Tuesday, June 10, 2003
 
 
 
Version 1.1 :: Plethora of Purple

Yahou~! Xella here ^^v You know me as the person behind what you actually see: the website and the comic. Alas, Alisha thinks she can't draw (which isn't true), so it's my task to do that bit of it. And I decided, hey, it's a miracle, I have the comic all sketched out and it's only Wednesday, I think I can now take the time to show people how I do it, step by step. Hopefully, if nothing else, this will give you an understanding of why I'm sometimes late with the comic. Next to each step, I'll say the average time it takes me to complete that step, then how much total consecutive time I've spent on this particular comic thus far (not including breaks). That means that even those of you who aren't artisitically-inclined can understand how long these things take. Ai'ight? Ai'ight ^^ This page IS graphics-intensive (as well as ramble-intensive), so please don't get all pissed off that I didn't warn you, coz' I did (twice now :P)

To start things off, this is what I use for EVERY comic:

Although the pencil itself changes all the time (it's whatever I happen to have handy at the time), usually I use either 0.5 or 0.7. I have used 0.9 once, as well as a regular wooden pencil, but I prefer not having to sharpen and resharpen the point ^^;v It also helps to keep spare lead around, in case you run out *nod*

The 'Clic Eraser' by Pentel is my GOD. By all means, if you're serious about ANY sort of artwork involving the need for an eraser, get one of these. Mine always seem to disappear when I bring them to school TT;; I've tried the "Tuff Stuff" Eraser stick from Sanford (if you're wondering, it looks like this), and though it's great for the little tiny details one needs to erase all the time, it doesn't erase nearly as well and I just generally don't like the feel of it. It's a matter of preference, and how hard/softly you press with your pencil, but.. my opinion, ne? ^^

The ruler came from a school agenda we got back... I think this was the one from seventh grade. Might be the one from freshman year, but I can't remember. It doesn't matter, anyway. Any ruler or straightedge will do (and not having one won't do, as seen with the second comic ¬¬;;). This one just happens to fit in the box I use to hold all this stuff ^^v

The pens are my inking pens and my equivilant of overprotected children; they will never leave my house unless my eyes are on them at all times. Yes, I'm that protective of them. They came in a set of six (the ones you see there), and cost about $16 at my local Aaron Brothers. You could also buy them individually, but the set was the better deal (especially considering I knew I would use all the different sizes). I really lucked out in the fact that my dad was feeling guilty for something he had done to me, so he bought me the pens because we were there and I wanted them *^^* So I haven't had to pay for a set yet, which is nice. If you can't read it on the image (which you probably can't) and are interested (which you probably aren't), they're Sakura Pigma Micron #1 Archival Ink pens. I got 'em because they were in a shiny container and because they were expensive ^^; But apparently, they're also really good pens, and I haven't had qualms about them yet (except for the number, which is rather misleading: I thought 08 was a 0.8mm line, 05 a 0.5mm line, etc. In point of fact, however, 08 is a 0.5mm line, 05 is a 0.45mm line, 03 is 0.35, 02 is 0.3, 01 is 0.25, and 005 is 0.2. But it's not that big a deal: the bigger the number, the bigger the line, that's all I personally care about oO;). They're filled with micro pigment ink, so they're water and fadeproof (yay! *^^*), and they flow really well. Never had a problem with them. I think my only problem is the 005, which I use so much I'm afraid it's on the verge of being on the verge of running out of ink Oo;;
These pens are also (in my opinion) what really got us working on getting Flow of Destiny running. On the fifteenth of February (the day I got the pens), I stayed up until 3 in the morning sketching, inking, and colouring things to use my new pens and my recently-recieved (a month prior) Big Honkin' Box Of Prismacolor Coloured Pencils. One of the drawings was of a girl with blonde hair, brown eyes, a pale pink dress, and an odd symbol on her forehead. For some reason, the story Alisha, Rachel and I had brainstormed back in November floated to mind, and when I put the drawing up on Side7 the next day, I had decided that it was indeed the Princess (whose name I had quite forgotten) from Flow of Destiny, a story that would be my major project after Bowspirit's Aim was finished. Obviously I haven't finished Bowspirit's Aim yet, it still happens every Tuesday, but... Alisha decided that, even though she didn't like the stereotypical royalty-is-blonde type of thing, it fit the princess well. She appeared again, also with these pens and my prismapencils, but.... anyway, I digress. You don't need to here the 'why' of the comic, you just need the 'how', as that's what this is about ^^;; Gomen.

