We enter the actual dungeon, which means we must be getting somewhere. The original comic did suffer from a lack of setting, or me showing any. It was just dark. I'm going to try and show more of that kind of thing as the comic goes on. While the angle on this page isn't my favorite, it showcases the dungeon entrance and that's what's important.
I am a lazy bastard. I cannot deny this. That has nothing to do with why there's been nothing for the past five days. We had a visitor over the weekend so the studio became a spare bedroom and I wanted to spend time with my guest. That all being said, I had a lot of stuff to do today. Managed to get three loads of laundry done, I called my insurance company to make sure my upcoming eye surgery was covered, I received, tried on and posed with my new set of scale armor (for the orc costume), edited an episode of the podcast, cooked dinner, napped, played some video games and still managed, somehow, to get a new page done from scratch. It's only 10 pm. I'll be up for another three hours. Today was a freak occurrence. I never get this much done. But I'm glad I did.
All that being said, I've been toying with and seriously considering making myself focus on just one comic this year. Ghiroy. Why? Because I actually got some feedback about it recently and most of it, even when constructive, was positive. I think that things get watered down and progress more slowly because I have all these styles. So... I think I'm going to try not to look at so much art that isn't related and maybe, at least for a few months, try working on only one thing. We'll see.
Second page of the re-launch. I wanted to keep some of the fluidity of the original version while updating it with some of the traditional parts of comics like panels. I'm still thinking about the font. One of the problems is that some of the fonts I have may or may not require some kind of payment if I ever publish, and as I really don't want to do the letters by hand any more, I have to choose something. This might be a place holder as it's a font that comes with my computer, but I don't see it used that often. I'll likely catch some crap for it, but until I find something better, so be it.
So, there's this. Could it be that I'm starting this damned comic AGAIN? Yes, it could be. Why? I got some good feedback on the comic which allowed me to see that maybe there was something more there than just a cute little experimental piece of junk that was wasting my time. I need to focus, to keep the style the same, keep things simple and tight. I think I can keep some of the experimental elements while also making something that will appeal to someone other than me. I'm pretty happy with this, even down to the logo. One of my harshest critics, not me, liked this a lot. While I'm not making something to please him or really anyone, knowing what works is a good thing. Let's hope I can continue working like this or making something that might finally appeal to some kind of audience.
Quick test of a new approach. While I'm still using the greyscale to build my shapes, the first overlay is using the 'proper' colors for the character. The final overlay is for the accent color for lighting. So in this case, greys, a series of caucasian tones, oranges and browns over that in overlay mode and a final layer in blue in multiply. It's a lot more work but I think it's a bit more striking and has more depth than does the brighter colors I have been using.
Pretty happy with not only the style change on this (I HOPE it's the last) but the fact that this page went from nothing to finished in one day AND I had a short shift at work today as well. The WIP image, top, shows the original Procreate sketch and most of the greyscale parts done. When I came home, I finished the greys, did a background and then the overlays and lettering. This goofy little D+D comic may have just matured a little.
As plain as this image might seem, it's deeply personal. This is Kevin, my personal avatar in role playing games for over 30 years. While he's on the back burner, he's never far from my thoughts. He's the best I could have hoped to be in a hero form. This isn't a perfect representation by any means, more a cartoon representation. I think I've drawn him three times total in the past decades. Sketch on iPad in Procreate, finish in Affinity Designer.
Here's something I never do: sketch my role playing characters. Decided to do this one. It's a good old fashioned D+D half-elven bard I'm currently playing. This also helped me work a little with that style I'm experimenting with for Ghiroy. It really is a lot more of what I had in mind in the first place. The background is dull, but workable for this. Still did this in shades of gray with different kinds of overlays. I think it works fairly well, even if the pose isn't very exciting.
Once again, I was playing with the character designs for Ghiroy. Why? Because I'm never satisfied with them. Even though I started to unify them based on existing designs yesterday, I saw someone else's work, someone more mainstream and wondered if I might at least address the noses, something I've never liked on the characters. One thing lead to another and this afternoon, I was redrawing the two heads from this week's page in this new 'style,' and adjusting the page. I think it looks a lot better. It also looks a bit blander. Will that help sell it? Will that make it a little more approachable? Will it be something I want? Who the hell knows. I don't.
