Objects in future are closer than they appear

It's coming...

Precocious is going to be officially launched by midnight tonight. The full Gender Wars arc will be posted on the site, and regular updating starts on Monday. Tell your friends, especially if they work for major syndicates. (I prefer publishing syndicates, but crime syndicates also have their charm...)

Edit: It's here! It may be four months late in showing up, but I am still very happy to have this burden off my shoulders!

Let's do this!

Let's do this. Let's do this. Let's do this. Let's do this. Let's do this.

Scripting: Done.
Sketching: Done.
Lettering: Done.
Inking: Done.
Scanning/Photoshopping/Formatting/Website updating: Aww, dammit, there's MORE!?

This is an image from strip #36, the latest to be scanned. I have 27 to go (including a promo strip, so the final strip of the storyline isn't the first strip everyone sees) and it's nothing but a grind now.

My scanner is too small to get the whole strip at once, so I have to do it in two shifts. Thanks to the small lip on the scanning bed, the image is *slighly* off. This means I scan a strip twice, drag them into a template file, use layers and opacity to line them up, delete the extra, merge layers, use the contrast tool and use a select color range tool to eliminate the gray leftover that comes from Photoshop not filtering blue properly. THEN it's touch-up time! Some strips require lots of minor erasing, which adds up. MANY strips (due to me being a lazy inker and not having my color range calibrated properly) need some extra black painted in. Finally, I rotate the strip to make it straight, shrink it too size and drop it into the final template for saving. Sometimes I skip the erasing, blackening and rotating... oh well.

Ahh, but if I'm good I can make a decent dent into scanning the strips tonight, so tomorrow can be primarily spent doing tedious web design!

BUT IT WILL ALL BE WORTH IT WHEN IT'S DONE! W00T!

Stipples are the Devil's Dots

Obviously, this is not a stippled image. The stippled strip had no panel that would make a nice splash isolation. Also, I am mad at it for wasting most of my evening. (It came out looking nice, though.)

The image shown is more about me being in DC. It looks like I'll be here one more day. It means I'll have to start scanning/'shopping/uploading strips here, which is not my preference, but the whole "being with loving family" thing outweighed the "be a lonely and selfish jerk" mindset. They're still not getting me for New Years!

For my inking update: Four strips remain incomplete. Two of them involve a chessboard, which is something that will be annoying to draw with tech pens. One is the last strip, which is a relatively easy inking job. I just wanted to save it until last. The final is a strip I wrote about before. Strip #45 was the one that could be simple or easy, depending on my ambition. Well, I went for the most ambitious drawing as possible. The result: FAIL.

The most ambitious panel of the whole damn series is panel #3 in strip #45. In it we see a close-up of the water balloon in Jacob's hand, with Jacob's face showing through the balloon. I even filled a teapot with water and held it up to a poster so I could properly get the distortion. Well, guess what... in ink it just doesn't work. I can't properly draw his fingers to show them curling around the balloon. His face is distorted and upside down, so I have to make sure people know he is looking *through* the balloon and not looking at a reflection. Parts of Jacob's head should also be visible from behind the balloon. That's just too much for me to take at this point. I botched it horribly, and it was made worse due to me not having any white out to cover up the disaster. I might have to redo panel #3 and scan it in separately. That's frustrating.

Oh well, there's a good chance I'll be able to finish the inking tonight. That's supremely awesome! Once the strips are done, it's just a long grind to scan and prepare them. If only no-copy blue was also no-scan blue. Life would be so much easier.

It's like a Rorschach test

After doing preliminary inking on the final 10 strips (only one of which is now completed), I needed to do *something* while the ink dried. I decided to give myself a challenge: draw all my characters in one strip with correct proportions. While that didn't go well, Photoshop did come to my rescue.

Once I knew I was a proportion failure, I decided to investigate silhouettes. The main characters all appear in cutout form at the bottom of each Precocious page. It's a nice effect, but the cutouts are based on the very first "official" sketches of the characters. I played around with the shapes, trying to imagine how they would appear. They say you've made it as a cartoonist when your characters can recognized by their silhouettes. I have not made it.

Things I learned, character by character:

Roddy: The placement of the ears means all fluff points are covered. Still, as he's a generic cat shape, the form is very recognizable. Roddy is the only character without a specific accessory, as he is distinguished by his black color. Bonus note: When I was inking Roddy, I discovered that he looked kinda good with his muzzle and cheeks not filled in - would it be too dramatic if I turned him into a black and white Socks-style cat? Hmm...

Bud: His Scottish fold ears really makes it hard to keep him in proportion with the others. Bud often ends up with a tiny head. When Photoshopping the sketches, I would drag one over the other, so Bud *technically* is close in proportion to the rest. His lack of upward fluffiness, however, makes him look more compact.

Suzette: The outline of her bell, collar, bangs, neck and muzzle all conflict horribly. Also, just like Bud, Suzette's ears going down tends to result in her being drawn as really tiny.

Dionne: Long hair tends to block out everything, so I had to work to find a way to keep the form visible. The result was a semi-twirl thing, which does look nice. Of course, I see Dionne in the outline because I know what Dionne looks like. Would anyone else figure out the character from that pose?

Jacob: I was worried his folded ears would look like a big block in silhouette, but I think he's decently recognizable.

Max: Both my doggies with big ears have the same problem. While normal drawing should show the back ear to fit cartoon logic, the rule does not apply in silhouette. I should have done a more direct profile. Max also needs more conservative fluffiness.

Tiffany is one I feared, because most of he quirks are hard to show in outline. I decided to try to give her a dynamic pose, like I did with Dionne, and the result was an abomination unto the lord. I would have been better making a direct profile with the braid adhered to her back. This pose make it look like a creepy third arm.

