Slow motion day

I woke up today and... well... didn't wake up. Despite going to bed early, nothing I could do would get my brain in gear. A few hours later I came to the horrible conclusion: I was sick. Now this is nothing major, friends - in fact, it is the smallest amount of sick one can be to still qualify as sick - but it's enough to make me very, very sluggish.

Everything moved in slow motion today. Coloring the Sunday strip took MANY hours, and work on the next week's stuff was painfully slow. I had been hoping today would get me ahead, but my sniffly head moving like molasses on a cold day was not allowing it. I did get two more strips done, and I've started work on two more. After that, I have to go back to scripting, and that's probably not gonna happen. A soupy brain does not creativity make.

I expect this bug to be out of my system by tomorrow, so maybe all the work can be done then. If it persists, I will be very upset. This is barely enough sick to complain about! Had I been a student or salaryman, I would not have been able to call in sick with this. Give me disease I can rock for pity or, better yet, LET ME BE HEALTHY, DAMMIT!

Inner peace. Outer violence.

Today's sketch idea is courtesy of my brother, who suggested I draw a martial arts scene with Jacob bowing in respect and someone (had to be Suzette) giving him a boot to the head. The final result is... close!

I could use some inner peace right now. I'm slacking hard on inking next week's comics. It'll get done, just not as fast as I'd like. Tonight the goal is to get five pages inked, resulting in three strips total. Tomorrow I color the massive and complex Sunday and then it's smooth sailing for a while. Of course, as soon as one thinks that... BOOT TO THE HEAD!

Getting back on track

I've said it a thousand time, and I'll say it again: It's HARD to get work done here!

But work must get done, so I press forward! Today, as you see, was lettering day! Now that the lettering is in place, it's time for the long, arduous drawing session. As always, when I'm down to the wire, bonus-sized strips are scheduled. All those pages represent four strips today. Wheee!

Time sneaks up on you

Time is a nasty monster. No matter how fast you run, it always pursues! You can't outrun it. You can't out maneuver it. It will get you! The only way to survive is build a lead and keep your pace. For a daily comic, that means HAVING A BUFFER!

I came to DC, a place that's not so conducive to working, with a four-day buffer. That's the biggest buffer I've had in a while... and it's disappearing at the speed of time! I gave myself a few days to settle in, but now it's time to take on the next set of strips - especially since Sunday's strip is MASSIVE and will take as much time to do as this entire week of dailies. (Stupid Sundays.)

Bigger problem than a massive Sunday? No script! Can't start catching up if I don't have scripts from which to make comics.

Good news! I finally got the script done! It only took half a week to formulate! That means no more time for pouty writer's block. Time to get some strips in production! Aww, man, that means I have to work now! I miss you, procrastination!

The perils of traveling

I am back in DC for an undetermined amount of time. That means it's time to move the studio from one basement to another!

The whole drive down I had that eerie feeling I forgot something. Mentally, I went over it all. Got the templates. Got the scanner. Got the laptop. Got the ink. Got the pen. That's all! Or... not. Having read over my process post below, can you see what I forgot to bring?

MY PRECIOUS NO-COPY BLUE PENCIL WAS LEFT BEHIND! Crisis!

Ok... minor crisis. I fortunately had a spare refill of the blue lead with me, so all that I needed was the mechanical pencil to hold it. I pulled out every pencil I could find. All .07 lead size. My lead is .05! Crisis!

I had to dive deeper into the bowels of the house... the DARKROOM! *thunderclap*

Much to my benefit, the room has art supplies scattered about it - including a .05 mechanical pencil! The day is saved!

Now if only I had an idea for something comicy to draw...

How a comic is born

I was looking over my latest batch of comics and I realized I had a nice step-by-step look into the Precocious process. So here comes the indulgent post about comic creation! Enjoy!

1) Before I do any drawing, I want to have a script in hand. It doesn't have to be a final draft (and it rarely is) but having a rough script allows me to figure out where dialog bubbles and characters can be placed in a strip. I do all my scripting in Word, then print it out so I can have it by my side when I go to the light box.

