Let's get to it. I Do Stuff 3 is posted and, as always, I have thoughts!
I've underlined where my brain is tethered for your quick referencing.
Hand Lettering and Word Balloons.
I do think it is still improving, but it's not improving as fast as it needs to. My limits are obvious and to be honest it probably never will get good enough. I am entering my physical decline years and I can see it in the lack of steadiness in my hand. You don't get stronger at this point in life. You merely try to delay the date of your permanent breakage.
Thing is, this unsteadiness is fine when inking. I can apply that in ways to create a unique look. And I think I have. I'm quite happy with the improvements in both my inking and figure work. But lettering requires precision and repetition.
I'm looking into creating a personal font. Inkscape has the tools for it. I also have Font Forge for tidying up anything I produce.
It's a lot of work. The alphabet twice. Punctuation marks. Numbers. Perhaps even other languages like Korean, which is a go-to joke for Digby. It'll take a lot of time and it will delay the next comic by quit a lot. I'll probably just bite the bullet and do a deep search for a font I can live with.
But at least I can say with pride that I tried hand lettering and I didn't just grab Anime Ace from Blambot and didn't put in any work past that.
Colour
Perhaps I'm still feeling a bit chuffed from my new NamiComi promotional pieces coming out really well and I'm setting myself up for a fall, but doing the next I Do Stuff in colour is on the agenda.
I was doing black and white because I wanted to recapture that rough photocopied comix vibe from back in the day. Punk rock DIY from top to bottom. Also, that's just my preferred look for a comic. Love And Rockets over Spider-Man any day.
It was pointed out to me while I was sharing the colour art to some folks that colour is also a comics skill to be mastered. That pretty much settled it for me. It will double the workload and that means halving the update schedule OR halving the number of pages each month.
I'll have to decide where I'll make the sacrifice.
Faye la Fae
Adding a host character to the comic was a last minute decision. I ground out all six bumpers in a single day because I felt confident that it was the solution to problems involving the transitions between stories.
I believe I was right to do so.
The next installment will see her host segments more integrated into the stories themselves rather than her sitting in her own little space. You know, like the Crypt-Keeper in the old Tales from the Crypt comics.
Expat Tales, Cover Art, and Necromancer Comics
I'm not sure if I can fit them in to a new, colour-focused format just because I may not have the time to draw them.
In truth, the covers could work better as promotional materials for the platform. A two panel comic to whet the appetite might be a good way to stand out.
You can argue all day that Expat Tales IS a comic, but it doesn't look the role and I have noticed that folks are pretty cool on it. Dropping it wouldn't be an issue. No one cares abut my experiences in Asia anyway so maybe I should just take it all to my grave. I dunno.
And finally, the Necromancer comics were all made up as I was drawing them and they were meant to act as a way to separate the longer stories. With the Faye bumpers they're no longer needed. I'll recycle the character later. I like her.
Next Comic
I Do Stuff 4 is tentatively scheduled for the end of November. I got IRL stuff to do on top of the artistic changes I mentioned above.
