Observations

Whisper is very different from Collide (for those who have seen Collide). Collide was black and white, some screentones, and a very manga inspired style. Now and then hints of the direction my art would take could be found. Whisper is full color, a tighter style that leans toward realistic in some ways.

Basically, Whisper is a lot more work than Collide.

I could do a page of Collide in a day--maybe two, if I had a hard time getting things right. A page of Whisper takes days and days. Perfecting the composition, sketches, inking--that's usually a day (though page 6 took three days to get the sketches right), then color takes about a day and a half, two if it's complex. On rare occasion, I can do a page of Whisper in two days. In fact, at the beginning, I did the first page in two days and it was great. But I started spending longer on each page, getting the lines right, getting everything right. It's exhausting.

Too exhausting to continue forever. Good thing Whisper is only 47 pages.

I'm practicing a simplified version of my style for the next comic, in hopes of speeding things up. I have no idea if it will work. But it's a thing to try. I'm tempted to search my heart for another short(er) comic to try that style on. Will dwell further on it.

Also.

ALSO.

My colors. What's up with them. I like the colors themselves, I think I got a good thing down finally, but they look so shiny. So smooth. It's no good for all of my work. Some of my work needs to look gritty, or watery, or transparenty. I've been studying various artists colors and the thing I have decided that I need to work on for my colors now is texture. I need to start collecting textures to laydown on color to give it a real texture feel. I don't mean, hey, that wicker basket have wickery patterns so it looks wicker. No. The colors and lines that make up that kind of texture will still be smooth and perfect and inappropriate. I mean a background texture. Concrete, smoke, watercolor bleeds--things that look like the paper or the material used to make the art. I'm not making my comics on porcelain. They need life.

Recap on learns:

-Can't do comics the way I do an illustration because it will take the rest of my life to make my first full length GN.

-Must learn fast yet effective style.

-Must learn to utilize textures in my coloring.

2 and something years later!

I'll try to be better about this blog since I'm so focused on my comics again.

Since the last post, I am no longer working at Double Fine (unemployed now wee), no longer living in San Francisco (hello, Virginia!), and working Whisper pretty much every day.

Whisper went through an edit, I went through some depression, and now both are (relatively) done and I am working on it again. In fact, I'm already 6 pages out of 47 pages done, and posting it online.

http://whisper.alliartist.com

Pretty sweet.

Down to a Whisper

Remember, back when I wanted to draw Strung Out because it was a short story and wouldn't be a huge commitment? And then it got bigger and bigger until it grew larger than Collide? YEAH.

I still want to draw a short comic before any of the big ones. Something little, complete, and lovely.

And I think I've hit upon it.

Typed up, it's 9 pages long. II've begun to thumb nail it, and if it continues on in the way it's going, it should run about 60 pages (give or take). That's pretty short! And it'll be very pretty and interesting. I'm stoked.

I work on the thumb nails on the train to and from work. Oh, I got a job. The best job at the best place. I am jealous of myself. I love going to work. Mondays are a joy. My coworkers are the best kind of people. My life is infinitely happier now. I've 25 pages thumb nailed, and am making more every day. It's been going quite smoothly. The website for it and pretty much done and needs only some actual comics. I look forward to sharing it.

Lying awake at night

Collide is on the precipice of beginning it's new form of life.

I've scripted quite far ahead, and finally sketched out the thumbs for the first two pages. I'm not 100% certain about my art style, but, I think it's okay this time. My friend gave me good advice that (in essence) each page is a record of our style at that moment. It can change, and it's good to be able to look back and see progress. That still terrifies me, because I'd like things to look as awesome as possible, but I think it's okay now, and I just need to get over that. Also, I need more confidence in my art. I think I'm letting the awesome webcomickers out there overimpress me, and it's making me wonder if I'll ever be that good. OF COURSE I WILL. I need to get over that too.