2) Once I have a script, it's time to prep the template. I use Canson daily comic templates, mostly because it's the standard comic size AND I can't draw straight lines on my own to save my life. Having a pre-printed template cuts out a lot of hassle. I start by lining the strip in no-copy blue. (This is my choice for pencil lead.)

3) Once the panels are line, it's time to add the dialog. I need dialog in place so I know exactly how much space I have for drawing. I created a guide I use for letting, that keeps everything even and straight. I place the guide under the template, fire up my light box and letter away. At this stage I alter the script to make it snappier or fit better in the panel.

4) Now that I have the dialog roughed out, it's time for drawing! Again, I pull out my trusty no-copy blue! This is the most time-consuming portion of creation. I lightly rough out where the figures go and then get to it. I start by drawing the eyes and work my way out. I want my final drawing to be as complete as possible, as I'm not confident to go rogue inking yet.

5) With a solid drawing in place, it's time to ink. I use a traditional dip pen, with Speedball super black ink. My nib is a Hunt globe tip 513 EF. First thing I do is ink the borders and dialog bubbles. This is a time when it's fun to work in batches. If I'm working on a bunch, the first one is nice and dry by the time I finish inking the borders on the last. Then I can go right into the big show!

6) For inking, it's a simple act of tracing at this point. I go over my lines, making corrections and tweaks accordingly. I save the minor details for later, as my nib isn't capable of fine lines. I leave the dialog uninked, as I do it digitally now. I do still ink whispers and shouting if the needs arise.

7) With the main inking done, I break out the tech pens for the details. This is for smaller figures in the panels and all the shading.

8) Once inking is done, it's time to scan the strip! I have a super-awesome Mustek A3 scanner, which is big enough that I can scan two strips at once! It also cuts out a LOT of intermediate steps in scanning, as it filters out my no-copy blue automatically, leaving only the black. I scan it into photoshop at a high resolution, then apply a contrast of 50. This reduces the image down to just black and white. I delete the white and drop the black into my photoshop comic template.

9) Once the comic's in the template, it's time to letter. I created a Precocious font using my own handwriting, so at least it LOOKS like it's done by hand - with much more accuracy than if I had actually done it by hand. (Typos are a problem, though.)

10) With the lettering done, it's time to merge all the Photoshop layers into one, shrink it down to its standard 800 pixel width and plot it into the final daily template. Ta dah!

Run from responsibility!

Ha! I will be responsible and make my dodging into a blog post! Today is another comic work day, followed by mild socializing, so any extra bloggability is out. Thus, I select a fun sketch from the sketchbook and GO WITH IT! Wheeeeeee!

Putting the pieces together

Happy Halloween!

My day tomorrow will be racing to color the background before Halloween expires! For now, enjoy a few mock-ups of how it might look.

Still not happy with how the houses came out, but there was no way I was going to devote the time and tech pen to do a super-detailed and perspectively-perfect neighborhood. It *will* look a lot better with color added, so please imagine it. Also, the blue aura will have some transparency in the final.

Now the mock-ups. The oval one will fit best in a wallpaper, keeping it smallish so the image doesn't conflict with desktop icons. The wider shot looks nice, but it may not fit well with wide-screen monitors. There's also the question of how the neighborhood drawing looks at that larger size. We'll see if color fixes everything, eh?

Stomping grounds

Here's the sketch for the doomed neighborhood that is soon to succumb to the Halloween Tiffwitch. I'm not satisfied with it, but time is running out. This will be stressful to ink, as I'm not sure what level of detail I should use. I guess we'll see what happens tomorrow. (Or tonight, if I end up having no life.)

The colors are wonky because the sketch is in no-copy blue - something my scanner normally filters out.

When in doubt, add color too!

Things did not go well today with the wallpaper, but I did color the Tiffwitch. So I got that going for me. Which is nice.

I wanted to see if I could add the other Precocious kids into the foreground and have them running away in terror, but perspective was not allowing it. I think I'm stuck with drawing her storming through the neighborhood.... which itself is a perspective nightmare. Gotta get it done tomorrow! Ack!