Interview: Superhero Style with The Shen creator Ray Dillon

MasterDigitalColor: Your illustration of The Shen is a featured tutorial in the Superhero section of the book Master Digital Color.  What defines the look of a superhero comic book to you?

Ray Dillon:  Superheroes are meant to be iconic and powerful. They’re a fantasy of what we wish we could be or who we wish existed to keep us protected. Gods, Warriors, or like Wizards with amazing abilities or powers. Larger than life. They are “What If…?” What if I could fly? What if someone could breathe underwater? What if my son or my brother turned into a dragon? They are the perfect embodiment of imagination.

MDC: How did you get your start in comics and what sort of effort it has it taken to arrive where you are at today?

RD: Right out of high school, I had no idea where to start getting actual work. But I had learned how to make a website (a really blocky, ugly website with giant blinky buttons), and started putting my stuff up. I’ve always been interested in each facet of comic book creation, so while I was learning to draw, I was also teaching myself to ink, color, letter, design, etc. So, when I built my art website, I had a section for each of those things. Turns out, I was about the only person on the web at that point who had easy to find lettering samples. So, the first job I got was lettering a back-up story in “Noble Causes #1″ for Image Comics. After that, the main story letterer became pregnant and had to leave the book, so I was kinda thrown into it head first. I think that was even before Adobe Illustrator. I was using Freehand to letter (anyone remember THAT program? ) I began lettering that monthly. More opportunities to letter and design other books came up.

All the while, I was networking on the internet (I was in a small town in Kansas so that was my connection to the world) I continued to build my portfolios in each of my areas of interest. I started taking NO-PAY jobs with the hopes of getting my work in front of more people. I submitted for jobs in all areas of comics and that versatility allowed me more options than my skill level as a penciller would allow. Also, jobs as just a penciller just weren’t that frequent; I mean, you could go months before another one came up that an entry-level artist could get. So, being able to ink, color, letter, design, web design, paint, all those things it allowed me to start a full-time career by bouncing all over. I’ve kept that up for 10 years. Right now I’m coloring some books, lettering some, fully illustrating several, doing concept paintings, the list goes on. I pile myself with projects to keep steady money coming in.

Though, I am hoping at this point to advance my career to a much more calm place where I’m paid enough I can just work on 1 or 2 books a month instead of 10, you know? But, the point is, you CAN make a living the way I’ve done. So, if you’re out there and you enjoy all aspects of comic creation and you’re willing to put in the extra work and dedication, branching out like that can really help. But, also know that once you start down that path it IS work and it IS a job and it ISN’T always fun or creatively inspired. Sometimes you’re an art monkey. Still, better than working in a factory.

Jena Huang: Spirit of the hawk

MDC: How does it make you feel knowing thousands of aspiring creators will be coloring your artwork?

RD: Oh, wow… That’s awesome! Uh … awesome? … it makes me feel awesome? I’ve been coloring my own work for the last decade (aside maybe a couple of pieces early on, so it will be an honor to see the direction everyone takes it. I know how much color decisions can change the entire mood of a piece. Oh, wow! I can’t wait! I’m SUPER-excited! Not just regular-excited. When you post it to HueDoo.com feel free to send it to my twitter, facebook, myspace, email, whatever. I’d LOVE to see it! Illustrators, too. Draw these characters and send ‘em my way! I will promote you like nobody’s biznazz!

Billy Hu: Spirit of the tiger

MDC: Do you think one member of The Shen will be a hit with readers of Master Digital Color?

RD: Hmm. Hadn’t thought of that either. I like the Banjamin, the dragon dude, ’cause dragons are neat-o. There’s the bear lady, Cali. I like bears. And wings, so Jena is good.  Oh, and Billy, the white tiger. Hmm… I dunno. See I designed them with my colorist hat on, too, so I really wanted each to have a simplicity of costume, with a color element that unites the team, but then give them each a burst of unique colorful powers and even varying skin tone to add to the uniqueness. So, I guess it depends on each colorists personal favorite colors.

