Sometimes I get hung up on details that I should just let slide, like painting the ball. When I have to draw the ball it seems that I’m working with my left hand after having a stroke. I simply cannot visualize it, even when I’m looking at a reference. My next book will have zero soccer balls in it. It would be cool to say, after spending endless hours drawing the pentagram on soccer balls, that I am an expert at drawing soccer balls. I cannot.
With this picture I realize I’m banging my head against the limit of my composition skills. My characters are static and I don’t know what to do with their hands. I’m going to do some research and then redraw this picture.
This is the kind of problem that makes me feel like I don’t know dick about drawing from imagination. I dive into a drawing thinking I know what I’m doing and end up concluding that I always start with a good reference. I’m impatient, and that impatience makes me a slow learner.
Rough sketch for page 59.to
Every page starts with some chicken scratches on the page. I’ll have to redraw this page a dozen times to get it in its final shape. Perhaps someday I’ll be able to get a page together in just 10 tries, and then maybe in 5. Perhaps…
Today was an interesting chore day — instead of doing laundry and vacuuming, I did the laundry and cooked a pot mushroom soup. There were 2 lbs of mushrooms in the recipe, making 4 to 6 servings. It was, of course, a vegan recipe with no dairy, and even better, no added oil. Instead using coconut milk, I used cashew milk that I made in the mighty Vitamix blender.
Later in the day I took nacho on a long high into the mountains above Ashland. The view was spectacular and my legs are aching.
I had a little time to sketch a fiery cat yelling Nooo! This is very rough sketch and, as usual, the eyes are wonky even though I focused intently on making the symmetrical.
Here’s my first attempt at painting elephants crossing a rope bridge.
I’m tired, but I showed up to more forward my daily inch.
Last night’s sleep was restless. I was dreading the task of doing my taxes. . Fortunately, all went as well as taxes can go. I will sleep better tonight.
This picture is a two-page spread populated with text bubbles. I’m trying to avoid the huge blunder I committed in the first two books…drawing the images with complete disregard for the text. This time I’m keeping all of the important content within the safe area margins. The margin lines won’t appear in the final pdf.
Pyramid, by David Macauley. It’s about how pyramids are built. All of the illustrations are meticulously crafted pen and ink works of amazing detail. .
Rather than draw four new character pictures for the frontmatter, I decided to use existing images. I picked four of the more expressive pictures for the blank page opposite the half-title page. I’m still working of the background colors. I’ll add text to introduce the characters.
Changing font and size can screw up text bubbles
To replace the comic book font I orginally used for text bubbles with my standard book font, Coustard, I used Clip Studio Paint’s document font adjustment tool in Story -> Edit Text -> Open story editor which allows meto change the selected text to the text tool’s default font and size. It works okay, but if you’ve got text inside bubbles, and the new font’s metrics are significantly different from those of the font you’re replacing, you may end up with text overflowing the bubbles. Then you have go through the tedious task of selecting the text and resizing it and reorganizing it by hand. Very tedious stuff! It would be great if you could create an auto action that would allow you to push a button to convert the text.
You can create auto actions that create layers, change layer colors, and do many other useful tasks. But, damn, I can’t create an auto action that can change text from one font to another. I’ve scoured the web and youtube, but no one has mentioned auto actions that can change font. It would be a nice feature.
I’m going to stop complaining.CSP has enough nice features to make a huge difference in my workflow. I’m just dreaming that it will someday be more perfect.
In the middle of exporting 2.8GB files in Photoshop PSB format
Today I completed the text bubbles for my second book. This export is really the first draft. I’ll carefully inspect every bubble for typos and missing words before doing a final export to InDesign. I have to constantly double-check myself because I’ve always been an inaccurate typist. I once timed myself at 30 words a minute on a manual typewriter and that’s how fast I’ve stayed over the years. I am a miracle of consistency.
Today I sketched, inked, and started flatting page 34. In the image above you see only the silhouette for each character. Within each character’s color block, I’ll create sub-blocks of color for their hair and clothes. Flatting is tedious but it does same time in the long run. I’ll say it again: Clip Studio Paint has the best flatting tools that I know of.
