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  I draw slow! and other confessionsMay 06, 2011 4:25 AM PDT | url
 
Added 1 new A* page:I think (hope?) the art here has been getting a bit better lately, on average, and that would be mainly because I'm just spending more time on it; that wasn't consciously planned, but I suppose was just the consequence of my wanting to keep improving on it. The consequence, though, is that I get fewer pages done; if I keep on at this rate, for instance, days where I manage to get two pages done will be the exception, rather than the norm as they were in the previous few episodes.
 
It's the old quality vs quantity question, and I'm sort of teetering around here in the act of trying to find the right balance. I *prefer* to be able to take the time to do what feels like a decent job on the pages, as opposed to feeling like I'm having to rush to get them done all the time, but I worry that the pace of the story will feel too slow at a mostly one-a-day rate. So if you, dear reader, would like to take advantage of this confused and searching period of mine to influence the future course of the comic's development, now would be a super time to bowl me over with your take on the pace of the story, and/or the development (or otherwise!) of the art.
 
(The ideal solution, I suppose, would be for me to learn to draw faster, and I've been hoping that would happen for the past few years, but that particular breakthrough doesn't seem to be in any hurry to arrive, and I'm slowly reaching the conclusion that I draw kinda slow, at least when I'm trying to do a good job. It's so disillusioning! =P I suppose this strange lasso-drawing technique of mine isn't helping in the speed department, but I like it way too much to give it up now. Ironically, I first started using it as a way to speed up my sketching. Which worked, since you can lay down big shapes with it really quickly; it's when you need to go back in and refine them that things go much slower.)
 
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Another thing I've been meaning to get off my chest! Another deep, dark A* secret! Well not really. You've probably even noticed that I take a few liberties with the pictorial representations of certain events--liberties which even I couldn't say fall strictly under the definition of "hard sci-fi." One of these happens fairly often, including in today's page. Can you spot it?
 
No, it isn't the stars and gas and dust clouds and stuff. I mean, I know I take liberties with those, but that isn't what I'm gonna talk about now! :D So look for something else.
 
Okay, here's a hint: it was maybe more obvious, or worse, anyway, in the last drawing of the shuttle, on page 19.
 
Well, here it is: in the second half of a speedy journey, properly speaking, a ship would turn around backwards, firing its main thrusters in the opposite direction in which it is traveling--that's how you brake. The problem is that I can't think of how to draw a ship turned around backwards in such a way that it will be immediately obvious to the viewer that the ship is *moving* backwards; I think the obvious assumption in almost all cases would be that the ship is moving the way in which it is pointing.
 
Now, if the ship was, say, leaving a trail of sparks or gas or something behind, you could do it, because the trail would show the ship's true direction of motion--I did that with Vero's damaged ship in episode 10, for instance, although it wasn't actually firing its thrusters there, since they were damaged.
 
So until I think of a way draw them facing backwards but appearing to fly forwards (and I don't want to cheat with Star Trek-style streaks of light sailing past...that would be tough to show direction with when it isn't animated, anyway), I'll just fudge things and have them facing forward, skipping over the main braking stuff (like how I just had Selenis refer to braking in passing back when she and Vero arrived at "the black system" in episode 9--bet you hadn't realized they were facing backwards on the previous page! :P); and if pressed on the matter, I can come up with snappy (if iffy) explanations! Check this out: on page 19, the ship appears to be firing its thrusters toward its destination, even though it should be braking, because um it's making a routine course correction. Or the gravity from the system's star dragged it a little more than had been planned. No that isn't sloppy at all! And here on page 23, the ship is facing forward, even though it should be coming to a stop, because uh it's already slowed to almost a stop, and can now simply use small maneuvering jets to stop itself as it goes in to dock or whatnot.
 
See? Totally hard sci-fi depiction going on there, yep.
 
 
 
 
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