Added 2 new A* pages:

• A* Episode 11, Page 5
• A* Episode 11, Page 6

Well, my weekend fairy tale comic, "The Princess and the Giant," is going gangbusters at the moment--by my standards, anyway--so if you're one of the two people on the internet (*cough*) who haven't given it a look yet, now's the perfect time to do so, because I've just created you a handy link to the latest page in the form of this clickable vertical banner:



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For some reason I seem to like drawing water splashing around, so a little water action got inserted into episode 11 page 5 here. And in page 6, I wasn't originally going to have a camera drop down there, but the silly ENIAC-style stuff on the far wall there just wasn't providing enough presence.

Ah, ENIAC.

U.S. Army Photo (source)

You could still do way more square root operations per second (3!) than I can.

Added 2 new A* pages:

• A* Episode 11, Page 7
• A* Episode 11, Page 8

Page 7 was one of those pages that insists on being difficult. I made a little animation chronicling my struggles with it!



So first I tried drawing it freehand, and came up with a nice rough face, but not at the right top-downish angle. So I brought in my storyboard sketch (that sketchy second frame in the animation) and tried using that as a direct drawing guide, but as is often the case when I try that, I'm just not feeling it, and the face ended up twisting around on me, so that it was more side-on than top-on--and of course I don't realize this until I'm nearly done with it, but something isn't quite right and I keep trying this and that and then you realize the whole thing is just off. ;| So I thought *maybe* I could just tweak the details a bit to angle it back...but that didn't work, of course. So I had to scratch the figure and start over, back to freehanding it rather than tracing off the storyboard, and fortunately, this time it came out pretty well on the first try. Phew.

I'll have to ask other art people if they have that problem, because it happens to quite a bit: trying to draw a figure at an angle--not side or face-on, I mean--and it stealthily twists around to the wrong angle as you're working on it, just to be contrary.

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I'm still messing around with the computery font size a bit, so if you find your browser has had to reload the first few pages of this episode a few times, that's why... It's the same size in relation to the main subtitle font as it was back when I used it in oh say episodes 1 & 2, but back then I always put the computer text up in the picture area, rather than down on the subtitle bar, so I never really realized in a concrete way that it's a) a lot wider and b) shorter than the regular font--so when you put them next to each other at the same size in that subtitle bar as I'm doing in this episode, they don't really play nicely together. I've gone to a compromise size now for the computer font, and hopefully that'll work all right, because having to go back and redo all the previous strips in the episode when I decide to tweak the font a bit is a pain! :P

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Yesterday I was sort of making fun of myself for resorting (or trying to resort) to an old big blinking lights on the wall type of sci-fi interior decorating; well today a friend of mine just happens to send a link to a real-life interior that *looks* like a super sci-fi lair, without resorting to the flashing lights! It's a data center (where they keep the servers and stuff) for a Swedish ISP, Bahnhof, built 30 meters below solid rock in what was originally a Cold War-era anti-nuke military bunker. You can check it out at your own speed in some nifty 360-degree panning photos here, or hitch a ride on a walk-through of it with their CEO:



(Here's the link to it on YouTube for those of you reading this via RSS).

Sweet pad, hm?

Re: Drawing faces at other than normal angles: You might be happy to hear that even after several hundred hours of life drawing and anatomy this kind of foreshortening is still a problem. The face, with its expressions and the look and style you are after is always hard to do well.

I read earlier how you wanted to clone the full figure(s) "without showing too much."
A solution involves all of the tubes, hoses, cables, restraints, barriers, supports and instrumentation pickups that might be part of such a unit, both on the inside and outside.
As the body grew from a tiny embryonic unit it would need and require all kinds of support and monitoring and tethers to avoid damage. Even in a low-gravity situation.
Big fat hoses and cables, vacuum and pressure lines like a root structure.
The unpleasant details would be hidden because of all the connections, with enough gaps for spicy little peeks now and then.
The way you did the tanks is excellent, and I wouldn't mind all of the details myself, but you never know who you might offend with an honest illustration of a human body.

That's probably true, but for some reason I prefer just to suspend them in a neutrally buoyant fluid and leave it at that. Anyway the next bit will be even trickier because we're leaving the tube! And I had first considered having wires and things in the foreground that could block the line of sight, or like a grill over a light casting lots of conveniently concealing shadows, but then I realized those would be counter to the purpose of the next area. Sooo I'll just have to be creative with the camera and perhaps somewhat generous with the use of shadow. I'm still not going to show anything--all smoke and mirrors you know--so if people choose to get offended by what they're imagining, well heck that's their choice I suppose!

Oo for instance my dad keeps taking me to task for drawing up-skirt views of the Princess in that comic, and I'm like...uh, that isn't in the picture, dad. Hm!

That's sick ! ! !
Unless, of course, he pays lots of money for those drawings.
Then he is a recognized connoisseur of great art !

Added 1 new A* page:

• A* Episode 11, Page 9

Woo slacker Friday. On a similar note, next week may see a few more single-page days than usual, since I'll be having to hang a bunch of pictures up for a show Thursday night, and probably doing some additional preparatory things prior to that. Real life is hard; I think I'd rather stick to the web. =p

Added 2 new A* pages:

• A* Episode 11, Page 10
• A* Episode 11, Page 11

But would you pronounce that "zee," or "zay-uh," or what?

I'll probably only manage one page tomorrow, since it looks like I'll be spending a chunk of the day getting the rest of the framing supplies and so forth for the show--24 framed prints gotta be ready to go up on several walls Thursday!

Oh hah just remembered I was watching a Spanish football game earlier, and the--presumably British--announcer pronounced "z" as "th" (and "th" as "f")--so I guess he'd pronounce her last name totally differently than I'd imagined anyone would! Wonder where that accent comes from.

Oh yeah 2: Hee, pages 11.10 and 11.11 on 11/01/10!

I am told that pronouncing "z" like "th" is a Spanish thing! And "th" like "f" is a localized British thing (I think I've heard that in some British gangster movies :o). Put together they make for some interesting conversation!

clever workaround for the nudes. especially the lighting for page 11. good on ya man, stoked on this chapter, SO STOKED BRO, TOTALLY PITTED. seriously tho, im excited