Monday 23 June 2008

So yeah, obviously last time I didn't end up getting a strip done. Life has been pretty hectic for me this last year one way or another, but it's now been 10 months since the last strip, give or take. I won't bore you with what's been going on, but I'm now in a great relationship and looking to get a place together with my girl (and her cat(s)).
However, I have been thinking about the strip and also ways to make it go a bit faster, so last night I decided to have a pop at drawing the characters again, only this time, drawing directly into the computer. This saves loads of time. Previously I'd rule out the page, ink the panels, do the rough sketch, tighten up the pencils, ink it, (the inking alone used to take an hour or more,) scan it in in two parts, (I draw on A3 but have an A4 scanner,) match it together in a new file, then write the dialogue onto the page, create the word balloons, and then finally clean up any mistakes, resize and save for web and post it.
That used to take me 4-6 hours.
So last night I created a new file from an old strip I had. First thing is I never have to rule out my panels any more - the most I'll have to do is alter the number, which will take me seconds instead of 20 minutes spent measuring, marking, ruling and inking.
Then I created a new layer in Photoshop, changed the opacity to 50% and sketched out the characters in grey. Once I'd got it into my head that I could be pretty loose and rough, I let go and didn't worry too much. After that I inked it. That went pretty well - I don't have the smoothest line, in part due to having a very small Wacom tablet, but it went ok.
One thing about using PS & a drawing tablet is the ability to change line width via pressure. Of course you can get that with a brush on paper, but brush inking takes forever, which is why I went with technical pens. The variable line width gives the art a slightly different look and I like it. I still need to get used to it and there's a lot of learning to do, but I think my art looks a little free-er than it did before and kind of more natural.
So, the silly comeback strip will be up tonight, and then I'll try to carry on weekly if I can.
The comic will still be hosted over at webcomicsnation.com, because exoticsoup.co.uk is down for the time being until I can afford to renew my hosting, but it will be back and better than ever because I've been learning some ASP coding at work, which might afford me some interesting opportunities with the site.

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