Reflections Contest #1: Art Entry!
Oh man. I had such big plans for this contest! I like to write, and I like to create art, so I knew from the very first announcement for this competition that I would very definitely be entering in some format! I had stories thought up, I had illustrations planned out.
You can read a bit more about what happened in the partner post for this one, and see the final project, by clicking here.
Anyway, after finally settling on a comic strip for my project, it was time to get cracking!
The first step in making a comic is creating a script, which I talk about in my partner post
Up next was thumbnailing. This is similar to storyboarding for movies; I quickly rough out the way I want my page to look and what the character poses are like.
You can see a duck with a hat in the foreground! She's in a fifth panel I decided to cut. I guess that's as close as it gets to a deleted scene!
After thumbnails, I was ready to layout my final page. I used Bristol board to draw on. My trusty ruler helped me get the lines straight. At this point I was still planning on using Panel 5, so it was drawn in. First, pencil layout...
Then, careful inking over the correct lines. I still used the ruler to guide my quill nice and straight.
Now for the fun! Time to sketch in my artwork!
I used a "B" pencil to make my characters so that the graphite would erase easily, but didn’t require lots of pressure to get a easily visible line.
After getting them all drawn, it was time to start inking!
Here's a close-up of inking detail. You can still see the pencil lines I drew to create the art in the first place:
Once the ink is dry, you can erase the pencil.
EXCEPT WHOOPS IT WASN'T QUITE DRY.
I'll fix that little booboo after scanning it in!
I finalized the speech bubbles and then went back in with my drawing pencils to add a bit of shading to my farm animals.
Then it got scanned, and it was time to fix my mistake!
YES I USE MSPAINT FOR MY EDITING SOFTWARE DON'T JUDGE ME OK?
And that's it! Thanks so much for reading about my comic making process, and have a look at the final product in my partner post here.
You are very good at drawing!
Thanks! I've practiced a lot over the years :) it's a nice quiet activity. Harder to do nowadays with youngsters underfoot, but I try to keep my skills up whrn I can
You are very talented!! I honestly have trouble drawing stick figures. lol
Thank you! I guess drawing is like any other skill, you have to put in the hours to practice and get better at it! Thanks for stopping in :)
I kind of preferred the 'with TEETH' smudge, makes it look more painful somehow. As Bob Ross always said, "There are no mistakes, only happy accidents."
Thanks for sharing in detail the process for creating your comic strip. Here's an idea for Escalactation Part Two: Just When You Thought It Couldn't Get Worse: kitties with teeth AND claws!
Haha!! Maybe I'll revisit my Funny Farm characters again soon, I need to introduce some of the male animals too, I'll keep the kitties in mind!
Do you do comics professionally? You're really good at this, and I've love to see more Funny Farm comics.
I don't do them professionally, although it's something I have considered would be an interesting line of work! I've studied the process at least!
Professional sheep-shearer by day, teat-drawing comic strip artist by night.
Love the backstory pics :)
ohmigosh there are no teats in this comic what kind of sicko do you think I am XD
Well...there were a lot of them in my head. Who do you think PUT THEM THERE?
they aren't mine I don't know where you got them from 🙈
Probably the duck. It all went astray with the duck nipples panel. No wonder you had to cut that one.