I’m going to try and update this now although I don’t know how successful of an update it will be. I’ve just spent two hours rocking a mezzotint plate (I’ll post pics and an explanation for non print makers in a little while), so my wrist is killing me.
The comic is coming along well. I’ve got six new comic pages all done in a coherent manner, meaning their all done in pencil with computer lettering. It makes it sooo- much easier to read (and make corrections) to comics done using this method of production. However, there are a few comics coming up in the next week or two that are the precursor to my discovering this new production method. That means that its back to hand lettering; though, if I get the chance I’ll change them to computer lettering.
I’ve been toying around with the idea of trying to make a full blown surreal experimental comic/book thing. I’m just about at the point of trying it but I just have to find some time, perhaps after I finish rocking the plate.
About the intention to do a daily comic, its going well I’ve actually be able to keep up at the rate of a page per day. In reality this deadline is better, It forces me to work on the comic and get the story together; gives me less time to wander off and start some other project. So, why hasn’t the site seen any of these changes yet? Well, I have a few more comics that were planed out in strip format coming up. These need some work to complete them, I’m playing it safe until these comics are done and posted, then I’ll change over to a daily comic. That should be in about a week or two.
Spelling. Gah, why doesn’t photoshop have spellcheck it would make my life so — much easier…
Well, as you can see the 3d experimentation phase has once again run its course. Every so often it happens to me. I’ll be sitting in front of the computer trying to be all productive when I see the blender 3d icon sitting all by itself in the corner of my screen and I just wonder, what if? What if I produced my comic in 3d instead of 2d? The production would be a lot quicker, though the setup would take longer. Anyway, it usually ends up with a few unproductive days worth of tinkering around with it. Till I finally get fed up and drop back to 2d.
At least this time I managed to get a few images out of it…
Also, I’ve come down on the side of doing a full page comic every two days, kinda like it is now. However, I’m looking at my school schedule and debating if I could make every day (well, maybe not Sat. and Sun.) with a four panel digitally inked strip. I’m wondering if I can make the jump…
The Image above was created using a combination of blender, photoshop and indigo. Its an example of a direction that I would like to try taking the comic in eventually. Unfortunately I have yet to find a good way of creating believable 3d characters yet. So, instead I have been dropping the characters in after the fact. This way the comic can feature rich detailed 3d worlds.
I have an indy study with one of the professors at UW-Parkside; the subject of it is essentially taking images from all over the place, making a few compositions with them and then creating 3d prints out of those. Or, at least that’s the process side of it. The other side of it is what really interest me. I tend to enjoy music with obscure lyrics, probably because it is somewhat like a blank canvas that I can project upon (so would say the psychologist). After all I do enjoy creating stories. Anyway, some forms of art have similar things going on. (surrealism, dadaism, etc.) I find this fascinating because some of the things that our own minds can come up when trying to set patterns into random data are way better then anything that can be created conventional methods. That’s why I chose to use magazine cut outs at a base for a drawing, because if i was to try and come up with images from the top of my head I would place to much emphisis on what I wanted to happen from my own ‘library’ of things that I draw all the time. Using the ready made images allows me to play around with concepts that are inspired externally instead of internally. (well the arrangement of the ready made images is still from an internal influence). Well, that relates to the conceptual part of the entire thing. So what’s so obvious?
Before I was going about this all old-school. I was sitting at my drawing desk with an x-acto and a cutting mat. That’s all find an well, however my range of images was limited by the magazines that I was willing to donate to the project. Not necessarily a bad thing, but it did have me getting lots of people for instance and not many other things to use. So i was thinking that I should just scan the images and print them up on card stock, or just photoshop them all together. Duh, it should have been obvious from the beginning…
Hey! An update on a Saturday? Yes, that’s right; but instead of updating with the usual I’ve taken a break to bring you this comic from awhile back. This is an artist statement that I completed for a class. I had been looking at a portfolio that I found in my studio filled with tons of stuff. This just happened to be in there along with a lot of other comic stuff that I’ve drawn over my time at parkside.
I’ve been continuing my experiments with traditional methods of inking and producing the comic. I’m still shifting back and forth between using the computer and doing it all by hand. When I produce the comic the old way I get a better since of how the layout is working and it takes less time. However, I’m having major difficulties trying to get a clean scan of the drawings. Digital methods have their advantages too but its annoying to have to jump back and forth to work on different panels and such.