The paper I use is (with the exception of the very first comic, which was done in my sketchbook) regular printer-type 8 1/2x11" sheets of blank white paper. I can't tell you the brand, though, I just know it was 3-hole punched already when we got it ^^; Adobe Photoshop 5.5 is my colouring medium of choice, even though I have 4.0, 6.0, and 7.0 as well. 4.0 is somewhat corrupted, I think, and 6 and 7 have the brushes palate hidden and not in its own menu. Since I use so many different brushes, and quite often need to work very quickly, that's simply too much of a hassle, whatever new features might prove useful, and especially whatever Scott Kelby might say (go live in a tower until I upgrade, eh, Mr. Obsessed-with-dropshadows? *bristle* (and no, I don't hate him. I just think he's very, very wrong about 7 being All That)).

Font-wise, I use LetterOMatic for dialogue, and (in general) Anime Ace for sound effects. There's not all that much difference, but there's enough for me ^^; Both fonts can be obtained from Blambot.com, which, might I add, is one of my favourite sites (despite my continuous loss of the URL? ^^;;) Other fonts may sometimes be employed for certain circumstances, many of them also probably coming from Blambot ^^;

Everything else probably explains itself. I love my Basanti *huggles her iMac* I hate my Navar *pokes her scanner* I abuse my Akara *licks her tablet* And all the rest of it is baisically to keep me sane and not-shaky (even though I'm allergic to caffiene oO; Which is probably a good thing, since it supposedly makes you shakier ^^;)

Ready.. set.. Go~! 0:00 (0:00) [Average, consecutive]

Here we go, the very very start. This is where I pull out my FoD booklet thingie (with all the already-done comics' inked version (except the first one, which stays in my sketchbook because I *will not* tear things out, because that's sacrilidge), the script, and the costume designs Alisha's done for Laural et. al), nab the script, pull out a blank sheet of paper, draw the guidelines on it for the very edges of where I can draw, and start getting at it. Of course.. if you want to be technical with me, usually I don't 'start getting at it' for a good fifteen minutes or more, because its sitting there and saying 'you must work on me because you don't want to be behind again!' and I'm going 'but I dun wanna~', or I'm saying such things to myself and only pretending the paper can talk again ^^; Whichever. But I can't really count that in either time because sometimes it's less than a minute, sometimes its five or six days @@;
If you're wondering.. that's Alisha's quasi-careful typing/spelling skills... she told me not to bother correcting it when she typed it up because the only ones using it would be us, so even though it bugs the heck out of me sometimes, I left it ^^; And the cat is Nyo-chan. She so coot *^^* *loves her Nyo-chan*

Frame Allotment 0:05 (0:10)
(no picture) Baisically the only thing that happens here is I look at the script, decide how it's going to look, and divide up the frames. One of the hardest things to do is to make the frame amount and weight vary so it's not the same every time (which would get boring ^^; The only reason it takes so long is that I'm horrible with drawing straight lines, even WITH a ruler. Okay, so I should say I'm horrible at drawing parralel lines (especially to the sides of the paper), but even still oO;; Usually this only takes me five minutes, even with all my parralel line mistakes, but for some reason, it took me longer here. Maybe because I was doing in it class and I actually have to pay attention somewhat since it's summer school and I need it for Middle College...

Sketchy sketchy 0:45 (1:13)

Rather simple, really. This is where I sketch out the comic in its entirety. I don't worry about writing text, as that's done on the computer, but I do have to keep an eye out to make sure there will be room to fit it in later. One thing that should be noted, though, about the sketch: Do it lightly. I don't care HOW great it looks, if you can't erase it later, it's going to scan like crap :P

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Flow of Destiny is written by Alisha Farnsworth, and illustrated by Alicia Kilpatrick. Flow of Destiny © 2002 Aslua Studios. It is hosted on Keenspace, a free webhosting and site automation service for webcomics.