I've been studying other comics on the internet to see how they format their sites (color schemes, backgrounds, buttons, etc) to improve on Collide's site. I've got plans. As a result of that, I made the site private while I fiddle with it--sorry, dudes. When it comes back up, the previous version will be gone, but I might post it here or on my tumblr in a later date. Maybe I'll PDF it and toss it up on the site. Who knows.

Progress progress progress.

Today I catch a train to the city for a job interview at a place I've always wanted to work.

Just doing things

It never ends.

You think you're done, and you're not.

I thought Strung Out was settled enough to start drawing. Two pages in, I realize there are some seriously weak characters, and set out to fix that. And, as a result, I'm overhauling the story. Boo.

This happened to Collide, you'll recall. I got tired of the weaknesses, and paused it. On that same vein, I've been making progress with Collide. I hit on the very things I was missing, and the modified story is coming together quite perfectly. It's a lot shorter and has less characters. I'm addressing some serious stuff, too, as well as fun stuff. It's going to be amazing.

It'd be easy to feel discouraged at myself for not drawing my comics--to tell myself I'm not progressing. But really, I am. I'm making my stories better, and that's progress. Things happen differently for everyone, and for me, I don't feel comfortable starting unless I have a script for the story. I do that because I want to make sure dialogue doesn't insinuate the wrong things, or that I include the right hints and allusions. I want my readers to reread later and gasp when they realize what a merry chase I've led them on. I have comic friends who know where their story is going, but don't write dialogue until the moment the page is being made. I can't work like that. I do leave myself room to adjust dialogue, though, if the moment feels right.

Taking care of your artsy body

If you're an artist, you are at risk for certain injuries: carpal tunnel, neck pain, back pain, and a variety of hand and arm injuries. This is because you are using those parts of your body all the time. Normal, not-artist people use those parts of their body regularly, but have lots of times during the day where they let those muscles sit lifelessly.

As an artist, you draw for fun, work, and release. And, let's be honest, drawing uses more muscles than typing or video gaming (sans wii and kinect, etc). You've got these muscles from your fingers to your neck all tight and focused and tight and working and tight and, did I mention tight? Yeah, they get super tight. And if you're not careful, you can make them flip out, as I did this last week.

It's happened to me before. When I work, I get into a zone and usually don't surface for many hours. I have had more than my fair share of days spent from wake til sleep drawing, music blaring, the world totally tuned out. That's my style. So my muscles, every few years, suddenly seize up and give me agony for a week or so. It's always sudden, unpredictable, and pathetic. I end up camped out in my Daddy's heavenly recliner for the duration (he's the best ♥Dad♥ for giving up that chair to me, even though he has a bad back and loves to relax there best of anywhere else), staring at daytime TV (American Pickers, anyone?) and whimpering for my Momma to bring me food when I'm hungry to help me get out of the chair when I need the bathroom (she's the best Mom, brings me all the muscle relaxants, tylenol, food, and heat packs I need ♥♥). Sounds fun, and it is in a way, except that I am in endless pain that never stops, I can't lift my head on my own, and can't turn or chew too much or swallow without pain. Do you understand? It's the worst pain ever. EVER.

So, I highly recommend, to you artists out there--even if you've never had this pain, you probably will--I recommend you set a timer when you're doing your art and take a break every hour. Go on a walk, watch a movie, have a nap, read a book, but let your arm and neck and back rest. It's frustrating, I know, but it doesn't even come close to how frustrating being a slug is when your brain is working and still being creative.

Take care of your body, and let it last longer and do the things you want it to. It's the reason you can do the things you do. Don't abuse it.

Strung Out, starting the engine

Since I'm basically graduated (one fluke of a class to take), I'm on the hunt for a real life job. And between hunting, I'm putting together Strung Out stuff, starting with the website.

http://strungout.allicomics.com

So far, it looks pretty good. It even has stuff in the 'about' section. I'm trying to decide to what to put elsewhere, but I figure that'll come together with time.

