sketchbook july 2019
a quick glimpse into july’s sketchbook
of the meagre genre of video tours through my sketchbook, may’s was far superior
freelance comic panel
been busy doing freelance – a one page spider-man parody called spiderfoo
here’s a timelapse video of the final panel coming together
sprite walk cycle in action
a little snippet of video so you can see yesterday’s walk cycle in action
end of the month
end of the sketchbook
drawing whew
a little timelapse showing of the background drawing of the latest steps strip
i forgot to record me drawing and finishing the comic strip
shop back up…but…
shop back up, but that means my archive of webcomics is down:(
wordpress doesn’t know when it will be fixed. they rolled out an automatic update of woocommerce that doesn’t play well with the webcomics plug in
and they can’t roll back the woocommerce update
in the meantime here’s a snippet of timelapse featuring me digtially inking the latest ‘steps’ strip, which you can’t read in the archive, so i’ve posted that below as well…
backwards timelapse
here’s the sketch for yesterday’s journal strip ‘backwards’
and here’ s the timelapse
you’re getting about an hour of creation time in a scooch over a minute
making comics is hard work any way, and right now making comics seems very hard for me
just have to find ways to keep the pencil moving
straw timelapse
here’s a timelapse of the making of the straw strip i posted a few days ago
fixing dinner timelapse
havent had a timelapse in awhile since i havent been working digitally
hey man
in the journal is posted
it’s been awhile since i’ve done one of these
i did it in digital first
but then decided i need the practice so i drew it in ink and watercolor
as you can see i ran in to some lettering trouble in panel 2
timelapse of the airplane drawing
Forgot to turn on the screen capture of me going from the sketchbook sketch to the digital sketch, from yesterday’s on the airplane strip, so here’s the sketchbook sketch:
And then the timelapse begins after i get the digital sketch overlaid.
As you can tell, I really had some trouble figuring out the color for this one. I ended up back at the watercolor look, but without the ‘ink’ lines on top…
storyboards
These storyboards are from a pitch I made while still in school.
(Posting the interactive fiction adapted from an old short story I wrote has me digging into the archives, I guess.)
It’s called ‘Gepetto’ and is a familiar story viewed through a new lens.
Gepetto, a brilliant toy designer whose abilities with artificial intelligence allow him to breathe life into all of his creations, have made his company the most successful and endeared on the planet.
When a young executive turns the board of directors against him, ousting the old designer from the company he created, a broken hearted Gepetto takes to the countryside joined by one of his finest creations, Dove.
Dove and Gepetto encounter a submerged amusement park, and Gepetto decides to investigate, unaware that the greatest work of his life is still ahead of him.
I edited the storyboards into a short video sequence. I hope it makes some sense, even without the benefit of full animation.
timelapse of yesterday’s airport strip
here’s the timelapse of the making of yesterday’s strip, the airport
about an hour of creation-time goes by in just over 30 seconds
drawing yesterday’s downhill strip
here’s a quick look at drawing the latest ‘steps’ strip, downhill
you get about 40 minutes of drawing, hemming, and hawing in about 30 seconds
i first posted the sketch for the strip back in march
the scrape timelapse
finally a new strip up, the scrape
and here’s the sped up screengrab if you’d like to see how it all came together. or didn’t come together? i’m never sure if these comics work or not.
scarecrow timelapse
here’s a timelapse of the making of yesterday’s scarecrow strip
i’ve also added the webcomics plugin so that you can easily read all of the past ‘steps’ strips. (i don’t know why i call the strips featuring little guy ‘steps’ but i think it works.
this plug in lets me keep the latest strip at the top of the blog and gives you an easy way to navigate them. the double arrow takes you back to the first ‘steps’ strip, the single arrow lets you increment back to the previous strip, and the little infinity symbol takes you to a random strip.
take it for a spin and let me know what you think.
2:30 am comic strip timelapse
i just realized how wonky the perspective was in the drawing of the doorway
and of course you can see how lazy i am when i just copy and paste the doorway from panel to panel
the couch cushion timelapse
here’s the timelapse of the couch cushion strip from a few days ago
the process usually goes like this:
i see a moment in real life that i think will work for the strip: in this case it was watching little guy move the cushion so he could sit down on the couch
(and right now i’m focusing on those moments that dont require any dialogue, right now i’m more interested in telling these little stories without dialogue, so i’ve passed on some great moments that have dialogue. maybe that will change in the future)
then i’ll need to puzzle out how this moment will break down in to 4 frames – i have to select my 4 moments which usually takes some trial and error with some really bad drawings, just diagrams really, in the sketchbook that help me quickly find those 4 moments
then i take a photo of the sketches and cut and paste those moments into the frames of the page
since i had already done a couch strip, i decided to recycle the background from that previous strip not only for continuity, but also because i am very lazy
from there i need to do the actual drawings (which in this case were pretty dismal, though they hopefully worked)
select my colors
go back in and fix little guy’s smile on the last panel (it looked a little creepy the first go-round)
and that was about it
when i write it all out like this it makes the process feel a little mechanical, but for me the magic lies in recognizing the moment when it occurs, and enjoying the finished strip when i’m done
timelapse of the easter strip
color was really important in this strip (i mean, color is always important for me, and i kind of sweat it when coloring the strip, but color was especially important to the storytelling of this particular strip)
i don’t think this strip could have worked in black and white (and some of my past strips absolutely could have, but i like color…and now i’m not even sure of what my original point was.
anyway, hope you enjoy seeing the strip come together at high speeds, it always seems a minor miracle to me when a strip is finished
paper towel roll timelapse
here’s about 45 minutes of drawing compressed into about 45 seconds
if you watch closely you can see how lazy i am
once i get a good drawing i recycle it in all the panels and just adjust what i need to
search timelapse
here’s the screen capture of me working on the ‘search’ strip from a few days ago
i also reorganized the ‘comics’ menu item so it is just finished strips now. no process videos or sketches making it easier to scroll through past strips without all that junk in the way
so if the sketches, videos, and various other asides that appear between strips aren’t in your wheelhouse, you can just bookmark the comics page and see the most recent strips
zipper comic timelapse
it is hard to wear a zipper sweater and carry him because he likes to zip up the zipper and catch my neck skin in it
i don’t know if that came across in the strip or not
not only were the drawings difficult for me on this one, but so was the ‘timing’ of the strip – trying to figure out which moments to show so that the reader understands whats going on and the punchline is effective
timelapse of recent visiting the grandparents comic
some days you just dont feel like you can draw
i think the outstretched arm of grandpa gets lost amongst the squiggles here
you’re seeing about an hour and a half go by in about a minute
popcorn timelapse
lot of struggle in this one
replacing panels
figuring out the timing
figuring out the color
putting together the pepper strip timelapse
what’s great about this timelapse is it shows how nothing came easy on this one
and when i saw little guy trying to grind pepper with the pepper shaker at the restaurant i thought i had it made
but then i realized i needed to show all of the other times he saw me using a pepper grinder
and none of the drawings came easy
the staging of that last panel was especially difficult. and the drawing was pretty bad. I’m not even sure it is clear what is going on.
even the colors of the strip were dificult. i worried that there would be too many colors in the last panel so i decided to go monotone throughout.
i decided on yellow just because i thought it would be funny to color in the yolks in panel 3.
my first attempt at yellow looked like pee. so i made it bolder.
i’m not sure i agree with that decision.
ultimately i still think the idea was good, but the execution lacked on almost every level.
i think ive mentioned before i have no idea what im doing