Progress is Progress
Last night I finished the art for the last unfinished panel of chapter one of my as yet unnamed Sci-Fi comic.
I will now be moving on to the "editing" process as I'm calling it, which will involve working through the thirty-eight pages one at a time, touching up and in some cases re-doing any artwork that isn't up to the standard I'm personally looking for. I've said from the outset that I'm not looking for polished "professional" standards of comic artwork, I've only been working with digital art less than a year and this comic was intended to be my practice. This editing process will mostly be looking at consistency, as there is a discernible improvement from the first pages where I started to the most recently completed.
Having said that, it is constantly in the back of my mind that I have decided to make the comic publicly available and I want the artwork to be half decent. I'm still planning on using the Tapas website/app as my first choice for "publishing" the comic, my only concern being that Tapas is aimed at on the go reading and formatting choices need to be geared towards being read on mobile phones, whereas I have formatted my comic as a regularly printed comic. This doesn't mean I can't publish it on Tapas, I just have to be mindful that font sizes etc could be an issue on small screens.
I've also been toying with the idea of self publishing on the Amazon Kindle store, after a bit of research showed this to be quite a simple process. I could offer it up as a free download or even test the water to see if people are willing to pay a small pittance for it.
Another decision I'm faced with when it comes to Tapas is do I want to upload the whole chapter in full, or upload one/a few pages at a time as I complete the editing and touch ups. Tapas actually encourages the page at a time or similar approach, but personally I've found when reading comics on the app it can be frustrating when you are only given a page every few days as it can cause a loss of flow. I'm leaning towards a middle ground where I will upload a handful of pages at a time that at least form a complete "scene."
One game that has been frustrating for me, in that I've struggled to get into it properly has been Elite Dangerous. However on my fourth go in the five years since I installed it, it has finally clicked and I am loving it. It's the perfect game for when I want to just switch off. I think my problem in the past was that I was expecting an awesome space sim shooter to fill that X-wing/Tie Fighter shaped hole in my gaming life. What I've now discovered is how satisfying it is to opt for a freighter and just fly from place to place delivering goods. No combat, no fights, just the odd deviant that tries to steal your cargo. There's just something nice and chill and zen about pointing your ship at a destination and just watching space go by until you arrive (or forget to throttle down and overshoot the solar system your heading for.) I find Elite Dangerous really nails a sense of scale and real isolation that can be really affecting at times. I genuinely feel that this is what space travel would be like if our future were to pan out this way. Lonely.
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| Although not the last panel of the chapter, the last panel to be completed. |
Having said that, it is constantly in the back of my mind that I have decided to make the comic publicly available and I want the artwork to be half decent. I'm still planning on using the Tapas website/app as my first choice for "publishing" the comic, my only concern being that Tapas is aimed at on the go reading and formatting choices need to be geared towards being read on mobile phones, whereas I have formatted my comic as a regularly printed comic. This doesn't mean I can't publish it on Tapas, I just have to be mindful that font sizes etc could be an issue on small screens.
I've also been toying with the idea of self publishing on the Amazon Kindle store, after a bit of research showed this to be quite a simple process. I could offer it up as a free download or even test the water to see if people are willing to pay a small pittance for it.
Another decision I'm faced with when it comes to Tapas is do I want to upload the whole chapter in full, or upload one/a few pages at a time as I complete the editing and touch ups. Tapas actually encourages the page at a time or similar approach, but personally I've found when reading comics on the app it can be frustrating when you are only given a page every few days as it can cause a loss of flow. I'm leaning towards a middle ground where I will upload a handful of pages at a time that at least form a complete "scene."
In other news
On the days or times when I find I can't face working on the comic and need a break from it I at least try and spend my time doing things that will inspire and stimulate the creative process. As I am working on a piece of Science Fiction I've unsurprisingly reading, watching and playing a lot of Science Fiction. The remake of the classic platform game Flashback has been a great example of aesthetic and environment. Although not a great game by today's standards it has been fun and will certainly have an influence on the comic.One game that has been frustrating for me, in that I've struggled to get into it properly has been Elite Dangerous. However on my fourth go in the five years since I installed it, it has finally clicked and I am loving it. It's the perfect game for when I want to just switch off. I think my problem in the past was that I was expecting an awesome space sim shooter to fill that X-wing/Tie Fighter shaped hole in my gaming life. What I've now discovered is how satisfying it is to opt for a freighter and just fly from place to place delivering goods. No combat, no fights, just the odd deviant that tries to steal your cargo. There's just something nice and chill and zen about pointing your ship at a destination and just watching space go by until you arrive (or forget to throttle down and overshoot the solar system your heading for.) I find Elite Dangerous really nails a sense of scale and real isolation that can be really affecting at times. I genuinely feel that this is what space travel would be like if our future were to pan out this way. Lonely.
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