True Life Tales - 5 "The Civil War"

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The "today" mentioned in the first panel was actually yesterday. And, while it may not look like it, I spent a lot of time working on it. It's in two sections because I drew it on two sheets of paper. It didn't line up like I thought it would. Ah well, lesson learned. Next time, I should draw everything bigger on a larger sheet of paper. I keep telling myself to do this, but the lack of a proper working space and a short-term memory gets in the way.

There other thing, which I could have done something about, are those annoying black lines on the sides of the panels. I should have erased them when I did the coloring on the computer. Now that they're uploaded, I'm just going to leave them like they are because to re-upload fixed images would count against my storage limits and they're not that horrible (I hope!).

And, guess what? This is the 100th post! It's hard to believe that there are that many posts here, especially since I've had such a hard time posting with any kind of regularity. But, this is it. I actually did go to a civil war re-enactment, and while it was interesting, it was deeply weird not just for the reason I stated above. With any luck, there'll be another post soon!

True Life Tales - 4

My favorite panel is the last one because it reads well close up and far away. I also should have tried to put myself in this comic somehow because people are more interesting than things, but I did manage to get the kid who took my car for the joyride but it doesn't really count because he is too small.

Anyhow, thinking about things after my last post, I did remember that I wrote down my experiences with my car getting stolen for the first time. More recently, I wrote about my trip to court when I got that one (unfair, of course) speeding ticket. So, those are two great experiences that I may be able farm a comic script out of somehow. Of course, more overall drawing practice is also in order, but I don't think it will come in the next few days because I am finishing up finals. Maybe another comic this weekend?

True Life Tales - 3

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Making comics has not really been my priority during the last few months as I'm sure you can already tell by how often I update. Still, I am committed into keeping this going. The above comic is the result of wanting to do something for myself only and not for school or work. One of the things I have discovered through this comic experiment is that I am having a hard time coming up with ideas to turn into comics. I might be too critical and shooting down ideas before I even try them out. Oh well.

The above really happened to me. I fell down on the street in front of a bus station just three days ago. For some reason, my ankle went out on me and was weak for the rest of the day. The funny thing is that me falling down in public wasn't even the most memorable part of my day. For instance, I later went on a mini-hike nearby some waterfalls in the forest and encountered a man taking his "cat" for a walk on a rope leash! It is not often you see that sort of thing. Dogs, yes. Cats, no. Anyway, after my fall, I did buy a few art supplies that I have already used at work. More comics should be forthcoming as summer break is around the corner and that means more time to draw. I also want to get much better at this comic thing, so I definitely need to keep practicing.

Support

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I probably should have worked on my graphic design homework, but instead, I drew this comic. I'm mostly caught up on that homework anyway. But, I am having a block as far as what I want to write about story-wise. In any case, I think that this little beach trip is going to end soon. I am not much of a gag writer, and I don't really want to rehash all of the lame jokes that everyone has seen or heard a million times before. I mean, what about airline food? Am I right? Anyone? Eventually, I will work on a good storyline, probably about the same time when heck freezes over. But, on the plus side, two comics on two mondays in a row is quite the accomplishment. I will try to continue the trend.

Decisions

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Been awhile since I last posted, hasn't it? I suppose the biggest reason is that I have been busy with art projects in school and so I've already used up my creative energy there. And of course, I've really been needing to take the time to write a script rather than do this thing by the seat of my pants, but I haven't managed to find the time for that. I told myself that I need to write before I draw, and then I didn't do either. I am not sure why or how I found the energy to do the one you see above. In any case, I think it works moderately well as a drawing. I especially like the crab I drew--it looks real graphic, in the graphic design sense. More comics when I find the time. Seeing as how it is still early in the term and all my homework is caught up on, I may do another one soon.

Reflection

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Okay, so it has been so long since I have posted a comic here, I missed a step I normally take. I forgot to darken the lines in the GIMP before I started adding in all of the color, and the result, which is completely obvious for anyone to see, is that the comic looks washed out especially when compared to the others. For example, Zeb's outlines, which were done with .05 micron pen instead of a brush pen, look super grey and not black, which they should be instead. I was able, using the lasso tool, to select the text and darken that, but overall, I would have to give this comic a C- in visual execution. I am a bit rusty from lack of practice.

Anyhow, this comic also continues the storyline started from a few posts earlier. I spent a bit more time thinking about the story, but I am still at somewhat of a loss to figure out where I should go from here. I am still working it out in my head. My creative ideas want to head in a completely new direction, but I am stuck in this one : a dead end more or less.

Because school takes most of my creative energy with art assignments and the like, I haven't posted here as much as I originally planned, but I think I will be able to post more often than I have been. I totally missed the months of January and February, but I am fairly certain that I can do much better than that, even with a ton of school work. The proof, of course, will be in the pudding so to speak. As of now, I am planning to have the next comic up in a week or two. I might also redo this one to get it to look more like the others. As always, comments are more than welcome.

True Tales - Finals

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This comic tells the story. To be honest, I haven't done much blogging at all, let alone had the time to do this comic. This comic took me about three hours to do start to finish; and of course, it is not as developed as I would have liked it to be. About every comic I work on takes at least that long. In fact, the better Angry Bear comics are ones that I work on over a period of a couple of days instead of just one sitting, so they can even have as many as five or so hours put into them.

