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

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