SNOW BLIND from Ollie Masters and Tyler Jenkins delivered a great first issue. It's always fascinating to see an artist pencil, ink, and use water colors in a comic. As you can imagine, it's not exactly an easy process.
Take a look at Tyler working on a panel.
We first talked to Tyler and Ollie Masters about SNOW BLIND in November. We took the opportunity to ask Tyler some more questions about his process.
COMIC VINE: With the penciling, inking, and water colors, about how much time do you put into one page?
TYLER JENKINS: This answer is really dependent on what is on the page, but in general, a normal page with backgrounds and multiple characters etc., will take about an hour or two to pencil, an hour or two to ink, and an hour or two to color. I can do two pages in a 10-hour day usually—provided I can steer clear of my usual distractions!
CV: What's your process? Do you pencil the entire issue, then ink, then color or do you complete a page all at once?
JENKINS: It is really a mixed bag of a process—I do whatever I feel like as I feel like it. If I feel in a storytelling mood, I pencil. If I feel relaxed, I ink. If I am fired up and feeling artsy, I paint. I stand while I pencil and paint, and sit down while I ink, so sometimes it even comes down to if I feel like standing up or sitting down! I just go with it. As long as you are doing SOMETHING, it counts. I generally do two of the three in any given day, and RARELY take a page from pencil to fully painted in a day; each page needs some breathing time to see if you are missing something.
CV: How long have you been using watercolors?
JENKINS: Probably 12 years now. I did some watercolor in art school and on and off for the last 10 years, but only in the last year or two has it become something I can pull of to a satisfactory level. By satisfactory, I mean, we're not talking masterpieces here, but good enough to evoke the mood and stay the hell out of the way of the storytelling.
CV: Watching your process and having seen others, how do you know when you're 'finished' since you can keep adding and mixing the colors?
JENKINS: I'm not sure I know. It's done when I'm bored with it? It's done when I'm not embarrassed by it? It's done when it feels finished. Watercolor is delicate, in that it's really really easy to make a muddy gawdawful mess. I would rather it be underdone than overdone, though I have floated into both of those territories.
CV: Have you learned tricks in case the colors accidentally bleed together?
JENKINS: I hate it when they don't! Why use a medium that is intrinsically linked to bleeding and blending if not for its very nature. I actually HATE it when I get too tight, and I worry when the paint stays in its boxes. Let the paint do its thing. I feel that way about inking too, actually. I can feel when I'm being a tight-ass with my inking as well; it feels awful. Just draw the damn thing! Then paint the damn thing. Then forget about it and move on. I try to do as little as possible at every stage, not out of laziness, but because the risk and excitement of just blasting along is what makes it work. Can it be art without risk? Where is the line between art and craft?
CV: Do you color over your original pencil and inks or make a copy of the original?
JENKINS: This ties right into the last question. I get a rough idea of how the page will lay out, then get the final watercolor paper, put in panel borders—in pencil, cause I might want to move them—then pencil, ink, and paint right there. No scanning—it's a deliberate choice to make it riskier and scarier; no safety net! If I ruin it, I do it again or let it go (though to be honest, I have fixed the odd mistake on the computer at the end).
CV: What's your favorite thing about watercolors?
JENKINS: That I can't control them. That we have to work together. And that they are really, really fun to use.
SNOW BLIND #1 is now on sale. Issue #2 is on sale January 13, 2016.
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