Rain question.

[FD]

So here goes my question... I just got the script for a independent book that I'm going to work on... It's a team up project so I had no clue about what the writer wanted me to do (besides the characters and some few details of the story)... Anyways everything looks fine, but I'm having a real trouble on my hands... See, the entire story takes place on a sort of universe in where it's always raining, and I'm having a real hard time to draw the rain... I mean, it's a black and white book, and there are tons of details on every panel... And I also need to show to the readers that it's always raining... So, anyone here knows any tips or techniques?! I'm really getting crazy as I find it hard to draw the rain... I mean, I need help to draw soft rain, heavy rain, windy rain, rain during the night, rain during the day... Oh God... I'm pretty close to give up that project... :( Someone please help me!

[RichieD]

Check out the first couple of pages of chapter 1 of Nowhere Girl (http://www.nowheregirl.com). What is done there is just a very simple, very subtle indication of the rain, and then a pretty good drawing of the effects of the rain, like wet hair, puddles on the street, reflections on wet concrete that sort of thing.

Something like that is probably what I would suggest, then you alter the effect according to what sort of rain you want. Oh and go outside when it is raining and look and see what happens. That's always helpful.

[brendon]

If you are doing it in black and white it's a bit tricky, I haven't done it much myself but I can think of a few comics I've seen where I liked the way the artist represented the rain. What I would do to represent this effect is the following:

1. draw the scene without the rain first.

2. use your eraser to create white lines representing falling raindrops, some bigger white lines for the rain drops up close, and many smaller ones to represent the rain drops further away.

3. come back with the pencil and add a little depth to some of the closer raindrop by adding a line along one side, a teardrop at the head of the drop, or whatever else makes it look like a shooting raindrop...

[Dash Martin]

Well, first of all I assume it's going to be inked. I dunno if you're inking it or not, but the ol' razor blade on the bristol usually gets a good rain effect. Otherwise, just watch any movie with rain in it. Notice how raindrops bounce off things. You could easily draw a line of splattered water on any object getting hit by the rain and it would give the illusion of rain. If it's a light rain, just show a few small splashes on the people or objects. Doesn't take much to convey the lightness or heaviness of a rain storm in an inked page.

Here's a quicky done up in photoshop:
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/dashmartin/images/rain.jpg