June 12th, 2009
The Great Escape
I bit off a little more than I could chew this week, but I wanted to try something new with this week’s comic - inking just the characters while keeping the backgrounds in pencil. Mainly, I wanted an animated feature look, where the backgrounds are more painterly. The downside is that it nearly quadrupled my workload- but for Swoop’s great escape, I figured he deserved my putting in a little extra effort.
Stay tuned for some news later in the day!
June 12th, 2009 at 12:44 pm
Oh my gosh…it’s an ACTUAL Flying Circus. Oh please tell me there’s a ring with Monty Pythons~!
Okay, okay, two days late for the painted background is forgiveable.
June 12th, 2009 at 1:33 pm
Fantastic art! I don’t see any pencil lines, though…
I love the two birds at the end.
Also, I’m glad that things are finally becoming a little clearer. I thought Swoop had come from some sort of dimensional warp thing or something - I’m glad to see that it’s actually something sensible like a flying circus for birds.
June 12th, 2009 at 2:00 pm
Wow, that is absolutely beautiful!
Nice, nice job. Sometimes you’ve just gotta spend more time to make it deluxe.
I’d say that it was totally worth your time. Awesome!
June 12th, 2009 at 3:45 pm
Beautiful! Thanks, Mike!
June 12th, 2009 at 7:11 pm
Wow! Coolest web comic ever. This is getting good. I hope we are able to return to this flying circus. I love it.
June 13th, 2009 at 6:50 am
Man, worth the wait. The first panel is stunning! And who knew the whole thing was flying. Completely awesome.
June 13th, 2009 at 8:22 am
Super great work. I think that inking only the characters really make them pop in a beautiful way!
June 13th, 2009 at 8:26 am
Stunning! I spent about five minutes studying this one!
June 13th, 2009 at 4:45 pm
good work, and an exceptionally-well plotted flying circus! i like that i didn’t expect that.
June 14th, 2009 at 8:44 pm
I stayed tuned all weekend! What’s the big news?
June 14th, 2009 at 8:50 pm
Your work has had that animated feature look all along. Artist are always hard on themselves, it’s a curse! -lol
June 14th, 2009 at 9:42 pm
Sorry about that Larry. I was tied down all weekend. It’s up on the blog now!
June 15th, 2009 at 9:52 am
Wow, gorgeous! It was worth the extra effort — I love the look.
June 15th, 2009 at 10:45 am
JUst discovered/read through the comic today. Phenomenal art style, and the story is clever. And, even though this probably better applies to an earlier comic, is it any coincidence that Topo is Italian for mouse?
June 15th, 2009 at 10:58 am
Welcome Sir.
Topo actually considers his name to be short for Topographical Chart, since he’s an adventurer at heart. I had no idea Topo was also Italian for mouse - how funny! His personality can certainly be mouse-like at times, even if he’s a bear.
June 15th, 2009 at 11:11 am
It may have taken some more time for you, but it payed off. I think that this technique really gives the panels a lot of depth. They look great, or should I say RAther!
June 16th, 2009 at 7:06 am
WOW!!
June 17th, 2009 at 3:27 pm
By the way, you should probably add the praise of the “Sandra & Woo” artist to the “Peer Review” part of your “About/Contact” section.
June 18th, 2009 at 7:07 pm
Looks amazing. Just out of curiosity, how would not inking quadruple your workload? Or did I misunderstand?
June 18th, 2009 at 11:24 pm
Hey Speearr - the extra work comes from not having pen lines defining all the edges, like the contours, patterns, shapes, etc and how they blend in with the rest of their environment. I thought I could leave a faint trace of the pencil work to define those edges, but it ended up looking too messy. I’m really bad at drawing in Photoshop, which is where all the extra work came in… having to use the lasso tool or being really slow and methodical with the brush tool. Hope this makes some sense!
June 19th, 2009 at 7:56 am
Yup, I think I can see how that would be a nightmare. But for a first attempt, I’m speechless at the results.
June 19th, 2009 at 2:07 pm
Esn - Done. Thanks for the suggestion.
October 9th, 2009 at 1:20 pm
[...] make up his character Swoop. Yet Mike is able to bend those simple lines in ways that can deliver a range of emotion that I am still trying to dissect and steal for my own [...]