I'm going to start drawing Strung Out when I clean out my room. It's unbearably cluttered, with junk crowding my walls and spilling on my floor (literally, metaphorically, and figuratively). I'm going to clean it out, put everything away, and clean off my desk. I'm also going to start making use of my lap desk (less a lap desk, more a large-foot-breakingly-heavy-flat-thing-with-a-handle). 

The fact is, though, I could easily make an excuse to put off Strung Out more and say, "Well, there's no space to work. I'll start it when I have work space, which will be when I eventually get my own place." But let's be honest, when will that happen? WHO KNOWS. And I am miserable not drawing comics. 

So there we go. My two goals are to find a job and start Strung Out. ASAP.

Strung Out

I am almost done with school. I took my last final (hopefully) ever today. I have only one more paper due, and two tests to pass that will excuse me from a class; if I don't pass those tests, I have to take another semester of school.

But.

As soon as it's all done with, I will be able to start working on Strung Out.

The deal with Strung Out is simple:
It's short enough that I will not spend my life working on it.
It's not my "baby" so I won't be crushed if I eventually look back and cringe.
But I fully intend to pour my all into it, which means no planned update schedule.
I also will be uploading fully fledged scenes, rather than individual pages. I dislike how disjointed things can get with webcomics, and I want my readers to experience each scene right.

That's what's going on. I'm almost done with University, will hopefully find a job, and then dive into comics again.

Change

I've been unhappy with Collide lately. I don't feel like I'm doing it the justice it deserves, and I feel stuck drawing it in a style I don't want to draw it in. I don't want know what style I do want to do it in, but this isn't it. It's wrong.

The problem is... If I continued to draw Collide in this style, I'd put myself in a rut. I wouldn't be able to change my art style. And my art style wants to change. It's trying, but it gets dragged backwards whenever I work on Collide. And when I have to take breaks from Collide, my style progresses (only to slide backwards when I start up again).

So, after consulting a few comic friends and voicing my concerns, I've decided to put Collide on hold until I know what to do with it. I'm going try different things, privately, and see what I like.

In the mean time, I'm going to start a new comic project, Strung Out. This one is more nailed down. I know the style I want to use, the script is done, and I know what everything looks like. It's ready to go. It's also shorter than Collide. Maybe I'll be ready for Collide once this one ends.

I am sorry that you all have to wait to know what will happen. I really am. But this is the right thing to do, and Collide will be better for it.

Redrawing and reredrawing

The very first time I started drawing Collide, I posted the pages on smackjeeves. It was all well and good, but after getting a much honored critique from someone who I greatly respected, I decided to redraw the first chapter (which I had just finished). When I began to redraw chapter 1, I moved my comic to google sites, and soon after procured a URL for myself. And now, I am a few days from posting the last page of chapter 2.

The thing is...

I didn't script far ahead of myself. This happened because I was a bit frightened of the largeness of Collide. But after a bout of successfully scripting one of my other stories in a few days... I tackled Collide. And it went marvelously. I finished the first go a few days ago, and then proceeded to ponder the script and adding scenes which were necessary. I think it's pretty satisfactory now. But the result of this scripting was that I got to know my characters even better. And that meant that when I read my current Chapter 1... I not only cringe at the dreadful art, but now my characters aren't acting quite right.

And the other evening, I finally accepted that I would have to rescript and then redraw chapter 1. Again. Which, really, I have no objection to. Except that probably means I should redraw chapter 2 as well. Probably. The last few pages of it are actually quite satisfactory, so maybe I'll redraw up to those...? Blarg. I don't know. Chapter 1 is definitely getting redrawn. Chapter 2, probably. That kills me inside because I just spent the last year drawing those pages. A whole year. I don't call it a waste since my style has improved by leaps and bounds since then, but it's still murderous to my happiness to consider it too long.

But I'm still going to move forward with chapter 3, and work on the revised chapters in my spare-spare time. Yyyyeah.

Drawing from life

Well, I've been making progress in improving my bodies. I really want to get better at drawing the actual bodies of people before I start my next comic project. It's bee frustrating, as I wanted to take a life drawing course but they cost money and I'd have to travel during rush hour. But then I found the answer (or rather it found me) in the form of a deviant art.

