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simphoo
The making of a cover illustration. 一张封面插图的绘制过程。
In 2017, by the purpose of seeking the visual language (or you can say: the style) of SimpHoo-the carpenter monkey at New York Public Library comic, I made this illustration. Through this drawing, I found the way to merge my fictional characters and realistic scene. I'd like to share the process with you in this blog.
2017年，为了建立《辛普猴在纽约公共图书馆》这部漫画的视觉基调，我创作了这张插全彩色的插图。通过完成这张插图，我找到了融汇真实的场景与虚构角色的表现手法。下面我来说一说完成的经过。
Before I drew the sketches, I had an vision about the monkey was running on the library's marble staircases with CoolNoodle-the cat ears girl, and there were long, twisted shadows chasing after them. But after I did the researches on site, I decided to change the background in stead of the inner part: The Rose Main Reading Room. The reason was quite obvious: The Rose Main Reading Room was the 1st result when I search "New York Public Library" .
在画这张插图之前，我设想的辛普猴在纽约图书馆的画面，是猴子拉着女主角凉皮在42街图书馆的石头阶梯上向下飞奔的场面，地上的影子映出追着他们过来的“危机”。但经过几次实地勘察之后，我决定把刚经过两年闭馆整修的玫瑰大厅阅览室画到场景里来。原因很简单，在“纽约公共图书馆”的图片搜索中，玫瑰大厅的照片总是第一个跳出来的。
So I designed such a composition: On the center of the image, my two main characters standing right in front of the camera and looking toward their front. It appeared something/someone dangerous is coming to them. (I promised I won't spoil and I will not tell you what are they now!) The background will show not only the ceiling and the big chandeliers, as well as the library's iconic reading tables and lamps. Through manipulating the vanishing point, the ceiling and floor's brick compose two triangles, and they gathered at the center of the image, which created not only the depth, but also the radial shape which is going to grab your attention to my characters. It's super old fashion, but super worked out.
在这样的指导思想下，我设计了这样的构图：辛普和凉皮占据画面最大的位置，共同面对镜头，表情惊讶且紧张地看着前方，仿佛有什么危险正向他们袭来（我保证过不剧透的吧！）。而背景的大厅不仅要看得见华丽的天花板和吊灯，还必须出现近处的带有图书馆标志性的桌子和台灯。起到引导读者视线作用的地砖排列在脚下，指向画面正中心的灭点，再通过改变透视的灭点，将天花板和地面的上下两个三角形的尖汇聚于主角的中心位置，同时起到放射作用，让画面产生纵深感。非常老套而有效的构图手法，可是超级有效不是吗？
Then I drew these two sketches below by the size of a bank card. Then colored them, and tried to figure out the way to color it for the final version. I used Canson Mixed Media paper (98lb/160g) for this kind of drawing. They are heavy enough to hold the watercolors and inks, and they are not too rough as watercolor papers, so I could easily draw or modify my drawing with eraser, then put them into my scanner.
构图完成后，我在160g的Canson Mixed Media 纸上（水性颜料会使100g以下的纸皱到无法扫描）画了两张银行卡大小的缩略图，并对其进行了上色的比较。
Color thumbnails
It seems the left piece had a better clarity because I limited the colors to 1 set of complementary-which is orange and blue. It worked with the gorgeous Rose Main Reading Room. But how about the other scene in the stories? I didn't have an answer at that moment...
看起来明显是左边的配色更清楚明了。这样的配色画金碧辉煌的玫瑰大厅似乎没有问题，但是图书馆内其他各处的场景是否也行的通呢？此时的我并没有答案。
For the next few days I would keep thinking about compositions, layouts, anatomy of the characters, facial expressions, colors, etc... It was half anxious and half exciting. But if I didn't find my time to draw it on final, the inspirations and excitements would just pass, and I will loose the motivation to draw it.
After experienced many times to dealing with my unfinished projects, I decided to NOT transferring any of my daily "UNexpected" ideas to any drawing. In stead, I wrote them down by texts. It's a good way for me to keep the seeds, but not the wild grass. Of course, that demands some self discipline, and I think anyone would have it if you have several unfinished and "never will do" sketchbooks.
