Posted in: Comics, Recent Updates | Tagged: Citizen Jack, Comics, entertainment, image, image comics, sam humphries, Tommy Patterson

Tommy Patterson, On Finding Citizen Jack

Tommy Patterson talks through his procedural work for Citizen Jack, the upcoming comic from Image Comics written by Sam Humphries…

I'l going to explain my process and how I decided to do a complete overhaul of my style.

Citizen Jack is a 180 from what I was doing on Game of Thrones. I had drawn 24 issues in pretty much the same style through all 24 issues. Towards the end of my run I was itching for a change.

Sam Humphries had put out word he was looking for an artist in a clean line style in the vein of The Manhattah Projects. I drew a sample and contacted Sam and here we are!

I'm not 100% sure what clean line style is but I know when something isn't. Most of the artists drawing in this style probably trace it back to one of the many eras of Moebius. It's a delicate style where line and form reign over shadows and light. For what it's worth the next time I get the itch to change my style I plan on going super heavy with spot blacks and brushwork. I want to explore the medium and merge everything I've learned into one unique style.

On the daily grind of Citizen Jack my process is getting easier and easier. I'm drawing less and less in the pencils and more with the inks. I'm gettign faster too! I like doing layouts 5 to 10 at a time. Doing the whole book at once kills my creativity and the layouts become super generic.

I'm show a page from issue 4 as my example. As you can see my layouts are loose and the final pages do have minor changes from layout to final inks. The goal is simple. Make the story easy to read. If you can read the layout then anything I add after that is icing on an already tasty cake. I made revisions to the first layout after our editor Jeanine Schaefer pointed out a few things and we had a script revision. It's all about clear storytelling.

I read a review of Game of Thrones around issue 4 and the review was making fun of my expressionless faces. It was a quality critique. I started focusing on more than 5 stock expressions. I made up my mind to push my expression vocabulary. I feel it's one of my stronger qualities as an artist at this point. I am alsoproud of my over all acting. Panel 5 is a great example of the little tricks you learn along the way. Both feet off the ground is an easy trick for making characters look like they're walking. I just figured that out!

As you can see, I focus only on construction in the pencil stage. I do a light blue under drawing. It's all about getting the actors and environment in place and having the actors act.

I add the details in the final inks. I stopped penciling all the tick marks, hatching and texture work I was doing so I could have fun with inking. It keeps the process fun and creative start to finish. It also keeps my inks lively because I'm not tracing myself for a third time.

Citizen Jack is published in November with a double-sized first issue. FOC for retailers is October 12th.

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!