Cool post by Peter Palmiotti this morning I thought was good food for thought, for myself and for clients and for other comic creators. Reposted below. Click the link to go to his blog. Click the image to visit his podcast 'independent road'
Pulled from the Original Post at Peters blog: http://peterpalmiotti.blogspot.com/2014/04/on-time-delivery.html
-----
Posted by peter on Tuesday, April 22, 2014
On Time Delivery.
This is based on experience and mostly what has worked for me. I don't recommend it to others.
What I wanted to chat about here today has to do with a conversation I recently heard. Mentioned was Speed VS Quality. In a way what I'm currently doing falls under speed. I thumb nail a page, I decide its good enough or make changes only in my head.. then pencil and ink. Not a lot of fine tuning or fuss. (though I'm spending a fare amount of time on how it looks online (on-line sizing/ DPI levels, etc. are things I'm figuring out.) Not to say I slap it together but I could clearly spend two days on a page, not one.
This is my first time attempting the regular production of comic pages, any ones done in the past where mostly sporadic. But it is understood that comic art is a language not an illustration. Although most comic artists of today are some of the finest illustrators of our time! I approach each page as individual camera shots. Linked together they (hopefully) tell us a story. I ultimately wish to be the best of both worlds. As an inker for most of my career my penciling isn't so tight, I'm going with the flow. I thumb nail to grab hold of an image and then pencil it out knowing as an inker I usually tighten images up.. but I find myself wanting tighter pencils to work off of. I'm sure after few more weeks I may find myself doing just that. If I'm to keep up with my crazy schedule I have to shoot for speed.. part of me realizes a certain looseness is helpful in expressing action and fluidity. Most of my penciling is stiff and I try to breakout of that.
One of my penciling heroes is John Romita JR, who is renowned for being a bit of a speed demon. Jack Kirby who's work I also love is the same... this is not to say I'll ever reach their status but one reaches.
So I'm not about to spend too much time penciling, or total time on each page.. I'm focused on completion! Deadlines have always been a sickening, looming, dreadful end to each individual illustration or project over all and its time to give it an overall left hook in the face.
What's your preference? Speed or Quality?
I know in the end each page (from a business stand point) represents X dollars, and if you need to make Y amount each month then you need to produce Z amount of pages to survive. But I don't wish to only survive anymore, I wish to Thrive!!!
Here's to making it big,
Peter.
-----
Thanks Peter for this ensightful commentary. Very good topic that many creators and commissioners need to consider.