timely advice from an apathetic friend

-sigh-  well, if something’s gotta give, it might as well be “complaining”.

I’m always trying to refine the process of making these comics to be faster, more intuitive, with a higher-quality output.  In the history of this comic, there have been a few major advancements…

1)  Moving from a tiny, old Wacom Bamboo tablet to a Tiny, newer Wacom Bamboo tablet that was more accurate and intuitive
2)  Moving from the tiny new Bamboo to a large Wacom Intuos 5 tablet, enabling broad strokes instead of tiny little “sketching” (which marked the end of my drawing hand/wrist feeling like i was getting carpal-tunnel)
2.5)  Moving from drawing on a computer to drawing on my iPad (so I could save time and draw whenever)
3)  Moving back to the computer from the iPad and switching from Photoshop to Manga Studio… the tools look and feel so much better.
4)  Moving from my mac to my Surface Pro
5)  Moving from my Intuos to the screen on my surface Pro, basically enabling me to have a cheap cintiq!  (I would prefer a larger screen, like on the Surface Pro 3, but the surface works well for now!)

The latest little adjustment in my comic-creation process has been my Note III… It doesn’t really work for finishing comics, but it works great for sketching out the first layer.  I usually make a sketch layer first and then “ink” over it with the finished product, and with my phone, I can sketch pretty much whenever and have lines that accurately reflect how I would draw on paper.

For me, technology and my art have become very interconnected… Although, this is really more of an issue of time than it is of preference.  I fear art and technology are becoming inseparable, and it would be nice to be able to continue drawing comics if there were a zombie apocalypse and technology was gone…  But the last time I tried pinch-zooming a piece of paper, I kind of realized It might be too late for me.

Anyway, I have the whole drawing process down to about a half-an-hour, depending on the complexity of what i’m trying to draw…  but the WRITING process!  OH MAN.

I need to find a way to get faster at writing.  Sometimes it’s super easy, but lately, it’s like pulling teeth.

Have a great tuesday everyone!