Dream Interpretation, continued

(...Redrawn somewhat from the last post. May not have improved significantly, but at least the shape consistency, anatomical correctness of (admittedly cartoon) faces, and line rhythm - so far as I can tell - seem decent enough when viewed in thumbnail format, nothing too jarring, though nothing overly dynamic in the Cyril Pedrosa sense. Found also that falling back on the usual M.O. of using a light blue/violet for secondary light source - or shading other than the core shadow - helped negate some of the more awkward shape solutions when it came to color. Again, so far as I can tell. 

Primary rule of redrawing, which I didn't necessarily follow here: Start from scratch. Just like most anything in life, trying to rig something workable from a bad start or weak structure isn't going to have the same sort of pay off as opposed to hitting it fresh. Pull on one thread and the rest follows: Redrawing the head usually means redrawing the neck, which means repositioning the trunk and shoulder line, which means etc. Same goes for color/tone. Beauty of Photoshop is having layers that one can reposition or free-transform so as to match with previous drawing structure; in this case, the trunk and hands/arms, which turned out ok. Redrawing from scratch though can have its own drawbacks, namely innumerable variations on the actual design that can go on ad nauseam if one is either uncomfortable or bored with the drawing, or one simply hasn't nailed down the character design... or both.)

~ Between Drawing and Revolution ~

...Been late in uploading anything this weekend due to being glued to the TV - and no, it wasn't because of the Bill Murray Marathon they had going on AMC (although I flipped over to it a few times - Caddyshack is a good counterpoint to the news).

Watched most of what's been going on in Iran, flipping between CNN and Fox. Even stayed up to listen to McDonald's co-founder and Baby Milk Factory advocate Ali Khamenei give his speech, with the crowd doing a pretty decent job catching their cues to yell "Death to [insert name here]... Death to [insert nationality here] !"

Speech was long, and I only caught the last half hour. Stayed up and took notes:

...Illegible notes. And equally illegible sketches.

............

And yes, I did the Ayin sketches during the speech as well. I didn't consciously draw her "rushing-forward-with-knife" in relation to the Ayatollah giving his spiel. (*cough*):

(I wasn't really happy with this pose of hers in the last sequence, hence the redraw - and I'm not sure I'm really satisfied with this sketch either - and I'm starting to sound like a broken record in these blog posts of mine. I promise, I'll post better sketches with less whining next time.)

.....

Speaking of revolution: Since I'm just about done with a several-page prologue to a story idea revolving around a Russian Revolution, here's a preview panel:

Since I suck at drawing historical details accurately, it's an alternate universe deal revolving around a future Revolution in the Holy Empire of Tsarist Russia. Either that, or it's my lame attempt at making a comic that falls somewhere between August 1914 and Big Trouble in Little China.

Given that parallel, it will have plenty of historic and spiritual motifs. More important will be the huge free-for-all shootouts, running through dark tunnels, freeing prisoners, blind old wizards in catacombs. And wildlife - with four legs and wings. That are as tall as a water tower.

Did I mention that it has wings?...

Fin.

So, remember those sketches I promised before?...

I know - I don't upload for over 2 months, and I pick today of all days to do it. Yeah, bad timing...

A quick sketch page with notes.

A couple of comic pages I did today - and dialog this time. Hoorah.

Alot of the erasing ended up leaving an accidental tone/shading of sorts - which kind of works at times. But I need to figure out a standardized way to do comic pages, something a little cleaner maybe - and more importantly something that will carry over into print without anything becoming lost in translation.

...Pen and inking is one method, but there are alot of drawbacks - one being a loss of the immediate line that you put down when you loosely sketch (i.e., you lose some of the life and energy of the drawing - or can potentially - when you nail it down with solid linework.)

I'll have to figure something out, to save my sanity if nothing else.


An older work-up sketch, from that box of sketches I keep talking about. (It exists, and it will be scanned at some point - trust me.)
Foreground character should be resting his one foot on something in-frame - or be repositioned so that he looks more "on level" perspective-wise with the other characters.

Was based off another sketch that had more realistic rendering and proportions. Maybe that was part of the problem? - basing it on something without as much exaggeration? Problems, problems....

(There's a good reason why the lady's naked in the above sketch. Honestly. There's a whole sequence that revolves around that as a story point... of sorts. Stay tuned.)

............................

And a little color, to upset my friends and family.

Alot of copy paper, alot of colerase, and a little PS cheating.