aluhnim
Aluhnim
Cartoonist, Illustrator, Designer, and Ramen Lover. Email me at: [email protected]
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Danganronpa: Infinite Encore
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Meet the Artist: @aluhnim
Hi folks! My name is Chan, and I am a cartoonist living in the Pacific Northwest. I make a lot of short comics that delve into the difficulties of being a creative because I struggle with my own artwork, too! With my silly little comic art degree, I was somehow allowed to make graphic novels for a living. Thank you to everyone who stumbled upon my comics on Tumblr over the many years!
Nice to meet you, Chan! Check out some pieces they have shared below.
For more of Chan’s work, be sure to take a look at their Tumblr, @aluhnim!
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super super big doodle of someone i miss
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My Remnant 2 traveler
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Year of the Dragon
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Ginkgo Bag
My Kickstarter has about three days left, if you're interested in the bag! Link is here!
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Autumn Sky - Ginkgo Bag
This has been a long time coming, but the Kickstarter for this bag is finally here! Thank you to everyone and those on Twitter for all the support.
EDIT:
HERE IS THE KICKSTARTER LINK BECAUSE IM A BIG DUMMY!
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Hello!
I was hoping to get a more specific description of "vegan leather", because that's a very broad category, is your purse made of polyurethane or PVC, or is it made from plant-based materials? Thank you.
I missed writing that down on the Kickstarter, oops! The purse is made of PU (Polyurethane). Thank you for the question.
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Autumn Sky - Ginkgo Bag
This has been a long time coming, but the Kickstarter for this bag is finally here! Thank you to everyone and those on Twitter for all the support.
EDIT:
HERE IS THE KICKSTARTER LINK BECAUSE IM A BIG DUMMY!
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I’m Covid negative happily (still winded and getting back to speed). Thank you for all your asks. I’ll try to get to the rest of them when I have time, but the ones I was able to answer while in a haze was so much fun. It really kept me alive!
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My OC, Rem. May be repurposed for a new comic sometime in the near future.
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Guidance
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Hello!! When you start a comic, how do you go about deciding your panelling layouts?? If this is too big of an ask for covid brain, how about your favorite song of the moment / a song that really inspires you?? I hope you feel better soon!
I was searching around for an old write up I did for some Original Character Tournament folks who were interested in my thoughts on panels and layouts. To try and answer your question, I go off of vibe now that I’ve made a LOT of comics. However, as much as it doesn’t seem like it at times, I do typically stay as “conventional” as possible to make sure my readers are still following the plot. I make a lot of adjustments along the way. Smarter layouts allow me to draw less, and drawing less is better for me in the long run! It’ll allow me to put more time in other places of the comic.
Anyway, here’s my write up back in the day that’ll hopefully answer some comic drafting questions!
More conventional paneling is a necessary stepping stone because you know your reader won’t get lost and the structure will have you more focused on flow and pacing. It seems remarkably easy to do comics with more “static” or traditional panel layouts but they work for a reason. There’s no real need to break out of something that works, unless you want to! Breaking out of the structure can really add some OOMPH to your important pages.
Some tips, note that these have been my preferences and some definitions don’t quite match their descriptors.
Bleed
I consider open panels or panels that stretch out beyond the edge of the page to be considered bleeds. They’re simple ways to make you feel like your not just sticking within your margins and making your page feel less static without much extra effort. Manga does this quite often, and Western American comics, especially during action packed moments or large splashes.
Some examples of things bleeds can do:
- They can also be used as transitions between pages (first panel bleeding in, last panel bleeding out).
- They can be used to interrupt or add a beat to a moment. Although the example below is mostly bleeds, you can see the one full panel at the bottom stands out because it’s not like the others. A subtle beat.
- They can also just be used to extend a panel to make it bigger. That seems obvious, but larger panels do make people spend a bit more time on them, regardless if there is text or not. Though, “more time” means probably several milliseconds or even a few seconds more than usual.
