Archive for March, 2008
13 items.
I`m also trying to work on making all of the elements of a scene, and overall in the comic, connect and make sense. I believe the technical word is composition. I left the middle slightly off-center because it made sense to me, but I can`t explain why. But, hopefully, I`ll get better at this and scenes will flow better (visually).
It`s weird seeing this colored and put up for the first time today — I`ve had this drawn for five days and inked for three. I`m used to being barely on time, so it`s weird to have known about this strip for close to a week. Usually I have ideas floating around, but ideas and sketches are not the same as even a penciled strip. I feel like this is old news, but I keep forgetting this is new to you. Enjoy.
Brush work is getting better, but it`s still rough.
In honor of my 135th strip (rather, since I haven`t bought any new art toys in a while) I got a new
Pentel Brush
. This thing is AWESOME, but man it puts down a lot of ink fast. Sorry if the linework is thick and jumpy, I`m still learning, but I think the strip from first panel to last is proof enough that I should have it under control soon. I look forward to learning more about how to effectively use it. In the mean time, I have to find a way to compensate for the fact that the ink stays wet for quite awhile and leaves black puddles on my scanner. They wipe up just fine, but I`d rather not have to clean up after myself in the first place.
As I was sitting down to do a simple comic, I realized I have had a heavy hand lately and needed to reinforce that the characters are very much in love. I used the same young-character technique I have used before (ripped off, of course, from Michael Jantze of
The Norm
fame. I recommend the Normathon and the Know-It-Alls, and the Gocomics link takes you to his strips. Otherwise, it`s pretty content-light, but while you`re over there tell Mr. Jantze I sent you and that I was a HUGE fan of his work. Don`t tell him I steal his ideas. Or Jim Davis, for that matter.
Anyway, I wanted the guy`s childishness to be one of the reasons she fell in love with him in the first place. Playing in the mud is neato, innocent fun. If you`ve forgotten, try it some time. It ranks up there with dancing (or in my case, acting like a goofball) in the rain. For her, he`s a constant light rainfall or mud puddle. Sometimes, all it takes is a new perspective, and what was once dirty shoes and suit cuffs become a geological expedition. And yes, I just said neato.
As an interesting side note, the inkwork was lighter on the left side of the mud pit, and when I scanned the original it was not as shaded as the right side. That dictated the lighting for that scene. It was a coincidence, and it actually made my job easier. Win-win! I also tied in the backgrounds from the third and fourth scenes with some gradient work. All in all, I`m much happier with this than I thought I would be.
I`m also thinking about going to the traditional dot-for-eyes you usually find in comics (like the lobster has). Just a thought.
I was tired of working on it, so it`s so-so today, but I like the middle panels – The transition from countryside to more urban area with the switching equipment in the middle. I wish I had done more with the first panel, and the last panel doesn`t look quite right, but all in all I think it gets the point across. Plus, that`s a punchline I really like.
I needed an idea, and I wanted it to be simple. Again, I got really in to it, but it gave me some follow-up ideas and I still managed to finish it in the time frame I wanted. That didn`t leave me time to sketch out the next comic like I had hoped, but I still chuckle at this one every time I see it. Four hours later, that`s good: Usually I`m sick of the joke by now.
I have a lot to say about this comic, but it`s late (for me at least) so I`ll try to be brief:
This comic was very late (Saturday`s comic posted on Tuesday), so at first I was in a real rush to finish. But, the more I looked at the comic, the more I went back, making changes and filling in little details. First, I really like the action split across the first two panels, with the wall as the divider. I used the horizontal lines on the walls in the second panel to draw the eye there. That, when contrasted with the vertical lines dripping from the word bubble in the third panel and the dark colors (one with color, one without) dmake those panels “heavy” but also distinguish them. The border of the third panel is also a heavier line (it`s true, look closely), giving it a darker feel and enforcing this heaviness in the middle. I wish, in retrospect, I hadn`t leaned so heavily on that so the first panel was easier to get to visually, but frankly, I`m learning this stuff as I go along. It`s kind of hard to predict effects you don`t know about.
There`s a few fonts here, too. Some bold, some italics, a few sizes…all mixed together to try and draw attention to not only specific words but to pacing and flow. I was afraid I overdid it at first, but I think it`s pretty good.
Speaking of drawing attention to things, I hope you noticed that the door is smacking the female main character as the guy enters. Again, in retrospect, people will probably draw some weird sexual thing from this. Nothing of the sort was intended — It`s simple slapstick. Haha, someone got hit with something. I used the bottom action line to draw attention to that, as between the two action lines it has far more weight. The *smack* seems to totally be lost in the line-heavy second panel, though. So much for that.
I also tried to use size in the third panel — The guy being small and the girl filling the foreground. They each get half of the panel, but the empty space around the guy is supposed to make things a bit more dramatic…but I still wanted that comedy, so the guy`s shaking. Frankly, I`m not quite sure if it worked yet…I`ll have to re-evaluate tomorrow.
And, of course, in the last panel the lobster is in time-out. For attempting to drop a bag of flour on the guy as he came home. The panel is really sparse, no shading, and the lobster is on the right of center — This is supposed to separate the lobster from everything else and drive that time-out thing home. It is the only panel not tied together with the others using some technique, and I think it stands off pretty well, but I`d like it to stand off more or have the first panel tie in better.
All in all, I tried to shove a lot in to this comic, because the more I looked at it the more I said I really need to do this. Perhaps there`s too much going on, but I really wanted it to be engaging. Comics take a few hours each to do. This one was way more than average. Hours of work for fifteen seconds of enjoyment. I hope this one was worth it. As I`m looking at it right now, I`m still chuckling, but I`d better like my own work, right?