Processing Time

The latest page of The Word Smith is not quite done - it's in the process of being coloured (nearly finished!) and should be up sometime this weekend, but in the interim, I thought it might be interesting (for some definition of interesting) to talk a bit about my comic-making process, such as it is.

It all begins with a script, or something like one, anyway.  I do, in fact, have the entirety of The Word Smith planned out, in point-form, at least.  Before I start actually drawing an episode, I write that episode up in detail, on a panel-by-panel level.  Sometime I'm a bit lazy with dialogue and don't finalize it until I need to start actually putting it on the actual comic, which is a bad habit that I need to try to avoid.  Anyway, the script stage is all just typing into a word processor so I'm not going to dwell on it.

The first actual drawing that happens is creating thumbnails.  My thumbnails are pretty rough and (usually) drawn four pages to a single piece of (scrap) paper, like so:

Pages 5-7 of Episode 8.  The last quarter shows a couple of alternate ideas for page 6 - in particular it shows the composition I ended up using for the first panel, which was different from my original idea.

There are some artists out there who do pretty detailed thumbnails, but I keep 'em simple mainly for two reasons.  One, I'm lazy.  Two, as this is just a hobby and I try to get things done in a timely manner, I prefer not to spend too much time on something that's just going to get redrawn anyway.  Even so, I do view thumbnails as an important planning tool.  Sometimes I do change the final layout from the thumbnailed version (as shall be seen), but overall, I don't think I'd want to attempt drawing the actual final page without some sort of plan in place regarding how I'm going to do it.

After thumbnails, I move on to the actual page.  I draw pages on pieces of bristol board which measure approximately 28cm x 35.5cm.  My current batch of bristol board (which I started using as of page 2 in episode 8) is also made of partly recycled material, for what it's worth.  I start by drawing the panel borders, usually measured out using a ruler, though occassionally (as with page 7 below) I just draw them in roughly.  I do this if I'm not entirely sure what proportions some of the panels should be or if I'm still a little unsure on some parts of the layout.  By just drawing in a rough sense of the panel borders I feel freer to draw outside of them, if need be.

Rough pencils of episode 8, page 7.  Note the layout of the lower right corner has changed from the thumbnailed version.

After panel boundaries are in place, I do the rough pencils.  In theory, I actually put in any dialogue/text first so that I know that the text will all fit and I don't waste time drawing stuff that's just going to get covered up by word balloons; however, this doesn't always happen, especially if I haven't gotten around to finalizing the dialogue yet and sometimes it comes back to bite me.  Fortunately, I did everything in the correct order for this page.

Once dialogue is in place, I draw everything in pencil.  I generally start out fairly rough and then refine it.  For instance, I'll often use rough shapes (boxes, mainly) to position and size characters in relation to each other before getting too caught up in the details; some of those guidelines can be seen in the above pencils.  I currently use a mechanical pencil for the pencilling stage, mostly because I don't have to worry about sharpening it constantly.

When pencils are done, I ink everything using a set of inking pens (one brush pen and a set of pens of varying widths), erase all the pencils, scan it in and colour everything in Photoshop.  Colouring could really be its own post so for now it'll suffice to say that there's several annoying things about it.

Anyway, that's an overview of everything up until the colouring stage, at any rate.  Perhaps in some future post I'll go into the details on colouring.

Until next time,
Freak Out,

-TfitC

Lateness

Due to me being a bit more procrastinate-y over the long weekend than I'd intended, this week's page of The Word Smith will be a bit late.  It should be up either something this evening or tomorrow.  I'll make another post when it happens.

In the mean time, here's the pencil version of the episode six title page that was posted last week:

There are two things to note about the pencil version of the title page.  First:  it was based on the third of the concept sketches that I posted at the end of the episode 5 unfaq.  Second:  I changed the pose of the central character at some point after scanning the pencil version (I might even have done that change on the traced version, I don't recall.)

Anyway, that's all the excitement I have to dish out for now, otherwise it would probably just be too exciting.  Or not.

Freak Out,
-TFitC

EXCITEMENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

End of an Episode

It's a little later than I expected (even though I expected it to be late), but the final page of The Word Smith, Episode 5, is now online for your viewing pleasure.  To read the whole episode from the beginning, start here.