- Collaging with a bleed is a really great way to think beyond panels and open the space. You will be spending more time thinking of how much you can cram in along with the flow of how your text is going to lead through a series of images.
- Removing panel borders can really open a space and allow for more room without having to go above and beyond the ideas of comics and panels. (sorry, gale galligan is just good)
Gutters
The space between panels is almost just as important as the panel itself. That’s where readers and inferring actions and time. You can only control so much of what the reader is doing between their eye shifting between panels, which is why composition within panels and clarity are so important.
Gutters can also be played with! A simple example is changing your gutters from white to all black. It can be a subtle shift in time, a transition to a new space.
Even the amount of space between panels leaves an idea of time! I think webtoons/manhwa really work well with the gutter space, leaving you to physically scroll and feel the effects of time passing with the amount of empty space you encounter.
It’s important to understand that the gutter has a lot more to do with reader imagination, and your goal is to have them understand that the next panel is somehow plausible.
THIS SCENE EMFIELDS DID IS VERY FUCKING GOOD. TIME, SPACE, GO OOOOOOFFFF KING
Panels themselves can be a part story!
This one is a difficult thing to write for, since I feel like there isn’t many examples out there. There are very structural examples of panels out there, like Watchman. While the 9 panel grid was intentional, it also was likely the only way to deal with Alan Moore’s script effectively without missing details. The panels themselves don’t ENHANCE the story, but a means to an end.
But it’s also an incredibly good example of how conventional comics paneling can still be effective, especially when you start breaking that mold just a little bit.
But then you have comics like M. Dean’s “Baby fat”. Where the comic paneling itself never strays from its original structure, but is indicative of the story itself, representing tiles, mirrors, patterns.
Or Robert Hunter’s “The New Ghost” which he uses circular motifs and has circular panels representing the telescopes sight line.
Predicting Reader Navigation
These are my rules of thumb when doing general sight reading panel by panel.
1. Text is what people gravitate to first. It’s the context needed to approach the next panel.
2. Faces are next, this provides context to what the subject is feeling.
3. Familiar people/animals/objects and SFX.
4. Everything else!
This is an example of sight reading notes I gave to my friend Holocene when we were collaborating.
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Augh so sorry you have covid!!! Here is an ask: what media from your childhood would you most want to reboot with your own comic?
Oh my gosh, what a good question. My childhood consisted of a lot of sonic, but that’s already got so many lovely people working on it!
Maybe this is my Covid brain, but Mummies Alive has been haunting me. The animation was so awesome and I think all the mummies were incredibly hot?! I honestly have no idea what insensitivities there are in that series because I haven’t seen it in ages but I liked the concept?! 4 hot guardian mummies who kamenrider transform into even hotter versions of themselves to protect their ancestor or something.
Otherwise my other choice would be rebooting the Golden Sun game series as a comic… that would be the most reasonable answer.
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whats the last video game you played? would you reccomend it?
I rotate between games, which most of them are multiplayer so I end up playing with pals instead of being hypnotized by single player adventures and losing one week of my life.
This is my current rotation:
Potion Craft - not recommended but it scratches that itch if you’re looking specifically for a repetitive game
Minecraft realms - fun with pals but every single adult I’ve run into who isn’t a gamer has made fun of me, however all the kids I see at book tours think I’m really cool
Baldur’s gate 3 - also fun with pals (and started a new solo campaign and accidentally went in a completely different direction)
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Do you have a favorite color to draw with? :)
Yes! Teal/mustard/red are my favorite color combos that I lean on. They’re just so pleasing to me!!!
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have u read anything really good lately? im rereading some favs by annie dillard ^_^
I have been reading Art & Fear by David Bayles and Ted Orland. I take a couple months break between several chapters because it feels really relevant to the things I struggle with and want to talk about in my own comics. It’s a great read even if it gives me some heartache.
Been occasionally picking up The Way Through The Woods by Litt Woon Long. A recommendation from a friend and it’s about mushrooms and mourning. So another emotional hellscape!
And Frieren. And Chainsaw man. The usuals!
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