Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Monday, September 29, 2008
1. Space Drama Mad-Libs
The above comic is the product of a bad Harlan Ellison story and an email exchange with my good friend, Melissa. She had the officer say, "Does a TRIBBLE spit in the AIRDUCT after a HOLOPHASE?"
Hilarious!
The 200 Comics Challenge
I spotted a fellow artist (link) at DeviantArt twenty-some strips into a 200 Comics Challenge, and decided I should embark on it as well.
The rules designed for the preservation of my sanity are:
1) Black and red ink only.
Just like the old newspaper riddle, except ... literal? I tend to color nothing or everything in my work, so limiting myself to black, white and red should lend some expression, some dynamic look and/or simplicity to my panels. Who knows--maybe by comic #100 I'll be able to properly shade an object.
2) Don't overthink the (3-panel) strip: it goes beginning, middle, end.
My father and my wife both tell me that I think too much. It's true. The three panel strip is a lean creature. There's no room to draw people humming and tying their shoes, much less draw them humming then tying their shoes (unless that's the joke). The framework of a three panel strip is as rigid and free as a haiku.
See? I'm thinking too much already. The 200 Comics Challenge is a challenge, I think, of quantity and learning. I'll draw a lot and I'll learn. I'll be happy with that, even if I draw four strips a week and the whole thing takes me a year to finish.
On I go.
The rules designed for the preservation of my sanity are:
1) Black and red ink only.
Just like the old newspaper riddle, except ... literal? I tend to color nothing or everything in my work, so limiting myself to black, white and red should lend some expression, some dynamic look and/or simplicity to my panels. Who knows--maybe by comic #100 I'll be able to properly shade an object.
2) Don't overthink the (3-panel) strip: it goes beginning, middle, end.
My father and my wife both tell me that I think too much. It's true. The three panel strip is a lean creature. There's no room to draw people humming and tying their shoes, much less draw them humming then tying their shoes (unless that's the joke). The framework of a three panel strip is as rigid and free as a haiku.
See? I'm thinking too much already. The 200 Comics Challenge is a challenge, I think, of quantity and learning. I'll draw a lot and I'll learn. I'll be happy with that, even if I draw four strips a week and the whole thing takes me a year to finish.
On I go.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Friday, August 22, 2008
a slice of childhood, please
Though the online universe has busied itself with devising ways for me to waste more and more time, on occasion I stumble into a mildly pleasant "learning experience"--that is, the time invested reaps more than soon-to-be answers for so many pop culture trivia questions.
I recently re-discovered The Ren and Stimpy Show, that brainchild of animator John Kricfalusi. I watched some clips and sat stupified and in awe of how well it looked (well animated, at least, no matter the complications of production). I have since wondered how it escaped my radar for so long ... but while I knew of the show when it aired in the early 90s, I was nine or ten years old at the time and thought it was weird. I remember watching a lot of Doug and TMNT.
So after a dose of "Happy Happy Joy Joy" I drew the following ____ (cartoon? Image? Panel?). I wanted to make the smile on the kid look slightly deranged or untrustworthy, but I think it ultimately looks tamer than it should.
Labels:
boy,
little forest creature,
Ren and Stimpy
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Boredom, pride, etc.
I drew this on a post-it note while at a medical-resident get-together. Repeatedly put me on the Tilt-a-Whirl, and give me a basketball, and something like this might happen. Put me in a room full of people talking about nothing (but work), and something like this might get illustrated.
*
At right is a response to a professor's challenge to draw a "silent comic." True, it's got captions, but I'm sort of proud of it nevertheless. The last two panels were drawn several months after the first six, which were meant to be little more than "thumbnail" sketches for something more polished. I grew to like the scribbly look of it all.
Labels:
basketball,
curly,
diary,
dunk,
moustache
Friday, August 1, 2008
Rogues Gallery
Friday, July 25, 2008
Much work, or no work at all?
I spent much of last week drawing the following scene ... called Cute Conscience:
And in an effort to draw something that appeared entirely grounded (instead of just scribbling some lines under a character's feet), I ended up drawing this ... and it's an image I loathe. A technical exercise in many ways (perspective, cross-hatching, drawing a receding hairline ... and so on). It's depressing to look at.
Maybe if the bird was a penguin, the whole thing would have been saved.
Then: last night, minutes before falling asleep, I drew this, called Valley Thriller:
Seriously ... I was at this one for less than five minutes. In my journal, no less (the other was on much, much nicer paper). And I like this one better.
I started out trying to draw a more conventional hairstyle. And then it became the girl of the 80s, in a zombie-pose that you see here. Fun stuff.
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