Re: VanderHuge Studios

I can't even tell if this stuff's good anymore. (I'm not even sure good's the goal anymore, maybe idiosyncratic is a more manageable ambition.) About Drawing Table Tuesday .

When I started this, one of the rules I made up was that I wasn't going to copy/paste panels. I've had  decided to retract that. Ideally, I wouldn't copy/paste anything , but I sort of had to come to terms and accept that sometimes it's just a practical, time management necessity. I'm still gonna try to keep copying to a minimum though. Notice I didn't copy the entire panel and just paste different faces.

I drew this panel, but didn't like it. It's way too static and undynamic (I.e., blah). I took a picture, erased it all, and redrew it. Definitely turned out better the second time. This is a pretty good example of why I try not to draw when I'm sleepy or unfocused (or at least, why I don't like to) . If I just try to power through a page, chances are it'll turn out crappy and I'll just have to redraw it later (sort of a double waste of time) . Sometimes you need some sleep, sometimes you just need a fifteen minute break, a deep breath, and a big eraser. This is also a good example of why I use the paper I do. It's expensive, but it'll take a serious, merciless beating with an eraser without falling apart, so much so that I've never had trouble inking over a spot that's had some pretty massive erasure. About Drawing Table Tuesday .

The dialogue in the book was tricky. I think the "writing" (/sarcasm)  sort of reflects the drawing. I think it was pretty deliberate, but basically I tried to keep the dialogue pretty sparse and only include what was absolutely necessary to know what was going on and what was happening. I tried not to meander much, but the book does get more word heavy the further it goes. I've noticed a few interesting things now that I'm sitting here staring at the real pages now. When it's finished, I might write about them  (note to self: that means I need to take notes along the way) . Sort of, I don't know... ghost in the machine stuff. Unintended connections, coincidences and stuff. Allegories maybe.

Underdrawing. About Drawing Table Tuesday .

I took this picture a few days ago, I guess to sort of acknowledge what appears to be obsessive lunacy. For a very long time now, I've been masking off finished areas as I draw them so I don't smudge the pencil lines. I used to use tracing paper, but then I realized transparencies would be perfect (because you can see what's underneath and they're indestructible) , so I cut up a few sheets into different shapes and sizes, and now I use those. I always draw from top to bottom, left to right so I don't smudge them with my right hand, but when I'm drawing, I spin the page around a lot and hold the page down with my left  (I've considered buying or making an animator's disc, but that wouldn't help with this specific problem) . So much pencil was lifted and rubbed off by my left hand that sometimes lines and marks were completely gone. But no longer. I also use transparencies in my toning process to protect the page from sharpie bleed-through. I

I've noticed a real problem with blogger, and it's that when you upload an image that has a lot of white space, when it optimizes the image to whatever blogger has set those specifics to, it almost always turns the white space way darker. And this is a pretty good example of that. Also, a while ago, I finally got around to integrating tumblr, something I've been planning but putting off for over a year now. I'd been using Flickr as an image hosting service, but they changed their setup and access to your images (a service I was paying for, mind you)  to a super convoluted, counter-intuitive, long winded process that made it incredibly time consuming if you're working with more than just a few images. (I later became aware that I was part of a fairly large exodus that they caused when they changed their site.) The only drawback is that once I cancel the account, all the images retroactively disappear on this site. Ah well... Mostly, it (changing over to t