affinity designer March of the Robots and Comic Book Template

[StuartRc]

March of the Robots 2024
Moved this project out of the Comic Book Template as it has evolved into a much bigger project

Used prompts from 2024 to work on the Zine part of the template but there are now 31 sketches!

01 First Complete Inking
Mix of Vector and Raster (Mostly Vector!)
420 x 540mm 300dpi Affinity Designer

Process
1. Complete all the sketch ideas first!...work up to final vector artwork
2. Included some samples of development
3. Used the Border assets from 210mm Zine Toolkit project
4. As usual create lots of vector assets and goodies!
5. Made use of the nice new tools to speed things up
6. Used a mixture of Affinity Designer and Puplisher for this project as it feeds from templates!
7. Used new set of inking Brushes (Basic Inkers | Scribble II | Challenge Inkers) mixed with older ones like PB 33 Comic Ink Blocking | PB 35 Zombie | Monster Club II
8. Vector Conversion using same settings for each raster object. 
9. Used vector Flood Fill to speed things up but had to resort to Pen Base Infilling for some elements as Vector Flood Fill is to edge (Borders are filled objects not lines lines)
10. Avoided Contour Tool as could end up with excessive nodes

Scope: 

 

[StuartRc]

Development
initial sketches to final vector
1. Sketch
2. Convert
3. Create Base plate
4. Fill with Textures and hand draw details. 


 

[StuartRc]

Sample Pages 01
based on 210 x 210 Zine template with bleed to edge borders
Tank


Balloon

Eyes

Road

Ring

[AffinityJules]

Very creative as usual. 😀

[jmwellborn]

@StuartRc Wonderful colours, as yours always are.  That palette is spectacular!!!  Your robots are inspired!

[StuartRc]

1 hour ago, jmwellborn said:

@StuartRc Wonderful colours, as yours always are.  That palette is spectacular!!!  Your robots are inspired!

Thank you! Sometimes I wonder whether the colours are too bold!.....I will create some Palettes from the drawing shortly! 
It will take some time to complete the project...There are many more drawings than displayed above!

[Ldina]

@StuartRc Wow...what a creative imagination you have! Amazing stuff and I love the color palettes, textures and variations. 

[StuartRc]

Just now, Ldina said:

@StuartRc Wow...what a creative imagination you have! Amazing stuff and I love the color palettes, textures and variations. 

Thank you so much.. I have enjoyed getting this one under way!.. I can just draw and edit now without having to work out what to draw!

For 'Tank' originally goind to draw a tank but then a fish tank on the head of a robot seemed much more interesting!
I think this was a better method of attacking the Challenge!....kep me busy for a while....the drawings are at different levels of completion...and there is a couple of other challenges to try under the same process..(2025 MOR and 2035 MOR Cara prompts!)

[StuartRc]

Sample Pages 02
based on 210 x 210 Zine template with bleed to edge borders

First

Treasure

 

Crawl

[StuartRc]

Sample Pages 03
based on 210 x 210 Zine template with bleed to edge borders
Doll

 

Ice

 

King

[StuartRc]

Colour Style Assets
Added a set of Colour Style Assets into resources here
For use with the Style Picker Tool
Excluded the 'First' Drawing for now!

[StuartRc]

Sample Pages 04
based on 210 x 210 Zine template with bleed to edge borders
Hand

Boat

Level

[AffinityJules]

They're all good, as usual, but boat floats my boat! 😉

[StuartRc]

Texture Overlays
Added some textures So I can quickly change the flat appearance of the Robots
3 layer texture (might paint the borders!)

'Circular' Vector Textures

Block Full Texture Overlays at 50%

Infill Border Textures

[StuartRc]

Sample Pages 05
based on 210 x 210 Zine template with bleed to edge borders
Bottle

Plant

[AffinityJules]

All good once again.

I wonder when I look at all the comic book based pictures that you do whether or not you intend to create a full comic (word balloons too) with a story and recurring characters?

Or is it your intention to create stand alone examples that are experimental based?

 

[StuartRc]

3 hours ago, AffinityJules said:

All good once again.

I wonder when I look at all the comic book based pictures that you do whether or not you intend to create a full comic with a story and recurring characters?

Or is it your intention to create stand alone examples that are experimental based?

 

Once again many thanks!
These are just the sketches for more detailed inking later.!

