Friday, October 14, 2011

9 Panel Grid

How fine a line can you get away with using a 9 panel grid?

I'm in the midst of a challenging SF story in which I'm using the grid and almost every panel is packed with activity. I worked up this test panel as a style test and I kept questioning how thin I could go with the inks. I used a stiff Japanese nib (a zebra I think) and a 0.1 Micron.


Working "half up" is certainly essential for the amount of detail I'm going for, however it adds to the difficulty of knowing whether the lines will be too thin when shrunk back down. I printed this off at actual size and it felt pretty good. However, it's kind of hard judging it alone, without 8 other panels surrounding it.

I was reading here about how Moebius was facing the same issues when he dipped his toe into American Comics with Silver Surfer. His thin lines would often completely disappear - granted, printing reproduction has come a long way since the 80's. Perhaps I should be more concerned wiht how it will look on an iPad.