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

Interloping Interlude

No new Word Smith pages this week (as I mentioned before, things are on hiatus until sometime in January), but there is an interlude (in colour) up for viewing (dis)pleasure.

And because I feel like babbling a bit more, here's the original sketchbook version:

It's showing The Pen and her brother having a sibling moment with their in-game characters pictured behind them.  As revealed in episode 3, The Pen's real name is Samantha; I actually agonized over this for a while before settling on the name as nothing was really jumping out at me as an obvious choice.  However, once I'd settled on The Pen's name, it was relatively easy to pick her brother's name:  Samuel (I don't know if it will ever appear in an actual episode as he's a relatively minor character).  I also rather suspect that they're twins, also a fact that seems unlikely to surface in an actual episode.  Oh well, we shall see.  We shall see.

That is all for today.  With a little bit of luck there may be another interlude next week, but no guarantees one way or the other.

Have a Freakish holiday,
Freak Out
-TFitC

Posting in Space

Aaaaaaaaand page 4 of episode 4 of The Word Smith is online.  Phew!  Guess I managed to get it done by my target time, but introductions will have to wait until next year.

I'm not entirely sure when I'll resume posting The Word Smith in the new year; that may depend somewhat on how much (if anything) I get done over the holidays.  Hopefully the next page will appear before the end of January - that seems doable, but no promises.

While The Word Smith will be on hiatus over the holidays, there may be some interludes of some sort appearing in the interim.  Watch this space, or stare off into space, or something, whichever seems most productive and/or least painful.

And, as is my wont, here are some recent entries from the sketchbook.  Like last week, they are both Word Smith related.  Enjoy!  (Or don't, it's not like I can force anyone to, after all.)

Here's another picture of The Pen's in-game character in a sort-off running-ish pose.  At least, that's what it was meant to be.

And here is The Word Smith, brandishing the Grammar Hammer.  He hasn't been seen since the first page of episode 4, but don't worry as he shall be putting in an appearance.  Oh yes.

Anywho, that is all for this week.  Stay tuned for something sometime in the indeterminate future.

Freak Out,
-TFitC

Googly Eyes

The next page of The Word Smith is up.  Go read it, or else... you won't have read it.  Hmmm.... I wonder if I need to work on my motivational techniques.  In any case, I should be able to get page 4 done before disappearing for the holidays for some unspecified length of time.  And after that?  Who knows?  (Not me, that's for sure.)

Page 3 was based on the "comic with no people" I posted about a month ago.  The actual layout for this page was done before that in thumbnails, but the people-less comic was used to flesh out the locale from what existed in the thumbs (the bottom panel from the people-less comic will be the first panel of page 4, when it is done).

And this week I think I feel like posting two pictures from the sketchbook.  Excitement.

It's The Pen, looking someone put upon as she often does (and is) in both "civilian" clothes and her fencing/sidekick gear.

And next up is The Pen's in-game character, Taramir, crouched and ready to spring into action (no, she's not constipated).  Taramir last appeared in this blog about six months ago (unnamed at the time).  She also appears in the title page for episode 4.

Well, that is pretty much it for this week.  The pantomime is over and seems to have been a success so no I return to my regularly scheduled life, or some semblance thereof.

Freak Out,
-TFitC

No, It's Not Done Yet

Hey, it's time for another page of The Word Smith!  It looks like there'll be another page next week as well, but after that, all bets are off.  Maybe I'll stop early for the holidays.  Or I'll say that, anyway.  Yeah.

And I think for this week's sketchbook entry, I'll just leave this here:

This was drawn about a week before Hallowe'en (so I'm posting things out of order - gasp!) as part of this terms comics workshop.  It's a word ladder comic based on a simple word ladder thingy.  The words in my ladder are underlined.  Naturally, I ended with CAPE.

That is all.
Freak Out,
-TFitC

A Narf A Day

Page 1 of The Word Smith, episode 4, has been posted.  I did some computer-based toning for the page but I don't know how long I'll keep doing that since it didn't seem to be a whole lot faster than colouring...  I'm really just experimenting with things to find out what reasonably fits into my time constraints.  Anywho, episode 4 takes place in the evening of the same day as the previous episdoes.

And to fill out the sketch book quota for the week, here's another page of hands:

This was drawn on Hallowe'en which explains why one has been severed.

Anywho, nothing else really exciting to comment on.  The pantomime I'm in got off to a good start so I shall take that as a sign that the universe approves of it.  Or something.

Until next time,
Freak Out
-TFitC

Once More Unto the Weeb

Well, I didn't manage any further progress on episode 4 this week, but I said I'd start posting it this week so that's what I'm going to do, gosh darn it, and with any luck I'll be able to make it through to the holidays without any delays.  In any case, the title page for episode 4 of The Word Smith is available at the usual haunt.

I thought it might also be mildly interesting to show the pencilled version of the title page:

For the final version, I decided that I wanted the Word Smith banner to be a bit more prominent so, through the magic of tracing paper, I lowered the central character and then copy-pasted the banner from the episode 3 title page into its final position on the coloured version.

Anyway, that's pretty much it for this week.  The pantomime I'm in opens later this week, so I've been sequestered in the theatre all weekend and have had/will have dress rehearsals last night and tonight.  I'm looking forward to next week when things mostly go back to normal - there will be shows three nights a week, but no rehearsals.  Yay!

Freak Out,
-TFitC

Splorg Splorg Revolution

Last night was the pantomime I am in had their first rehearsal in the actual theatre space that we'll be performing in.  There was a set.  It was actually made of wood!  This feels like a big step up from cardboard.

Anywho, I'm still not quite as far along as I would like to be with episode 4 of The Word Smith before starting to post with it.  If I'm not by next week, I'll just go ahead and start posting it anyway and concede that there will be gaps in my posting schedule or whatever.  In the meantime, here's some design sketches:

This is an evolving set of design sketches for a monster known as the King of All Splorgs that appears briefly in episode 4.  Haven't settled on the final desig yet, but I've got a little while yet before I have to decide.

This was actually done as an exercise for this term's comic workshop - a comic with no characters.  I used it as an opportunity work out a bit of location design for episode 4 (which will start showing up around page 3).

Anyway, that's all for the present.  Look forward to the start of episode 4 of The Word Smith next week.

Freak Out,
-TFitC

Not the Face

So!  More stuff from the sketchbook this week.  To start off, I've drawn another page of the New Adventures of The Freak in the Cape:

Along with this comes the usual disclaimer that more of these will be drawn if and when I have the time, motivation and inspiration to do so.

And to fill the Word Smith void, such as it is, here's some character design for a couple of characters that will be appearing in episode 4:

One of these characters is important, the other less so, but which is which shall become apparant at some undisclosed time in the future.

Until then,
Freak Out
-TFitC