1000 Things To Learn, #3: Uploading Images To The Internet Without Losing Color Fidelity

Warning!  Bunch of technical stuff follows.  May not be for everyone.  Skip down to the last post to get to a Chandra page.

As I broke it down in THIS POST, I'd been uploading images to this website with an incorrect color profile.  I was wondering why they were looking so washed out and ragged.  Well, it turns out that you have to really pay attention to the 'color space' of the file in Photoshop and then in the internet.  The analogy used is that of a box of crayons, the internet has a smaller box than Photoshop, so you have to be very specific with what colors you tell it to use.  LUCKILY this is an easy fix.

The Dark Knight in an Unsaturated Nightmare...and Restored!

Some websites seem to adapt the file automatically (smartly), others, like Blogger, don't.  Also, it should be borne in mind that the large thumbnail images that are created for a graphic file are always washed out a certain amount.  I can't seem to figure out how to affect that.

Color is a really tricky business and I know when it comes time to actually make a graphic novel, meaning, print one up, there will be a whole host of new headaches.  But for now, let's limit ourselves to uploading properly.

Continued after the break.

Chandra, Page 17: Looking For Me Stud?

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Welcome back Loonies!  Let's just get this out of the way: The first panel has all the stiffness of a high school production of 'Waiting For Godot.'  Furthermore, Dr. McBee looks terrible in the second panel and Jason's face is a bit scrunchy in the third panel.  BUT, the fourth panel, I can't find much fault there, I like it (Though Dr. Bannister is slightly walleyed).  I'm also partial to the final frame.  There was a lot of space to play with there and I was able to put some big rips in to remind everyone that Chandra Base is falling apart.  The problem remains though, I never took the time to get enough detail into the pages.

This brings me to the issue of QUALITY CONTROL.  Sometimes, for me at least, when I've started a project I feel there's some kind of drive to finish it at a breakneck pace, as if it were a race.  I speed through the project blindly, hoping on hope that the final package will be good enough so that everyone will ignore any inadequacies.  This is obviously wrong.  If there's one major lesson I've learned over the last year it's this: Take your time with all that you do.  Don't let it out the door until it's trimmed, polished and sewn up tight.  There's this quote, I don't know, maybe I'm misquoting it but I can't find the thing on the internet.  It's from The Fountainhead By Ayn Rand, the protagonist, Roark says to another character: "My failures go into the trash, whereas yours end up on the wall."  I could be way off base here with the wording or attribution, someone correct me if I am.  Anyway, I always liked this quote because it summed up a beautiful work ethic, to never settle for second rate work from your own hands.

Of course that doesn't apply to Chandra.  In some kind of masochistic way I want this in the public eye so that I'm accountable to showing you something better.  And I can get feedback on what didn't work here when I was making this graphic novel.  Sure, I'm plenty critical on myself, but I want to hear from others as well.  So, chime in!

Yeah, The Fountainhead is divisive, but come on, it's a cultural and philosophical touchstone, read it if you haven't!

Stray Flights #1: Desiccate, Page 6

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There are trees down all around the outside of the house but the threat of the innocuous sounding Hurricane Irene is over.  I almost (SERIOUSLY almost) ran my car into a downed tree on the highway last night.  Scary stuff.  To all of you more closely affected by the Hurricane, here's hoping you're all alright. 

BUT, I survived and I'm bringing you, my friends, page 6 of 'Desiccate' wherein our hero is at the edge of a surprise.  You can probably guess where this is going from here.  I think the textures turned out great on this page.  There's not quite enough expression in the protagonist's face there in the last panel, but our sound effect text is willing to shoulder some of the dramatic burden.

You can see I'm still experimenting with 'camera' placement when making graphic novels and stories.  There's no real reason to have the first panel pulled back so far.  In fact, this page went through a lot of revision in the thumbnail state.  I originally had it at six panels, zooming into Peter's face over a much longer period of time, but, we're striving for punchiness here.  Three panels seemed to do the trick better and with more kick.  Turn the page next Sunday for 'the BIG reveal!'  (HINT: Train your sharp eyes on the background of the last panel.)

Chandra, Page 16: Kiss Ol' Miss Earth

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So, we've got a hurricane blowing down our necks in the Philly area.  I'm headed west for a few days, but here's Chandra, page 16 to kick off your weekend.  Hopefully it'll be dryer than mine.

It seems here that our dear Dr. Bannister is heading home.  I had a good time drawing both of these characters, each of them have a fun look to play around with, from Dr. McBee's dumpy habitus to Dr. Bannister's aesthetic of rumpled academic.  There's still a real measure of stiffness in the characters in this clinic scene.  I find tinges of things that I like, but overall the people feel like their floating in time, stuck into positions that don't feel altogether natural.  The doubling up of the first and second panel also irks me for some reason.  It's hard to get an immediate feel for the different angles of view that suit a particular scene but I am a firm believer that there is always a better, and perhaps even a best, way to do something.

I am happy with how that anatomical chart turned out though.  I'm also fond of the angle over Dr. Bannister's shoulder in the fourth panel.

See everyone Sunday, provided my house is still here and not carried away by the flood!

Chandra Page 15: Spikoot!

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Well, here we meet members seven and eight of our Chandra crew.  Two doctors, including the aforementioned, mysterious Dr. Bannister that Jason was looking for.  I wanted Dr. McBee to smoke and really be a crusty old bird but I chose to make her chew tobacco instead.  Considering the air filters there on the base it seemed a logical change.

Also, for those of you that may have caught it yesterday and this morning, ignore my foray into Wordpress.  I'm sticking her on Blogger for the time being.

Stray Flights #1: Desiccate, Page 5

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Ah, succor at last.  Water, safety.  Scott's gonna take care of everything.  If I may permit myself to be a bit critical of...myself, given the whole scheme of 'Desiccate,' which you will see is only eight pages, this page is almost unnecessary.  A good editor would probably come along and tell me to cut it right out to make the tale a spot punchier.  And really, I'm inclined to agree, though I'm still partial to the various 'camera' angles showing us a bit more of the gas station.  It is COMPLETELY arbitrary that I stuck an angle outside in the second panel though.  Experimentation, that's what it's all about!

One thing to point out.  The case with the drinks is the first time I ever tried out what are called 'color holds.'  A color hold is when the actual inking (the black) is replaced with a color, in this case a sort of blue in an attempt to show bottles behind cool glass.  I felt it was reasonably successful for a first go at it.  Thoughts?

Oh wait, you know, I just realized, everything behind the gas station windows are holds too.  Okay, new game, spot the holds.

Chandra Page 14: Have You Heard The Good News?

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Good morning friends.  Let's break it down.  By now you're getting a bit of a sense of the characters of Pat and Danya, though they're a bit flat.  I'm still pleased with the lighting and especially the point of view in the third panel.  The fish in the second panel was one of the only times that I ventured into trying to get a slightly painterly texture going.

What doesn't work?  Danya's face in the fourth panel is a complete failure.  To be completely honest, I never felt like I got a handle on drawing him.  Another problem with this page is the overall wordiness of the word bubbles.  Let's talk about bubbles for a minute.  As you may have read in my last post, I brought up thumbnails and the importance of spotting the locations for your bubbles early on.  Now, when making the graphic novel Chandra, I did this badly.  Basically I wrote the script, then converted it to thumbnails with no consideration of where the written dialogue would fit in.  A rookie mistake.  What happened when it came time to work the bubbles in was that I realized I'd not left enough room when drawing the thing in the first place, consequently I had to edit a lot of the dialogue so that it would fit in the proscribed areas.  Now I've learned.  Let me make these mistakes so you don't have to.