With the One Act that I'm stage managing starting to go into high gear this week combined with the fact that I still have to finalize the script for episode 6, now seems like a good time to take a few weeks hiatus (which I've been doing anyway between episodes, so you know.)  I'll try to aim to start the next episode in late July and there probably won't be any interludes in the mean time, but who knows?  I can't predict the future, after all (unfortunate, that.)

And here's some character design:

I did some redesign of this character over my previous design from a while back.  Nothing too fancy.

Anyway, that's all for now.  Until next time,
Freak Out
-TFitC

Art of Fans

The "pen"ultimate page of episode five of The Word Smith has gone live.  I'm intending to get the final page of the episode up next week, though it may be a day or two later than normal.

Today also brings a rare piece of fan art.  Inspired by my style-emulation experiment of a few posts back (no link for you!), I decided to try doing some fan art of Misao from Rurouni Kenshin:

Yay!  You know, I haven't watched Kenshin in a while, maybe I should set aside some time to do that at some point...

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

Engarde!

Right.  So, it's an interlude week this week for the Word Smith with things resuming next week, most likely.

And here is the sketchbook version of the interlude (though you should totally check out the finished version as well because colour!)

It also occurs to me that I never did post the styles I was attempting to emulate for my "chameleon" post so here they are should anyone actually care (left-to-right, top-to-bottom):
Power Puff Girls
Peanuts
Yoshitaka Amano (Final Fantasy concept artist)
Rurouni Kenshin (specifically modelled after Misao - one of the two that were rather iffy)
Vision of Escaflowne (nose probably needed to be more pointy)
Studio Ghibli (another one that was kind of iffy)
Scott Pilgrim
Puella Magi Madoka Magica
Garfield

And, that's all for this week.
Freak Out,
-TFitC

Splort!

And behold!  For verily is page number eight from the episode that is the fifth of the Word Smith now online.  Behold, verily, and thou shalt have beholden it.  Yarr.  There possibly won't be a page next week as this week is shaping up to be pseudo-busy with various other commitments/responsibilities, but we'll see.  I'll try to get an interlude up, at least, but I'm not promising anything.

And somewhat related to the whole Word Smith thing I've got going on is a sort-of model sheet of The Pen (in civilian clothing).  Or, at least, that's the intent.  It's probably a far cry from what one would call a real model sheet, but whatever.

And that's all for this week!  Really!

Freak Out,
-TFitC

News From Freakland

The adventures of The Word Smith continue with episode 5's seventh page.  Things are starting to heat up, relatively speaking, of course.

And it had been a while since I practiced drawing hands, so, here's some hands.  Yay?

In other news, saw the newest Star Trek movie over the weekend and was suitably entertained.  Otherwise, not much happening in Freakland so, yeah.

Freak Out,
-TFitC

Chameleon

And after the chaos of last week, The Word Smith triumphantly (he'd like to think so, anyway) returns with page 6.  It's been a while since we've seen them in costume.

For today's sketchbook entry, we dig back a little way...

A while back I decided to try drawing one of my characters in a variety of other styles, which I generally don't do and is probably part of why it took so long to do (if one looks at the list of dates on the upper left corner).  Also I had to decide which styles to emulate; whilst a few popped into my head right away, it took some time to decide on the others.  Anyway, I suspect there's at least a couple that might be hard to identify, not necessiarly because they're obscure, but because I didn't really manage to emulate that particularly style very well.  Oh well.  See how many you can identify :P

Freak Out,
-TFitC

Random Noises

The latest page of Word Smith, episode 5, is up and we are now half way through the episode.  Blah, blah, stuff and things.

And for the sketchbook entry du jour:

Oh, it's these characters again.  Will they ever be anything other than sketchbook entries?  Who knows?  Only time will tell...

And it seems nothing else exciting is happening.  Another term, another whatever, yadda, yadda, flargen glarb.  Nyaaaarrrrrrggggle...  (narf)

Freak Out,
-TFitC

Woah

Whilst posting was delayed somewhat by some sort of technical snafu (not my fault - at least I don't think it was) page 4 of episode 5 is now bursting onto the interweebs.  Perhaps literally as well as figuratively.  Or something.  Probably something.

