Chapter 11 – Volume 3 – Incarnation Advent (1)
“It’s also copied in monochrome, as explained.”
Even in black-and-white printing, there are grayscales in which various grays are output together using both black and white, and there are monochromes that are completely opaque and only not painted.
To put it simply, grayscale is a picture drawn with a proper mixture of black and white paint, and a solid color is a picture drawn with only one black pen.
Of course, it is impossible to express the lightness at all because the gray color cannot be expressed in a single color.
Then, of course, grayscale, which expresses brightness, is good, but why do we use a single color?
This is because when copying in grayscale, it is necessary to print in a complicated way, such as mixing white and black properly, so the problem of difficulty and cost becomes very serious.
In the first place, printing is made to spread books containing text rather than comics, so these types of things are cheap and easy to spread as much as possible.
Of course, color copying for pictures was also developed in this world, but I knew that it required a huge cost compared to monochrome copying.
“Oh, you think you made this pretty plausible?”
In fact, there was a time when similar printing was mainstream on Earth, not necessarily in this world.
Then, how did the cartoonists who sold monochromatic comics in the past come up with gray?
At first, I solved it by drawing very thin lines or small circles directly and inscribing a certain pattern into the picture.
This is because there is an optical illusion that when viewed from a little distance, the pattern looks gray with the brightness adjusted according to the painted area.
However, it was too much work to draw all of them every time, and later, companies that make drawing tools created a tool called ‘Screen Tone’.
It sells a guy with a specific pattern already drawn on a very thin and transparent sticker film.
Then, now, cartoonists save details by cutting them into necessary shapes and attaching them to their works.
In fact, this form was sometimes used as a technique to create a similar atmosphere through programs in digital work.
So even though it was a tool that disappeared as all cartoonists switched to digital, I had at least used it in a digital version, so I knew at least what it was like.
‘Of course, there’s no way that screen tones exist in this world.’
But what could replace it was the photocopier I had bought.
If you perfectly draw a pattern to be used as a screen tone in advance and print it as it is in the required location, you can create an effect similar to that of a screen tone.
Of course, it requires the cumbersome task of covering the area other than the one I want and drilling holes only in the area to be painted.
However, this time, I bought a paper that was quite thin, so the back was a bit transparent, and I also bought a pen that cuts the paper later according to the line when I draw, so the difficulty wasn’t that much of a problem.
“Ah, it’s really nice to have this magic pen, how would I draw a pattern like this without it…”
So now I was drawing patterns that would be used often.
I was trying to find the most plausible guy based on my memory, so it wasn’t very efficient.
However, once you do this once, you will continue to use it, so you have to work hard.
“Will this be enough?”
It is difficult to make everything you need in advance, and basically, I drew only the things that I remember as being used often.
If you don’t think you need anything, then you can go and get a new one.
If you hold on to this just to finish it in advance, you’ll probably lose your mind.
“Hey, it’s so convenient to draw this line.”
Unlike a quill pen, there was no case where the ink came off when I erased it.
I was able to work very comfortably because the thickness control and pen pressure were almost as stable as a tablet pen.
And once the line drawing is done, I just make a copy with that printer before proceeding with detail work and screentone work.
If you are going to do a really difficult job in the middle, being able to make a copy like this was a very different point from before.
Ha, sorcerers, are you saying that only they were using such good things?
Really, the more I thought about it, the more unfair and resentful the performance was.
“First of all, I’d like to create an atmosphere that feels like everyday things in the beginning, and then change the atmosphere from the erosion part.”
If I explained the work I was writing this time as simply as possible, I could explain that it belongs to the genre of ‘Magical Girl’.
The story begins when the main character, an ordinary girl who cannot find meaning in her own life, encounters a catastrophe called erosion that destroys her world.
It has a relatively common genre and setting with the content that the protagonist gains the power to defeat erosion by bearing an existence called ‘Hwasin’ who protects this world.
Of course, of course, there are things like special settings unique to my work that penetrate through this work.
That’s it, it was a part that was more dense with the picture than the story.
