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

In Progress

There is, alas, no new Word Smith page this week (gasp!) due to the fact that I seem to find myself stage managing a one act and with auditions last week, I was rather busier than normal.  Due to said business I also decided to forgo an interlude as well.  I know, I know, I've let down the internets, but such is life.  However, in order to salvage my honour and avoid having to commit harikiri or something else equally unpleasant, here is some work-in-progress stuff for page 6.

This is the thumbnails for page 6.  I'm experimenting with a different approach to my thumbnails for this episode by using Adobe Illustrator to create the layouts and initial text placement rather than doing that by hand.  The idea was inspired by how Allison Bechdel approaches the task, as described in the book Mastering Comics.  It sort of combines thumbnailing with script writing which seems sensible for a visual medium like comics.

And here are the pencils for page 6 (some panels a bit more rough than others).  Not all the dialogue has been finalized yet and, of course, it's not inked and coloured so be sure to check back next week for the finished version of the page.

Anyway, that is all for the nonce.

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