Getting Warmer...

I made the doll design way too complicated for my own good, which upon reflection isn't really surprising. As a result, the first doll is still only half done.

But I have my iPad! And 3 drawing programs that I really like as well as a few I don't. (I like ArtRage, Procreate, and ArtStudio.) I'm currently working on background images with the drawing programs so I can get comfortable with a style for the comic. Then a few storyboards, and I'll be posting soon!

Sketches for Action Figures

I have a couple simple drawings done so far of two of my characters.

Yes, they are boring and naked, but I have a good reason... So that I can turn them into armatures to make action figures! (Also known as posable dolls...) My hope is that once I have posable sculptures of my key characters it will be easier to draw the fun images with foreshortening and such. They just don't make those wooden drawing armatures in goblin proportions!

Plus I get to sew them little outfits, which sounds like fun now before I try it...

I'm going to try making them from paperclay, because I hear good things about it and it's often fun to try something new. More on that later.

Trouble with simplification

I'm having difficulty with my story. Not with writing it, that is coming along swimmingly. It is a mixture of science fiction, fantasy, realism, and cheese. Hopefully it won't suck, but writing it is fun. It works for Simon R. Green!

The difficulty oddly enough is in the drawing. Most of my work is photo-realistic, I obsess over the tinniest of details. Which is fine on a painting I can take my time with and intend to display in my living room until I die... But if I take that long on each panel of my comic it will take a very long time to tell the story I already have written, and who wants to wait a month for the next panel of an online comic?

Stylizing and simplification come difficult to me, so I find myself looking at other comics and cartoons for inspiration. That worries me too, because I don't want to copy someone else's work...

I had to stylize my little fairydragon ear cuffs to make them faster so that the price could be lower, and it took me years to really be happy with them. But I am now, and it occurs to me that the way I did that was not by working from my drawings, which were far too complex, but by manipulating polymer clay. I'm not having trouble with the fairydragon sketches, just the hominid characters... So I think I'm going to put down my drawing tablet, and my pencil and paper, and start sketching the characters with polymer. I won't be doing the comic in polymer, but perhaps my character sketches will be able to find the right mix of simplification and personal style, which I can then transfer to 2D.

I'll add photos if they don't come out terrible...

Placeholder

I’ve considered making a web comic for a long time. Lately I’ve been giving it significantly more thought, followed by some outlining and character creation... And it’s looking like I might actually do it!

At the moment this is just a place holder... I named my story today and it wouldn’t do me much good if my chosen name was already taken on blogger, which is my chosen format because a.) I already use blogger, and b.) it’s free! I plan to spend a few months fleshing out my story and characters, at which point I may start drawing. I will probably do most of the drawing on my iPad once I buy one this coming summer, so it will be a while before the story actually starts. I might post character sketches and things sooner if I make anything worth sharing beforehand.

This will be a silly fantasy story about a little girl, her dog, and her ragtag group of misfits (a must for all fantasy stories) including of course, fairydragons.