Anywho...  dredging up something from the sketchbook results in the following:

A set of random sketches involving The Pen, so it's vaguely thematically connected to the comic.

And speaking of comics, I've been thinking of writing a bit about some of the webcomics that I read, but I'm feeling a tad lazy right now so maybe next week, or some other point in the future.

Until next time,
Freak Out
-TFitC

PS:  when posting a link to my webcomic, it would be beneficial to actually post the link.

Stuff. Yeah.

Yarrrrrrrr......   Anywho, page 3 of episode 5 of The Word Smith is now online.  There are pictures.  There are words.  There are both together.  They might even make some sort of sense, in some context.  Who can say?

Regardless, here's The Freak in the Cape:

And that is all for today.  Narf.

Edit:
Just got word that I have successfully passed my "comp II" for my PhD.  This is one of our degree requirements and takes the place of the comprehensive exam in some other places and passing it means I am now officially a "PhD candidate", for what that's worth.  I do, however, feel well and truly grilled after the experience and it certainly doesn't make me look forward to the eventual defense.  Narf...

Freak Out,
-TFitC

Naming Conventions

The next page (that being page two) of episode five of The Word Smith is now online.  It reveals the great mystery of just what is The Word Smith's real name?  Read if you dare for you just may go insane from the revelation.  (Most likely not, but I cannot rule out the possibility.)

And I really need to get back to drawing in the sketchbook more often (regardless of how long Word Smithing takes) 'cause I'm running out of stuff.  But for today, I continue with some of the FR character "redesign":

On the left is Katara and on the right is Tirel.  No point saying much else about these character since I'm the only one who knows anything about them to begin with.

In other largely inconsequential news, I've been playing a bit of Magic recently (which I've not done in years) which was fun.  I just have to make sure I don't go spend too much on cards (not likely an issue, I'm generally fairly well self-disciplined about these things).

Anyway, until next time,
Freak Out
-TFitC

Not Batman

And verily, the first page of The Word Smith's fifth episode finds its way onto the weeb.  I'll be doing this episode in colour and also currently intend to do all remaining episodes in colour, but no guarantees.  I will also be giving a title to each page for whatever reason.

I've been rather lazy with the sketchbook lately since I've been focused on the comic, but here are a couple of character redesigns of my old FR characters:

Erin and Doran Windermere.  I didn't look back at the original designs though I suspect that these are at least somewhat similar.  I've never entirely decided on the exact relationship between these two characters (siblings, married, something else?), not that I expect it to make a huge difference.  Also, not entirely happy with the way Doran turned out so I'll probably redo that drawing at some point.

Anywho, that's all for this week.  Tune in next week for the exciting, continuing adventures of The Word Smith!

Freak Out,
-TFitC

Excitement

Episode 5 of The Word Smith has now officially begun with the title page.  This episode is going to be slightly shorter than the previous episode, currently scripted to be ten pages.  Coincidentally, I have exactly enough bristol board left to finish the episode after which I'll have to acquire some more.

Here is the pencil version of the episode 5 title page:

And, in a special two-for-one deal, here's the pencil version of last week's interlude:

So stay tuned next week for the continuing, exciting adventures of The Word Smith!  (Excitement!)

Freak Out,
-TFitC

Preterlude

A new interlude has been posted, though it's really more of a prelude for episode 5 which, barring any unforseen circumstances, should start next week.  Are you ready?  Are you excited?  Do you like bacon?  (If you do not answer "yes" to at least one of those questions then you are a hateful, hateful person.)

As I seem to not have copied the pencil scan of the interlude to somewhere accessible from my standard posting location, I can't, at the moment, post the pencil version of the interlude as is my wont (I'll try to remember to do so next week).  Instead, I'll just leave this picture from my sketchbook:

Two views of Kyoujo, not in her tour guide uniform.

There does not appear to be anything else of note to say this week so I shant say anything further.

Freak Out,
-TFitC

Extras

If one were to look, one would probably find a new Word Smith interlude is available.  This one is technically part of episode 4 since it shows most of the extras that appeared during the episode.  Next week's interlude (if there is one) will probably be related to the next episode.

