AID 5: Letters

Lettering is one of the toughest skill sets to learn in comics. Most people don't learn how to do it, leaving the job to Blambot or some unknown on 1001Fonts. It's one of this things I can forgive people for avoiding. 

 You're fighting a life time of hand writing... or thumb typing depending upon your generation... and lettering is not writing. Lettering is drawing shapes that look like your alphabet.

Shapes that need a lot of consistency. Computers do that a lot better than people. 

  

 But I see it as another tool in the kit that I need to work on if I want Project Git Good to have any meaning. 

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Today I laid out some lines with the Ames Guide and got to work. Goal One was simply gaining more control over my lettering. Goal Two was figuring out how small I can make the lettering on the page while kindly keeping it tall enough to be readable on a phone screen.

Not gonna lie, I'm considering telling the phone-only audience to go kick rocks. Yeah, they're 99.99% of the comics readership in the 2020s, but I want to have more dialog in each panel and I can't do that and give them something easy to read on their baby screens at the same time.

 IYKYK- The above was mostly done with the guide set to 7 or 6. IIRC print comics like Spider-Man are usually around a 3 or 4. I think I'll settle with 6. 

We'll see.

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The things I learnt today while practicing that I'll keep in mind; 

 1. Calligraphy nibs lay down ink a lot faster than a g-nib or maru nib. I need to keep the nibs wet as I go.

2. Laying out the dialog space and the word balloon dimensions is a vital first step. I haven't been doing that simply because I could move things around in software to fit everything in.  

3. G...o....s.....l.......o............o.............o.....................w..................................................w~ Whenever I started speeding up I stopped drawing alphabet shapes and started just writing. 

The rest is just doing it. 

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p.s.

I think I need to adjust my scanner settings. A lot of smoothness is getting lost. It's probably just the threshold for what's considered white and what's considered black. A small tweak, but I just need to remember to do it. 

AID4: Gag a Day

 

A desk full of chaos

 

Looking Back

I'm constantly trying to figure out a format that can work as a page and a scroll... and as something I personally find visually appealing. The previous installment wasn't able to stick the landing with the scroll IMO. It needed taller gutters and taller page breaks and the result was too dense for the scroll format.

It worked better as a "page". 

Dialog also remained a bugaboo. Too big. Too few words. Too 3rd grade reading level. I don't like it. It overpowers the art. I'm making a comic, not a visual novel.

But the world insists on looking at things on a tiny phone screen and they need giant text. What can be done besides giving in and drawing in a Webtoon format?

I'll keep chewing on that one. 

Looking Forward  

Plan 1. As you can see above the next few pages will be two by two. Newspaper style gag strips historically work well online so I'm going to borrow from that format. 

I decided to abandon the 4-koma approach to the next installment simply because it required changing the cadence of some of the story and I wasn't happy with the additional panels needed to keep that beat up. 

Having them scroll by one panel of a time creates far too much empty space. It's one of the reasons I don't draw in Webtoon style. I just don't think it's a pleasing reading experience seeing more gutter than comic.  

Plan 2. I'm still thinking of making the reading experience smoother for phone scrollers. I've started making the horizontal gutters and the page breaks taller.

Plan 3. As always: Hands. I find that my pencils for hands do look okay. It's when I ink them it all goes haywire. That's when I need to increase my vigilance.

Plan 4. I'm going to attempt some hand lettering. It'll be limited to emotes and sound effects first going on. But I will hand letter the dialog with blue line pencil to get a good gauge of how big I should be making the text in relation to the art.

Status

Layouts are mostly done as of this writing. Three pages left. 

Finished pencils are next.

Art Improvement Diary 3: Random Musings As I Gear Up For Pt.4

Click to embiggen

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I decided that five to six traditional pages per installment is the format for Digby. I decided this after reading a lot of old Archie comics AND a lot of old 2000AD progs. 

While the 2000AD progs were segments of a longer story, they did tell a complete event in their five pages. Archie generally told a full tale within its limited page count. I admire the skill of being able to tell a story in such a economical way. The first John Wick was like that. Dead wife, dead puppy, stolen car. Fifteen minutes in and Russian mobsters start dying in entertaining ways.

