How To Pace Comics
We took a peek at compression and decompression in comics in the previous blog post . Now, let's look at pacing, or how to pace comics. Pacing is simply how fast a reader reads your comics. Much like compression and decompression, pacing allows you to highlight pivotal events in your story. And this is primarily done by influencing how long your reader stays on a panel. The longer the reader stays on the panel, the reading place slows down. The faster the reader stays on a panel, the reading pace speeds up. 1. By default, the amount of text you place on a panel dictates pacing. The more text, the slower the pace. Chris Claremont is known for having verbose panels during his acclaimed run on Uncanny X-Men . 2. When the size of the panel is small, the pacing quickens. Conversely, large panels slow down the pacing. 3. Then the amount of visual information (details) you have inside a panel dictates pacing. The more visual information, or the more a reader has to look at, the
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Would really love to be able to draw something like this someday...
For this image, I used a photo primarily for inspiration more than reference. My problem right now is how to add shading, since this scene happens at dusk. Photoshop is be out of the question.
Thanks again for commenting.
Are you a colorist? :-)
Auggie
PS Belated Hapi Nyu yir sa iyo !
Auggie... Happy New Year! When I was in college, most everyone I was with in the art department of the college paper used Zip-a-Tone, but I never touched the thing. :-) It's still being sold here, though I don't know where.