Summer Vacancy

Due to a little bit of writter's block concerning some dialogue in one of the panels plus a couple other distractions over the past week, the final page of The Word Smith's ninth episode arrives on the weeb a day later than intended.

Nevertheless, that's the end of the episode.  Next week will be the episode nine unfaq after which The Word Smith will be taking a hiatus, as I usually do betwixt episodes.  However, this is likely going to be a bit longer than usual as I feel like I need to focus on some other projects a bit more than I have been of late.  I don't have a specific date for resuming The Word Smith, but it's likely to be late summer or early fall at the earliest.

In the mean time, in addition to the unfaq next week, I may post some interludes and maybe some stuff about some of these other projects.  I'll try to have something filling this space regardless.

Until next time,
Freak Out
-TFitC

Time is Relative

Well!  It's a bit later in the day than I usually post, but the next page of The Word Smith is now online!  The next page will bring a conclusion to the current episode so... stay tuned!  Or don't.  Your choice, really.

Until next time...
Freak Out,
-TFitC

Ink Blots

So!  After a delay, the late page of The Word Smith is on the scene.

I thought I'd take a few moments to explain some of the inking issues that arose with this page.  It's actually not terribly uncommon for me to muck up the inking a bit.  Usually these are things like inking a line I shouldn't (construction lines or other lines in the pencil drawing that are occluded by something in the final drawing an, thus, shouldn't be inked), or drawing a line in slightly the wrong place (because I'm still learning the tools or my hand is a bit shaky) or a line just ends up a bit more uneven than I'd like.  These are all fairly quick and easy to fix up digitally after scanning and thus not a big deal.

However, occassionally I make bigger mistakes.  Sometimes I just royally screw up some part of the inking, maybe because the pencil lines were left rougher than they should be.  Sometimes I look at something after I ink it and realize that it's just off or I just don't like it.  Sometimes I decide things would be clearer if I did things another way.  Obviously it's preferable to catch these things before inking but, well, I'm still learning (that's my excuse, anyway.)  These sorts of things are usually not things that I would want to fix digitally, since I don't have a drawing tablet.  My general approach to these is to draw a fix on tracing paper (so I can make sure things line up), ink that, scan it and merge it digitally with the main page.  Here's some examples from Episode 8:

(From Page 2):  This was a small fix.  I was unhappy with how the hand turned out (hands are hard) so I redrew it and pasted the new improved one into the panel.

(From Page 3):  Sometimes fixes are a bit bigger.  Here, I decided I needed to redo the pose of the character on the left so I redrew the body and replaced the old one.  The head didn't change.

(From Page 2 - again, boy I really messed up on that page a lot):  And every now and then I replace an entire panel.  Fortunately this was a small panel and I seem to have not gotten around to putting in any of the background details on the old panel before deciding to replace it.  The reason I redid this panel was because I felt showing the two character getting on the bus would clarify the flow of action since they appear on the bus after a one panel flashback.

The main issue with the latest page was from the middle panel of the middle row:

Basically, I decided the pose needed to be fixed.  As can be seen, I didn't bother finishing the inking of the first version.  And while the pose could probably still be improved, the second attempt was better than the first.  There was also another bit in the first panel that needed to be fixed, but I decided it was small enough to fix entirely digitally.

So, that is that.  Hopefully the next page will be on time two weeks from today.

Freak Out,
-TFitC

Lack of Words

There will be no Word Smith this week, for the one or two of you out there that might actually care.  Partly I was slacking a bit on the comic these past couple of weeks and partly there's more that needs to be fixed up for the inking than usual so I've decided not to rush things and just postpone things. 

The next page should be up next week.

Until then,

Freak Out
-TFitC

Musty Olde Comic

And without much fanfare or further ado (or strange new hairdos) the latest episode of The Word Smith slinks onto the interweebs.

Until some point in the future...
Freak Out,
-TFitC

Squishy Worms

And once again, the latest page of The Word Smith wriggles its way onto the interweebs in the usual place.

Freak Out,
-TFitC

We Interrupt Your Regularly Scheduled Weeb Surfing

Once again, we bring you short message regarding the recent uploading of the latest page of The Word Smith to its accustomed spot on the interweebs.

This ends our broadcast day.

Freak Out
-TFitC

Esophagi

And the newest page of The Word Smith is now available.  It is a thing that can now be viewed.

Until next time...

Freak Out,
-TFitC

Lightning Quick Post

Oh hey, new Word Smith page up:  ici.

Stuff.

Freak Out,
-TFitC

Reservations

Today's post is more than one sentence informing an indifferent internet of the latest page of my comic.  In fact, today's post will have very little to do with said comic (though for those who care, the next page may be a day or two late due to me being busy for a good chunk of this weekend.)  So, with that out of the way, lets get on with it.

A scant two days ago, Tesla Motors unveiled their upcoming Model 3 (here's a link to the video for those who are interested and haven't seen it yet.)  The Model 3 is Tesla's "affordable" electric vehicle.  I put affordable in quotes because, at $35k US there will still be a fair number of people who can't afford it (though electric vehicle incentives available in some jurisdictions may help with that somewhat), though it is still a heck of a lot more affordable than the Model S (or X) which will make it attainable by a lot more people than any of Tesla's previous offereings.  And it appears that there is a good amount of interest in the Model 3 already, if the the 230 000 or so reservations made for it in the first two days is any indication.

I mention all this to say that I made a reservation for the Model 3 shortly after the online reservations opened up on Thursday and I am somewhat excited!  This is a kind of surprising to me because a year ago, I would not have ever thought that I'd be anywhere near this excited for a car of all things.  I am not a car person.  Cars are occassionally useful tools for getting from point A to point B, but they're not really exciting.

Now, I've had it in the back of my mind for a while that whenever I was in the market for a new (or used) car, I'd like to move towards something a bit "greener" than my current car - some sort of hybrid, I figured.  As purchasing a vehicle was always at some undefined point int the future, I never really looked into the details of what was available and really only had this vague awareness that hybrids were a thing.  It was mostly just a thought that I filed away, to be investigated at the appropriate time.

 But things sometimes happen in unexpected ways and my interest in electric cars in general (and Teslas in particular) was piqued by this (rather long, but quite interesting) article about Tesla and electric vehicles that I read last May.  Ever since then, I've been keeping an eye on news about Tesla and electric cars, looking forward to the Model 3 in particular.  A Model S is well out of my price range for the foreseeable future (and possibly always will be) but a Model 3, now that I should be able to handle.

Now I just have to wait two years or so for the Model 3 to actually go into production :P

Until next time,
Freak Out
-TFitC