Today I decided to change up my twitter profile. I thought I’d try drawing our little pin up girl some more. She’s a fun little figure to doodle, especially with Frenden’s Manga Studio brushes.
Articles Written By: Ben
Daily Doodle – 10/29/14 – Wolfman
I wanted to see how scribbly I could make each drawing in an animation while still making it work. The answer is pretty darn scribbly, actually. The real concern comes down to timing and spacing. Placing inbetweens more carefully and in better places would have smoothed a lot of this out. I also probably should have done the moon on a different layer so it wouldn’t be so obvious when I reversed the cycle. Still, this serves as a good example of how loose you can be without totally breaking an animation.
Daily Doodle – 10/28/14
Today I doodled some faces. It’s fun to mix and match shapes that make up features. The first couple were more realistic but then I let myself get cartoony and played around with various brushes. It’s hard sometimes to fight the urge to just see what kinds of marks I can make. Perhaps I need to come to better terms with that urge.
Daily Doodle – 10/27/14
I had some ideas for today’s doodle but none of them were working so I actually just started scribbling to see if I could draw a decent face out of nowhere. I might try this again to see what kinds of variations I can come up with. It’s more important to me to be able to randomly create as many good faces as possible than it is to draw the same one face over and over.
Daily Doodle – 10/26/14 – Superbia (pride)
This is the chapter that’s given me the most difficulty writing-wise. I knew I wanted it set in a space station and the first draft took place in a modern setting. That felt like it slowed things down so I started one that was more futuristic. Things still went too slowly as I didn’t know how to introduce the creepy elements like I wanted to. I believe I know how to approach this when I workshop these tougher stories.
Daily Doodle – 10/25/14 – Invidia (envy)
Today’s doodle took a little figuring out. The scene was basically the same, just the framing and positioning went through a few passes. I also needed to decide exactly what was going on outside the window. This is another story I’m probably going to rewrite. I like the idea but the execution can benefit from a second attempt.
Daily Doodle – 10/24/14 – Ira (wrath)
I’m feeling pretty good about this one. The idea’s solid and it’s coming along alright. My biggest issue here is I kept moving between the rough sketch color and the refined sketch color. It’s better to do scrawling on one layer and cleanup on another. But sometimes you’re fixing something and know exactly where you want to place something. There’s two modes my brain goes into: One where it’s scribbling to fill space and place objects, the other tightening up what’s established. I also realize how much I rely on the shift key in Photoshop where I lock brush orientation for straight lines. Manga Studio has rulers and the like but for rough sketches I just wing it to correct later. But that’s the nice thing about working digitally – you can add layers and correct as many times as it takes to get what you want.
Daily Doodle – 10/23/14 – Acedia (sloth)
This chapter right here represents a change from where the stories go from being largely visual to more dialogue-heavy. The more I think about it the more I want to re-write it. When I’m feeling better I’m going to take some time and retool some of the chapters I’m having issue with. I really like the concept, I just don’t like the angle I’ve taken with it.
WIP Wednesday – 10/22/14
Here are some panels from my rough layouts so far. Getting sick has really punched my productivity in the gut but I’m still trying to work every day. I was really enjoying drawing on Monday’s Daily Doodle and then things went off the rails. Hopefully I’ll feel better next week so I can get more done.
Daily Doodle – 10/22/14 – Avaritia (greed)
Today’s doodle is for the chapter on greed. I look forward to contrasting this with the fleshed out version I’ll make when I’m not sick.