Archive for December, 2009
8 items.
I’m not sure how I wanted the second panel to look, but I did still want him to be unsure about things until just now. I hope you guys are enjoying this story, which is rapidly coming to its conclusion. For a while, I want to go back to gag-a-day strips and bring the lobster back to the forefront.
This is the card I sent out this year. Sorry I posted it after Christmas, I had a lot of driving to do and then a lot of chores to finish up when I got back.
I really can’t think of anything to say for this one, but I feel obligated to say something. It’s an odd feeling, really. In the context of the story so far, this strip is what it is.
I’m really trying to experiment with the brushes in Photoshop to learn coloring much better. Rob Lundy of Console Hopping has some excellent video tutorials/working companions on his process, and not only is it fun to watch but he actually gives useful information about how he gets his results. It occurs to me that I really need to review those now that I have a better grasp on Photoshop. There was a lot I knew I missed the first (few) times through, and I think I’m ready to get a lot more out of them now. If I can get my act together, expect lots of coloring experiments through the next few updates. As always, opinions are welcome. Feel free to shoot me an e-mail or converse with me in 140 characters or less through Twitter!
I went back and fixed the girl’s eye color in the previous strip: She has her father’s eyes. Of course, you can’t really tell that yesterday without squinting, but it was bothering me. She carries most of her mother’s traits, I felt it was an important detail.
Kids in comics generally seem to have one heck of a vocabulary, a fact I have always found endearing. The little girl here will endeavor to do the same, though her efforts will be frustrated by my writing. I’m one man with a full-time job and several hobbies, so I beg your forgiveness if my efforts here are a bit slack.
I have experimented with using children to convey things, but mostly it’s been showing the childish side of the main characters. I didn’t like the way it worked out, so I haven’t done it in a while. By introducing the main character’s potential daughter, I get to have the variety of perspective without committing to a new character. If it doesn’t work out, she doesn’t have to come back. If it does, maybe it’ll be a recurring theme. That would be nice, because it’s something I’ve missed but haven’t yet found a way to execute well.
If it’s not clear in this strip, the main character is falling asleep. Yes, this is a dream. I’m not really giving away any spoilers, because the setup for the joke in the next strip makes it painfully clear.
I wish I had more time to spend so I could shade this comic, but I pretty much always have something I wish there were more time to throw at. I’m actually excited about the inking in this one. It finally feels like it’s loosening up a bit for me, which is important: I’m not an mechanical draftsman, after all. I’ve noticed huge improvements in my pencils, but I’m still having a hard time translating that in to huge improvements in my inks, so it’s hard to show that progress to y’all. Perhaps I should resume fixing the gallery code and making more gallery posts?
Perhaps that’s a project for the holiday break, if I get much of one. I have burned through my vacation time at work, so I won’t be off much this month, and I have to burn through whatever overtime I can to get everything squared away for the year. It’ll be a long two weeks or so coming up, but stick with me: I will finish this story line in some way, shape or form.