Category Archives: Uncategorized

not a bad day

Peggy
May 5, 2013

Stuff I did today:

– Biked out to Gasworks Park and drew. Did the first draft script and rough layout for page 91 of Rita. Then on the way home I thought of an extra bit I wanted to add and accidentally closed the unsaved file while pulling something from another page. Oops. So I reconstructed the dialogue (which was mostly straight from other notes anyway) and did a super-crude rough of the body language I intended.
– Hooked up with Nick to go to a game get-together at a nearby cafe.
– Drew about 1/5 of the finished art for that page.

90 is in the queue and will be coming up on Tuesday; I think I’m very definitely on track to have 91 in the queue before it’s anywhere near time for it to go up. Who knows, I might even have a decent start on 92 before 90’s up – 91 is a fairly sparse page, with a couple of close shots to show Carol and Rita’s body language.

I’d like to work on 91 tonight before bed but honestly it’s nine in the evening, I’m on schedule, I’m kinda pooped, I think I might just kick back and read. But damn it feels really good to be getting myself on schedule again and maybe even ahead of it at some point in the foreseeable future.

well that’s new

Peggy
May 5, 2013

Screen Shot 2013 05 05 at 12 24 54AM

Huh. That’s new. When did they add that? Time to tweak all my template files so my standard five art brushes respond to pressure.

The drawing was done using exactly the brush you see here. I only really took advantage of the pressure sensitivity in a few places – nose, eyelashes, and upper lip – but the whole thing felt a lot more naturalistic than it normally does. I could probably knock out some pretty nice inks this way, if I ever actually cared to do that.

another lie

Peggy
May 1, 2013

another lie

I was procrastinating and idly browsing some porn. I thought it would look cool with some deep shadows, then added the snake because nipples. Scales are a blend of an art brush because there was no way I was going to draw those all by hand.

Alternative title: HEY LOOK IM PAT NAGEL.

workflow refinement

Peggy
May 1, 2013

I think I found a better workflow for positioning my reference models.

  1. Expand the subdivision into a mesh, export an .obj from Silo.
  2. Load rough page into Photoshop. Convert from indexed to RGB.
  3. Filter->vanishing point. Select “return 3D layer to Photoshop” in the tiny flyout menu in the upper left; draw a grid to match the sketch, and hit OK.
  4. 3d->new layer from 3D file
  5. Select that 3D layer, then select the camera tool.
  6. In the options bar, go to the “view” dropdown and select the name of the layer we just generated with the ‘vanishing point’ filter. This will snap the camera to the perspective determined by the grid drawn earlier.
  7. Use the object slide tool and the manipulator to position the 3D object to match the sketch.
  8. Export a png or whatever and drop into AI.

Trying to match the camera by fucking around in Silo was a lot of work, and doing it in Blender is just totally not happening. But this seems like it can go pretty quickly, now that I’ve worked out how to do it once!

too far in the future

Peggy
May 1, 2013

why am I pondering what project to do when rita is finished while I fold my laundry

a. I’m right about at the halfway point of Rita, it’ll probably take another year and a half to finish, and that’s if I can get this “regular update schedule” thing happening and stick to it

b. I pretty much know what I want to do when I’ve finished Rita anyway: some combination of resuming Absinthe and starting Drowning City.

c. Speaking of comics about Lingering Trauma In New Orleans, I really don’t know what to think about this Kickstarter. The pitch is… I dunno. It just feels REALLY OBVIOUS in the way anything involving superheros seems to end up being obvious, you know?

d. I guess part of why I’m pondering future projects is that I know how Rita’s going to go from here. There may be a few surprises for me along the way, but I have all the major high points plotted out. I’m trying to think how I felt at the halfway point in the Tarot deck and it was pretty different – that’s when I drew the 99 of Pentacles and the 0 of (VOID), which really ended up being part of the keys to turning it into something that was emphatically mine when all was said and done. The extra cards (and more than a few of the second half of the cards) ended up really being about the future I want to have.

e. There were also still some major mysteries in the Tarot project at the halfway point. I still had no idea how to make the Courts work. There were still a few Majors that I’d been struggling with since the first night I sat down and doodled a bunch of them. There were definitely some big problems to solve. Rita? I have the theme down. I have the plot planned. There are lots of little problems left to iron out but mostly it’s just a matter of drawing another 90-120 pages. At the rate of 2 pages a week that’s about another year, give or take a month.

f. I guess the question really comes down to, is this what I want to be doing for the net year or so? And honestly I can’t think of anything I’d rather be doing.

g. I guess I just needed something to keep my brain active while I was folding laundry. Which is kind of an unpleasant task right now since the dryer leaves them still fairly moist. I really should poke the landlord about that.

