MattBrady
08-03-2006, 05:55 AM
<a href="http://www.newsarama.com/Wildstorm/ExMachina/MachinaWash01.htm" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.newsarama.com/Wildstorm/ExMachina/t_EM22-1.jpg" border="0" align="right"></a>No – it wasn’t a guest artist, and no, your eyes weren’t playing tricks on you.
With this week’s issue of <b>Ex Machina</b>, regular series artist Tony Harris decided to change things up a little, changing his style and approach to the art for the acclaimed series written by Brian K Vaughan. Harris is still joined by inker Tom Feister and colorist J.D. Mettler, but the look the three are producing is just a shade different, starting with this issue.
We caught up with Harris for a brief chat about his changed approach.
<b>Newsarama</b>: First off, and obviously – looking at issue #22 of <b>Ex Machina</b>, it’s pretty clear that you’ve changed your style on the pencils. Is it a storyline specific thing, or just changing it up to keep it interesting?
<b>Tony Harris</b>: We hit the halfway mark of the series and I am always looking for ways to take up the quality a notch. I really don't get to paint much anymore, so this was a way for me to do that over my own art with ink-wash. That’s what it is by the way, a wash [In ink-wash, the artist paints on the art with black ink diluted in water, which produces a gray, shadowy tone]
<center> <a href="http://www.newsarama.com/Wildstorm/ExMachina/MachinaWash02.htm" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.newsarama.com/Wildstorm/ExMachina/t_EM22-2.jpg" border="0"></a><a href="http://www.newsarama.com/Wildstorm/ExMachina/MachinaWash03.htm" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.newsarama.com/Wildstorm/ExMachina/t_EM22-3.jpg" hspace="3" border="0"></a><a href="http://www.newsarama.com/Wildstorm/ExMachina/MachinaWash07.htm" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.newsarama.com/Wildstorm/ExMachina/t_EM22-7.jpg" border="0"></a></center>
<b>NRAMA</b>: So this is a full-on inkwash? For those who don’t know the term, can you describe how it’s done?
<b>TH</b>: I pencil the pages the same way I always have, then they go off to Tom. He inks them, sends them back, and before they go to JD for color, I paint an ink wash on all the pages as they come back.
<b>NRAMA</b>: So this is all your side of things, not something that Tom is doing differently?
<b>TH</b>: Right. Tom’s still inking, but it’s all me on the washes.
<b>NRAMA</b>: Are you tweaking the layout somewhat too? It almost looks like you’re bringing a few Art Deco influences back into your page design with this issue, hearkening back to your <b>Starman</b> work…
<b>TH</b>: I honestly haven't been thinking about it. I try to vary the page layout as much as possible. But a story like this would suffer from flashy panel borders and such. This is a political thriller first and foremost, and I don't want to detract from what's going on inside the panel. But I do try to throw a curve once and while and do something different with the layout.
<center> <a href="http://www.newsarama.com/Wildstorm/ExMachina/MachinaWash07clr.htm" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.newsarama.com/Wildstorm/ExMachina/t_EX022007color.jpg" border="0"></a><a href="http://www.newsarama.com/Wildstorm/ExMachina/MachinaWash08.htm" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.newsarama.com/Wildstorm/ExMachina/t_EM22-8.jpg" hspace="3" border="0"></a><a href="http://www.newsarama.com/Wildstorm/ExMachina/MachinaWash08clr.htm" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.newsarama.com/Wildstorm/ExMachina/t_EX022008color.jpg" border="0"></a></center>
<b>NRAMA</b>: When we spoke a couple of years back ( http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=14349), you mentioned how, to your surprise almost, you’d gotten wicked fast with your pencils…adopting this style, are you still wicked fast?
<b>TH</b>: Yep. I still average about two pages a day. But I have to now because I have the extra work on me with the shading. Plus I do a <i>lot</i> of outside work on covers like <b>Nightmare on Elm Street, Conan</b>, and the <b>Highlander</b> monthly. Not to mention pencils, ink and color on my <b>Machina</b> covers.
<b>NRAMA</b>: As both you and Brian have talked about, <b>Ex Machina</b> is a very collaborative effort, so did you talk with him about the slight the change in look the wash allows for?
<a href="http://www.newsarama.com/Wildstorm/ExMachina/MachinaWash14.htm" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.newsarama.com/Wildstorm/ExMachina/t_EM22-14.jpg" border="0" align="left"></a><b>TH</b>: Nope. I literally was eating dinner one night, and it hit me like a shot from the blue. And I had been doing this technique on <b>Conan</b> and <b>Highlander</b> and enjoyed it so much I thought ,"Wow, why can’t <b>Machina</b> look like this too?” So I called the guys up and just kinda dropped it on them out of the blue. Everyone was a little concerned about additional time in execution and all, but I think that after we finished the issue, <i>everyone</i> was thrilled with it. JD and I are still figuring out quite a lot, so in the next issue or two, we hope to get it down to more of a science as far as what to do more of and what to omit etc....
<b>NRAMA</b>: So what, have you found, does ink wash work best on any particular element of the book? Anything coming up that you can point to as something you sat back, looked at and went, “Ohhh yeah…”?
<b>TH</b>: I think it works great on <i>any</i> cover work. It makes it look more painted. But I think it is tremendous in <b>Machina</b> because it’s a book about conversations to a large degree involving highly charged political decision making, and a little bit of super-heroics. I think this added touch gives the book even more realism, and it becomes more believable to the reader. I can definitely look at the pages now and see a film!