任何一张画，草稿画到了这个程度，我会在之后好几天内，按耐不住地想把它画出来。等这几天一过，这股冲动过去了，再回来想动手，就不想画了。所以，这几年都很谨慎地对待脑中的草稿。如果时间不够又实在觉得灵感难得，就用文字写下来，绝不轻易下笔转化为视觉形象。再忍不住，就去看那些半途而废的速写本提醒自己。比起长一院子野草，我还是更愿意存一口袋种子。
3 steps before coloring: Blue pencil, inking and ink wash.
For penciling and inking, I use the blue pencil for drafting and a light box to ink. I didn't like inking directly on the penciling lines because it took me so many time to erase them. And It really pissed me off when I saw the missing inked area after I erased the pencil lines.
接下来便是铅笔稿和墨线了。由于我铅笔稿总是会画的很深，擦铅笔稿实在太费事了，而且每次擦完都会发现不少遗漏的线条，铅笔印记却已经擦掉了，气愤不已。所以我总是借助拷贝台勾线，等勾完灯一关，留下干干净净的线稿，多好！
But recent days, my dear LED light box made my eyes tearful and red because I starred at it for pretty long time. OMG, there is just no such thing like a perfect way!
但最近，由于盯着LED的拷贝台看的时间太久，眼睛红肿酸痛的不行。真是世间没有十全十美的方法啊！
Below is the comparison with traditional coloring and digital coloring. Left piece is colored by watercolor. I actually did this one first. What happened next is I wasn't satisfied about it, so I used the ink wash piece to color it with Photoshop, and it came the right one. Just for you to know: Always scan your inking pages or ink washed pages before you color it!
下面是传统上色与数字上色的对比。左图是在黑白灰的原稿上涂的水彩，这张虽是先画的，由于不满意，便又在Ink wash的基础上用Photoshop上色了右边这张。各位，千万要记得画完的线稿或黑白稿，要先扫描！
Comparison between watercolor and digital color. 水彩上色与数字上色的对比。
Although both of them have their own good parts, the left one had a vintage and more organic feeling. It was more like a "30years from now, the library is lack of repairing version". But I decided to show the right one to my publisher. The result proved I was right. With this drawing as the cover illustration of my book plan, I got the publisher's attention before I actually started drawing the comic. The most important thing is, through this illustration, I found the confidence to capture the "sense" of the story. And after one more year's preparation, I finally started to work on it.
虽说两个版本各有各的好，左边的还更有些古朴的气氛，更像30年后缺乏维修而老旧图书馆。但我最后还是选择了右图，辛普的背心改成了红色，背带裤的纯度也提高了，虽说磨损的裤缝之类的地方减弱了，但整体色调更清晰明快，不是吗？事实证明我的选择是正确的，凭借这张对比强烈、清晰明了，并且可以通过电脑调色的封面图，我在还未开始动笔的情况下就获得了出版商的认可。最最重要的是，通过这张插图，我对自己抓住了故事的氛围和绘制方法有了十足的把握。又经过近一年的前期准备，终于走上了真正动笔的道路。
I'm not sure if this is going to be the final cover illustration of the comic book, because I haven't go through the book design yet. But I hope I would be on some higher level and having some other perspectives, so I can make a new one.
And above is the making of this illustration.
Thank you for your reading!
正如前文说的，虽然在构思这张插图时，是以封面为载体作的思考，但在进入到书的设计之前，我不知道这张插图是否会最终用在漫画的封面上。说不定在完成故事之后，会有更合适的封面内容出现呢。
以上便是这张封面插图的绘制过程，
谢谢你的阅读！
LagaZhang All Rights Reserved
SimpHoo comic journals. 辛普猴漫画日志本
These are the journals of the SimpHoo comic. It took me 3 months to finish the 1,2,3.
During the time I make the comic, every day I write down the important experiences and inspirations, if I can still open my eyes in the end of the day. These A5 notebook from Muji are my favorite notebooks for writing. They are thin so my hand wouldn't dangling while I was writing on the edge. They are exactly the half size of A4 (international copy paper), and they are simple and well designed. It's very easy to carry them, as well as archive them. The left corner one (with rounded corner) was brought in 2016. Unfortunately they stopped selling it. I really liked the rounded corner which preventing the corner of the notebook being hit.
So I brought 5packs this time for those 3 on top. Hoping they won't stop it again. On the moment I write down this sentence, I think I should go buy more.
