Comments For Page 363

Oh No! It's the Labyrinth. Wait, what's so bad about a labyrinth? Come back Friday and find out.

Well, this page took more time to draw then the last one, but I'm still making good time. I don't know if it's because I'm starting early or because I'm getting better at it. Either way, you don't have to wait to read my pages anymore. I've been posting them by midnight EST for a while now.

Noting new to report, so I'll go for now. I'll see you on Friday.

Comments For Page 362

That's a pretty neat trick. Truthfully now, how many of you have seen this before?

That's two tasks down, what will be the next challenge? Time is ticking away. The gang needs to get the satchel soon, or their friends may not be alive by the time they get there.

I got this page done in record time. There are more panels then usual, but nothing too challenging. Only Racheal's pose in the last panel required any real effort. Don't worry, there will be more challenging scenes to come.

Nothing more to add. Things are going well. I'm working on a few things. Hopefully, I have have good news before next weekend. I'll see you wednesday.

Comments For Page 361

Walk through a piece of paper? These tasks are getting pretty challenging. Assuming the gang can get past this challenge, what will they have to do next?

I roughed out the page first before doing the final drawing and I think some scenes look better for it. The hands in panel two and six certainly benefited from getting the rough proportions finished before redrawing them.

Normally, I don't like taking the time to rough things out, but I misplaced my drawing pen and had to make due with a back up. Once I got my pen back, I was able to finish things fairly quickly. So maybe roughs actually speed up the drawing process. I'll try it again and see what happens.

I don't know how many reading this are interested in creating web comics, but if you're not checking out Webcomics Weekly, you're missing some great advice from four long time web comic developers, including Scott Kurtz - creator of PVP.

If you do create your own comic, or are interested in starting one, you might want to check out the 52 Comic Challenges. As of this post, they are on challenge five, so it's not too late to join in. I plan to start this soon myself. I'll keep you posted as I make updates.

Comments For Page 360

Looks like the gang has several challenges ahead of them if they want to get the satchel back. Will Slara be able to figure out which sword is the correct one? Come back Friday and find out.

I was suppose to explain who Kate is in relation to Slara and tell you why she was at the party. Since I didn't get into that in the story, I'll tell you here.

Even though Kate and Cepani are twins, Cepani became obsessed with the word of the law while Kate dedicated her life to living them. While learning the art of the sword, she met Slara who was also learning the martial arts. They became friends and shared many adventures together. Eventually, Slara left to explore other worlds while Kate continued her studies. Since Slara is now back in her hometown, she invited her old friend over to visit.

However, when Kate showed up, she found that Slara had brought some strange people from another planet with her. Kate felt a little uncomfortable around these strange people are decided to distance herself from the others.

Now you know the story.

Comments For Page 359

Oh, I see. It was Cepani that was the referee of Racheal and Slara's fight. So then who is Kate and why was she at Slara's house for the party? You'll have to come back Wednesday to find the answer to that question.

A more important question would be "What did Cepani do with the satchel and how are Racheal and the gang going to get it back?" Actually that's too questions. The first question should be answered on Wednesday as well. As for the second, that may take a little longer to figure out.

The middle panel took a lot of time to draw, and it looks okay. But it doesn't look like what I had planned to draw. The temple on the previous page wasn't as good as I would have liked either. Sometimes I wish I had the time and patience to draw what I see in my head. On the other hand, you don't really need a lot of detail in a web comic. The point is to tell a story, and as long as the words and pictures tell the story, it doesn't matter how detailed they are.

As an artist, I want to produce good works of art that people will enjoy reading, but as a reader I'm happy to just get a good story. The art only bothers me if it's really bad and you can't tell what's going on.

It's different if I'm looking at single works that are meant to stand on their own. There is certainly some styles I like more then others. Unlike most people, I don't like art that looks real. I know a lot of artists pride themselves are creating realistic paintings, but I find it's too easy to copy and alter photographs to really appreciate a realistic painting. Fun cartoon drawing are a different matter. It takes a lot of skill to create a fun design. Many amateur cartoonist draw unfunny stiff drawings. I'm often seeing the same style over and over again. Give me someone who's not afraid to try something new and has a good eye for detail. This is what I want for my own artwork. I'm not quite there yet, but I'm at least trying.

I've studied Don Martin and Mat Gross. Next I want to look at the works of Carl Banks. I've looked at many other artists, but these are the artists I want to be the most like. I don't want to copy their styles, I want to have people laugh at my drawings like they laugh at these great artists' work.

Comments For Page 358

This picture just doesn't do the Forest Temple justice.

I hope the transition from the first three panels to the last one wasn't too abrupt for everyone. I was looking over the story and felt that there was just too much talking that didn't really help move the story along. I figured I would just cut out all the filler and move right into the next part of the story. As a gift to those who might want to know what was cut out, here's the script for the missing pages.

BONUS

After Kate (pronounced Ka-Te) says that it's dangerous to travel at night. Racheal asks what could be so dangerous that they couldn't handle it.

Slara explains that the forest is home to many animals that hunt at night and are not particular about what they call food.

Toi says that she will dispose of anything that gets in her way.

Slara says, that's what she's afraid of.

Original page 359

Kate says that many of the animals of the forest are as intelligent as "you or I." If someone started attacking them, even in self defense, they would retaliate and a war could break out between the races.

Slara says, "Let's all go to bed and we'll meet here early tomorrow and head into the woods."

The Next Morning

Kate "Stick close to me. The forest is still dangerous even in the day time.

Scene of the forest with strange sounds and shadows moving around.

Suddenly the forest opens into a glen and the temple can be seen. This brings us back to the current story.

Comments For Page 357

Who knew Kate had a sister? We just barely learned that her name was Kate as far as that goes. Was it Kate's sister who took the satchel? Does Kate know where it is? Is the group finally going to get a break? Don't count on it.

I don't know how many people noticed, but I put up the inked version last night and only just got the color version up now (noonish). I have a business meeting this afternoon, and figured I wouldn't get the page done until afterward. Fortunately (or maybe not so fortunately), I woke up early this morning despite going to bed pretty late last night. Consequently, I had time to finish the page before the meeting; however, I didn't get much sleep, so I might not be able to concentrate during the meeting.

Just to clarify, this isn't a school meeting but a real money making deal that could greatly affect my financial future. Actually this is only one of many meetings, but it's still important that I pay attention and understand my options.

I should also point out that the only reason I was able to put up an inked version of the page is because I'm doing the inking in Photoshop now. Originally, I was inking and coloring each panel was I went along. Sometimes I would go back and fix some rough drawings when I had time and basically did things in whatever order suited me. Now that I'm using Photoshop, I need to get all the drawing and inking done first before I can do any coloring or shading. This gives me a nice inked drawing I can color (and put up on the site when I need to), but that means I can't do a rush job on the drawings and worry about fixing it up later. They have to be completely finished and take takes a lot of time.

On the plus side, that means my pictures are looking better all the time. I don't need to waste a lot of time with Manga Studio's glitchy drawing tools (again this is a problem with using the program in Vista and not a problem with the program itself) and I can play with some of Photshops extra settings to help make my drawings better. I won't be using any fancy tricks with photoshop, like blur filters, until I can shorten my drawing time a bit more. I can't spend a whole day working on my comic pages and I don't have much time to play with the program. It's only going to get worse when I start my job, so I need to speed things up rather then take the time to add an extra layer of detail. If this comic was supporting me, it would be different but as it is I need to make money however I can and that means I can't spend much time with each comic update.

Comments For Page 356

Why is Balap accusing Kate of taking the satchel? You'll have to come back Wednesday and find out.

I did a couple of things to improve the images as you can see. First I noticed that there are options for loading and adjusting each Photoshop layer seperately. I had been adjusting only the top layer thinking that all the layers were being affected. Since the main drawings were never on the top layer they always suffered. The lines are much soother now.

The second thing I did was a cosmetic extra touch to remove the white lines in the JPG image. I did this by filling all the black lines with dark gray. This removed all the white from the image so that the lines look cleaner.

Not much else to say. I'll see you Wednesday.

Comments For Page 355

Seems like the animal token may have more powers then expected. The question is why. There have been two stories about the origins of the tokens so far. Are either of them true? Is there some other explanation for where they came from and what they are for? Someday these questions will be answered, but not today.

I've got the process of making my web comic as streamlined as possible. That I good thing since I'm tired and feverish right now and I couldn't have finished this page on time otherwise.

I've been trying the check for errors on this page and I don't see any. However, in my feverish state I can't be sure. If anyone sees any problems, please let me know in the comments.

Comments For Page 354

There's only one thing to do when the sun goes down. Party! However, it doesn't look like anyone's in a partying mood. At least Racheal and Toi were released from their cages. This is partly because they have calmed down a bit, and partly because Slara feels safer with her two brothers there.

I've been playing with the settings on the fill tool, trying to get the edges to fill properly, but there are still some issues with shading large areas. It's really only noticeable when the image is small. In the full size version, you can't notice the edges at all. This might be an difference between gif and jpg formats, since it isn't as noticeable in the Photoshop or Manga Studio versions.

Comments For Page 353

Looks like Slara waited too long. Now she'll have to wait until morning to start searching for the satchel. Hopefully Kang will be better by then and can help in the search.

I think I've finally found the correct settings to fix the problems with working between Photoshop and Manga Studio. The current page looks better then the previous ones.

Notice something different? I've finally added a gutter between the panels. If you go to PVPonline, you can find a new feature called "Webcomics Weekly" This is a weekly feature (every Friday) that has four or five web comic creators talk about their craft. The main purpose of this is to instruct other web comic creators on how to make better comics.

One of the pet peeves given had to do with the gutters between panels. Framing each panel helps the viewer see each panel as a separate image instead of as a big blob of images. If you look at my previous page, you notice that it's hard to tell where one panel ends and the next oven begins. The cage bars really break the images up in a way the just looks wrong. Adding gutters between the panels looks better and helps the reader see what's going on better.

The next step is to use the gutters to create the best effects. For examine, having one panel without a boarder makes the panel seem much bigger and has a expansive effect on the viewer. There are a lot of tricks you can do with boarders that you can't do when you only have thick lines between panels. On thing you might notice is that the word balloons sometimes extend beyond the panel boarders but you can't see the part that goes over the edge. I had a hard time with the word balloons in the previous page because I needed to resize them so they wouldn't cover any other panels. With a gutter, I have room to stretch the balloon over the boarder without it covering the next panel.

It's a little extra work adding a gutter, but the better appearance, the ability to move word balloons over the boarder and the other visual tricks you can do, more then make it worth it. I'm going to keep listening in each Friday to see what other tricks I can learn. If you have a web comic or plan to start one, I suggest you listen in as well. You'll never find a better source of web comic advice anywhere.

Comments For Page 352

I've been meaning to explain why Racheal can understand what everyone is saying for a while now, but I just didn't see any reason for it until now.

Someday I'll have to explain why the letters "ARW" appear on the satchel, but it wouldn't be for a while. Lots of other stuff has to happen first.

I played around with some settings, and I think I've figured out a way to fix the line quality. I converted the line drawing into vector lines and this seems to remove the blurriness that occurs when I import the line work from photoshop.

Notice that the Bars in the 3rd and 5th panels still have white lines around them. That's because they are on a separate layer. The whole page was like that before I fixed it.

The only limitation with vector lines is that they are smoothed out somewhat. This removes some of the finer details (notice the thick fingers and lines around the mouth in the last panel. I'll need to draw fine details with a thiner line to to compensate for this.

I also tried writing the text in Photoshop and importing it. Maybe I should convert it to vector as well. The lines are readable but don't stand out as much as they usually do. I'll have to work on this. I had to play around with the word balloons to get them to fit since I made them last. As I said before, you can't do word balloons in Photoshop very easily. Most people use Illustrator but Manga Studio works well too. It took a little adjusting but it worked out okay.

Comments For Page 351

Looks like Slara's taking charge of the situation. That's understandable since this is her hometown and she knows how things work better then anyone. Balak isn't too happy about it, though that may have more to do with cleaning the boar then being left out of the search.

I wonder if anyone else noticed this is a Matriarchal society. There were enough clues with all the women in high positions and the men playing jokes on strangers.

Another late night again. I just keep getting distracted. I was doing so well after spending the morning doing paper work, but I got distracted once more and ended up late again.

It takes close to 6 hours to do a comic (8 if it's more complex), so giving myself 3-4 hours to work on the comic just isn't going to cut it. Besides, it's better to work a few hours, take a break and work a few hours then to take one long break and then try to finish my comic all in one go. I know what I should do, I just don't do it.

I messed around with the line quality and ended up doubling the lines so they would cover the fill errors. It looks a little better, but I wish there was a way to smooth the lines so they would fill better. Wait, doesn't Manga Studio have a smooth line option? I'll have to remember to try that next time.

Comments For Page 350

Looks like Kang has gotten himself hurt attacking a wild boar. Who will be able to track down the satchel now? It was bad enough when it was sitting in a field, but now that the satchel is being hidden away somewhere, the gang is going to have a very hard time finding it.

Looks like our heroes just can't catch a lucky break. One bad thing after another keeps happening. At least they can have a nice dinner of roast boar to keep their spirits up.

I'm still working on the Photoshop/Manga studio mix. It is much easier to draw in Photoshop with a tablet so I'll probably keep it up, but the quality of the line makes it hard to fill in the shapes with color. I tried a different method last time and the lines were too thin and jagged. Maybe I can find a way to mix the two. Use the thin lines to fill in the color and the thick lines on the finished page. I'll try that next time and see what happens.

Comments For Page 349

Oh No! It looks like someone else found the satchel first and they plan to keep it. This is going to complicate things a bit. Without the satchel there is no way Racheal and the others are going to be able to rescue the rest of the gang. Things just get worse and worse.

You may notice that the wide boarder is back. I found that you can import Photoshop documents into Manga Studio. You can also export from Manga Studio to Photoshop (which I knew before). This means I can do all my drawings in Photoshop and do the colors and word balloons in Manga Studio. Now I can use the tools I like in Manga Studio and use the better drawing controls from Photoshop. I could also re-export back to Photoshop and add special effects and filters at the end if I wanted to.

One limitation of Manga Studio with imports is that you can't import color. This is due to Manga Studio's habit of placing each color on a separate layer. You could place each color on a separate layer in Photoshop (and the exported Manga Studio file keeps all the color layers), but you'd have to reassign all the colors once you imported it. Not a very color friendly process, but the program was designed to make black and white Manga, so color wasn't a major consideration in the design. I suppose separating the colors may help produce a more accurate print out of the pages if you were going the publishing route. I may publish my comic someday, but I don't save the color information as the files are quite large. This may be a problem, but my test prints have turned out okay, so I'm not too worried.

Comments For Page 348

I once again put off finishing this comic until the last minute, but I actually got it done pretty quickly. The only thing that slowed my down was when I had to use Illustrator to make the work balloons - something I've never done before but read was the way most professionals make them. They actually work much the same as Manga Studio except you have to draw them freehand instead of choosing pre-made ones. It is nice to have the freedom to make balloons any shape I want but it does slow done the process.

I do find it easier to draw in Photoshop then Manga Studio - mainly because the tablet glitches don't happen with Photoshop. I do like some of the things Manga Studio can do though and I hope they fix the glitches soon.

One thing I like about Manga Studio is that every layer is a color or a texture. This took a bit of getting use to at first, but now I miss the ability to change colors just by clicking on a layer. Now I have to hunt for the color I want or make a new one. I also have to watch what I'm doing because it's easy to accidentally color on the wrong layer, which can cause problems if you want to make corrections later or add a color over a color (only to find the under color is actually on a higher level then it should be and you can't color over it without making another layer over that one).

On the other hand, it's much easier to copy sections of art and move then around in Photoshop. You'll notice I saved myself some time by coping and altering some pieces of art in this page. I know some people set up their art and text balloons in Manga Studio and then color the page in Photoshop (using filters to spruce things up). Maybe when Manga Studio is fixed I'll have to do that as well.

I'm not one to use filters because I think it hides the art and influences the skill of the artist. Many people use filters to hide their lack of drawing ability, others use it to push their art to new levels they wouldn't be able to achieve otherwise. I guess it comes down to skill, talent and ability. You need all three to create good art no matter what methods you use.

I hope I have all three. Most people say they like my stuff even if they like other peoples more. I guess it really comes down to time at this point. I can draw and color a complete page in under four hours, while someone "more talented" couldn't do it in less then eight and probably would take closer to 16. My artwork would look better if I didn't wait until the last minute to start and spend more then four hours on the page, but would people like my comic any better?

look at Milt Gross' artwork: Sunday Funnys

He can draw faster then anyone, and yet his work is very fun to look at and enjoy. It's not about speed so much as it's about skill. The more real things you can draw quickly, the more fun exaggerated things you can draw. I like this loose fun style. I should try it for my next project.

Comments For Page 347

All right! I actually managed to start my comic early and get it done before midnight for a change. Of course, I find it easier to get it done on Sundays anyway, but still this is the first time in a long time that I've gotten a page done early.

You might think that because this is a cover page, it was easy to get it done quicker. Fact is, cover pages are harder because I spend a long time trying to get them looking just right. Just look at this picture and compare it to the stuff I usually churn out. Granted there is some exaggeration in the bodies, but that just adds to the charm.

You might notice that this image doesn't have the usual white boarder around it. That's because I've gotten tired of how Manga Studio works in a Vista environment. Their web site says they are working on a solution, but I really can't wait any longer. I've started using Photoshop again. If I can continue to speed up my work, I may just play around with Photoshop and see what it can do. There may be a rise in my art quality if I can find a way to improve using some of Photoshop's bells and whistles.

You might also notice that the characters have gone back to their old outfits. Well they didn't spend hours in the mall picking out nice outfits just to leave them behind. The only reason they were wearing those other outfits was so they could climb the mountain in comfort.

It should also be noted the Racheal and Toi are back to normal in this picture. Well, you didn't think they would stay like that forever, did you? You'll have to keep reading to learn how they got back to normal and to see who they are up against. I will say that you may have seen this enemy before - well those that have read the whole story so far will have. Expect a lot of surprises and action ahead as the gang heads into their most exciting adventure so far.

Comments For Page 346

Sorry for the late posting ... again. I just hate that I can't seem to work on the story pages at a decent hour. If I can spend Friday morning working on a page, why can't I do it on Thursday morning instead and avoid being late at all? I really don't understand myself sometimes.

It might be a bit cheap to use the same background in every panel, but on the other hand I can spend more time developing the background if I know I'm going to be able to reuse it. I like the way this page turned out. Simple but effective.

I'm not sure it's clear due to the wonky perspective, but in the second panel, Slara is leaning away from Balap (and into the camera) as she explains that it may be her fault that he got hurt. If you're a regular reader of this comic you'll know why she's afraid of him.

This marks the beginning of a new story line, so I'll do up a cover page for Monday. Slara and Balap will have to lead the transformed Racheal and Toi into the unknown as they search for their missing friends. Don't miss the exciting new chapter entitled "Four against a thousand."

Comments For Page 345

Oh no! What happened to Dalap? Where are the others? Could something horrible have happened? Things just go from bad to worse for our band of adventures.

As I mentioned in the last post, this page was already laid out on Monday, but it wasn't finished until today. I wanted to get started earlier since I knew it would take a while to finish, but I still waited until the last minute to work on it.

When I read how other artists spend hours at the drawing table every day, I have to wonder if my heart is really in this work. It's something I can do and I'm pretty good at it (at least people say I am), but I'm just not as dedicated to it as I should be.

I guess that's always been my problem at everything I do. I'm a jack of all trades and a master of none. There is nothing I can't do and therefore I can't do anything at all. I sometimes envy people who only have one talent. They can put their whole heart into it because they know they can't do anything else. There are so many things I am good at, that I can't focus on any one thing. Sometimes I like doing this, sometimes I enjoy doing that. I'm sure there are some that envy my abilities, but I'll never be as good as those that are really dedicated to their art.

It seems odd to talk about my lack of ability on a day I put up a page that has perspective and detailed backgrounds. Not that it's great art by any means, but it is better then some of the simple designs I done in the past to save time.

I should start drawing the next page now, but I know there are a dozen other things clamoring for my attention. We'll see.

Comments For Page 344

Terra better show up soon before Toi hurts herself. Racheal seems to be taking a more relaxed approach to escaping, but it's still not good to see her locked up. Hopefully they'll be freed soon.

It's nearly 3 am as I post this. Once again I failed to start the comic early enough to get to bed at a decent hour. I've planned out the next couple of comics, so hopefully they'll go quicker. Wednesday's comic is a longer one, so it might take a while to get done. Maybe I'll start on it tomorrow. Maybe pigs will fly as well.

I will try to get something done tomorrow. Some sketches at least. I'll let you know Wednesday. See you then.