And ultimately, I decided to do this for one other reason, and I am not ass-kissing our fans - I wanted to improve the quality of the art for our readers. Our sales aren't massive like Spider-Man or whatever, but we have hardcore, loyal fans. And our sales monthly and in trade are proof to us of that. So this is a thank you to you guys. Cheers!
With this week’s issue of <b>Ex Machina</b>, regular series artist Tony Harris decided to change things up a little, changing his style and approach to the art for the acclaimed series written by Brian K Vaughan. Harris is still joined by inker Tom Feister and colorist J.D. Mettler, but the look the three are producing is just a shade different, starting with this issue.
We caught up with Harris for a brief chat about his changed approach.
<b>Newsarama</b>: First off, and obviously – looking at issue #22 of <b>Ex Machina</b>, it’s pretty clear that you’ve changed your style on the pencils. Is it a storyline specific thing, or just changing it up to keep it interesting?
<b>Tony Harris</b>: We hit the halfway mark of the series and I am always looking for ways to take up the quality a notch. I really don't get to paint much anymore, so this was a way for me to do that over my own art with ink-wash. That’s what it is by the way, a wash [In ink-wash, the artist paints on the art with black ink diluted in water, which produces a gray, shadowy tone]
<center> <a href="http://www.newsarama.com/Wildstorm/ExMachina/MachinaWash02.htm" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.newsarama.com/Wildstorm/ExMachina/t_EM22-2.jpg" border="0"></a><a href="http://www.newsarama.com/Wildstorm/ExMachina/MachinaWash03.htm" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.newsarama.com/Wildstorm/ExMachina/t_EM22-3.jpg" hspace="3" border="0"></a><a href="http://www.newsarama.com/Wildstorm/ExMachina/MachinaWash07.htm" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.newsarama.com/Wildstorm/ExMachina/t_EM22-7.jpg" border="0"></a></center>
<b>NRAMA</b>: So this is a full-on inkwash? For those who don’t know the term, can you describe how it’s done?
<b>TH</b>: I pencil the pages the same way I always have, then they go off to Tom. He inks them, sends them back, and before they go to JD for color, I paint an ink wash on all the pages as they come back.
<b>NRAMA</b>: So this is all your side of things, not something that Tom is doing differently?
<b>TH</b>: Right. Tom’s still inking, but it’s all me on the washes.
<b>NRAMA</b>: Are you tweaking the layout somewhat too? It almost looks like you’re bringing a few Art Deco influences back into your page design with this issue, hearkening back to your <b>Starman</b> work…
<b>TH</b>: I honestly haven't been thinking about it. I try to vary the page layout as much as possible. But a story like this would suffer from flashy panel borders and such. This is a political thriller first and foremost, and I don't want to detract from what's going on inside the panel. But I do try to throw a curve once and while and do something different with the layout.
<center> <a href="http://www.newsarama.com/Wildstorm/ExMachina/MachinaWash07clr.htm" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.newsarama.com/Wildstorm/ExMachina/t_EX022007color.jpg" border="0"></a><a href="http://www.newsarama.com/Wildstorm/ExMachina/MachinaWash08.htm" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.newsarama.com/Wildstorm/ExMachina/t_EM22-8.jpg" hspace="3" border="0"></a><a href="http://www.newsarama.com/Wildstorm/ExMachina/MachinaWash08clr.htm" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.newsarama.com/Wildstorm/ExMachina/t_EX022008color.jpg" border="0"></a></center>
<b>NRAMA</b>: When we spoke a couple of years back ( http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=14349), you mentioned how, to your surprise almost, you’d gotten wicked fast with your pencils…adopting this style, are you still wicked fast?
<b>TH</b>: Yep. I still average about two pages a day. But I have to now because I have the extra work on me with the shading. Plus I do a <i>lot</i> of outside work on covers like <b>Nightmare on Elm Street, Conan</b>, and the <b>Highlander</b> monthly. Not to mention pencils, ink and color on my <b>Machina</b> covers.
<b>NRAMA</b>: As both you and Brian have talked about, <b>Ex Machina</b> is a very collaborative effort, so did you talk with him about the slight the change in look the wash allows for?
<a href="http://www.newsarama.com/Wildstorm/ExMachina/MachinaWash14.htm" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.newsarama.com/Wildstorm/ExMachina/t_EM22-14.jpg" border="0" align="left"></a><b>TH</b>: Nope. I literally was eating dinner one night, and it hit me like a shot from the blue. And I had been doing this technique on <b>Conan</b> and <b>Highlander</b> and enjoyed it so much I thought ,"Wow, why can’t <b>Machina</b> look like this too?” So I called the guys up and just kinda dropped it on them out of the blue. Everyone was a little concerned about additional time in execution and all, but I think that after we finished the issue, <i>everyone</i> was thrilled with it. JD and I are still figuring out quite a lot, so in the next issue or two, we hope to get it down to more of a science as far as what to do more of and what to omit etc....
<b>NRAMA</b>: So what, have you found, does ink wash work best on any particular element of the book? Anything coming up that you can point to as something you sat back, looked at and went, “Ohhh yeah…”?
<b>TH</b>: I think it works great on <i>any</i> cover work. It makes it look more painted. But I think it is tremendous in <b>Machina</b> because it’s a book about conversations to a large degree involving highly charged political decision making, and a little bit of super-heroics. I think this added touch gives the book even more realism, and it becomes more believable to the reader. I can definitely look at the pages now and see a film!
And ultimately, I decided to do this for one other reason, and I am not ass-kissing our fans - I wanted to improve the quality of the art for our readers. Our sales aren't massive like Spider-Man or whatever, but we have hardcore, loyal fans. And our sales monthly and in trade are proof to us of that. So this is a thank you to you guys. Cheers!