So one of my New Years Goals was to write 1000 words a day. Which sounds pretty lofty, but really I can accomplish that in about an hour. Sometimes less.
In writing 1000 words a day, I’m actually getting a LOT of writing done.
It’s not just blog posts either.
Thanks to my 1000 words written a day goal, I’ve revisited an old script of mine, and am now in the process of writing it and continuing off of it.
I’m talking about my post apocalyptic lesbian love story with zombie-killing, starring Claire and Tracy.
I finished editing Chapter 1, and I powered through Chapter 2. It’s a GREAT feeling knowing there’s progress finally being made on a project that’s been on hold for months.
I’ve been revisiting this project in my sketchbook, as well.
A Work in Progress (click to enlarge)Sketching out an idea of the world they explore. (Click to enlarge).
And I’ve been doing some sketching to flesh out their world bit by bit.
I’ve also been looking at this list of post-apocalyptic tropes to avoid and what hasn’t been done yet. I’m hoping to add elements of things rarely done in post-apocalyptic stories, pulling inspiration from this list.
Like bike-riding. Oh my shit there need to be more bike riders after cars become useless hunks of metal.
What are some tropes of the post apocalyptic genre you can think of? What hasn’t been done in a zombie story yet that you can think of? Leave them in the comments below. I would love to hear about them!
It’s not yet New Years, but I wanted to talk about this early. That way I’m not too lost in the flood of New Years’ Goals posts that are sure to flood across the internet.
Sure, I have goals for 2015. There are personal ones like walk everyday, send more cards, that kind of thing.
But this blog post is being made to share the goals for my comics in 2015.
Why am I sharing them?
Because I want you to hold me accountable.
In sharing my goals with you, I hope that you can keep me on the right track, so I don’t lose my way, so I can succeed, and not back out of promises I made to you.
In return, I hope to hear about your New Years resolutions in the comments. So that way, I can help you do the same!
So, for 2015, I have a list. A list of things I wanted to accomplish. These things are…
Of course, a lot of those goals are not specific. So I broke them down into do-able chunks and came up with…
Write every day,
Publish 1 new eBook a month,
Finish 1 new painting a month,
Post 4 items on Storenvy every month,
Breaking it down even further, I have goals for every week and even every day! They are…
Write 1000 words a day,
Draw 2 Sketchbook pages a day,
Finish 1 new mini-comic a week,
Post 1 new item on Storenvy a week,
Update this blog Monday through Friday
To help me keep track of my daily goals, I borrowed from Karen Kavett and Charlie McDonnell (and Jerry Seinfeld) by printing up copies of the Don’t Break the Chain calendar.
The idea of this calendar is that you have a goal to accomplish everyday. Every day you do the thing, you check off the day on the calendar. Do it everyday and you start a chain of check marks, so don’t break the chain!
One of my big goals is to update this blog Monday through Friday. That will start January 1, 2015, this Thursday.
I actually tied a few goals together for 2015: I intend on reviving the Women Warriors Projectby making one new painting every month for it. By finishing 1 new mini-comic every week, I’m making one new item to sell on Storenvy every week. By sketching 2 pages everyday, I’m making content for eBooks I’m publishing every month. When I finish a sketchbook, I’ll make a video and upload it to YouTube.
I like combining goals. It makes accomplishing them more fulfilling.
What are your goals for 2015? Let me know in the comments!
Thank you for reading, and I’ll see you on Thursday.
Seriously, you, dear reader, are awesome. Thanks. :D
I have a lot of plans in store for next year, including more comics, more art, and more blog posts. Expect more mini-comics! Expect the return of Seeing Him!
And sometime, at some point, one of my comics will come to a close. I don’t want to say which one yet, because it’s a surprise.
I’ll talk more about my goals for next year soon.
Until then, have a Merry Christmas!
Also Happy Hannukah, Kickin’ Kwanzaa, Merry Winter Solstice, and have a Festivus for the rest of us.
So what are you grateful for? What did you get for Christmas? Let me know in comments!
Thank you for reading, and I’ll see you on Friday.
So in yesterday’s post I talked about what I feel like makes bad character design for comics.
To be fair, creating unique designs for characters is hard, especially in comics. It’s too easy to fall into formulas and make your characters suffer Same Face Syndrome, or its cancerous cousin, Same Body Syndrome. (Don’t know what I’m talking about? You should have been here yesterday.)
It’s not an easy question to answer, even if you’ve been making comics and animated works for YEARS. What makes great characters tends to vary from artist to artist.
However, I try my best to keep these points in mind. Good character designs in comics (to me)…
express the full range of human emotions,
are visually individual from each other, and
embody necessary elements in your story.
Let’s take a look at some of my own character designs.
Character sheet for Nada.