Objectives
I have several objectives with this project
a. To see if I can speed up inking: To do this I have dispensed with the fine detailed inking for now (except for the first drawing). Oddly I prefer this method.
b. Created a series of Brush sets one using just the basic brush and using the dynamics only to vary the with and also used Distance Dynamics in combination with edited dynamics graph to vary size and effect over distance (created some interesting brushes) [Basic Inkers Set | Scribble Set | Challenge Set | Simplified Wall Brushes for Blocking]
c. Add sketches as vectors...much easier to edit but still required a base layer 
d. See what you can do with vector Flood Fill (Ink outline conversion creates a solid vector object not line so good for filling empty space; not so good for filling base shapes!). I tried using the Contour tool as it would be ideal for expanding the base flats behind the ink layers but it has a habbit of creating zillions of nodes from ink conversions. even though I have simplifed the number. Simply in Ad seems to be working much better but it can get struck with the volume of nodes. (Especially if you are converting larger areas of raster ink)
e. Not really a comic book as such but experimenting a bit with the idea.. The older ink drawings whether vector or raster are very time consuming....partly just trying to find a way of speeding things up! 
f. It is sort of an extension of the the Comic Book Template. but I wanted to use a Zine like template to display or present the sketching process. So far the drawings are just final results.. There are lots more that I have not used and also just wanted to improve drawing and sketching without getting too bogged down in the detail (lots more ideas to explore using this method!). Such as there are at least 4 variations of the plant drawing.. I am sure I can use them in 'Untamed' at some stage. Untamed is the more likely source for a comic book!
g. I was using the Prompts to create assets for a template. Hence the Borders | Textures | Patterns etc. The Template itself is in Publisher. I was planning to explore the options of extending the page to spreads and using the spread to display process or alternative sketches.. eventually
h. Sort of wanted to extend the options for Templates. Spent a lot of time (years!) building Web templates and Web to print systems..wanted to get a way from it as all the templates are technically the same (Image | Text (Flex or not) | coloured boxes)...After a while (1000's of templates) it became a bit like groundhog day... Templates are an aid not a final process. So really think that they should be modular...Which is what has been created with the original A4 Comic book template. 

A set of pages that can be unique by importing multiple page options and stacked layouts | Masks | Overlays | Textures | Panels | Tiers etc is a much better method.

Inktober became a bit flat!.. some of the prompts were so similar last year that I thought that there was not really a lot of thought put into it...So having a go at MOR instead and using the sketching to hepl with this project. The Cara challenge has much better prompts both for Inktober and MOR.. might have a go at those next!

 

[AffinityJules]

Ah! So it's all in a state of development.

I get it for the most part but there is some terminology I don't understand, but there again I'm not a Vector user or designer.

Anyway, thanks for a very detailed and comprehensive reply.

[StuartRc]

It is certainly in development!
Essentially the project is 
1. Work on Sketches (not final drawings) for MOR
2.Develop a Template structure for a flexible Zine
3. Develop assets to support the above

I put together an example of what I am trying to achieve.. Should have done this with the Comic Book template..but would take a lot longer as it is much more complex

So:
Zine Template 

Notes
1. We can work with spreads now it is possible to include the Flexible layouts in the 'masters' of Publisher and enhance the layout at a later date
2. A single drawing to enhance the sketch process can be completed by adding | inserting spreads
3. Relies heavily on assets to create the flexibilti of individual pages (So wach page in the template can have unique pages)
4. The Assets are all vector so to create spreads containing mask overlays can be combined using Booleans (This was bit of a challenge as relying on column guides for initial layout restricted use on spreads)
5. Assets Contain additional textures, borders, overlays
a. Borders
b. Masks
c. Inserts (for effect)
d. Page patterns and overlays for vintage effect (completed a lot more of these by using PB 31 Brushes to paint an area then convert to vector but not yet listed as assets
e. Mask Panels are layered with border, Sketch Panel (can be image of direct paste) and a combined page area (panels welded into single object)

Wanted to use all vector so you can play 'chop chop' with them

 

 

 

[AffinityJules]

Could you tell me what is meant by 'zine' and 'MOR?'

I'm lost in alien terminology!

[StuartRc]

15 minutes ago, AffinityJules said:

Could you tell me what is meant by 'zine' and 'MOR?'

I'm lost in alien terminology!

Sure!.... 
A Zine is a small Magazine (booklet) (like here)
MOR is 'March of Robots' Drawing Challenge been running for years

[StuartRc]

Sample Pages 06
based on 210 x 210 Zine template with bleed to edge borders
Bird

Story

[DelN]

Wow! StuartRc, this is just exquisite... The colour palette(s), your imagination, the creativity, the characters... 

The artwork 'King' reminds me of iconic reggae album 'rastafarian lion' artwork of the 1970s. The lion has dreadlocks! Sweet!

Gonna have to go away now and spin some classic reggae riddims...

DelN

[AffinityJules]

I don't know why but 'Story' gives me a Venus Flytrap vibe, and going by the look on the woman's face I think she gets it too.

All good. 😀

[StuartRc]

6 hours ago, DelN said:

Wow! StuartRc, this is just exquisite... The colour palette(s), your imagination, the creativity, the characters... 

The artwork 'King' reminds me of iconic reggae album 'rastafarian lion' artwork of the 1970s. The lion has dreadlocks! Sweet!

Gonna have to go away now and spin some classic reggae riddims...

DelN

Thank you! I will have to do some more colour palettes!....I still have not uploaded the texture overlays!
When I work on the final versions I think 'King' will have to be a bit more robotic..maybe connected to the wall with wires or something! like that