digging in to the brushes and paints again

what i like about working digitally is not having to see my mistakes for very long i can get through more bad drawings faster but posting old work on screentone is giving me a chance to get back in to the brushes and inks and paints here’s a few stages from a piece last night felt so clumsy and missed that undo button but stuck with it long enough to push through some of those feelings and doubts and wanting to quits on the next one i need to SLOW DOWN – be more patient – have a lighter touch (and…

timelapse of the airplane drawing

June 30, 2018July 24, 2018 Categories: videoTags: airplane · sketchbook · stepsprocess · time lapse · videoLeave a comment

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…

new strip up: on the airplane

June 29, 2018June 28, 2018 Categories: sketchTags: stepsprocessLeave a comment

a new strip is up (this is a close-up of the sketch) take a look this one gave me a lot of trouble, especially the color i took a more…painterly? approach so the process was pretty…winding a couple of false starts the timelapse video should be pretty crazy:)

dialogue dilemmas and color quandries

June 22, 2018June 22, 2018 Categories: processTags: color · digital art · Process · stepsprocessLeave a comment

I’ve struggled with the idea of using dialogue in ‘steps’ for awhile. I’ve used it a couple of times in one panel strips like this one and this one, but it has never felt right for the four panel strip. So using it the other day was a personal milestone. I hope that it opens up more storytelling opportunities, and it still may, but the strip feels more powerful to me without the dialogue. And with the added element of the dialogue, it became more difficult to juggle all of the other elements of the strip, especially color. I…

the scrape timelapse

May 24, 2018May 24, 2018 Categories: videoTags: cartooning · digital art · stepsprocess · timelapse · toddler · video · webcomicsLeave a comment

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

May 5, 2018 Categories: videoTags: . · air dancer · cartooning · digital art · scarecrow · stepsprocess · timelapse · toddler · video · webcomicsLeave a comment

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…

2:30 am comic strip timelapse

April 11, 2018April 11, 2018 Categories: videoTags: cartooning · couch · digital art · stepsprocess · timelapse · toddler · video · webcomicsLeave a comment

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 view the completed strip

the couch cushion timelapse

April 8, 2018April 11, 2018 Categories: videoTags: cartooning · couch · digital art · stepsprocess · timelapse · toddler · video · webcomicsLeave a comment

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…

timelapse of the easter strip

April 3, 2018 Categories: videoTags: cartooning · coloring easter eggs · comic strip · digital art · easter eggs · stepsprocess · timelapse · toddler · video · webcomicsLeave a comment

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

March 31, 2018 Categories: videoTags: cartoon · cartooning · comic strip · digital art · paper towel roll · paper towels · stepsprocess · timelapse · toddler · video · webcomicsLeave a comment

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

March 27, 2018 Categories: videoTags: cartoon · cartooning · comic strip · digital art · stepsprocess · timelapse · toddler · video · webcomicsLeave a comment

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

procrastinating sketchbook post

March 23, 2018May 23, 2018 Categories: sketchTags: sketch · sketchbook · stepsprocess · toddler3 Comments

No time or energy for a finished strip So you get this sketchbook sketch which isn’t a strip yet Which is definitely the opposite of how it usually works but I’m tired I hope doing it this way doesn’t take away the punch from the eventual strip when I get to it

zipper comic timelapse

March 20, 2018March 25, 2018 Categories: videoTags: cartoon · cartooning · comic · comic strip · Digital · digital art · stepsprocess · timelapse · toddler · video · webcomic · webcomics · zipperLeave a comment

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

March 17, 2018March 25, 2018 Categories: videoTags: cartooning · Digital · digital art · hospital · stepsprocess · timelapse · toddler · video · webcomicsLeave a comment

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

March 16, 2018March 25, 2018 Categories: videoTags: cartooning · Digital · digital art · stepsprocess · timelapse · toddler · video · webcomicsLeave a comment

lot of struggle in this one replacing panels figuring out the timing figuring out the color

putting together the pepper strip timelapse

March 7, 2018April 7, 2018 Categories: videoTags: cartoon · comic · comic strip · Digital · digital art · stepsprocess · timelapse · toddler · video · webcomic1 Comment

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…

snowball time lapse

March 5, 2018April 7, 2018 Categories: sketchTags: cartoon · comic · comic strip · Digital · digital art · Drawing · snow · snowball · stepsprocess · timelapse · toddler · video · webcomicLeave a comment

here’s the timelapse of me drawing the snowball comic strip this is an interesting one to look at because the strip went through so many changes after i stopped recording i decided to run it vertically having no expression on the little guy in the last panel felt most right for the ‘punchline’ but even more interesting (to me i guess) was the decision to change the first panel the close up of little guy packing a snowball seemed to ruin the ‘rhythm’ of the piece that panel seemed too ‘big’ – too ‘loud’ for the next three panels for…

robin timelapse

March 2, 2018April 7, 2018 Categories: videoTags: cartoon · comic · comic strip · Digital · digital art · stepsprocess · timelapse · toddler · video · webcomicLeave a comment

timelapse of the robin strip from a couple of days ago i didnt know i was going to erase the pencil lines of the tree until i saw how it looked so much of the final look of these strips comes out of the doing of them the final is always different from the idea of them

screentone.org

comics, sketches, illustration, and more

Tag: stepsprocess