Benjamin Song: Spirit of the dragon

MDC: All of your artwork is created digitally.  Can you tell us a bit about your process?

RD: Yes, I work almost entirely in Photoshop (illustrator sometimes for lettering, but I’m thinking of eliminating that as well) with an Axiotron Modbook Apple Tablet Computer. NOTE: See link at the end of the interview for Ray’s review of the Axiotron ModBook.

Before going all digital, I was becoming frustrated with the process of scanning pages, piecing them together. And I was good at traditional inking, but there was all the clean-up, spills, buying brushes, ink, erasers, paper, lead, etc., etc. Got expensive and tedious.

Now, I create a layer and sketch, create another layer for perspective, another layer for ink, another for color, fx, etc. And it’s all in the same place, only now I have the power of the digital universe in the same pen. It’s basically the same steps as before, but much faster, and much easier to work with. Instead of erasing, I hide the sketch layer. Things like that that make the work look better and go much faster.

Cali Hung: Spirit of the bear

MDC: With so much technology at play it must be difficult to balance creative and technical skills.  Any advice for aspiring creators when it comes to choosing their tools or avoiding technical pitfalls?

RD: One of the things that my wife has taught me (Renae De Liz, artist for IDW, Image, Archie, Topps, Uppersdeck, and more!) is that technical skill isn’t the most important thing in the world. I’m a very logical, technical artist. I LEARNED how to be an artist. I learned each aspect and practiced like it were a martial art. I was like Van Damme kicking za pole wiz his [explitive deleted] LEG! until it finally came down. This worked for me, BUT my work also has a tendency to be stiff and I’ve been trying to break that for years. I also hear other artists who learned like me and complain of the same thing. Renae, on the other hand never picked up a book, never had a class, she just drew and drew and drew and tried to understand the world around her and how to portray that. She is very dynamic and her work has so much emotion in every line. It is ALL about feeling and mood. Really incredible stuff. And the thing is, she knows how to draw people and buildings VERY well. She didn’t painstakingly beat the rules of anatomy and perspective into her head and she does it brilliantly and with more feeling.

So, my lesson is to relax a bit. Just draw and don’t worry so much about technical steps to learn this or that. Just draw. If you sit down to draw an face, you have to figure out how to draw a face, you don’t have to learn that the head is 5 eyes wide, eyes are 1 eye-width apart, the corners of the mouth line up with the center of the pupil, the ears line up with the top of the eye and bottom of the nose, yada, yada, yadA!! You feel all that stuff out.

Just draw.

You can see more of Ray Dillon’s The Shen in Master Digital Color in the Superhero section of the book.  The tutorial shows you step-by-step how to color each of the figures in a super-heroic style and how to create stunning special effects for the characters.  The artwork is included on the bonus disk included with the book so you can follow along every step of the way.

Learn to color The Shen in the pages of Master Digital Color

Interested in the Axiotron ModBook that Ray Dillon uses to create his spectacular comic artwork?  Read Ray’s: Axiotron ModBook Review

ABOUT RAY DILLON:
Ray has been an artist in comic books, movies, video games, and trading cards for nearly a decade. Ray works for companies like IDW Publshing, Image Comics, NBM Publshing, Lerner Publishing, Topps, Upperdeck, Scary Bits Films. He does this all from my home in Salina, Kansas with his wife, the lovely and talented comic book artist, Renae De Liz (The Last Unicorn), who has worked for IDW, Image, and Archie Comics. Ray and Renae were married at San Diego Comic-Con ‘09. You will also find Ray’s artwork in Master Digital Color available from Impact Books.

Follow Ray on the web:
http://www.RayDillon.com | http://www.Twitter.com/RayDillon (Also on DeviantArt, Facebook, MySpace, ComicSpace, Blogger, etc. Just add ‘RayDillon’ at the end). You will also find Ray Dillon’s videos on YouTube

You can also discover Renae’s work online. Renae is a gifted artist and purchased the ModBook for Ray as a Christmas gift, what a great wife!
http://www.GoldenGoatStudios.com/renae | http://www.Twitter.com/RenaeDeLiz