Since comics are not text, there are special settings that are expressed through pictures.
“Now, most of the settings have been resolved, right?
I had to change the setting of the work to make it easier to explain in this world, so there were quite a few things to pay attention to even though it was a work that was pre-planned.
For example, the original character’s name was ‘Soo Baek-hwa’, but she thought it would be ambiguous to use a Korean name here.
So she had to change her name to ‘Albedo de Acqua’.
‘Let’s cut the portion as short as possible.’
It seemed to be a prologue-like work that makes you feel the intro of this series.
In fact, I would be lying if I said I didn’t want to cut it a bit longer, but that was because it was very difficult in a situation where I had to demonstrate this ‘cartoon’ system for the first time.
If it’s a book from the beginning, you can just beat it right away and sell it at the level of a book.
Because I have to start by exhibiting this cartoon as a system of pictures.
No matter how much it is, we have to proceed with the level of purchase that can be exhibited.
‘The atmosphere changes from being attacked by erosion, and the scene where Nigredo appears and helps is as dynamic and flashy as possible.’
Basically, as long as this work is set to that amount.
After all, this first and last battle is the most important part that penetrates the work, so I had to draw it with all my strength.
It was important to give more dynamic and lively lines, even if it slightly spoiled the appearance of the beautiful girls.
Personally, I didn’t want to miss the shonen manga-style combat sensibility of this work.
Albedo, a girl who wanders about which path to walk because her ordinary life and even her ordinary talents are mediocre.
Erosion, an unrealistic and terrible disaster that appeared before Albedo’s eyes.
Nigredo, a beautiful girl who burns herself and fights to get rid of the erosion.
Perhaps at this point it would be better to give a color contrast between the normal albedo and the unreal nigredo.
“But here, in the end, Negredo will also be harmed, maximizing the despairing atmosphere.”
It depicts a transformation scene in which the main character, Albedo, has an incarnation and awakens to her incarnation.
It burns the clothes she is wearing and makes her disappear, and her body is covered with pure white flames, giving her special powers.
In fact, this is the main theme of this work.
‘A naked magical girl.’
The concept of being naked while transforming is a common setting in the world of magical girls.
It is different from existing magical girl works in that it is a ‘real naked’ type magical girl, where whenever fire is used during a fight, the part where the fire was used disappears.
At least in this work, I am serious about the naked body without a single thread.
To be honest, there is nothing special about the story because it beats all the clichés of the genre, but that naked body production was the biggest feature of this work that I came up with and was the driving force for me to draw this work.
It’s the same setting as pervert, but wouldn’t it be better because it was original?
“Ah, when Nigredo uses a technique, it would be prettier to add a little more exposure to this part?”
And, of course, it wasn’t just a story about the main character.
In this work, all the magical girls called “Incarnations” Share this setting.
So, this work is a magical girl with a serious story as a whole, and at the same time, it is a work that shines in a perverted outfit in the picture.
Personally, I really like the naked beauty that appears in such a serious and dreamy atmosphere.
“Still, it’s fortunate that it was drawn with a better atmosphere than I thought. Except for the fact that it took a long time to direct properly, it feels good.”
One of the most important things in this work is how well you portray the flames burning in your body, and there were many cases where you had to use screen tones well.
To be honest, I was very nervous because it was the first time that I worked digitally all the time, and it was the first time that I was working in a single color with analog screen tones.
It’s natural that it’s difficult to bring the quality to the level I want at first.
Contrary to my worries, however, the results were coming out very nicely.
“Even while fighting in such an almost naked state, Albedo’s sincere fire punch filled her head with only the thought of saving Nigredo, who saved herself, let alone shame.”
However, after defeating her erosion, the ‘incarnation’ contained within her escapes, and the fire that used to be her clothing disappears.
Then she just gets to be in a state where only her naked body is left, but now it’s really fucking cute to see her startled and shy at this timing.
Both the serious naked body and the shy naked body have a special charm that cannot be missed, so this was a scene that had to be included in the work.
