Wasting time, sitting still

I've been rocking out today to R.E.M.'s latest live album release. Note that I didn't say "working" - I'm not good at working to music, as it makes me bop bop bop around the room. Also, by "bop bop bop" I mean "sit down at one station after another." Don't confuse it with actual physical exertion. I'm not smart enough for that today!

It was still worth it! I'm a crazy R.E.M. fanboy, so this album was bliss. It consists of "rehearsals" of the material that would eventually become their AWESOME album Accelerate. It's fascinating to see what the songs were before they were finalized. I could geek out more, but I haven't even read the liner notes yet. More music geekery is in my future!

As you can see, work did in fact get done today. Eventually I did shut off the music and move to more traditional working methods. I wanted to sketch out eight pages, but five is still pretty good, with possibly one more to come! Tomorrow: Inking bonanza!

Reunited, and it feels so good!

I'm back home, with my beloved no-copy blue pencil. Oh, how I missed this little bugger! Fat mechanical pencil, you were a poor substitute!

Anyway, daddy's tired from a hellacious drive home during a dreary, rainy day. I'm too lazy to hook up my scanner, much less sketch something fun for the day. Instead you get to bask in the glory of my bloated ate-out-for-20-straight-meals face! Sexy!

Closing out the storyline

Yes, folks, the current Precocious storyline is coming to an end! Can you believe this thing has been going on longer than seven weeks? Wow. It's going to come out *just* short of Gender Wars as the longest Precocious storyline, but I don't feel like stretching it out any longer to grab that title. I love you, peanut butter politics, but I won't drag this out.

Since I want to finish this up on Sunday - because the next storyline needs a Monday start - that means cutting a little bit of excess from the script. One deleted strip was converted into this weeks vote incentive. (Once you read it, you can see it was cut for a reaso - but, hey, it's still a bonus strip!) This image you see here was a punchline in search of a set-up. I never found a set-up that worked, so to the cutting room floor you go! You can see what replaced this strip in tomorrow's Precocious update.

Every nib has a story

Be warned: There is artgeekery coming. Even better: AMATEUR art geekery! Oh noes!

I use only one type of nib with my inking pens: A Hunt globe tip 513EF. I have several copies of said nib. I should be set, right? Wrong. Every nib I have reacts differently to ink, and that means the act of switching nibs comes with an awkward transition period. Hey, guess what I did today!

I'd been using an old nib for a while, as recent attempts to swap in new nibs have been disastrous. As a self-taught art guy, I barely know how to keep/treat this things, so I flail around until one works. This old nib, though, was really slowing down. It was a stiff nib, meaning it let me stretch my ink significantly with linework - and making the inking of large black areas hell. Keep in mind, this is a Roddy and Dionne-heavy storyline. So. Many. Black. Ear.

I'm still getting used to this new nib. It's a lot looser with the ink, allowing me more flexibility in line width (even when I don't want it) at the cost of increased ink usage. To adapt myself to inkability, I chose to go back to my no-copy blue test drawing of Kaitlyn and play with inking methods. That's why the inking is not "finished" - gotta test lining ability.

Now comes the real test: Actual inking! I have three strips to ink before I head back home on Wednesday, and I'll need to get them done tonight/tomorrow. If Thursday's strip ends up looking a bit different, now you know why. Also, it really shouldn't, because that would mean I've lost all control!

Posted from my iPhone

Since I won't be home in time to blog properly, I'm testing out the iphone's blogging capability!


Enjoy the background image of my phone! Ooooh!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

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...