Comments on: Art process

By: Arp

Arp — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 00:17:04 +0000

Thanks for the concise overview – I’m a noob and getting a handle on how the technology is used is very helpful (not a total tech noob though – I build websites, but my digital illustration abilities are limited)

By: Brandon

Brandon — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 20:48:28 +0000

I don’t mind any of the comments. While constructive posts are more helpful, I’m all for people expressing their opinions.

By: Mike Z.

Mike Z. — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 20:43:00 +0000

Well, keep up the good work! I hope you weren’t too offended by my posts last week on CBR. The last one especially was meant to be helpful rather than snarky. So I apologise if the others seemed to mean spirited.

By: Brandon

Brandon — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 20:35:29 +0000

I work at 600 DPI in a 6 x 9 inch file. I can zoom in a lot to get really detailed if I want. I tend to ink the basic shapes quickly and then zoom in and add touches of detail. After finishing things, I then scale the art down to 72 DPI and 500 pixels wide.

Yeah I’ve been altering the look of the characters slightly over the course of time in order to get the most expression out of them while still trying to keep the basic look I started out with.

By: Mike Z.

Mike Z. — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 20:03:53 +0000

Pulling up/back Marissa’s hair so you could see both her eyebrows this week was a subtle, but very welcome, as was moving her forelock so that it didn’t give the illusion that it was the outline of the back of her skull, as it sometimes does.

Do you do these at “print” size, or scale them down? Maybe with a bigger canvas it’d be easier to ink. Look at the sketch from 3/21, if we could see details like Josh’s Little Orphan Annie-like eyes, it would just add to the polish.

By: Brandon

Brandon — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 18:43:30 +0000

One of the reasons the art has gotten better is I got a new Wacom pen around the tenth strip. My old pen’s sensitivity was going out and caused me to have to re-draw a lot of lines.

I do sometimes lose some “expressiveness” when I ink. I’ve been trying to loosen up when I ink, but I want to find a balance between a polished look and expressiveness.

By: Mike Z.

Mike Z. — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 18:12:35 +0000

Like the overview, but there seems to be a slight loss of emotion between the sketch and the inking. Marissa and Josh seem much more expressive in the sketch, especially Josh’s pose in panel 2, and Marissa’s eyebrows (in sketch panel 1 she seems bemused, and in sketch panel 4 she actually looks snarky). If you could keep that level of expression after inking, it’d help out the humor.

Really want to point out that this week’s strip (9/3) was hilarious, and the art in panels 2, 4 and 5 showed a nice growth from week one to now. Keep it up!