This is based on a true story, in much the same way that Hollywood bases things on true stories. The true bits are that I did call AT&T, and one of their service voices DID express excitement about WALL-E and Pixar. It is more interesting for the service voice to be an actual service automated system, instead of a real person, and they didn’t get QUITE so excited about Wall-E as the automated system does. I built it up because the actual exchange was pretty tame and boring, but it made me feel like if the comic had actually happened. This is insight into the story process, guys. Pay attention. Sometimes it’s about taking an actual event that happened and distilling it down to WHY it’s memorable, and building it up again from there.

So go and see Wall-E! I think it’s the most visually striking cgi film ever made; it’s a romance-comedy-action-sci-fi-family-film, and if the movie isn’t gorgeous enough, the guys worked on the end really made the most beautiful animation to ever grace end credits!

Filed under: Uncategorized — Emma @ 12:10 pm

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Kiwis really know their art software. Artrage is great fun to play with… it’s been a while. Feels like actually drawing in a sketchbook.

Filed under: art rage, thoughts on drawing, sketching — Emma @ 5:53 pm

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You can never tell when they’re going to eat the offering… or you.  

Drawn on the Axiotron Modbook, using ArtRage 2 for the lines and Photoshop for the colors.

Filed under: artrage, monster, modbook, photoshop, sketching — Emma @ 10:53 pm

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Back at the end of March I was lucky enough to be able to tag along on a vet student field trip to the Performing Animal Welfare Society’s facilities. They’re not open to the public, as the whole point of the program is to provide exotic and performing animals a place to live peacefully after their careers are over, cut short, or after they’ve been confiscated from people unable to properly care for an exotic.

I took the opportunity to draw the animals - animals that you normally only see in the zoo, but these seemed much more happy, engaged, and energetic than the guys who live in zoos. I was happy to be able to see tigers, monkeys, elephants, and a kodiak bear up close… but sad, too, because most of the animals who live at PAWS have horrific backstories.

This is Viper, and he and his sister were lounging around in their pen, sleeping. Apparently someone declawed them as cubs, but did it the do-it-yourself-way: with garden shears. Their paws are so mangled that all they really do anymore is lounge, because walking is painful for them.

These guys were named after the Marx brothers. I’m not entirely sure about their backstory - but I think it involved a hoarder-type person, the type who keeps forty cats in their home, except with monkeys. These guys are capuchins, which I’ve never seen in zoos (but you’ve probably seen in Pirates of the Caribbean - Jack the monkey is a brown capuchin).

This was really amazing. Out at one of the PAWS facilities, asian and african elephants are kept (and forty-some tigers, which is pretty amazing, but not what I’m talking about). The five african elephants live in a paddock, about forty times as big as any enclosure you’ve ever seen an elephant in. They moved like I’ve only ever seen elephants on TV move - ears up, alert, trotting - engaged in the world around them and anticipating the buckets of vegetables that their caretakers began tossing for them! At one point one elephant ran down a hill and the other four turned around and ran to meet her. I’ve got no idea how to read elephant body language, so I was worried that we were about to see an elephant fight. It turned out to be only an excited greeting, but seeing an elephant actually run makes you realize how massive these animals are!

Filed under: lions, elephants, animals, monkeys, sketching — Emma @ 5:23 pm

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I was playing around with a brushpen, remembering something Marc had said about Jason Shawn Alexander’s work on Abe Sapien. He said that Jason didn’t pencil his pages - he worked out compositions and problems in sketches, and then went straight ahead into inks without the base to build on. It keeps his drawings really vital and alive. There’s no loss or stiffening up as he inks, because there are no pencils for him to get obsessive about.

A pretty neat idea! You’ve got to be confident as well as willing to scrap things and completely start over to pull that kind of thing off.

That got me thinking about how scrapping things and starting over is pretty much my most favorite thing in the world, and how it’s not that much of a step from no pencils to actually no outlined story, and that’s been turning over in my head for a bit now. When I write, I’ve learned to ask myself what would be interesting to see, what would be an interesting way to take this scene. A comic straight ahead would just be about asking, “what would be an interesting next panel?” instead of writing it scene by scene.

So… what would be an interesting panel? This one ain’t… but there’ll be others!

Filed under: inking practice, thoughts on drawing — Emma @ 7:25 pm

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Was sitting around bored this afternoon, taking a break from bloodying my fists on the brick wall that represents all color, and remembered this old blog.

This is my artistic interpretation of the three people who continue to check the blog, not because they hold any hope that it will update, but through sheer force of habit.

And THIS is my artistic interpretation of the blogreader now:

NO WAY!

Filed under: inked incredulous baby, sketching — Emma @ 10:58 pm

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My officemate was showing me a Spike Jonze opening to a skate video, which you can see here - it’s absolutely the most epic thing you’ll ever see in your life, and the final jump is fantastic. Watching skaters in super slow motion shows you some pretty weird poses, though. This page is me trying to figure out the mis-angled feet… I finally figured out that it’s the drop of the hip that makes it look right, but I don’t think the finished-er sketch really reflects that.

Filed under: motion studies, sketching — Emma @ 8:01 am

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Inking is done - I’ve scanned everything and am now cheating my ass off in Photoshop - it’s better than whiteout. I’ve learned a few things from this comic so far… and I’ll share despite the possibility that you already know these bits of wisdom.

From now on I will:
1. Make sure to have a general idea of what my characters look like and are wearing, even if I don’t draw turnarounds. Ideally this will happen before I start inking, and will save me the trouble of having to replace articles of clothing to keep continuity from page to page.
2. Avoid faking perspective, faces, and hands in pencil stage, since it only brings grief when I sit down with my brush to try to figure out what the hell is going on and is that even physically possible (the answer is no).
3. Figure everything out while pencilling. That’s why they’re erasable.
4. Put ink bottles in plastic bags before putting them into backpacks. Apparently they are delicate and prone to hemorrhaging…
5. Not only KNOW the dimensions that I will be printing to… but USE them!
6. Use wider shots, even if it makes me worried when I can’t see the characters’ expressions. Landscapes are just as pretty.

I’m coloring 25% size printouts of the inked pages with watercolor, which I’ll use as a guide for coloring the fullsize versions in Photoshop. Roundabout way, but I think it’ll work.

Filed under: pencils, comicking, afterworks — Emma @ 10:40 pm

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What I was doing here was trying to mash a girl’s face around. Then I got picky and redrew a headshot of her, which doesn’t look anywhere near as lively as the fullbody drawing. I like it when a face surprises me… I don’t care to make people attractive, but hopefully they’re interesting.

Filed under: cat, sketches — Emma @ 12:34 pm

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Transporting animals is totally the way of the future.

For a while now my desk at work has been looking more and more like a newsstand got violently sick all over it, so I took the fifteen minutes to pick through and sort the random-bored-doodles from the top-secret-work-doodles, and what you see are from about six months ago. I like the idea of it and the expression on the girl, though, so I think I’m going to do a sketch for a inked drawing. I’ll post those when they happen.

A funny looking guy from the Alan Clarke film “The Firm”.

Filed under: pen sketching, animals — Emma @ 4:31 pm

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