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March 12, 2005

Blikada LIVES.

Page 15, up now. Check out the Comics section.

I'm doing a lot of things differently with this one. For starters, I broke out the old art skool pencil set and drew with those, instead of with the single mechanical pencil used on the previous fourteen pages. I like the look, I'll probably keep doing it. I get better gradations.

Also, trying to overcome my inability to depict movement, and I'm still insisting on bull-in-a-china-shopping my way through that whole manga-style "mood background" thing. Lemme know if I've gone too far, this time.

Enjoy. I'll try to keep this thing more regularly updated in the future.

And I just heard the most spectacular car accident outside. THUDUNK SCREEEEET. Wish I could see it from the window.

Posted by Spike at March 12, 2005 05:14 AM

Comments

Never was a fan of the mchanical pencil, so I'm happy to see the old stuff brought in for a try. You're getting a much better range with them. Softer leads than usual?

I do like the "mood background" on this page, due to it's smoky feel. That's an issue I find myself dealing with also. I always add real space in my storyboards at work, so I don't know why I shortchange my own stuff. I'm just not as comfortable with backgrounds as I am with characters. Gotta work on that.

Can't wait to see more.

Posted by Kim at March 12, 2005 08:26 AM
24.90.11.226

I think it looks awesome! Most of the time I see comics done with pencils it's more like they didn't bother to ink it as opposed to being really nice pencil drawings. It must take some effort to nicely render everything out like that, but at the same time it's probably kind of fluid to just draw with one tool rather than having defined stages of penciling, inking, and coloring.

About Blikada in general, I like the fact that these people seem kind of animalistic, but manage not to seem "furry." I also like the fact that even though nothing really magical or supernatural happens, it has an otherworldy feel to it that seems kind of like a fantasy world, but doesn't have a lot of the cliches you usually get. I'm not sure where you're going with this, or what your intentions are with the world of the comic, but so far it feels unique.

Posted by Gerry at March 12, 2005 09:38 AM
68.248.244.62

Kim: Glad you liked it! Yeah, I used leads from F to 8B for this page; darkest values were for some of the smoke and the animal's fur. Doing the comic with real pencils actually goes a lot faster too, much to my surprise; to get darker values outta mechanical pencils, I just had to go over the same spot over and over. Now, I don't have to.

And Gerry, funny you should bring that up... I go into a little in the Sketchbook, but one of my pet peeves is "alien design" that's really just features of Earth animals slapped onto a humanoid frame. You know what I'm talking about, right? Every goddamn sci-fi universe has to have its Cat Alien and its Lizard Alien, who act EXACTLY LIKE cats and lizards from Earth, and look that way, too. Not very "alien," is it? Everyone does it, though. And it's such a goddamn cop-out. i wanted the sentient race in Blikada to be alien, but without being traceable to any actual animals. Or, just as bad, grey aliens or elves.

The key is not being concerned with making them awesome and impressive and intimidating, I've found.

Posted by spike at March 12, 2005 02:03 PM
66.73.2.144

Wow. I can see the difference between the mechanical pencil pages and page 15, but hadn't realized before you said it that pp. 1-14 weren't regular pencil.

Gorgeous work.

Posted by -Jen at March 12, 2005 10:26 PM
65.96.183.19

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