I’m calling this page finished. It’s time to say “enough fiddling” and move on to another page. I have ten weeks to complete 8 more pages, put all of the images and text into InDesign ,and upload the final PDF to IngramSpark. Ten weeks sounds like plenty of time, but it’s a tight deadline.
Characters from the first pages of the book will be in the audience: giraffes, elephants, crocodiles, and even a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Did I mention that the tightrope walker is a burro?
Still trying to make my characters cuter. It ain’t easy…for me, at least. The formula seems to be big head, big eyes, rounded features, no straight lines, short noses. What i’m really missing is cute gestures!
After struggling for days to ink this page using Clip Studio Paint’s bezier curves, I decided to revert to freehand inking. Learning on the job can lead to massive slowdowns, even coming to a complete halt, while climbing a steep learning curve. So, back to freehand inking it is. I’m still using CSP’s vector layers and I can still use the vector tools to correct to fix wayward lines, of which there are plenty.
My plan is to turn these make these pictures work together. The beach scene will all of the residents of Easter Island, the reanimated Moai the the little volcano demon, waving farewell to Dylan Dolphin, Betty Burro, and Jimmy Jay. Since these are two unique scenes, I’m going to extend the ocean (in the beach scene) to behind the jumping dolphin. I’ll have to correct some colors and lighting. I can sense that I’m going to complete this book in the next couple of months.
It’s a bittersweet feeling. I’m happy that I’m coming to the end, and I’m sad that it will be over. I’ve been working on this book for 17 months, far longer that dreamed it would take. There are so many ways it could have been better, if I had only had the skills to make it so. So it goes.
Dolphins have lots of teeth. Lots. Some dolphins have up to 240 teeth, but bluenose dolphins like Dylan only have about 100.
My difficulty, with this picture, is the Dylan looks a little like a duck. I’d better work on that. Tomorrow.
Cuter means rounder, chubbier, big friendly smile, and big, bright eyes looking right at you, brothers and sisters!
The line work is all vector using Clip Studio Paint’s efficient vector tools. They don’t have all of the features of Illustrator or Affinity Designer, but they’re perfect for doing comix.
I still have to do the shadows and highlights and background.
This is my latest version of Dylan. He looks too old. Now I’ve got to make him cute and cudly. This was good practice for using the bezier tool. CSP doesn’t seem to have an elegant way to taper lines. Or I jist don’t know how to do it. Probably that..
NOTE TO SELF; tomorrow work on the shading and highlights.
I spent an hour trying to get this guy’s hands looking right, and didn’t succeed. Working with Bezier curves is a challenge, but I figure if I keep hammering away at it, I will prevail. To quote myself, “If they can do it, I can do it.” Of course, I know that I can’t sing like Pavarotti or dance like Baryshnikov. But just maybe I can learn to trace over my drawings using the pen tool if I practice every day.
Now that the tabby cat volcano demon is happy, and all of the Moai are no longer stone statues, Jimmy, Dylan, and Betty are ready to go back to their normal lives. In this image they’re pleased that they’ve had an exciting adventure, but now they just want to take a vacation and sit quietly on a beautiful beach eating delicious mangos. I imagine Jimmy saying, “Wow! It was weird being a statue. What do we do next?” Betty will respond, “Hey, dude. Have you forgotten that we were on the way to a birthday party in Acapulco. The question is, how do we get there?” Dylan will say, “I have a solution. I’m an awesome swimmer. You can both ride on my back and we’ll get there in no time!” Everybody cheers. What could possibly go wrong with that brilliant plan?
