicion that you may never see that hat again.
I tried to change the colour of the background to reflect Michelle's mood in this sequence. Hence the darkening of the red and the 'black mist' that bisects the panel in this drawing. These three panels, by the way, were barely pencilled at all; I more or less went straight in with the brush in a combination of ink washes and acrylic paint.

Those of you who know me will be aware that I'm really not a fan of computer games. Don't get me wrong; I'm sure I could get into them if I allowed myself to, but it would just cut into my drawing time far too much (not to mention my reading and movie watching time), so I try to keep them at a distance. As a result, I don't have much of a clue when it comes to computer gaming hardware. I'm probably the only webcomic artist in the world who finds it necessary to find photo-reference for video game control pads.

See you tomorrow for a post that's more than a little different. It's not crushingly exciting but I've been asked the same question a couple of times since il-Logic went live, so I'm going to attempt to answer it for those who are interested in the nuts and bolts side of things.

il-Logic and all associated imagery © Adam Di Stefano and Paul D. Selman 2010

The Bar With No Name (as of yet)

Right, first thing's first: if you haven't yet visited http://il-logic.com/ today, go there NOW and check out the brand-spanking-new strip that's gone live today. Then you can come back here and look behind the scenes. You don't want to be one of those weird people who watches the DVD for the first time with the commentary track switched on, do you?

OK, now we're all on the same page, I present to you the un-lettered version of strip 3, panel 1. This one took me a loooong time; not so much because it's the most complex layout I've done so far for il-Logic, but because this is the first time we've seen the bar, which meant I had to design the place from scratch. I wanted it to be memorable enough that, in future strips, people would know the action was taking place at the bar just by seeing one small element.

Hence the distinctive lamps and archway around the door, the coat of arms with crossed swords, the enormous fish tank, he paintings on the walls and so on... Speaking of the paintings on the walls, the sharp-eyed among you will notice that there's a big blank space behind the fish tank in this image. That's because I digitally composited in my painting 'Sussex Stag' in the finished panel and you're seeing the panel here without any of the Photoshopped in elements.

The other thing I was particularly excited about with this panel was the fact that I got to create a character from whole cloth for the first time. Those of you who have read the FAQ over at the il-Logic website will know that the central cast members of il-Logic are kinda, sorta based on real people Adam knows... so, while he didn't want to restrict my character designs in any way, a rough idea of what these characters should look like was already in place before I started drawing. In this strip, however, I got to design the bartender all by myself, which I got a big kick out of. I hope you like her. As of yet, she doesn't have a name... just like the bar itself.

(Unless, of course, Adam has a name in mind but hasn't got around to telling me yet...)

Oh, as far as the technical side of the artwork here is concerned, other than the digitally composited element of the painting behind the fish tank, I roughed this out very faintly in pencil first and then went in with a brush and ink and produced the finished panel that way. Drawing accurate perspective with multiple elements freehand with a thick brush is not easy, by the way. The eagle-eyed among you may have noticed that there's a starfish in the fish tank that isn't inked. This isn't actually because I forgot to ink it (my pencils generally don't go into that much detail); it was added afterwards as an afterthought when My Lovely Fiancée™ saw the finished drawing and said 'At least you didn't put a starfish in that tank'. What can I say? I can be a contrary so-and-so when the mood strikes me.

il-Logic and all associated imagery © Adam Di Stefano and Paul D. Selman 2010

The Things It Takes Away

Just to show my pre-il-Logic followers that I'm not giving up all other artwork to do the webcomic, here's a piece I did today in between drawing il-Logic panels. It's an expressionist ink wash drawing I've called 'The Things It Takes Away'. I hope you like it.

Coming to the end of strip 2

And so we come to the final panel of strip 2. I tried a different technique with this one. Rather than doing a very, very loose compositional pencil sketch and the going straight in with the inks, I decided to do a more fully worked-up drawing in pencil, as you can see below: The only elements that are inked in this panel are the pot plant (which I really enjoyed drawing for some strange reason) and the wall in the background. I then scanned the panel into Photoshop and digitally coloured the un-inked elements, as you can see below:
I wanted to emphasise Edan's annoyance by colouring him in a field of dark red, so I decided to put Lok in a field of yellow ochre to give the image a unified feel with a strong sense of contrast. I hope it worked.

Before you come back here tomorrow, be sure to check out strip 3 over at http://il-logic.com/ - it features a change of location! Exciting!

il-Logic and all associated imagery © Adam Di Stefano and Paul D. Selman 2010

Picture within a picture

Welcome once again to the http://il-logic.com/ bonus features. Under the microscope today is strip 2, panel 3.

I had a lot of fun playing with shadows in this panel, as I really wanted to get that feeling of high contrast you get in a darkened room with a television on. As you can see, as well as using a lot of black ink, I've also been more liberal with the white ink highlights.

Those of you who followed my blog before the dawn of il-Logic may have noticed that the image on the television screen is actually my painting 'Refraction'. I figured that, as the painting is (a) black-and-white and (b) in a different media to the rest of the panel, it might create the illusion of a television picture. I'm quite pleased with the effect.

Just for the sake of it, here's the panel before the painting was added to the television screen:

Another trick I've tried for the first time in this panel is to have elements breaking the panel frame. In this case, Edan's fingers are poking around the edge of the panel and into the gutter (that's what they call the frames around the pictures in the comicbook world, in case you're not familiar with the term... it's also where I'll probably be sleeping this time next year). I did this to help establish that Edan isn't in the living room with Lok, but just poking his head around the kitchen door. Subtle little things like that can actually help create the illusion of three-dimensionality.

As this is the behind-the-scenes version of the panel, you can actually see some of the ink bleeding over the edge of the frame on the left hand side. That's what you get with il-Logic: authen-friggin-ticity!

il-Logic and all associated imagery © Adam Di Stefano and Paul D. Selman 2010