Contrast Patterning

Think like a printmaker and approach your images like a cheapskate.

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This is the first of a few exercises playing with style. I’m in the process of organising some of the exercises I’ve made into a cohesive collection that I plan to pitch to publishers later this year. It’s been really interesting to reflect on what my exercises do and also what they DON’T do. The book will not be a “guide to making comics”. I won’t prescribe a “correct” way of working. I won’t touch comics history.

What I want the book to be first is a collection of interesting comics that can be enjoyed by anyone. Each comic will be accompanied by simple instructions and a few thoughts reflecting on what I feel is valuable about the exercise. I don’t want the book to be overly academic or dry, I want it to be fun, inviting and an invitation to play with the comics medium.

In thinking through this book and what I would like to cover, I was reminded that the vast majority of the exercises I’ve made are focused on various approaches to story, text and image relationships, and how images function in a narrative context. Some other things too, but… I don’t touch on style at all. Many of my students are very interested in finding “their style”, and I remember being very preoccupied with that when I was in school as well. So… I thought I’d try some exercises that are designed to play with style a bit.

The next few posts will be focused on visual approach and style. I believe strongly that style is emergent and (often) doesn’t stop evolving. It is a combination of taste, time, skill, purposeful play and experimentation. My intent with these “style exercises” is not to push anyone toward any particular aesthetic, or material, or teach technical skills, but rather to encourage visual experimentation and new ways of approaching image making. In my experience, trying out another artist’s approach to image making is a wonderful way to expand ones visual options.

I’m not convinced these exercises will be a part of my book/pitch yet, but I thought I’d try this out here and see what happens.
I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Here goes…

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Contrast Patterning

Think like a printmaker and treat white as a colour.

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What you will need:

Paper
Cheap Post-It Notes
Black pen
Black marker or a black brush pen
Opaque white ink… if there is such a thing
A scanner
A computer
A tablet if you have one

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Visual Approach:

For this exercise you’re going to make a drawing that treats both white and black as their own colour, using each to define and contrast the other. If a what you are drawing is white, the detail and line will be black. If you have a black fill, any detail or line will be added with white.

It can help be helpful to approach the content of your images as shapes and decide whether or not they will be black or white based on contrast. If you have a white figure standing in front of a house, the house house should be black to contrast the figure. If you have two black shapes next to each other, you can define their edges and textures with white line.

Thinking in this way takes a little mental effort, but printmakers will be familiar with this way of working. Time and cost often drive printmakers toward efficiencies like using the white of the paper they are printing on as a colour, or overlapping two colours to create a third. While mostly practical, this way of thinking about images can result in bold, compelling graphics. It can also help images escape the default, literal approach to shading and colouring because the goal is to create contrast rather than something “realistic”.

What to do:

1. Draw one or two characters walking through the woods on Post-It Notes with a black pen. Don’t use ANY black fills yet, only line. Where applicable, try to close your shapes (this makes fills easier later on if you are adding fills digitally). Leave space for narration or dialogue (if you want to).

2. When you have finished your line drawings, start filling in spot blacks. Try to contrast black and white shapes. If one thing is filled in black, the thing next to it might be white, and then the thing might be black again. Don’t worry about

3. Stick a fresh Post-It Note down over each panel. If you are using the same cheap Post-It Notes I am, you will be able to see the drawings you made right through the thin paper.

4. Now you’re going to add any lines or textures that were lost in the black fills.
   You can do this many, many different ways, but here are the two I use:

   1. Analog

      • Using white ink, draw any lines or details that have been lost in the black fills and define any black shapes that overlap.

   2. Mostly Analog

      • On the blank Post-It Notes, using the same pen you used before, draw any lines or details that have been lost in the black fills and define any black shapes that overlap.

      • Without removing the Post-It Notes stuck over your initial drawings, scan your work. Then, take off that top set of Post-Its and scan the next layer. By scanning this way, you know that the images will line back up easily in photoshop (or similar.

      • Adjust levels digitally until your images are only black and white. Then copy your "white on black” drawings (still black lines on white) and paste them right over your panels. Change your layer to multiply to line up your layers.

      • Select the white of the page and delete it. Now, either select the black and, on a new layer, make the lines white using the fill tool. Or, simply invert your layer, making the black lines, white.

   3. Digital

      • Do this in layers on a tablet, first drawing the black line, then adding black fills, and then creating a new layer and adding white line.
        Or you could draw the black line on Post-It Notes, scan them, then add your white lines digitally.
        

5. Add some narration and/or dialogue. Here are some prompts if you need them.
   And maybe throw some halftone in there when you’re done?

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That’s it!

More soon.

xo