Today, I failed. Completely.

For the first time since I began this project, I did not get up at 7:00 AM (give or take), I did not work on comics for an hour this morning, and instead I slept until 8:00 AM.

The first thing I thought when I awoke this morning was, “I am f***ing stressed. I do not want to deal.” So I slept in, knowing that I’d be home early from work today and could work on comics this afternoon. So, I did. I finished my three-page story, but that’s only half the point, isn’t it? Part of the whole project was to adhere to a schedule. A lesson in time management, if you will. Instead of doing something else this afternoon – like writing music, working on my novel, doing chores, etc. – I worked on comics. And it didn’t even take me an hour to finish compositing page 3. The rest of the time was spent preparing the online pages to be read. I was supposed to spend the rest of the time writing a short, two-page story for a friend to draw, and now I’m out of time.

Sure, today was somewhat successful in that I can now let the public read the story. But what’s disappointing to me is that I was on a running streak. Not in two weeks did I fail to adhere to my morning routine, but today, like a wuss, I let the worries of life get to me first thing in the morning.

Sad.

Tomorrow, this will not happen.

In any case, the story can now be read. Please feel free to read, Glutton by clicking on the picture below.

I did work on comics today. I did. I just didn’t draw.

I didn’t make time during the weekend to clean and prepare the pages for posting. Therefore, I did them today, or at least I started to. Since the third page needs to be composited, that’s what took the longest. In fact, it’s not completely done because in the process of copying and pasting the repeating panel and layering in the minor changes, I noticed that something in the original drawing needed to be different in the subsequent occurrences: when birds fly, they don’t stay in one place. So, I had to copy, paste, and move the flying birds in each of the subsequent copies of the panel to reflect the passage of time. As such, in the amount of time I dedicated to finishing up post-production, I almost finished.

I’ll be able to finish tomorrow, and I’ll be sure to draw something, too. Today felt like a cheat day, but post-production is still an important part of making comics so I don’t feel too bad about skipping the drawing table. I just need to make sure it doesn’t happen very often.

I worked about 15-20 minutes past my timer today since I was almost done with page 3 and wanted to finish. It defeats the purpose of sticking to some sort of time management, but I have most of the day off today and I figured finishing would be a good thing.

My hand did start to hurt, and I think I figured out why: pen pressure. I was never taught, like many inkers, how to use a dip pen. I’ve read up on some techniques and how others go about inking with a dip pen, but so far as I know, there is no technical manual for using a dip pen that will teach the inker how to ergonomically use the tool. For some reason, I feel like I should be putting pressure on the pen in order to get the ink out, and that’s not necessarily the case. I did notice that when I relax my hand and put no pressure, however, little to no ink comes out. But, by using my fingertips to put pressure on the pen, as opposed to the whole of my fingers and, thus, my hand, it works out a little more comfortably. I will have to remember that.

The pages came out alright. I think they’re a little over-rendered, something I have to work on, but for the most part they’re acceptable. When I get the time, either today or later this weekend, I will scan, clean, and post them (and in the case of page 3, composite it).

Do I hate them? No. Do I like them? mmm… a little. I’m not 100% happy with them, but I’ve got to move on to the next few pages and, whether I switch styles, methods, length of time, etc., I’ve got to get better andfaster.

One hour a day is simply not enough time to devote to comics. But, until I become fully self-employed and my schedule opens up, an hour is better than none.

I have no idea how I will able to tackle the larger projects I have on my table, though…

Had a bout of hay fever this morning that disrupted my sleep, so I decided to sleep in an hour instead of getting up to draw. Then I had to go to a school and work on some drums. I got finished with my daily hour of comic work about 20 minutes ago, so I did go through my rehab, just 7 1/2 hours late.

My hand began to hurt again, so I had to find a way to relax and draw accordingly. About halfway through I started to adapt and it didn’t hurt so bad. I started to sketch a bit more with this page, so it looks like I’m not really caring about making it look like page 1 and instead trying to find a way to find a good, satisfactory way of getting across a sketch style while being able to relax while drawing. As a result, I’m inking a bit quicker, but I’m not sure I’m going to like the results much. We’ll see, once I fill in some blacks and add some heavier lines and rendering.

I’ve also been giving thought to my use of a light box. I do my pencils on an 11 x 17 piece of paper, so as to preserve the pencils in case I screw up during the inking process. Unfortunately, the pencils aren’t always clear when I go to ink, which can be both a blessing and a curse.

In the cases when I really like the pencils, I want to follow them as closely as possible, which can be hard to do with a light box… and I have a very high quality light box. On the other hand, not having super-clear pencils can help the inking be more spontaneous.

I’ve tried using a Sharpie to help both solidify the pencils and have the lines come through the bristol board better, but I don’t really like it because a regular Sharpie has a specific line weight to it and, unless I’m going for that particular style, I won’t match that particular line weight when I go to ink, so the drawing will have a different affect.

I should be able to finish page 2 tomorrow, and maybe I’ll be able to do page 3, since technically I only have to ink one panel.

Today I actually got up at 6:50 AM and got to the drawing board just before 7:00. Woo hoo!

I finished inking page 1 and it looks a little better than yesterday. I a little over-worked, but better. I had to stop myself from over-working the page too much because I could feel myself trying to find ways to make the page look better, but any more noodling and hatching would’ve made the page look even crappier than it does.

So here’s the problem: I want to keep the look of each page consistent. Does this mean I have to work each page to match page 1? Or do I just approach the next page with the same aesthetic goal but try to cut back on the over-working, risking the next page(s) not matching page 1 entirely? And, what if, in the meantime, I found a better way to approach and, hopefully, accomplish my aesthetic goal, something different than what I did with page 1? The goal is the same but the approach is slightly different? Just go for it and see what happens? Wait until next time?

I also noticed that my hand didn’t really hurt today. Maybe because I didn’t do that much outline work. But also, today as I used my dip pen, I kept thinking to myself, “Treat it like a pencil. Treat it like a pencil.” Which I hate, because a dip pen is not a pencil. I don’t like treating things as if they were something else. Sure, I’ll note that some things are similar, but I don’t want to go too far and treat different things as if they were the same. I remember Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller talking about how directing and making a comic were basically the same process, and I remember thinking how ridiculous that was. They may be similar, but they’re not the same. The end goal and the end results are different. The interaction with your materials, actors, story, etc. are different. Perhaps that’s why Sin City was a decent movie but not a great movie; a lot of visual power was lost in the translation because they tried to take the transition from comic to movie too literally.

But, I digress.

I will start inking page 2 tomorrow and see how I approach it. In the meantime, I did this spontaneous little sketch with my dip pen after I finished page 1. I think it took about 3 minutes or so.

Done with a dip pen and Koh-I-Noor black ink on Strathmore Series 500 bristol board

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This is an Inkspill. Inkspills can only be done in ink and must be drawn, scanned, cleaned, and posted in one hour, no more.