Penciling (comics)
Penciling in comics is a foundational step in the creation of comic books and graphic novels, where artists translate scripts into visual narratives. This process involves developing characters, layouts, and panel compositions, ensuring that the visual storytelling aligns with the written script. Pencillers must exhibit strong storytelling abilities alongside artistic skills, as their work sets the stage for inking, coloring, and ultimately the final presentation of the story. Various tools are used in this stage, including artist-grade pencils, mechanical pencils, and non-photo blue pencils, typically on surfaces like bristol board that are optimal for erasing and inking.
Historically, pencil art was often not printed due to technical limitations, but advances in printing technology since the 1980s have allowed for the use of pencil drawings as final art. Artists like Gene Colan and Joe Kubert have chosen to present their works directly from pencil sketches, emphasizing the unique qualities of pencil art that can convey nuance and intimacy. As digital techniques evolved, the challenges of reproducing pencil art diminished, leading to a resurgence of its acceptance in contemporary graphic novels. Noteworthy examples include works by Jeff Lemire and Marjane Satrapi, highlighting the ongoing relevance and evolution of penciling in the comics medium.
Penciling (comics)
Definition
Penciling is an early and vital step in the translation of a script into a comic book or graphic novel. While pencil drawings are sometimes used as finished art, they are primarily an intermediate step in the creation of a graphic novel and are likely to be redrawn, either in ink or digitally.
Introduction
As one of the earliest stages in the creation of a comic book or graphic novel, penciling is crucial to the success of the final story. The penciller develops the figures and the layouts and makes sure both suit the story in every panel, often refining ideas in the process. As much as the writer, a good penciller must also be a good storyteller. The penciller provides a foundation on which the other creators build; if the penciller does not interpret the script or the rough layouts well, the inker, colorist, and production artist have less to work with. In this sense, the penciller is also responsible for consistency and continuity and can make the work of all who come after him or her both easier and of higher quality.
Penciling can be done with any tool that makes an irreproducible or erasable mark. The most common tools are artist-grade pencils, ranging in hardness from 9H (hardest) to 9B (softest); mechanical pencils and lead holders; non-photo blue pencils, which are blue colored pencils whose color is not picked up in the printing process; and solid sticks of graphite, available in the same hardness range as pencils. A range of erasers is also necessary. Most pencillers prefer either white plastic or kneaded erasers. The penciller also chooses the material on which to draw—usually a bristol board, a smooth white board that is resistant to abrasion from erasing. This choice affects the work done by the inker, since different surfaces respond differently to different inking tools.
Steps in the Penciling Process
If the penciller is working from the layouts of another artist, a consultation with that artist may be necessary. Otherwise, the penciller begins by breaking the script into pages and each page into single images, or panels. The penciller often must decide on the angle from which the panel is seen, the light source, and the composition, allowing for strategic placement of text and word balloons. He or she may try several variations before deciding on one. In order to maintain continuity, light sources and frame content must be consistent from one panel to the next. Setting and character appearances must remain consistent as well.
Depending on the project, a penciller’s work may be reviewed by the writer, an editor, or both many times during creation of the art. After the pencils are approved, the pages are passed along for the next step in the creative process, usually inking. Following inking, pencil art is often erased.
An auteur, or single creator, has the flexibility to create a book without input from an outside writer or inker, though some auteurs do choose to work with editors. When a creator works this way, his or her pencils are not subject to outside review. Jon J. Muth, Matt Wagner, Will Eisner, and Colleen Doran are among those who have found success as sole creators of graphic novels.
Pencils as Final Art
As printing techniques began to improve in the early 1980’s, stories were occasionally printed directly from pencils. Gene Colan’s book Ragamuffins (1985) is notable in this area. Eisner’s pencil preliminaries for many stories were printed in the magazine Will Eisner’s Quarterly (1983-1986). The printing of pencils in fan publications was also fairly common, but the deliberate use of pencils as final art did not become more acceptable until the digital age. In two specific chapters of Strangers in Paradise (1993-2007), Terry Moore uses pencil art as final art.
This approach has advantages and disadvantages. In Colan’s work, the pencil art in stories printed in black and white is sometimes too subtle for the dark blacks of inked panel borders and lettering and is subdued by those elements. However, when some of the stories were later collected in color, the strength of the pencil art became apparent. It imbues a subtle range of values, a quality of pencil art that can sometimes be muted by a heavy-handed inker.
Another notable example of the use of pencils as final art is Joe Kubert’s Yossel: April 19, 1943 (2003). Kubert, a creator with six decades of experience in the comics industry, made a conscious choice to have this work printed directly from pencils to preserve their immediacy as part of the story. As the story is told in first-person past tense by a young artist, the use of pencils as finished art lends an intimacy to the story.
Impact
Penciling has been an integral part of comic book and graphic novel creation since the early days of the comics medium. Historically, pencil art almost never appeared in print because of limitations of the printing process and steps in the creation of comics. Despite this, some artists inking their own work were able to preserve the qualities of their pencil art; early creators Alex Raymond, Bernard Krigstein, and Alex Toth are notable in this respect.
For the most part, however, the work of a penciller was largely invisible for most of the early history the comic art form. Penciling’s capacity for communicating the subtleties of narrative and emotion was lost to the printing process until around the 1980’s, when the use of improved printing techniques and better paper made the printing of pencils as final art possible. As digital printing techniques were applied to comics and graphic novels, the problems associated with reproducing pencil art in graphic novels—fading, difficulty controlling value range, the art being outweighed by other page elements—became more manageable. By the early twenty-first century, printing technology had improved to the point that pencils could be very effective as final printed art.
Bibliography
Abel, Jessica, and Matt Madden. Drawing Words and Writing Pictures. New York: First Second Books, 2008. Offers individual lessons that take the reader through the process of creating a comic book and includes a section on penciling comics.
Janson, Klaus. The DC Comics Guide to Pencilling Comics. New York: Watson-Guptill, 2002.Discusses the fundamentals of penciling in detail and also addresses aspects of composition and storytelling.
McCloud, Scott. Making Comics: Storytelling Secrets of Comics, Manga and Graphic Novels. New York: HarperCollins, 2006. Analyzes the different aspects of creating graphic novels and how they come together as a whole.