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

This shows most of episode 4's extras - there are three not shown who were all, coincidentally, on page 3 (and only page 3).  All of the extras pictured above appeared at least twice.  The actual character design for the extras was basically done on-the-fly, either as part of the thumbnails or when drawing the actual page they first appeared on.  Most of the extras were first seen at a distance (and were thus very small) which is part of the reason I didn't do much actual design work for them (also, expedience), though a number of them ended up being enlarged for later pages (and, of course, for this interlude).  I guess the exception to that is the googly-eyed alien whose design has existed for, well, a couple of decades now, I suppose (yikes!)

It would have been faster to do the interlude in greyscale since I could have just plucked the shades to use out of the actual episode pages rather than decide on actual colours (which is kind of a pain).  But I did the other interludes in colour so I decided to suck it up and do this one in colour as well, suffering the pain of colour selection in the process.  I hope you're all happy.

Anyway...  that is all for this week.  Probably another interlude next week and then maybe even starting to post episode 5 the week after that.  Excitement!

Freak Out,
-TFitC

At Least the Cat's Having Fun

And with this page, episode 4 of The Word Smith reaches its conclusion.  Episode 5 probably won't start for 3 or 4 weeks while I try to get a bit of a buffer built up - we'll see how that goes.  But fear not, you'll still be able to get your Word Smith fix as there'll probably be some additional Word Smith related content posted somewhere between episodes.

Also, sleepy freak is sleepy:

And with that, I shall sign off.

Freak Out,
-TFitC

The Lot of You

Beyond all odds, it would seem that the penultimate episode of The Word Smith's fourth episode has crawled its way onto the internets and can be found here.  The page ended up being a bit busy and may have worked better being spread over two pages, but, well, them's the breaks, I guess.  Something to bear in mind for the future.  Stay tuned next week for the episode's stunning conclusion.

And here are the thumbnails for pages 8-11:

If one were so inclined, or had nothing better to do, one could easily find some differences betwixt the thumbs and final pages, notably page 11 (my not completely illegible hand writing at the bottom of the page 11 thumbs is basically noting intended changes for the final page).

And last week I totally completely entirely forgot that I was going to post a scan of the pencils for page 10 since I hadn't posted any page pencils for a while so, here they are:

There are also some fairly obvious changes between the pencils and the final page.  Most notable are panel 3 (I redid the pencils for the two characters in the lower right between when I scanned this and when I inked it) and the last panel (I sometimes draw in background elements after inking foreground stuff).

Anywho, that is, I think, all there is for this week.  And  next week is... next week.

Freak Out,
-TFitC

Bovine Rampage

Guten Tag, internets.  How are you on this wet and dreary winter morning?  (This is a rhetorical question; I am not expecting an answer.)  To chase away those winter blahs, why not read page 10 of episode 4 of The Word Smith?  It's not like you've got anything better to do, right?  (This is also rhetorical.)

To follow that up, here is today's sketchbook entry:

Just a potpourri mix of various characters.  (Note that chibi-freak is doing part of the dance from the song in 1-2 for this year's FASS - if you don't know what that is then it's not important.)

Well, that is all for this week.  Nothing deep and insightful today, I'm afraid, not that there ever is mind, but there's always the chance.

Freak Out,
-TFitC

The Cat's Meow

Hey, look, page 9 of episode 4 of The Word Smith is online.  It may even be a thing, or whatever.  Regardless, it looks like everything is going according to plan.  Hopefully page 10 will be ready for next week, but there's a chance there might be a slight delay or an interlude instead.  I blame FASS (and so should you.)

And now, on to today's sketchbook entry:

This is a bit of a redesign of one of the characters from the occasionally mentioned Kyoujo RPG.  In particular, this is Mirayrl Aiyew Prurrj Trelarrl, who is basically a supporting, though playable, character.  I seem to have been doing some updating/redesign of some of my FR and related characters of late (especially some of the less frequently drawn ones) so there's bound to be some more of them showing up here in the future.

In other news, FASS is over, I have survived it and life returns to some semblance of normality, whatever that is.

Freak Out,
-TFitC