 In theory it'll make the posting come faster, but I'm not leaving my "When it's done" schedule. Comics are too much work for the sole reward of knowing I finished it.

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Up above you see a three panel gag. I noticed in part 3 that a lot of the cadence of the story was very 4-Koma like. You might have seen the formula in manga like Azumanga Daioh and K-On! A comedic version of old newspaper adventure strips where a story was told in three or four panel chunks.

Part 4 had that cadence as well. I decided I was going to move out of my comfort zone with it and actually do it as a series of 4-Koma. Pushing yourself to do difficult things is all part of any Project Git Gud.

The thumbnails look good IMO. Next is the actual getting-it-drawn part, which I'll start next week.  

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I accept that keeping Digby a black and white comic is not going to get my comic eyeballs. Comics readers only like black and white comics if there's a ninja turtle or anime titties in it. Otherwise they hate it.

Personally, I always see a lot of excellent comic art marred by adding colour. I also see a lot of bad comic art being carried by the colours. I definitely need to keep working on how I do my black and white, but I feel that's the look that works best for the comic I'm making. Colour won't improve anything visually. 

Colour will pander to the limits of others, but if I'm going to do that, I might as well start drawing Digby as a big titty anime girl and tracing Clip Studio assets.

 Bah! to that! 

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However the saying "Know your audience" is a wise one. I find in 2020s the audience for comics online are generally weebs and Tumblr kiddies and they only like certain types of comic. No hate. The middle-aged Wednesday crowd at comic shops are the same way. It's just in the nature of fandoms.

I won't lie to myself about most of it being my fault. If I want those eyeballs I must draw in those styles. Even if it's done badly, it's like what they like and that's the important thing. When all is said and done, me not doing that is me kneecapping myself.

 On most platforms. 

When I look at the platforms I've been using since I started drawing comics again;

Site A - All of my love came from other artists.

Site B - All of my love came from site runners. 

Site C - All of my love came from readers. 

I do appreciate all of the folks who showed me love on sites A and B, but it makes sense to put all of my focus on Site C, doesn't it? In theory they're the ones doing the word of mouth.

Dare I put all of my eggs in one basket? 

Okay. Egg. I have one egg.  

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None of that matters until I can level up my skills to the point that it's undeniable the people not reading Digby are missing out! I will keep in mind every bad habit I uncovered drawing Part 3 and strive to not repeat them. 

Back to the grind next week.

Next week because I'm still sore from my return to swimming yesterday and I'm a giant ball of ouch. 

Art Improvement Diary 2: Stupid Flow State

 There's an idea of getting into the flow state where your mind is locked in to one function and you become far more efficient at a task.

 I got to stop doing that.

 

What I drew.

 This is the original panel. I got so into inking the house that I didn't stop there. I added poles, trees, power lines, houses, etc. I was like Slartibartfast and his fjords. Getting lost in all of those crinkly lines.

 The result was busy and the add-ons kind of ruined the perspective. Also the bits where I really should have used a ruler I didn't because I was letting my hand do the thinking for me. Lines. Lines. Lines. More lines!

The flow state took over and my critical eye went to sleep. It's a hard to look at mess. Especially for the smartphone screen everyone uses.

 Corrections were made in Krita. 

What will be posted.

 More empty space, sure. Those spots will be filled with word balloons anyway, so nothing was lost. The most important part was establishing the setting. An anonymous Eastern Canadian house with a rickety fence. 

 No one needed to know about the neighbour's shed. 

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Lesson: The art in a comic is just a much of a language as the dialog.  Flow state is good for getting you locked in but you should always try to step back and make sure you're saying what you want to say clearly. 

Art Improvement Diary 1

This comic is being made with pen & paper. Real old school like. G-nib, brush, rulers, light table, ink, AMES guide, you know… How nobody makes comics anymore.

You wondering, “Why?” is understandable. I hope my “because” is the same for you:

Paper doesn’t have an undo button.

Yah, I’m still doing corrections and redraws in Krita and the argument can be made that using it is just a massive undo button for the many fuck ups in the original.