Nada is a character I created for a work-in-progress, where she and several children are trying to escape a haunted house. Nada loves the wilderness, exploring, and practicing her survivalist skills. So in her design, I gave her sturdy hiking boots and a pair of pants that wouldn’t snag on anything from long sleeves, but still protect her legs from ticks and burrs. She’s still feminine in that she keeps her hair long, but she’s low maintenance and would rather keep her tangle of hair pulled back.
Let’s look at another story, which has the working title The Hoard.
Claire.
Claire is a tough cookie. She’s also sharp and abrasive, which is why I drew her with sharper angles, especially in her face. She’s also muscular, having fought against the zombie hoard for a few years. Her clothes fit her snugly – she has no time for loose things to snag onto obstacles. She needs to do her thing quickly and get it done.
Let’s compare her to Tracy.
Tracy’s character sheet.
Tracy has softer edges and curves, including a round face. That’s because she’s much more innocent and timid than Claire is. Compared to Claire’s hardness, Tracy is squishy. She also has more introverted body language – she keeps her arms in and her mouth shut. Compared to Claire’s open and fierce body language, Tracy is quiet. She compliments Claire nicely for the story.
Ok, so what about in something like Validation?
Let’s look at the progression of Ally.
Ally in the first strip, compared to strip #151.
This isn’t just a comparison to see how my art improved over time. There’s some subtlety going on in Ally’s design.
When she first appears, her hair is much straighter, she’s quiet in her demeanor, and she keeps to herself for the most part.
As time goes on, she gets more outgoing, more outspoken, and that gets reflected in her appearance. Her hair is much looser and wilder, and she’s not afraid to wear a shirt that says “Boss.”
We can also see a change in Roxie, especially in one particular arc.
It’s almost like Roxie is two different people.
Roxie is a punk. She is loud, she is funny, she is energy personified. Even her hair is electric!
However, in a rather dramatic story arc, she hits a slump. She retreats inward and loses a little of her spark. Usually, her mohawk has vibrant color, but in her slump, her hair is apathetically white and lifelessly blank. Her hair is limp, her energy just sucked out of her. And instead of standing straight and proud and emphatic, she slumps over, drawing herself in, away from the world.
Thankfully the downturn doesn’t last long, but it’s still dramatic enough that her appearance changes to match her character.
There are even more character designs I want to show and discuss, but that will have to wait for tomorrow – I don’t want this post to get too long!
Sketches of an alien race, the Uthers (Click to enlarge).
“Character Design” is generally something you hear more in the animation industry than the comics industry. However, the two industries often overlap, especially whether you talk about camera angles, lighting and moods, or, in today’s post, character design.
Character design is especially important in comics. You need characters that…
express the full range of human emotions,
are visually individual from each other, and
embody necessary elements in your story.
On top of all of this, the character design should be simple enough that you can draw it repeatedly and NOT want to stab your eyes out with a mechanical pencil.
So before I show my own character designs and what elements I think work, I’m going to show some things that…don’t.
While there are no hard and steady rules for character design, I have this one personal rule of my own. It’s the only one I need, but it’s no less important.
If it makes a gorgeous illustration, it’s a terrible choice for a comics character design.
This is something mentioned briefly in an Aaron Diaz blog post about costumes in character design, under a section called “Simplicity.” He says…
Above all else, keep it simple. Comic characters are not pin-ups or other illustrations; you have to draw them over and over again, from various angles. If you pile on too much detail, you’ll wear yourself out slogging through all the bits every time you have to draw them.
Let’s look at an example…
THE BELTS.
THAT is a beautiful illustration. It would be a total pain in the ass to draw repeatedly for a comics story.
Now, I know what you’re thinking: A Bride’s Story.
A scene from A Bride’s Story (Click to enlarge)
Yes, it is insanely detailed and gorgeous. The artist also has assistants to help her meet her deadlines.
Most comics artists I know don’t have the luxury of an assistant to help them make art. They are, 99% of the time, making everything on their own.
To that end, I still stand by my personal rule.
If it makes a gorgeous illustration, it’s a terrible choice for a comics character design.
Remember that simplicity is key.
So, what else doesn’t work?
Same Face Syndrome.
The most notorious example of “Same Face Syndrome” to appear in recent years. (Click to enlarge)
Same Face Syndrome is when you use the same face in your character design. The most cancerous of Same Face Syndrome symptoms spread into the physique, when you draw all of your characters with the same general body shape.
I used to suffer from this HARD when I started out. It’s a common mistake because Same Face Syndrome is so formulaic, and formulas help make new work faster…even if it’s not necessarily better.
The thing about character design is it should not be formulaic. Your characters should not fit a mold.
They should be individuals, with their own physiques and faces and personalities.
Each character you draw is their own person. They should serve a unique but specific purpose in your story. That’s why you draw them into your comics, after all.
Have you noticed any Same Face Syndrome elsewhere? Have any tips for character designs? Leave them in the comments!
Thank you for reading and I’ll see you tomorrow, when I show some of my own character designs and the creative decisions behind their looks.
