Posts Tagged ‘MC’
39 items.
I like the new face for Vance. I tweaked Lance as well, who will show up soon, but I really put a lot of work in to Vance. I think his (second to) last appearance was in this strip, and clearly things have changed a bit. For some reason, I missed my guide lines today and the comic isn’t as tall as usual. I’m not sure why that is, but I’m not going to draw it again. Also, I feel so bad for the main character! He tries really hard but his wife is a no-nonsense gal. Sure, she loves him, but someone that forward is bound to hurt some feelings. It may have been bad, but still, he tried.
You know, I’m always frustrated with my work but looking back I’ve made a lot of progress. To anyone who wants to try their hands at comics, just remember that you have to start somewhere, but you should always be improving. Be your own worst critic. You know, unless you’re Ryan North. In that case, just add some more t-shirts and don’t rock the boat. If you’re not reading Dinosaur Comics, well…give it a try or something. You might find where I steal the half of my jokes that I don’t steal from Garfield.
Inking simply isn’t my strong suit. At least, not traditional inking. I can make my lines sort of resemble my sketches when I work digitally, but there’s a lot going for me inside the computer as opposed to on paper.
Of course, I feel like if I stop inking on paper, then I’ve given up doing it just for me. I like having a comic when I am done, a work on Bristol I can hold. One thing is for sure: if I wanted to do this professionally, it would undoubtedly have to be inked and lettered digitally.
I’m back! I have done a lot with sketching, and I only realized tonight as I sat down to ink that I haven’t picked up an ink tool in nearly two months. All the work I’ve done probably doesn’t show up at all in this strip, because it’s the inking that always shows through. The Pentel pocket brush is still proving to be more than I can handle (first panel), but I’m trying, darn it! I like how my fountain pen rendered the third and fourth panels, though, so I’m not terribly displeased with the results.
The third panel had a lot going on today. I started with some perspective lines from a point that was too close to the paper. I was going to redraw them, but really liked how they made the buildings almost explode upwards. I threw the antenna tower on the building in as a free-hand curve, which I later regretted but was too lazy to fix. I’m pretty happy with it, especially compared to my last rendering of the Sonny building. I also wanted to have a “HI-FIVE!” in the upper-left portion. I wanted to somehow visually throw it in as a “Hi-Fi” pun. I couldn’t figure out how to make the pun visually work and fit in with the panel as a whole, though, so that got cut. Every time I tried, it robbed from the explosive upward movement. It wasn’t that funny anyway.
This was scripted as a three-panel comic. I added the fourth panel when I sat down to pencil it. I didn’t have a punch line, but I figured this way I could tie in new readers (and remind old readers). For those who don’t know or remember, Lance and Vance are two RIAA lawyers who work closely with the Sonny corporation to come up with all sorts of crazy revenue-generating schemes. They’re some of my favorite side characters, and they usually drag in another side character I like even more.
I hope you guys get back in to the swing of things, I hope I do as well. Who knows…if my readership grows out of the dozens and in to the hundreds, I might even consider picking up the pace and looking at things like books. I do have 353 comics and lots of “bonus content” scattered across my drawing table. To a better comic, every day!
I thought the billboard might be a bit racy for some of my normal readers, but it’s nothing that you won’t see along many Interstates in the U.S. Since we’re a bunch of prudes compared to most of the world, I felt that it was perfectly kid-safe. If you disagree, don’t take your kids to Disney World.
That being said, I just don’t know that this is funny. I enjoyed the pun when I came up with it in the car, but I don’t think it made a good comic. Also, the art in this one is terrible. I even tried to use perspective, though my attempt clearly went off half-cocked. I’ve been really busy lately, which makes me resent drawing sometimes. This makes the comic take longer to do than normal and turn out worse, which puts me in an even worse mood and further behind in the daily stuff I have to do. I’m seriously considering a change in format to break this rut, but I’m not sure what it is I need yet. I’ll be thinking over the next few days what, if anything, will happen.
After all, it could just be an artist in a rut. Maybe I’ll snap out and things will return to normal.
