New way of working

Just a few days ago, I actually got an idea for a comic that for once, didn't feel like a fluffy/stereotype rom-com, and didn't feel like me forcing myself to be deep and meaningfully philosophical. :D

It feels like a really challenging short story to do, as there really is "nothing" going on inside it, but I have to convey the something in that nothing, dialogue has to be natural and nondescript, yet pack the meaning of my story... Which is why I'm trying Fehed's advice of actually putting more thought into the scripting of my dialogue.

In the past when working on my own projects, I'd do that usual artist-cum-writer thing of plotting out a general sequence of events, approximate dialogue like "Rai makes fun of Mary's klutziness", and generally make dialogue up when it came to pencilling in the speech bubbles, and "edit" dialogue when the speech bubbles get too big and full of words.... Really not a good way I guess. It's just me being lazy and wanting to get the comic DRAWN and done already, which results in pretty artwork but dialogue that sounds fake, stilted, formulaic, stereotypical... like lines from a bad cheesy movie.

In this case, though the comic will rely heavily on the visuals, it will also be relying heavily on the dialogue. No chibis, no crazy funny faces, no comedy, no bish, no pretty shoujo hair and tone doilies to help ease the way. So less room for laziness or error.

I have to say, I'm finding this "planning my script and dialogue properly" feels very daunting. I think it harks back to the knee jerk reaction that writing something down in proper format, editing it, re-editing it, cutting out bits that I thought was pretty but actually is pointless, reminds us of the boring non-arty days of school/ office when you had to write mind numbing essays about history or something boring like that. The weeaboo in me is just whining about "I JUST WANNA DRAW MANGAAAAAA". It is an interesting experience (and slightly scary facing that page and trying to think intelligently of lines and speech), which hopefully will pay off when it comes to actually drawing the comic. :D

ps> Also since I cringe at the idea of sullying my sketchbook with my chicken scratching handwriting (possibly containing a lot of bullshit), I have hijacked one of Fehed's many abandoned writer notebooks to write my notes in (pictured above). LOL I R SRS WRITER NAO. XD

Doodle: Murphy's Law

Well, I certainly wrote the comic book on it, didn't I?

When ideas go stale

Holy moly, I had an idea for a proper long comic in the shower today (I swear that's where I get all of my good ideas). This NEVER happens!
Possibilities kept popping up so I jotted them down quickly. All of a sudden I had an interesting premise to build on and 10 characters on my hands, all in the matter of an hour or so. Now I just hope that this will continue to seem like a good story. Usually my story ideas tend to lose their sparkle when they lose their freshness, and in the end I'm convinced that it was a bad idea to begin with. And that's as far as it goes.

This is not really an art post but it would be interesting to hear if anyone else has had this experience and what you do about it.

Hair Rambling 3

I finally got round to finishing this. Actually forced myself to keep polishing selective bits after the point where I usually go "GARRGH it's DONE", and I'm pretty happy with how the overall look came out. I feel I've managed to take one step closer to finding out that technique (or eye) for making stuff look rough and dynamic, but still looking polished enough that it's not scruffy.

Lighting and colour wise... also a level up I think. Happy with how this turned out, as I kept away from the usual multiply, colour dodge, overlay etc etc layer effects, so no mess of over-exposure abuse. I'm a lot happier with the lighting on this than any of my previous paintings and doodles, as it feels more alive and glowy to me, and less fake muddy midtones. Skin is really hard to paint, and despite my improvement here I still have yet to achieve the skill of painting skin that glows and looks luminously beautiful and alive.

Anyway, happy with this pic, LEVEL UP! :D