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TANGENT

You should never speak poorly of your own work. I’m not doing that. I’m stepping back and looking at my art and seeing where it needs to be improved. Making note that the eyes are misaligned isn’t saying, “I draw like shit,” it’s saying, “I have the ability to draw better and here’s the next thing to work on.”

I sometimes think people don’t want you do recognize your flaws because it robs them of the cruel pleasure of doing it themselves. But I’m a bit of a misanthrope.

END TANGENT
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Maybe it is an undo button with extra steps, but the shift in medium does a great job of forcing me to see where my bad habits are. Breaking them is a different thing, but I’m aware of the need to do so.

The biggest thing I noticed on these panels? Drawing fast like I was working digitally is the main cause of me needing to redo (undo?) so many things. I MUST slow down and treat the medium like it needs to be.

Now that’s all off my head, it’s time to get back to it.

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Yup, it's been a year since I touched this blog. Blame BlueSky for making shitting your brain onto the internet so much easier than trying to remember grammar and the like.

I'm loath to use any Google product give the push for AI horse shit, but I went through all of the usual suspects when finding a place to post this and Blogger was the least shit option. 

I was shocked too. 

C'mon C'mon C'mon

 The main reason I started blogging so long ago was to share my experiences as an English peddler.

It was the early years of the internet and well before Netflix became a K-drama delivery system so anything from East Asia was fascinating for everyone back home.

Cancer. But Asian!

Later it became how I got my brain operating in the morning. Coffee. Sit down. Go through the computer looking for a comic, drawing, or photo that would trigger an idea. Start writing.

Like what I'm doing right now.

I fell out of the practice late last year. Partially due to being focused on fulfilling my promise to myself to post a comic online. 

Partially because the world turned idiotic beyond idiotic and it has been getting worse each day and fuck me it's depressing to the point you don't want to do do anything. But I keep doing things.

For example;

Cherry Berry: Necromancer

I started drawing a Panel-per-Day comic that I posted up on Instagram... barf puke hurl... a few years ago. I stopped because I was so far out of practice making comics that it was obvious. The script was still there in my sketchbooks and it only needs some refinement to get it readable.

A pseudo-murder mystery starring a necromancer. 

Murdered She Rose

HAHAHAHA! Man, I crack myself up.

In the end, everything I do is done for me and that means at a pace best for me. I have to do it just for me because I'd be a damned fool soft shoeing for the attention of a moribund society like our own.

Clickity Click Expat Trick

Note- Everything you're about to read is true. But it's truth as filtered through a brain that can barely remember last week, let alone twenty years ago. This is different from flat out lying to save face.

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Suyu-Dong, Seoul. 2007(?) Pentax ME

Making webcomics made me take up photography. I needed a new hobby after I stopped making webcomics. There are many reasons for that. I'll be kind and just say, "irreconcilable differences".

Writing an Expat Blog (one of thousands at the time) made me take up photography. I wasn't happy with the images I was using to document my life in East Asia. My little Dimage Z5 was a good camera but it wasn't up to some of the tasks I was asking of it and I needed more flexible gear.

Also I had more money than brains and everyone was buying DSLRs so... Hello, Canon D60!

Which died when I went to visit my good pal Greg in Busan and I had foolishly forgotten my battery charger back in Seoul. And he said, "I am a film evangelical and I will not rest until every man, woman, enby, and child has converted their toilet to a darkroom."

Or something to that effect. He suggested a few film cameras and the following weekend I hopped on the subway...

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Quick translation for Canadians and Americans: A "subway" is a form of public transportation. It's like one of those train toys you had as a kid but bigger and runs underground. People in nations who didn't plow acres of forest to build parking lots use them to get around.

Like a car. But good.

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... and went to the then photography hub of Seoul, Chungmuro. After a bit of poking my head in and out of shops and comparing different famous models, I went with a Pentax ME.

Chungmuro Station, Seoul. Before the suicide barriers were installed.

The first photo! Ooo! Lookiedat! I was a street photography savant! 

Greg made me take up photography.

Years later I stopped trying to do street photography because other street photographers were being assholes, sexual crimes were being committed with smartphones, and the public turned against anyone with a camera. Then Covid hit and I stayed inside with nothing to do but start drawing comics again.

Then I returned to Canada and still didn't go outside.