The Frostbite Immortal Act 1 Process: Script to Inks
I've been busy working through the pages of Book 4: The Frostbite Immortal now, and I'm more than halfway done. Can't wait to get it finished and released because I had a lot of fun with this issue and story.
For my process for this book, I made a few changes that I noticed were beneficial to my productivity and efficiency when creating a page. Previously, for Ninjas of the Shroud as you can see from my previous posts, I divide a page, that is of the normal size that I draw at, into four parts and do the rough layouts for 4 pages. So essentially the thumbnails for 4 pages are squeezed into 1 actual page. The layouts were also really rough. Only when I started working on finishing the page, I discovered that tightening up the thumbnails took up the most time and I spent a fair amount of time readjusting poses and proportions because the roughs did not account for that.
For this book, I decided to do that tightening process during the thumbnail phase. Meaning that I still did the 4 pages in 1 full page layout format, but instead of leaving the roughs, I did the actual pencilling as well, so the 'thumbnails' actually turned into the final pencils, missing some details I thought I could add in during the inking. The main focus of this pencilling phase is really to get the composition, proportion and perspective right. The result was that I took a few extra days to complete the 'pencils' and then I could focus on the page by page inking and colouring. For the past 2 weeks I have found that the inking is so much more easier to do because I am not doing much thinking of where what should be and I breeze past the page at a much faster rate. Then I can start coloring much earlier. It was a much more enjoyable experience and so much less stressful, because sometimes the layout might not work once its tightened up. So I've found that I am working faster now, and I feel less uncertain because I know that everything is in place and adjustments are minor. I feel more confident in the story as well because the pencils are actually done and I can see the story play out fully.
ACT 1
Let's take a look at the script for each page of Act 1, which is the first five pages of the book, and then we'll compare the pencils and the inks.
----------------------------------------- ACT 1 - The Wolf ----------------------------------------- Page 1 1. SC is being chased by Chief Wolfblood, the sled pulling wolves are pouncing and right behind him. SC looks frustrated as he is trying to run in knee deep snow. "HAHA! You've got nowhere to run anymore Snake Claws! Welcome to my turf!" 2. SC attempts Egret skips on lotus to get airborne
Instead of 2 panels, its ended up as 3, with the addition of a close up on Chief Wolfblood, the baddest bounty hunter of the Far North. The idea of this page is to just start the issue off with a bang and almost a full splash of SC in big trouble, wolves right on his tail (pun intended) and about to catch him. This page was pure fun, but also it marks the first time I attempted drawing wolves. I spent quite a bit of time looking through reference to get a decent result.
Page 2 1. SC manages to get some air out of the thick snow. A wolf is just about to bite his leg 2. SC turns and kicks the wolf away 3. Close up SC's face as he screams in agony. 4. Zoom out to show that one wolf has bit his butt and another on his arm. 5. THOOM! SC hits the snow hard as more wolves jump in to attack. 6. Halt!!! Close up on Wolf smiling
This page turned out a little different from the script, as most pages do. SC manages to get some air, but the wolves manage to catch up to him and start biting him. He falls out of the air and then the wolves go to town on him. The page ends with Wolfblood telling the wolves to stop and he gets ready to finish the job himself. I think this might be the weakest we see SC so far. But things are about to change.
Page 3 1. "Get up. I want to kill you myself. 1000 taels of gold. I want to earn it." SC is surrounded by the snarling wolves on his knees bleeding. 2. SC manages a half kneel, attempting to get up "Come on hurry up. You wasted a week of my time hunting you down" 3. SC closes his eyes 4. A dark energy emanates from him. The wolves look scared and start whimpering 5. Large panel. SC is in full pose. "Way of the Serpent!" 6. Wolf begins his attack.
On this page, SC takes advantage of the pause in action to gather himself, and resorts to a desperate final move, drawing deep from the depths of his Forbidden Arts knowledge, conjuring up a killer move called the "Way of the Serpent". To make the move cooler and to show the effect of the Forbidden Arts on a person, I decided that his pupils would turn into snake pupils and his tongue into a Snake tongue as well. Kind of a way to show how deep he has internalized the Forbidden Arts. Of course, the dialouge in this page ended up completely different once I actually started lettering. In the Way of the Serpent panel, the extreme foreshortening of the hand pointing right at the reader was daunting at first, but I quite like the final result after a few adjustments. The next page, we find out Chief Wolfblood's fate.
Page 4 Panels of SC beating the hell out of Chief Wolfblood. No contest. SC's pupils have turned into Snake's pupils. 1. SC holds Wolf high up in the air
Chief Wolfblood gets annilhated. SC has tapped into the darkest depths of the Forbidden Arts, giving him outright power and domination over his opponent. He even pokes the eye off Wolfblood and breaks his jaws. The final move, instead of holding him up high in the air like in the script, SC is about to stomp on Wolfblood's face. Probably the most graphic or violent this comic has been so far, which I'm trying not to make it about the violence or the gore, but I wanted to show how dark the Forbidden Arts user can get.
Page 5 1. The wolves look in horror as blood splatter on them. 2. Close on his half open eyes - Snake pupils 3. Same panel, his pupils have reverted 4. SC faints as the wolves run off 5. wide panel, SC lying in the bloody snow, partially seeing Chief Wolfblood's limp body. We hear some trudging footsteps 6. Small panel at close up of SC's face, knocked out. 7. Same panel a pair of snow boots appear beside it
Last page of Act 1, SC finishes off Wolfblood, off camera. I thought of adding a bit of levity to the moment by focusing on the onlooking wolves as they react to the brutal killing of Wolfblood and blood splashing on them. With their leader dead they run off and SC though victorious looks like he is spent. His eyes revert and he faints in exhaustion. Last panel, someone appears, beside a motionless SC. This was an interesting page to tackle with 3 panel to panel transitions - SC fainting, The eyes reverting and the stranger stepping up to SC. Before I started on the book, I was searching around my own library for good snow reference in comics and what I think I stole the most successfully from was the snow clumps on SC's face. That was referenced from Swamp Thing: Winter Special by Jason Fabok. Other books I referenced from were Russian Olive to Red King by Stuart Immonen and also Plunge, by Stuart Immonen(as you can tell, i'm an Immonen fanboy).
One thing to note is that while drawing and coloring this few pages, I realized that a cool way to introduce SC's master, the Dark Abbot, which at this point of time is not mentioned yet in the story, is to do a voiceover of the first meeting between SC and the Dark Abbot , and him introducing the Forbidden Arts to SC. As he speaks, the words reflect the actions that are happening on the panel. I felt that this gave the scene more weight and also introduces the Dark Abbot who plays a huge role much later in the story. You'll see what I mean in the final result :)
Act 2 is up next!