The Staging of Macbeth PT. 2

If you done the proper preparation with collecting research, working through all the storytelling and compositional problems, and drawing the pictures with a sense of drama and correct draftsmanship, the actual finishing stage is in some way the simplest part of the job. It is the icing on the cake; if it is finished poorly all the preparation is for naught. 

You have to remember that inking is more than just tracing off your pencil drawings. (In this case, I already did this by copying my pencil roughs onto bristol board, a surface tough upon to take the use and abuse of pen and ink.) With the inking stage you are transforming the mass of gray shapes into a cohesive statement in high contrast black and white.

It is very much a painting process where you are using the india ink as your medium. Every time you put in a line or add a bit of black, you have to continually interpolate the rest of the composition accordingly. I find on a lot of jobs I like laying in the black areas first, and adding only the necessary minimal amount of line necessary. I don't have any dogma about what should or shouldn't be done first. You just have to dive in and keep moving.

My background in comics taught me the necessity of having a very slick line in this stage. My experiences in doing illustration forced me to unlearn that concept and to let your drawing create the line that you use. So while I still admire those with the amazing facility with pen and brush lines, I don't seek to emulate them as much.

The last stage of this job was creating color guides for John Ott to work with. First off,  John is an accomplished colorist and he certainly could have done an amazing job without any input from me. Because I had a lot invested in this job, I wanted to give him a sense of what I wanted to see in the finish. He certainly took what I gave him and went far beyond my suggestions. Certainly one of the best color jobs I've ever had on a comic book project. Take a bow, Mr. Ott.  John also handled the lettering chores, and after balloon placement, I had the good sense not to give him any input here.

So there is your graphic story from start to finish. It's always a task that is infinitely harder than you ever think it will be, but it also has it's own special rewards when you see it finished. That must be the reason why I still continuously  crank out my own comic books as a hobby long after I've given it up as a career.