Definitely

Yup, that's the plus side to hording my pages :)

Yeah, I agree. I love looking at originals, and I do enjoy working traditional. But I do also enjoy digital, and it usually comes down to the time and the look i'm going for. As for Kwan... good luck, he hates being on camera lol this phone call was as much as I could get out of him!

@@FrancisManapulArt too bad. Kwan’s a funny guy

Thanks, Kazoku!

Thanks, Siya!

Hey that means a lot! That was a real dream come true for me, as well as a huge learning experience.

@@FrancisManapulArt your run on the flash was awesome, total loved it!

I'll do my best! Many more days from this deadline to come!

Yeah, I definitely felt like at times striking while the iron is hot and selling the pages when the book just came out usually yields higher returns. But these days, I just want to get home on time and have weekends off. I suppose I'll always have those page to sell later on and working traditionally is a nice treat to do sometimes.

😄 yeah I'm hoarding them! Also thanks as always!

Thanks! Also thankfully I still had every single one of those pages to scan since I had a hard drive failure and lost all the original files! I actually almost totally forgot that if I had kept them, that book probably wouldn't have existed!

Thanks so much! That really means a lot!

Thanks so much! Yeah I've done that every now and then, but sometimes some covers just demand me to do them digitally in order to achieve a certain graphic look. I've always tried to avoid making creative decisions from a financial standpoint, I've always found that method to let me down. I just try to do what's right for the image and what's right for me at that point in time and that usually yields better results. That said I"m not ruling out working traditionally and I actually have recently since I've had plenty of time to do them.

@@FrancisManapulArt ​ Totally makes sense. I love that the art always comes first. It's a great philosophy and it shows in your work. It really is such an interesting topic. Can't wait for the next episode! Until then, take care.

I appreciate that! Thanks!

Oh man, yeah I look forward to coming back again some day. Love it down there! Yeah I've done the digital pencils/ traditional inks, some of Trinity was done that way. I found that it didn't speed up the process that much. Between printing it out, lightboxing, scanning, cleaning etc... my current digital work flow sometimes I'll start inking, sometimes I'll start flatting the pencils (for covers) it's a much more holistic process and less stringent like the hybrid model. I'll probably still do traditional here and there, it all just depends on if i have more time, or it's the look i'm going for.

Thanks, Kel! Yeah there's a lot of customizability with those brushes. My secondary monitor, I'll usually have a zoomed out version of what I'm working on so that I can see the entire page. I'll usually also have some of the previous pages open for reference. I'm ashamed to say I don't use nearly as much reference as I should, and I tend to just make things up unless it's a very specific location like the Golden Gate Bridge or something like that.

@@FrancisManapulArt Really appreciate you taking the time to answer Francis. I've always wondered how people work, making stuff up or using reference...I do a bit of both, but your work is so on point! I do a lot of characters from imagination, but cars, bikes, buildings, I have to use reference! Do you keep up with practicing human form by going to life drawing or draw random people at cafes etc - I'd love a peek at your sketchbook process (for observational stuff as well as comics or character designing. 😉 Cheers!

Thanks so much Owen! I appreciate your support! I think YT is a different beast from my other social media platforms, and because I take forever to edit these, I struggle with being consistent on here. As for your q's actually I do have margins, in photoshop you have the option to turn those off so you can draw without seeing them but they are still there. On an actual page, typically its 11x17 with a usage space of 10.5x 16.25 if I recall.

I appreciate this so much! That’s exactly what I needed to know. So for drawing on paper, do you yourself typically use 11x17?

I imagine at some point I'll part with my Flash and Detective art. I hope not too soon :)

Oh wow! Yeah I haven't quite figured out how to work with vectors but that does future proof your art for massive scalability. And those are fantastic artist you've mentioned, I'm lucky enough to have gotten a piece of original art from Rudy Nebres and it's beautiful to see his lovely line work.

​@@FrancisManapulArt In CSP's Vector Layers, *_ANY_* tool can be vector path-based. I have a page of Rudy's inks for some unknown book by an unknown penciler that I picked up at Sam de la Rosa's table for $15 _loooong_ ago. What a genius is Rudy! And sweet guy, too. Still going strong at 86.

@@TheKevphil I've only had the pleasure of meeting him once, but when I did he was beyond generous with his time.

Thanks, and congrats! I used either ink wash, or water color, and gouache. I found gouache more forgiving. All of these options are also waaaay cheaper than copics. I find the tones with copics look amazing, but almost mechanical.

@@FrancisManapulArt Thanky you so much I love your water color and gouache stuff. Keep making videos they’re awesome!

heck yeah!

Thanks! I believe the revised plans for the print version will be around early summer 2023.

Hey great question! Thinking about it, I should have addressed this in the video. But hopefully this answer will add more context (I'll pin this too): It's hard to fully analyze the exact numbers as my switch to digital began as a necessity to try and produce the same output pre-kids. But on average when I was working traditionally, I'd finish a book in a 5-6 week schedule. Digitally I was able to produce the same and work fewer hours. The speed I gained was offset by the less time I spent at the drawing table which was super helpful when you have young children and in having a more balanced life. This is also how I got my weekends back. So even working digitally, I had a very similar turnaround time. However, over the years (artists being artists) the time I gained was further offset by me choosing to color my work. So really all the speed I gained, I somehow used up in some form or another by taking on more tasks lol! As for numbers, yes you're absolutely right the loss of income on art sales suck, but I'm also very fortunate to have a high enough rate that the art sales weren't relied on. Without getting into specifics, my rates for each issue are well within the five-figure range, a lucky enough position which allows me to just focus on creating art and not worrying about the art sales. Which to be honest, was never a big concern of mine from the start of my career when I made significantly less money. I always just looked at it as a nice bonus. But if I currently made the same amount of money at the start of my career now, I'd definitely look into selling art as an additional source of income. Obviously, the numbers are hard ignore, but my editors and deadlines are even harder for me to ignore lol! Hope this adds additional context to this subject. Also keep in mind, this is from my perspective, so everyone's mileage will vary. Also I'm not the most industrious business guy, so maybe I should be selling more art and working traditionally. I just like making art and telling stories and fortunately the act of creating in general increases the value I bring to the project which then in turn increases my rates.

@@FrancisManapulArt Thanks so much for the reply! Yeah kind of exactly what I thought, I have a two year old at home and totally understand. The extra time with them is invaluable.

@@davenelson8592 100000000000% my dad was a writer and worked in the entertainment industry in the Philippines and the majority of my memories of him is seeing the back of his head and hearing the typewriter.

Yup I synch all my computers on a cloud to access my files.

Hmm. Still formulating my thoughts on it. I don't want to fear it, but also can't help be see how it can edge in on a freelancers territory. I think the aspect of the art world I worry about the most are for editorial or magazine illustrators since the art is mostly just used to prop up an article. Luckily in the comic book industry the person behind the pen or the computer carries a lot more weight than the medium they use to draw in. So I guess we'll wait and see.

@@FrancisManapulArt Thanks for your insight. As newbie comic artist trying to break in, I'm totally freaking. I feel like my dreams hasn't started yet and it's about to get crushed by art robots. btw, Long time fan here from the Philippines. Thanks for creating a youtube channel, Awesome content!!!.

AI steals art from Artist lawsuits are in the work

that's my favourite part :)

yeah.. I thought about NFT but then when I realized how harmful it was environmentally, it didn't make sense to me anymore. If the whole reason for me working digitally is to save time and have more time with the family didn't make sense for me to do something that could take time away from them long after I'm gone.

Yeah, we'll see how it goes! I do sell my other stuff, but those two runs stay intact!