Autumn - Man, this bitch is HARD to draw in a way that would make a decent outline! Not only did I draw her facing left, which is difficult for me, but so many of her features conflict with other features. Argh.

Oh well, it was a fun experiment. It also took up my entire evening, which should have been spent inking. Whoops!

I just had to do this...

I have 32 strips to finish and upload. 32 strips that are progressing nicely. I have free time here, but not enough to start inking again. What to do....

It's shameless showboating, but I just *had* to lay them out in a big block! I had to use the webcam to take the shot, but it was so worth it. Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair! Click on the image below to see a large, and therefore more in charge, version.

Achy hand update

I'm taking a break from inking in an effort to prevent my hand from falling off. (Drawing = left hand. Photoshopping = right.) What you see above is one of the panels that needed lots of tech pen action. Each little dot adds up to a long time spent stippling - and this was the "easy" panel to stipple in this particular strip. How do cartoonists do all those backgrounds? Oh, right, they're PAID to do it full time.

Here's the production tally as of posting:
- 9 strips completed
- 4 strips still needing minor tech pen work
- 11 strips still in very early stages

It looks good for now, but I should note that, the above-pictured strip aside, I am saving all the complicated strips until the end. It's always nice when the last few miles of a marathon are uphill!

Edit: Going against common sense, I decided to start working again. Ow. Fucking ow. I finished the four that needed minor pen attention. Then I decided to work on the strip that required all tech pen work. That was a dumb thing to do. Even with my wrist growing a mouth so it could yell, "HEY, STOP DOING THAT!" I fought through the pain and finished the damn thing. If I touch one more pen tonight, I may have to start going by "Righty" from now on.

And the ink shall flow like wine

This is not a repeat sketch! It's an indication of progress! PROGRESS!

After getting home from another Paulsen Holiday™, I began the long and painful journey that is inking. When I finally ran out of gas, I had three strips completed, two that need minor tech pen work, two that need MAJOR tech pen work (which takes longer than regular inking) and five that are still in the early stage of inking. And, uh, a dozen untouched strips still in the pile.

The plan for the immediate future is this: For Friday, the main goal is get myself gathered and relax. Inking is priority #3. Saturday I am heading down to DC again. I'll probably be back Tuesday - hopefully with EVERYTHING inked. The goal is to spend the last few days of the year scanning, 'shopping and updating the web page. I hope I can go a week without sleeping...

The hard part is over. Now for the hard part!

Last night I finished sketching the final strips for Precocious' pilot arc. It feels wonderful, but that was only step 2 in production. Now I have to ink these darn things (24 of 'em) and not screw it up. This batch is going to require a lot more detail work as well, so I can't estimate how long inking will take. The goal is still having it ready to go by January 1st. Doing so gives me a nice and neat division between "early work" and "contemporary masterpiece" strips!

Today nothing will get done, as I'm doing ye olde holiday visiting with family. I know I'll be up in DC again this weekend, which *should* give me ample down time to use for inking. Gentlemen, this might work! (FOOL! THAT WILL NEVER WORK!)

Cartoonist delight is a strange type of delight

One of the big issues with a "fine" artist turning to cartooning is how ingrained the standards of drawing become. Cartooning, of course, is not an accurate reflection of real life. Cartooning has its own set of weird rules, which I've written about several times. It's quite a task to unlearn standard drawing logic and learn the bizarre cartoon logic.

When I accomplish something "cartoonish" I get excited! Bushes with eyes and tails make no logical sense - nor do real human-like creatures hide "inside" bushes. In cartoons, however, this is the visual language and it all makes perfect sense. Drawing what I did here took a lot of letting go. I'm very proud of my glaring bushes! (Even if I got the visuals and dialog switched by accident - but it doesn't impact anything so I am not bothering to change it.)

This two-panel success more than makes up for my immense comic failure that comes in panel 3 of this strip, when my attempt at a three-way split screen just doesn't work. The only thing that can save it is something I've mostly avoided - TEXTURE! These last few strips are going to feature occasional forays into the advanced level of cartooning! Of course, when I use these techniques it is to avoid the EVEN MORE ADVANCED cartooning techniques of action shots!

Anyway, at this point I've sketched into strip 56. Chances are I'm done for the night, but I hope to finish sketching 56 before unconsciousness. I fully intend to finish sketching and lettering the arc tomorrow, or later today if you want to be technical. (Two wordless strips will help that.)

A New Year's Resolution

As of posting, I have strips 38-50 sketched, lettered and ready for inking. 12 strips to go before sweet resolution! (See the wordplay? SEE IT!?) If I work my butt off today and tomorrow, I could be done by Christmas. That would give me enough time to ink, scan and upload by January 1st!

Finisingh this quixotic project will be a great relief. In my recent history, victories have been hard to come by. If I get one, the plan is to get another and another and another. It's time for some damn momentum!

Today the last Ozy and Millie strip was published. I really wanted to be up and running before it happened, as I had the delusion of picking up its legacy. All of the strips that influenced me are retired or semi-retired. Something needs to fill the void! I may be raw and rough now, but I've got great crossover potential, dammit!

It'll take a lot to get this accomplished, but maybe that last strip will be what I need. As DC Simpson dragged out finishing his comic, so did I. Now I've got to scramble to finish while the window is open. I know it sounds odd for me to hinge so much on another cartoonist, but this is a person who can shut me down before I start if there's a perceived rip-off. This is a blessing I need, both both practical reasons and because Simpson is my cartooning hero!

Anyway, I took a break from drawing because the next few strips are really hard to draw. I must purge my worry (yay, blogging) and renew my concentration. This is why people don't like artists. I give a flowery and pretentious statement when a normal person would just say, "I'm going on break."