这是我常用的创作记录本，在这其中我用文字的形式每日记下所做和所想。右边的1，2，3册是今年头3个月所记的。左下角那本是曾经创作辛普猴的一个短篇时所用的笔记本，可惜这个带圆角的笔记本在Muji后来再也买不到了，取而代之的是不带圆角的标准A5尺寸。我很喜欢这种朴素而质优的本子，即方便携带，又很容易归档。这一次我买了整整5包，以备再次断货。
写到这里，我决定过几天再去买10包。
The SimpHoo comic need entire 2 years to finish. That didn't count the time I wrote the story. From thumbnails and storyboards, to penciling, inking and coloring, it does consume this amount of time. So I decided to record my days by writing the journal. Actually they are more like the logs. For example: April 6th, Sunny, Penciling Chapter1 page024. Did 85% of the architecture, eyes turning to red, have to continue tomorrow...etc/
I also write down the "unexpected ideas". These ideas comes from nowhere, like, if you are experiencing some beautiful moment and you want to capture that feeling by drawing. They are very important for artist because they are inspirations. If you just let them go, they will never come again, but if you follow them without any discipline, they would lead you to somewhere else rather than your own route. I've been through it, a lot of times. So I found this way to write down it then check my yesterday's TO DO list, to be precisely, yesterday's UNFINISHED TO DO list. It always set my route straight. The interesting thing is, when you read your journal from 2 weeks ago, they looks like someone else's thought, that's something I didn't know before.
辛普猴的这部漫画，从画出对白分镜，到铅笔稿，勾线然后上色，光是绘制的部分就需要两年的时间。面对这个至今为止最长的项目，我开始用日志的方式记录整个过程，每天工作前：会写下临时突发奇想的项目（我好不容易才找到这个不被奇思妙想打断自己节奏的方法），然后翻阅昨日写下的待做的项目，并确定彼此优先权，再按着日程表进行自己的时间管理，以此校正轨道。每当出门时在地铁里就掏出来翻阅，一两周前的记录看起来完全像另一个人的想法。
Inside pages of my journals, I wrote in Chinese most of the time, but for some technical words I use english. The 1/3 line is for the tips. 创作笔记内页，页面三分之一处划一根线，用以添加备注。
我从小到大从未写过日记，但竟发现用这种方法记录自己的人生，才真正明白时间都花在了什么地方，或者说，浪费在了什么地方。
I have never written any journal since I was a kid, until I just visualized the time we passed by flipping through these journals, or to be more precisely, the time I wasted.
The calendar and idea book 日程本和点子本
日程本 Calendar
点子本 Idea book
Except the journals, I also keep one calendar book and one idea book(the black one). Yes they are all Muji's too! I love Moleskine too but Muji is much cheaper. It threatened me when I'm facing an expensive notebook. Besides, since I learned how to binding my own Moleskine style notebook, I didn't pay a cent. (I will talk about it later)
As you can see, I separate these notebooks by functions: sketchbook for sketching, Pads for finish artwork, and lined notebooks for writings. In the meantime, I control the numbers of notebooks for the same project, archive them by time, and keep them as the same height (21cm or 8 1/4 inches). I know, it's very obsessive, but it's efficient for me.
除了创作日志，我还有一本日程表，用来当做日历；和一本点子本（黑色），这是积累想法和创意的地方。我尽量控制这类本子的数量，将他们与速写本分开。至于尺寸，经过反复衡量，我选择了A5的尺寸，即国际通用的A4复印纸的一半。这是我认为即能方便书写又能方便携带的尺寸。而在使用英制尺寸的美国，唯一能找到的A5就只有Muji了。
The inside pages of my calendar book. A comic artist has to take care of his own body! 日程本内页，请漫画家一定要爱惜身体！
Inside page of my idea book. Sorry I can't show you too much, spoiling alert! 点子本内页，抱歉这里面不小心就会剧透太多，且放这么一张。
Like any other artist, I keep drawing on several sketchbooks at the same time. They are divided by project or sizes, papers. I would like to share my experience of using them, as soon as I finished them:) Next time, I will talk about the very important step of my comic's production- the thumbnails and "Name".
和其他艺术家一样，我也保持着同时进行好几本速写本的习惯，我将它们按照项目或尺寸，甚至纸张分类。希望有朝一日能早日完成这些速写本，希望。。。
下次我将会分享我的漫画创作中非常重要的一个部分：缩略图和对白分镜。
Thank you for the reading!
谢谢你的阅读！