One artist I follow (whitetrashpalace, if you want to look them up) often does little "lessons" that I usually already know. But recently, they did one on drawing from life. It was very informative, and at the very end there was a list of references. One of those references was a book that I was able to find a digital copy of and skim over. I studied it for maybe 15 minutes and tried my hand at some new figure studies. I drew this:

 Well, mostly I drew the body first and added the head later. I'm pretty satisfied with my faces. And sure, I already know at least one thing that's wrong with this torso, but it's way better than anything I've drawn in a while!

I feel buoyed on by this improvement by just 15 minutes of studying, so I ordered the book from Amazon for a whopping $4.89 and it should be here within the next few weeks. Hopefully, sooner rather than later. 

So keep your eyes open for more sketches and hopefully a new comic soonish.

PS - Alternative Press Expo is this weekend. I'm excited! And sick with terror. XD Haaaaa...

Sometimes, it's awful

It's hard, you know. Doing all that I'm doing.

Currently, in my efforts to get established, I have a booth at least 3 cons a year, work on my comic between school assignments, improve my website, take commissions, and spend my very little and rare extra money on con supplies and such.

And it's tiring. And sometimes it feels like I'm going nowhere and I'll never get anywhere.

Like this recent con I did. It came out of the blue and was unplanned. This was the third con I've shown at, and my first two cons were at big locations and I made decent bank. But this con was dreadful in every way. Everything you can imagine would go wrong, went wrong. I forgot my prints the first day, so I only had my sketchbooks and Collide Chapter 1 prints. The con was tiny (I mean, super tiny) and we didn't even get 300 visitors in the entire show, I think. And to make it worse, I broke even exactly; it wasn't a financial gain at all. It was really rough and frustrating. I don't plan on going back to that con for a few years, to see if it improves or something.

But I think it's important to realize things aren't always going to be marvelously easy. Even if you get a publisher by sitting on the train and the guy next to you happens to work for Marvel or Oni Press, and he sees your work and BOOM, you're published. Even if that happens... you're going to feel like a failure sometimes.

And if you do cons on your own time and money, you know the deep penetrating terror that you will spend over a hundred dollars to get a booth, another hundred to make prints, and whatever extra you spend to advertise on your table, and you will utterly fail. You won't sell anything. You'll forget everything. Something, everything will happen.

So it was healthy for me, I think, to realize that even if I forget all my prints (that was the deepest fear for me), I'll still be okay.

Also!

If you do cons, have something you do on-site and make money off of. My friend, Megan, does on-site sketches and illustrations; I do tiny art cards of well known characters. If you have something you can do on the spot, you'll be able to make those extra dollars.

Anyway, that awful con is over, and I have a big BIG con in October. Alternative Press Expo. I'm terrified. Utterly. Terrified.

Printed

So I finished drawing Chapter 1 of Collide a while ago, and sent the pages off to be printed into a neat little book. And it happened! It's done!





It turned out pretty good! So I ordered some more to sell at the next con I go to, which will hopefully be in September. I'll probably make them available to order through a website. Yeah.

All right, I'm off.

Dilemma

Seriously. Dilemma.

I've been doing Collide in the style I've been using for years. I've tweaked it a bit, and I do like it. It works for Collide. But for my future comics... I don't want to use that style. It doesn't suit them. Collide is the first comic I planned and it took a long time, so I've been staring at these character designs in that style for years. It belongs with this style.

So I spent the past few days nailing down what I want to do my other comics in. I knew I wanted it more detailed, realistic, and less manga-ish. But I still wanted large eyes, very expressive faces, and will probably use chibis.

Here's what I came up with.



You like it? I do. Very much. I've been drawing characters from my other comics all day. The biggest change is the nose. I really like it.

But I am concerned that I won't get truly used to this style unless I draw it all the time from now on. But Collide is in a different style.

