Slippery When Wet

Page 7 of episode 4 of The Word Smith has made its way online.  In this episode, stuff happens!  More specifically, we see the reappearance of the cat back on page 2 (included specifically to set up this joke) as well as hints of things to come for the remainder of the episode.  I'm sure that sense of impending doom is just some grand paranoid delusion. ... Or is it...?

I thought, today, it might be interesting to show some thumbnails, which I've not done in some time.

These are the thumbnails for pages 4-7 and were drawn on the back of some paper I printed out a while ago (recycle!)  As you can see, my thumbnails are pretty rough.  I mostly use them for roughing out the basic composition though, as can be seen, the middle row on page five (where Nyrissi is introduced) was left blank as I didn't decide on how I wanted to handle her until I got to that part of the page.  I also sometimes leave notes for myself on things that I want to modify for the final page (because I'm too lazy to actually redraw the thumbnails...  or something.)

In the context of todays page, it might also be interesting to note that neither the script nor the thumbnails for page 2 mentioned or showed a cat anywhere.  In the script, the first mention of the cat is on page 7 when The Pen mentions that she let it play for her.  I only decided to put the cat into page 2 as I was drawing that page, partly because I wanted to put a little something extra in some of the panels, and partly because I decided that I didn't want the cat to just come out of nowhere on page 7.

And that's all for this week.  Tune in next week when stuff happens!  Or stuff.

Freak Out,
-TFitC

According to Plan

Page 6 of episode 4 of The Word Smith has found its way onto the interweebs revealing the plans of t3h g4m3rz.  This also marks the half-way mark for the episode (it will be twelve pages).  Go marvel at it, or just mar at it, without the vel.

And here is today's exciting sketchbook entry, for some definition of exciting:

It's a slight redesign on a character that has appeared in this blog previously.  I had had some plans for the character, but there's not really been enough time to follow through on them.  Perhaps when FASS has finished up I'll have the chance to revisit things.

In other news, I forgot to mention last week that I saw a license plate that read "LOTR4EVR" which I thought was cool (of course I'm a huge Tolkien geek, so I would think that).  I also had the opportunity to see The Hobbit in 48 FPS mode (I originally saw it in regular 24 FPS).  That is, of course "frames per second" and not "first person shooter".  I thought it was neat!  It didn't take me very long to adjust to the high frame rate and didn't cause any issues for me.

And that is all for this week.  Until next time,
Freak Out
-TFitC

Aaaaaand.... We're Back!

It's Tuesday again which means it's time once again to inflict my peculiar brand of commentary and artistry (perhaps for some loose definition of the word) upon the interweebs.  This also means that there's something new posted over on the Word Smith site and it's an actual new page rather than an interlude.  Enjoy!  In the imperative!

And for today's sketchbook entry... hmmm, well, lets see...  the sketchbook has sadly been a little neglected due to focusing on the comic of late, but there's still a few things to dig out for the moment (though I'm going to have to set aside some time to do some more sketchbook drawing!)

Four different poses for Gillin, one of my recurring FR characters and probably the one I tend to sketch most often, for some reason.  I intentionally left the first (top-left) one a little unfinished as I thought it looked kind of interesting and I occasionally like to see the rough, construction work that leads to the finished drawing - she's not actually a mannequin, automaton, homunculus or anything of that sort.

Anywho, that's all for this week.  Until next time,
Freak Out
-TFitC

It's a Mystery to Everyone

Aaaaaaaaaand, here's another interlude for the Word Smith.  I could have had a page ready for today (I could almost have had two pages, even), but I decided to go with the interlude since it should hopefully let me get through FASS without falling behind.  *crosses fingers*

 As with the previous interludes, here's the sketchbook version:

Viewers might notice some slight difference betwixt the pencil version and the final version.  And who is that guy in the middle?  We haven't seen him since the episode's title page.  Hmmmm....

Anyway, the holidays are official over and the nose is back to the grind stone (such as it is).  I might actually talk a bit about one of my other projects in this blog some day, but not, it seems, today.

Freak Out,
-TFitC

New Freak, Same as the Old Freak

I appear to have stepped into a time warp and found myself in a completely different year.  Odd that that seems to happen at about the same time each year...  surely it must be just some sort of cosmic coincidence?  Perhaps it is best not to think too much upon it.  However, if one were to check, one would likely find a second Word Smith interlude has been posted.  Time works in mysterious ways.  Freaky.

As with the previous interlude, here, also, is the pencil version from my sketchbook:

Hopefully (?) I'll start posting actual pages again next week, though I might do another interlude to give myself a bit more of a head start.

There is nothing else to report at this time; New Year's happened, games were played, and in the end the world appears to still be here, much the same as it was yesterday, though one can never entirely rule out the possibility that it's all just a rather persistent illusion.  One, however, does not worry much about such things, especially when one refers to oneself as "one(self)".

Anywho, signing off or something.

Freak Out,
-TFitC