Still, I felt that the need to get back to drawing for fun. Too often, I spend so much time worry about what I haven't done, rather than actually just doing something. I might have also been plain burnt out. What with my design classes, the reading of all the illustrator blogs I subscribe too, the reading of the illustrator books and literary comics I bought, I filled up on too much and simply ran out of motivation. I am hoping this comic represents a return of the drawing muses and spirits.

True Life Tales

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I always figured that I would try out new stuff here. So while I am still working on the angry bear storyline, I wanted to experiment with something different. This is the closest I think I'll ever get to self disclosure on the Internet. Depending on how this is received, maybe I'll post more like this in the future in between the regular angry bear storyline.

Yes, I do have (more like am associated with) a cat with a brain issue. She has a mystical attraction to my laptop. Whenever I am using it, she wants to sit on the keyboard. Whenever I am not using it, she likes to sit on the closed lid. I continue to develop my skills a little bit with photoshop (at school) and GIMP (at home). I am thinking about posting a tutorial about how I color my comic with GIMP when I get time, but only if people really want it. (If you do, drop me an e-mail or leave a comment.) That's it for now.

Contemplation

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I am getting better using GIMP to color my comic. The biggest discovery was how to use the airbrush tool to touch up the white gaps between the scanned lines and the areas of color. I don't really use layers, although now I think I could because of the courses I have taken in photoshop. But the biggest drawback (no pun intended) is the time it takes to color a comic, something that is fascinating considering how simple the ones I do really are. I've spent an hour and half adding in the color and touching up all the spaces. But I wouldn't do it if I didn't enjoy it.

I'll try to keep up a weekly schedule a little better than I have been lately. Homework isn't quite enough to keep my skills as sharp as I want them, so I need to practice more drawing anyway.

The Beach

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So it's a couple of days late, but I'm doing my best to divide up my time between schoolwork and my job. I'm trying strike the right balance, but it's not always easy. I think I've got the drawing part fairly polished for what I have time to actually do. There's always room for improvement of course, but I've pretty much reached my vision for how I want the comic to look. I've been told that with practice, one normally gets better, so I am looking forward to that. However, I think the next major improvement in store for this comic is not with the the art but the storyline. I'm going to experiment with that in the future.

Thanks to ongoing classes, I've figured out how to add to a selection and use the gradient tool. I know: big frickin' deal, right? Still, it was fun to use those new tools when I was coloring this one. I'll be sketching out the next one in a few days and trying to get back on track more. We'll see what happens. Anyway, See you soon.

Beachward Bound

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It has been decided! We're going to the beach for the next several comics. Apologies all around for not having it up sooner, but scanner and computer problems, combined with a bunch of design classes, has made it hard to find the time or energy to draw a new one. Actually, consider this single panel comic as a placeholder since I already have the next one inked. I still need to work on how to move the storyline ahead, but I suppose that will come with practice. The story needs work as much as the drawing skills. Oh well. Until next time.

Scanner

Aside from my recent problems getting something sketched, I discovered that an interrupted download of a free firewall, which I unwittingly tried to install, corrupted some of my computer files. Consequently, my scanner wouldn't work properly. I've tried to fix it in my limited fashion, but ultimately, what I had to do was uninstall a few programs and reinstall them. It also reinforced the idea, for me, that I need to backup my files. Eventually, I think I should invest in an external hard drive, but for the time being, I will be backing up important files (like these comics)on CD's. Comic will be forth-coming soon. I promise.

If I haven't mentioned it before, I've also enrolled in a Graphics Design program at my local college. That means that I am now getting training in Photoshop software and gaining other skills which should greatly improve my efforts here on the comic. I am excited to learn these techniques and push my skills. I don't right now have the money for a copy of the Photoshop software, but the theoretically underpinning I am learning about it also helps me with GIMP.

Update Postponed

Okay, Okay...I know. I said that I would have something posted last week, but things sort of got messed up personally, so now it looks like it might be a little while longer before I get the new comic posted. I am going to try and have something new posted Sunday or Monday. This is not to say that I promise I WILL have something by then, but I am certainly going to try. Lately, I've been reading a lot of comics, mostly only the kind I like which happen to be the autobiographical genre ala Crumb, Pekar, or Spiegleman. But, once again, this is not to say that I am reading those authors specifically, but authors like them. And no, they're not all male authors either.

One exception to the autobiographical genre in my comic reading pile is the FRANKA comic I ordered from Germany. It took about a month and a half to arrive. It's all in German, even though it was originally written in Dutch, but I really admire the guy's (Kuijpers) visual attention to detail. So, even though I couldn't understand more than a couple of words in German, I "read" the comic fairly well. The pictures really tell the story, something that I think is quite an accomplishment. In any event, although I am not drawing the angry bear cartoon lately, I have been practicing my sketching and developing my visual vocabulary by reading good comics. Until next time.

Vote!

Be sure to VOTE on the story direction in the side panel. I am planning on updating the comic on Monday or Tuesday, so the polls, as they are, will be closed by Sunday around 7 or 8 pm USA Pacific Time. I continue to experiment with a choose-the-storyline type of direction here. Right now there is a tie, so if you have a preference, vote early (and yes, you can vote as often as you like or able.) Until then.