2.4.2. Techniques of the CS
Although stages of the creation of a CS depend on artists and
artworks, a general step can be advocated (Duc Bernard 1993):
· Synopsis: history or original or
inspired idea of an existing work;
· Script: detailed treatment of
history. It specifies, board by board, the carving of the
action, the position of characters, and presents dialogues;
· Graphic research: The drawer works to
the general style. He/she creates the main characters and the
environment in which they evolve. If the place and the time exist, or existed,
a typographic and iconographic material research work is done. If the universe
of history comes out from the author's imaginary, research are a lot more
oriented toward the graphic design;
· Page setup: choice of points of view,
justifications and the arrangement of labels in the board;
· Penciled: first draft of the
drawing. From this stage work takes place generally on a
bigger support (A2 format) than the one of the board printed (A4 format);
· Inking: operation consisting in
redrawing with ink contours of penciled and shades in order to give to the
drawing a definitive feature. At the end, only this tracing
will be printed. Decors are also added and are positioned at the time of this
stage. They are not always present, or then in a brief manner, in a penciled.
Some authors ink directly on a penciled, that they eliminate then while
erasing. Thus losing all traces of this stage. Others use a transparent tracing
placed over a penciled;
· Color setup: operation that consists
in choosing and apply the color to the different zones delimited by inked
features (characters, decors, clothes), while respecting the continuity of
colors in all boards. The colorist must also define lights and
shades of the drawing. In the past the traditional color setup was made with
the watercolors applied with the brush and the aerograph; nowadays it is done
on computer by data processing. Colors are more and more achieved by
professionals, colorists and sometimes by the drawer him/herself.
· Direct color: inking and color setup
can be achieved at the same time, like painter's manner.
The graphic field is vast according to the technique used that
goes from the first drawings engraved to the dry tip until the use of painting
aerograph by certain authors such as Juan Gimenez. This last method (now often
replaced by the infography) permits realizations that are visually like photos
with the total elimination of the feature.
· Text setup: the text of dialogues and
commentaries are inked while aligning it in spaces let to this effect at the
time of board inking. The operation is repeated for every
language in which history is published.
According to the work and the artist the same person can
achieve all or a part of the work: script, drawing, inking. The most often work
is shared between a script-writer and a
drawer. Some more specific stages, as the text setup and the
color setup, can be let to specialists.
Enki Bilal, for example, is a complete artist.
Script-writer and drawer, he works with direct color. He has
also the particularity to draw slots on the separated papers, what allows him
to easily arrange them on the board (Duc Bernard 1993).
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