Anyway. I’ve hung up all the laundry so I guess now it’s time to get on with spending the next few years drawing comics.

the modern artist: refrerence shot workflow

Peggy
April 30, 2013

I have finally found a great solution for those tough angles.

1. Stick my phone into my Gorillapod tripod.

2. Launch Camera+ on my phone, switch to the front camera, turn on its timer mode, and set that to repeat.

3. Put the tripod on something. Probably the 15″ tall bong that lives on my desk.

4. Grab stand-ins needed for any props, and pose!

BJHRFwbCYAIG56u jpg large

5. Move the photos to the computer by dumping them into Evernote and forcing a sync; bring ’em into my work in progress and start drawing.

trying to build a buffer

Peggy
April 29, 2013

Right now there are actually two whole pages of Rita in the queue. In about a half an hour, this will go back down to one, as the first one – finished and uploaded last week – goes live.

I’ve decided on some rules to try and follow to get my shit back in order here.

1. Start each weekday by assigning eight pomodoros worth of work for the day. That’s about four hours of solid, uninterrupted work. Experience has shown that I tend to only get about half of them done, but that’s still better than the one hour I’ve been managing lately because oh god fuck my work ethic these past few months. These work units will not all be Rita – there’s other things that need doing too!

2. I am not allowed to let my buffer shrink. Every time a page posts, I have to have at least replaced it with a new page queued up. Mega bonus points for having gotten ahead far enough that there’s a replacement plus another page.

3. Once I’ve started rebuilding the habit of “working a lot” start gradually raising my expectations as to how much I actually get done in a day, whether it be by disciplining myself to actually check more of those pomodoros off before the end of the day, or by assigning myself more to do in the morning and still only getting about half of ’em done. Whichever way works best to motivate Impulsive, Lazy Peggy to do what Thoughtful Peggy With A Mission wants to have happen.

Hopefully this will eventually result in me pulling far enough ahead that I can consider things like changing the schedule to 3 pages a week, or putting book 2 or 3 up on Kickstarter early enough that prompt delivery of the book will mean backers get to read it ahead of online readers. Hey, I can dream.

Also it is time to resume aikido and yoga. My rib’s still a little grumpy but it’s largely fine. I was intending to hit up aikido tonight, but I only had about an hour between getting home and the start of class; too soon after about four hours of travel between my hotel in Portland and my apartment. So yoga tomorrow, and aikido the day after. And again and again and again.

Stumptown day 2

Peggy
April 28, 2013

Several hours of beer and Cards did a lot for my mood last night. So did trading a Rita with Phil Foglio, who was all “It’s great… WHEN IT UPDATES.”

When one of your idols gives you shit for not updating regularly, I think it’s time to try and get this thing back in gear. I’ve been letting moodiness and the lure of video games get in the way. And guilt about other art things I’m behind on, as well.

I was already thinking “okay it’s time to try and get back on a schedule” last night. Hopefully Phil’s friendly hassling will be the kick in the ass I need!

It’s also time to get on top of exercise again. My rib is mostly healed and I am just getting TWITCHY.

I think I might put a sign over my computer to the effect of “Phil Foglio has not missed an update in thirteen years” as a motivational reminder…

a pretty good busy day

Peggy
April 26, 2013

Stuff I did today:

  • woke up at four in the goddamn morning and went back to sleep. Several times.
  • became lazy and sleepy for a moment when my alarm went off at eight, but managed to overcome that
  • put on skimpy clothes that bare lots of skin, and lots of suntan lotion, because SPRING HAS COME TO THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST
  • went downtown and got on a train to Portland (with perfect timing – it was boarding when I got there.)
  • worked on a page of Rita for a couple hours. It’s not done yet but it’s a lot less not done than it was this morning.
  • walked for a half hour from the train station to my hotel, because it was a nice day
  • went to Powell’s in search of a book about early 1900s British graphic artists, left with a volume of Tezuka’s ‘Phoenix’ and a really entertainingly trashy thing from the manga aisle called “Dance in the Vampire Bund”
  • had my dragon wing tattoo effusively praised by a passer-by
  • had a really tasty gourmet slider and some beer

I’m back at the hotel and debating if I feel like hitting the opening night party for the comics con I’m down here for. There will be music, free food, free beer, and video games from Ground Kontrol. So that’s tempting.

Tomorrow: con, Cards Against Humanity at Jirris & Mordena’s place. Sunday: con. And somewhere during con there will be the Stumptown Comics Arts Awards, and maybe I’ll get one for “best new talent”. Which would be nice. But hell, I’ve had a pretty good weekend already, that’ll just be icing on the cake.