BLACK HAMMER: MADAME DRAGONFLY COMMENTARY PART 2
Hi everyone, Lucy here again with Part 2 of my commentary in creating my Black Hammer: Madame Dragonfly short.
Before I go on I want to preface that my comic making process has evolved with every project and I suspect will continue to do so. So for my Madame Dragonfly story I started as I always do with visual & written research. The visual side is a Pinterest folder for each project built from trawling the internet for inspiring images. This could be historical reference, colour palette ideas or imagery that embodies the mood I’m after. For the written side I was already reading around witchcraft for my next story SHELTER and knew I would set the start of the story in a wood in North London, Queen’s Woods, home to a genuine practicing coven. I used to live nearby and would often glimpse offerings through the woods; stick made poppets, stone circles and more. It seemed a perfect spot for my coven of bored 1970s housewives. Occultism had seen a rise in popularity here during that era, one of the reasons I’m creating SHELTER during that time too. But I digress…
Back to my process and I have my hero, my setting, some protagonists but what to do when they meet? I recalled a favourite book, Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway, describing a character as the ‘Witch Queen at the Crossroads’ and that put me on the path to Hekate. Quite quickly the idea of Dragonfly being sacrificed to Hekate by my coven coalesced and, with a topping of my current obsession ‘difficult women’, the story was formed. Jeff gave the idea two thumbs up so I moved onto the art.
As I’d already drawn her twice for pin-ups I had an idea of what my Dragonfly would look like. I love Dean Ormston’s design but wanted to add a change to her demeanour & costume once we are transported to the Crossroads. She is home amongst her witch-kin after all. I also had an idea about developing an aesthetic so tested them out. First was a drawing from a reference photo. I used newspaper and carbon typewriter sheets, a medium I regularly use, to draw the line art then added hand-printed textures in Photoshop. I usually mess about with layering to create special effects, something this story would need and then found a style that would suit.
I also started developing the script into pages. I had brief for 10 pages so broke the story into sections; Kidnapping, Summoning, The Crossroads, The Decision and The Resolution. My scripts are closer to film scripts than comics. I tend to write action and dialogue per page rather than in panels as I find it allows me to let the art drive the story too. Once the story was in a full script form it’s edited alongside drawing loose thumbnails in a sketchbook, adjusting the script as layout ideas come together.
I try to keep the thumbnails very loose by using a fairly thick pen (for me) to prevent getting too into detail at this stage. The most important part is the flow and pagination of the story not the drawing. Once the full story is loosely plotted visually I’ll scan the thumbnails into Photoshop and create rough layouts to scale (US Standard). I tend to go back and forth at this point between script and layouts, adjusting both to fit the page and improve the overall story.
Once happy I’ll print off the layouts in blue to draw the Line Art over. This was a new process for me, I bought a large lightpad ahead of the project and it’s been a massive time saver. Before I would just draw straight onto the page but not in formal layouts or panels, then fit everything together in Photoshop. This new way meant I had fully laid-out Line Art to scale and ready to scan back in.
I drew the line art with my favourite medium, carbon typewriter sheets and dip pens and found some coloured carbon that I thought could add another element to the Crossroads setting.
I drew each colour separately, starting with the main black carbon. (It’s incredibly satisfying to draw with this material, I highly recommend trying it out but be warned it’s somewhat messy.)
I keep my script and sketchbook nearby to stay on track and remind me how much lettering would be going in. I also use an iPad for reference as I can’t personally draw a wood straight off the top of my head. Or I’ll take rather silly reference photos of myself for trickier poses. I won’t be sharing the one of me in my daughter’s cloak, brandishing a rolling pin but you get the idea.
Back in Photoshop I layout the carbon layer and start adding panel lines, these are hand drawn and inserted as I feel best suits the spread. This story had a lot more dialogue than I’ve previously written so I placed the lettering earlier on to make sure it had the space it needed. I’m still learning how best to letter and have picked up tips from working with Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou but make no mistake, It’s a serious skill and I found this stage very challenging. I also had a font designed from my handwriting by Dan Berry to keep the style inline with the art.
Once the lettering is placed and layouts finalised I started adding colour and texture. This story was painted digitally in Photoshop and given grit through handmade textures. It ends up being a fair few layers per spread, my old iMac hated every minute, but it was worth it to produce the look I was after for this story. I really enjoy keeping my colour loose and love to check if the flow of the story is visible without the Line Art. One day I’ll make purely abstract comic this way!
As you can imagine the files (at 600dpi) are now enormous so at this point I’m just about keeping my computer alive to bring all the layers together as flattened Artwork and bring in any SPX lettering. This was all hand-drawn with Carbon sheets and scanned in and tidied up in Photoshop. Finally I’ll finish up the lettering by adding digitally hand-drawn balloons and tails plus another edit or two of the dialogue to make sure it reads well and fits into the spaces. And then prep the files for delivery.
It’s a long old process when you are taking on every role, it feels like having a number of hats that you have to keep swapping in order to get some perspective.
I can’t pretend that my artist self wasn’t displeased at my writer self when I started drawing this story. I mean two woodland settings? Many heated discussions took place! But I put my all in to this story so I really hoped you enjoy it and thanks for reading about me and my comics. A HUGE final thanks to Jeff for giving me such a fabulous opportunity, it’s been a pleasure to create a Black Hammer story.
Find me on Twitter & Instagram: @LucySullivanUK
Buy my comics including the last copies of BARKING only on my website:
https://lucysullivanuk.com/buy-comics
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