I am not happy with the art for this one, which is kind of sad in a way. This comic closes a month-long story arc, and I hate going out with a whimper. I’m just not in the right frame of mind this week to do good linework, and that ruins the rest. I also kind of slacked on the coloring. I’m really busy at work this week, and I think that’s part of the problem. As a result, instead of rushing to get another late comic out this week I will not post again until next Monday. Sorry, guys. I’d like to get another one in, but I need time to recharge to put out better quality stuff. Frankly, I’d do this over if I were a professional. Being as I’m an amateur, and bad enough about posting as it is, I cut my losses (in terms of time) and posted it when it was “good enough”.
That being said, I tried turning up the intensity of the background texture. I like it better, the rough backgrounds make the foreground things look a bit cleaner and give them more prominence, more depth. At least, I seem to think so. As always, comments are encouraged.
I could rant for quite a while about how corporations in the U.S. have rearranged families, and how two weeks of vacation time is just enough to spend time with both sides of a family. I could keep going on about how the value of benefits in the U.S. has consistently decreased over the decades, and all the while corporations are patting themselves on the back for controlling costs and continuing to provide “greater cost-conscious employee programs”.
Fortunately, it’s not one of those nights. Also, I currently live near my family and actually get to use some of my vacation time for vacation. Some of it, at least. I also feel weird writing these workplace strips as it is. Since we’re in the middle of something that feels like a crushing recession to the average Joe, I feel like these stories aren’t really in touch with the current state of the U.S. (which is where I live and where I base my comic). I don’t want to go in to that in the comic, though, because I want it to be an escape from all that. I don’t want you to come to the comic and be reminded of how bad things are out there. Honestly, then I wouldn’t have much to separate me from, say, CNN.com. Well, that and the lack of celebrity gossip on my site.
This upcoming story, to me, is more about the general attitude of corporations in the U.S. towards their employees and how it has changed in the past six decades. I’ll see how it comes across to y’all, since I have to keep things very streamlined for the medium. Suffice it to say, this is not based on my real-life experience with vacation time but is more a piece of social commentary. It is my opinion that corporations despise their employees and would see them all fired if it weren’t for the fact that someone has to do the actual work that keeps a company afloat.
I’d also like to point out that it was a lot more fun to crack jokes at Canada’s expense when the Canadian dollar was well below the U.S. dollar. Now that we’re roughly at parity, and for a while were on the down side, I kind of feel that in some ways the U.S. has earned a spot as the Newfoundland of Canadian jokes.
Two updates on schedule? In a row? I know, you guys must be the luckiest fans in the world! Things are starting to slow down in my life, so I’m finally close to catching up on everything that’s backed up around the house. Hopefully, there will be no additional delays on the part of the comic.
I had this in my sketchbook, with roughs for all the characters and the script scribbled in. I even wrote, “Watters0n-style word balloons”. I didn’t go with that in the end, I did freehand balloons which I don’t particularly like. It’s odd that when I am thinking of a specific thing, I’ll refer to another artist’s style. It’s just easier that way.
The observant of you will notice that Watterson’s balloon style is set inside closed panel borders, where I leave my panel borders open in the text balloons to tie together the white space. Clearly, I was referring to a “half-Watterson.” Great. Now I’m inventing terms. Comic illustrating: The new skateboarding?
I used my fountain pen on the outer panels, and my Pentel brush on the inner panel where the shot was more close-in. The only other thing is that I did the rough pencils and scripting beforehand, which made things move a lot faster. Pencils, ink, scanning and painting took roughly an hour and a half as opposed to two to three hours. I highly recommend it.
I experimented with the lighting. I know it’s not consistent: That was intentional. Sorry if it disturbs the nitpickers, you can always send me a scathing e-mail if it makes you feel better.
This strip kicks off a new story line. I’m excited to see where it goes! Also, I like how things turned out in the first two panels. I’m not so happy with the inks in the third panel, and I don’t know that they have improved, but I am more comfortable with them. That’s a huge victory, even if it’s not a visible one.