I guess I could do both as best I can, and try not to let them affect each other?

Mehhhhhhh!

Go me!

I'm working on the last page of chapter 1 right now. This moment. I'm excited!

I've been working like a fiend on Collide. I'm amazed at how fast I'm tearing through this! I'm so excited to finish chapter 1 and to thumbnail chapter 2 and start that! XD

Once I finish the page, though, I'm going to wait about a week, review the pages, see if any changes are needed, and then submit them for printing. I'm going to print the chapter 1 copies as early as I can. I'll do the one test copy, and if it looks good, I'll probably print 20. I haven't decided if I'll start offering them online on my site yet, though. I might wait til a few more chapters are up for reading, then readers will know if they really want the chapter (I hope they will)!


I'm still blown away that I'm doing this. That I'm pushing myself to achieve. I sometimes consider myself really lazy, but this is making me wonder if that's true. I'm working so hard and refusing to give up. I'm impressed with myself, honestly.

Fanime 2010

And that's the end of another con.

Fanime was different than WonderCon, that's for sure. I didn't know what to expect, so I had to adjust my products throughout the weekend. I didn't do as well as I had at WonderCon either, but at least my friend (Megan "Dekay") did really well. It was her first con since she was 15 and I'm glad she cleaned up. ^__^

I did manage to find successful techniques, though. Things to use next year, if we decide to do it again. *shrug* Maybe.

Anyway, now we are prepping for APE in October and there is so much to do! I want to finish Collide chapter 1 by then and have printed copies, as well as bigger prints of my best illustrations, and we want to buy some PVC for an upright display. Gah, so much to do.

Whoa, hey, what's up?

WonderCon is over. Has been over for a month now, too. But I've been crazy busy with school. The Spring term is wrapping up, so I have 3 or 4 papers due every week. It's pretty brutal.

On top of that, I'm moving this weekend. I haven't been able to work on Collide, which is killing me. T__T Ugh. I miss the work!

In other news, my friend Megan 'Dekay' and I are going to get some booths together at a plethora of conventions, hopefully starting with Fanime (if they get their act together and give us more info soon) and leading up to APE. APE seems far more likely than Fanime at this point, but here's hoping.

I made a tiny between site to connect Dekay's links and mine so we could have a single link for APE to post. Check it out.

Peace out.

Collide and tiny illustrations

After careful contemplation I have concluded that there is little chance I will be finishing Chapter 1 of Collide in time for WonderCon. Which is all right, really. I hoped to have it done, but it's not the end of the world.

Between now and WC I'll work on illustrations. Today I drew two tiny illustrations I'll watercolor tomorrow. They're little fanarts of Totoro and Princess Mononoke.





I was planning on doing more little fanarts, but it doesn't really show off my art as much as I'd like. So I'll work on original stuff from now on.

Ahoy

Right, so, Collide is chugging along nicely. I got over my worries and started drawing it again. Art board was readily available at University art at a far less expensive price than online; online including shipping, which is 13 dollars--yuck.

As of today I have inked through page 5. Once I get a bigger scanner I'll be able to tone and letter them. I'm not sure how updating will work, though. I don't want to update one page at a time, so it'll be in groups of probably two or three, but I want to have a nice backlog before I do that. Although, I prefer to have chapter 1 up before WonderCon.

Sigh, there is much to do.

Bump-bump

The past few days I've been feeling discouraged about Collide. Sometimes I think I'll never be good enough at drawing to do the story justice. Other times I think the story isn't as good as I believe it is. And most of the time, I'm terrified of having nothing to bring to WonderCon.

So tomorrow I'll order the art boards. I've decided to buy the manga dimension ones. They'll arrive in some number of days. I assume.

But for the most part, I need to rewrite the beginning. Completely. Which means I need Jacqueline and Maria time, to bounce ideas around. Lucky me I get that tomorrow (today?) night. Unless something gets canceled. Which could happen, y'know?

It's making my stomach hurt, all this worry. I need to relax and not get so stressed.