Into Darkness Page 5

Chapter 01 – Into Darkness: Page 05
Posted on November 26, 2024 by Jeff
My undergraduate education included engineering and industrial design, and my goal was to put those skills to use as a designer and engineer. Early in my career I was provided with opportunities to leverage both of these skills in work that was fun and challenging. Over time I was presented with more opportunities and ultimately chose a career path that embraced engineering, manufacturing, and management. I continued to scratch the creative itch with artistic pursuits like comic books, and that's where Marc and I met. Over time though, my personal artistic pursuits lessened.
Flash forward 25 years - at the urging of my wife I dusted off my drawing board and gear and began to draw again. I re-discovered the joy that comes with creating art, but a simple, yet hard to admit truth was that my skills as an artist had like any unused muscle, atrophied. When I sat down to draw, I knew exactly what I wanted to do, but the pathway between my head and my hands was filled with obstacles. Layers of rust had built up on the machine, and I understood that the only solution to remove the rust was the application of time and energy.
The primary art tool that I was using then was an iPad out of convenience, but I realized that if I was going to pursue sequential art, working digitally was the answer. Why? It's that rust that I mentioned earlier. Working with traditional media requires the artist to deliberately build the contents for each page and panel with a level of confidence and specificity that I have lost. While I re-build the machine, a digital environment allows me to experiment in a panel where mistakes can be corrected with a click. If I am unhappy with the perspective for a scene, create an additional layer and draw. If I don't like the inking line that I've laid down, back up and repeat. In my world, pen and paper wasn't going to be an option.
During the last six months, I've changed the tools that I'm using to create the Dystopia webcomic and I have been rebuilding lost skills. I continue seeking that confidence in laying down lines and the needle has moved ever so slightly. Page and panel construction, lines, and colors will improve over time, and I appreciate all of the feedback received so far - thank you for taking the journey with me.