Procrastination nation

So, I should be working on a six-foor drawing due tomorrow, but I'm not. So i figured I would write some blog stuff.

Usually the way that the comics are put together is by isolating several images and digitally coloring them, then placing the individual pieces together. It saves time and memory, and leaves less room for mistakes to happen.

As for Squirrelman, the comic was never resolved, and I dont think it will be. However, this image below was supposed to be the beaver's hand that defeated the giant cloud-thing bad guy. The beaver, who was chewing on wood, was supposed to lift a hand and blast the bad guy, al la anime style or...yes, Dragon Ball Z. (DBZ was the Naruto of it's day. It just got old when it took, what, 10 episodes for Goku to level up to Super-Saiyan? I dropped the series by that point, even though I had faithfully recorded it through the first season. Sigh.)

Inside of the hand should be a swirly energy beam.
For the comic, the images are usually drawn several times, and then put into the computer. This image was created that way.

The final drawing before the digital coloring.

and after. the background was added later.

This comic was actually a lot of fun because I was able to try some new techniques for it.



The above picture was actually a lot of fun because it was so random that it was cool. (a la anime "Special-insert-weird-japanese-name-or-butchered-english-term" attacks.) remember those super hero anime movies that took them SO LONG to power up that the super villain could have gone to starbucks, ordered a latte, chatted with a few friends, and still make it back in time for the super hero to actually attack? Yeah buddy. Im not bashing anime, but if you think about it...
BTW, I was talking to a comic artist guy today at the newspaper, and we talked about how so much of Anime is based off of Asian Art and the Asian culture, which is probably the reason why it doesn't make a lot of sense sometimes. (Except for Bobobo. That was just stupid.) A la, one of the anime shows had Kabuki music playing in the background, and unless you know about Kabuki music or what it means, you won't get the reason for playing the music in the background. I didnt until I learned about Kabuki.

Lighting was also something this semester saw more of as the digital coloring became better. I was able to explore more dramatic situations, such as Nick finding an odd floating white object in the middle of a cavern in an old Olmec ruin that changed time and space? Or at least he thought it did.

Every time a clue appears, it's researched a lot before a final drawing shows up. The writing on the 'jade' pendant above is in Mayan, which complicates the mystery because the beginning of the Fuzzes dates back to about 1000 years before the Mayan civilization.
Alright, back to schoolwork. Till next time.

Beavers, squirrels and platypuses, OH MY!

So because of a combination of this horrible class during the summer plus wanting to expand my abilities a little, I created these incredibly useless super heros over the summer. THE SWAMP SQUAD.

This consists of:
Squirrelman!
Powers: Throws giant acorns
Beaverlad, warrior of the wetlands!
Powers: wood-chewing
and Platypus patti!
Powers: swamp water control.

When I mentioned Platy patti to my mom, she was less than pleased. (As it's very close to her name.) it wasnt intentional. It was either that or Platy Polly, which seemed like it had been used before.

Anyway, i got to do a little super-hero work which was really fun to try and make these useless characters useful. I considered it a challenge and thought it was fun. (Think about it, other than the Tick, how do you make useless heros useful without delving into their egotistical inner psyche?)

Anyway, the class I was taking was so bad that I ended up not finishing the arc i started. The superheros were actually Nick's (the main character in Random Fuzz) creations and it was a comic he created for a newspaper. Anyway, it was a fun little jaunt into an alternate universe for a while.

Also, at this point it's really more about a continuing story, instead of just one-liners like the first semester. Unfortunately the problem with continuing stories in the Verm is that there aren't a lot of people who read the verm on a regular basis, but the website will fix all of that, so stay tuned!!

Here's an excerpt:





it's hard to see but there's a lot of detail in there. It's beginning to look more and more like a comic, which is good. It's looking a little less akward too.

PS, here's a screenshot of the upcoming website:

New Techniques=better viewing

So it's been a steep learning curve for comics, and the problem i'd been having with the solely-illustrator drawn versions was that the images looked akward and it wasnt drawn by hand, as in other than clicking and making shapes. This new technique saved time and just looked better. That means I could do more with a smaller amount of time and make them look like actual comics. I probably wouldnt return to the old way because it took way too long.



I was then able to mix illustrator and photoshop techniques to futher streamline and get a more desired effect. The style just happened to be anime-derived. I'm not trying to make a 'manga' or stay close to any real anime rules. I chose an anime-derived style because it's easier and more recongizable than, say, abstract expressionsim. Or cubism, for that matter.

I could have been true-to-form with the human characters, but it just doesnt work. The fuzzes were anime-like and it was better to keep the rest of the comic like that. Needless to say there have been challenges with the humor because the character dont look nearly as sunday-morning-comicish as they did. But hey, it's all a learning curve. Plus, considering I hadnt touched illustrator for more than a few months before I started doing this, I think I'm learning quickly. I prefer hand-drawing to computer drawing anyway. I'm probably a purist like that in a sense. That's why this new technique helped me stay closer to a hand-drawn style that I prefer.

and now, another random image!

This was a random concept sketch i drew. It was a fan-boy moment. if you can guess what series it's close to, you get brownie points. I'm still a college student so I dont have any money to give. Sorry.

Things and whatev

Aight, so apprently this is just a blog now. Not specifically about Random Fuzz.

Anyway, so the new website is in development and should be up in a few weeks, schedule allowing. Everything will be up and the GRAPHIC NOVEL that finishes the series will be done (part one at least) by DECEMBER hopefully.

Sigh, life without graphic design classes is interesting. On one hand no deadlines and crazy professors or inter-student drama. On the other hand, no cool people to hang out with or share quality time at Kinko's while we get angry over some minute problem with our file or a malfunction in the printer.

good times.

Anyway, this is the last semester for the comic (because I'm GRADUATING, FINALLY.) This semester will basically wrap up the series and set the stage for the graphic novel. The novel will explain EVERYTHING... kind of. What it doesn't explain will be explained later, in another series perhaps?

The reason the website hasnt been posted in the newspaper is because it's technically work-for-hire, and the fuzzes are technically University property. But that hasnt stopped me! Besides, if enough changes are made to the characters while keeping the premise the same, the novel can be legal. Meh. Well, it's going up nonetheless.

Meanwhile, feast on these random images i made during my spare time: