approaches

ever have that friend who's approach to dating is just totally foreign to what you think? whatever the approach (not making any judgments here!), it's always interesting how they take in our advice or what they do with it. maybe that's why we love to hear about other people's love life - so we can live vicariously through their experience and hopefully never go thru it ourselves!

in terms of artwork, not much i'm afraid this week except for the stone bar counter top effect and maybe a little tweaking in body language and panel layouts.

feel free to drop some comments for some feedback - i'm always looking for ways to improve, thanks for readin!

- johnny
(click to enlarge)

Where there's smoke...

A smoky kitchen and a burnt frying pan is a recipe for humor...or a typical occurrence when guys get the idea to head into the kitchen. Anyways, the following strip is based on a real occurrence and words actually spoken. I will leave names off to protect the innocent! I got a chuckle out of it and I thought I'd turn it into a strip.

Not much new in terms of artistic techniques this week. I've finally managed to get some more time on my hands. So...starting next week, I should have more time to explore!

-Kevin

(click to enlarge)

OH SNAP!

if you're anything like my friends, undoubtedly there is a lot of smack talk during anything competitive. maybe there's even a 'friendly' wager, just to spice things up a bit. whatever it takes to get your opponent emotionally into the game - and then crush them with a humiliating defeat. of course, the last time i made a bet and talked smack, i lost horribly.

a couple more variations in artwork this week. i went back to a brush pen for the thicker lines, but then used a finer tip for the background. the idea is thicker lines for objects closer, and thinner lines for objects further away. gives the illusion and all that. what do you think? also, the photoshop wood technique worked pretty good again this week, i think.

- johnny
(click to enlarge!)

collab continued!

So, this is my contribution from this week's collaboration! My script was written by Wheezy. Thankfully, he gave me some leeway in how I could present it. His idea was based on a strip with no words. I must say that I cheated a bit there in the first panel (or the top part of the first panel, anyway). After I had sketched and inked most of it, I realized that I couldn't quite do it the way I planned. So, I modified it a bit to give you what you see below. Hopefully, I've still stayed true to Wheezy's vision!!

You may have noticed that the way I draw the characters hasn't changed a bit. Pay no attention to that; that's just your eyes playing tricks on you! Nah, I just keep playing around with the style. I haven't quite found that nitch yet. But I'm liking it better and better each time. I didn't experiment so much with new art techniques this week.

-Kevin

(click to enlarge)

collab!

this week we're doing another collaboration effort, where we write each other's comic (but we still draw it ourselves). thus, i'll be writing weezy's comic, he'll be writing chibar's, and chibar is writing mine. so, what you'll find below are the usual characters, just with a chibar twist.

it's been said that comic strips are a very personal art form that allows the creator to speak directly with their audience - no editor, no screening, just pure voice. so having another writer be the "voice" of your characters, i find, takes a lot of trust. to stay true to the characters, their speech pattern, and their reaction. to you, the audience, it could be quite confusing, if not done right. all of a sudden, the characters could be doing something you're not expecting and such. but i dare say, chibar has done a fantastic job of interpreting the characters.

perhaps most noteworthy artwork-wise this week, is the wood effect for the bar top. i think it adds a nice touch, and hopefully art-wise, it works well with the style of the comic. i inked it using a pigma micron 01, 0.25 mm line width. i'm thinking though, i liked the look better with fatter lines i got using a brush pen.

- johnny
(click to enlarge)

Decisions

Life is full of decisions: what to eat, what to do, what to wear, what to re-wear before washing, etc. It's such an awesome thing to have many options to choose from when faced with a decision point. This week's strip highlights one of my more important decision points.

I've experimented some with backgrounds in this week's strip. I played around with depth by means of cross-hatching. That's right, I'm still doing it old-school! Anyway, in the near future, I'll be able to try out some new techniques after I rediscover sleep. Enjoy!

-Kevin

(click to enlarge)

has this happened to you?

as dilbert has taught us, there are countless ways to turn the cubicle/office lifestyle into humorous stories. how to take the tiny nuances of the cubicle/office lifestyle and exaggerate it to a point that almost everyone can identify with it. and chances are, of those jokes, we probably exhibit some of those traits!

for the artwork this week, some minor tweaks and experiments. i experimented with inking using a hunt 102 nib and speedball ink. basically that means i used a calligraphy type pen where i had to dip the head in ink like every 5 seconds to continue inking. i don't think it worked very well for this type of art form as it was too detailed. i also converted the color strip into a black & white strip, to see if it was still as powerful, such as in a daily newspaper. maybe it's too gray, but i think the colored strip packs a lot more punch.

- johnny

(click to enlarge)

Cheer up

I'm continuing with the same story arc from the last two strips. I thought I keep the storyline alive for another week. I've been so used to doing stand-alone strips, that I thought doing this would be a good thing.

As for technique, I kind of hurried a bit on this one. Let's just say I'm starting to forget what sleep feels like. I did try to incorporate some depth into the art by doing cross hatching. I think it definitely makes a difference. Anyway, keep looking for continued improvement!

Kevin

(click to enlarge)

sleeping in

i remember back in the day when i was in class, how a good friend of mine came into class like 30 minutes late (and it was an afternoon class!). i asked him why he was late, he smiled and said he just couldn't bring himself to get out of bed whenever his girlfriend was there with him. it wouldn't be until later in life that i realized and understood what he meant. and to this day, with the right girl, i wouldn't mind time passing right on by.

as for the artwork this week, as happy as i am how it turned out, i think next week i'm gonna start experimenting with new techniques. i got a book by wheezy and emily, called creative photoshop written by derek lea which i really need to dive into. also, there how to make webcomics, that just came out. i guess what i'm saying is, look for some kick ass artwork, if not, come kick my ass.

- johnny

(click to enlarge)

Pep Talk

In today's strip, I make my first attempt at a continuing storyline. I was trying to balance the bridging of two strips while making the new strip standalone in its own right. In other words, I want the reader to be able to read this week's strip without having read the previous one and still having it make sense.


I played around more with the word bubbles again. I think I'm getting better at placement and such.

Kevin

(click to enlarge)