 20 something hours later...
posted by Christopher on 10.29.2003 - 8:31 am
this may as well be a part time job at this point... i'm going to have to get on dante about these 8-panel deals, they're killing me :)
this is the first one where i really played around with facial expressions. i'm pretty happy with it. everything from the evil joy in panel 4 to the 'yes!' in panel 5 to the despondent "gig's up" look in panel 8 all seemed to work for me. the other detail i really like in this one is the 'damn' double-thought balloon in panel 5. believe it or not, i spent a good 1/2 hour playing w/ that to get it to look right.
i can't figure it out... most of the time i'm really hard on myself about anything i do, but in drawing the strip, i always see the positives, and never think "yeah, it would have been great, if only..." maybe it's the fact that i spend sooo much time on each of these that i'd just give up if i thought they sucked. maybe it's that i see this as a learning process. i really never considered myself a fine artist - always a designer. i always wanted to just draw, though, but i could never be one of those people that carry a sketch pad around. this gives me three things that i really need to be able to draw regularly:
1. a deadline... i wouldn't do it if it went up "whenever".
2. instant gratification: i do each panel from start to finish, then move to the next one. each panel inspires me to move on.
3. photoshop. ever try erasing acrylics? grabbing a character you drew with ink and moving him around until you found the right spot? ever try to undo smudging plaka on your nice white piece of illustration board? 'nuff said.
btw, anyone else notice that the manager's tie is cornflower blue?
who amongst you is nerdy enough to make that connection?
anyway, back to my life - 'till next time.
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 The farce of a Thanksgiving "work week"
posted by Dante on 11.26.2003 - 11:02 am
Who among you is, like me, driving the desk at the office on the eve of Thanksgiving? The more probative question: how many of you, like me, watched your bosses leave for holiday vacations days ago, leaving a headless department to mind the store? Don't get me wrong, managers need vacations too. But should they all take them at the same time? I really am quite flattered that they have that much faith in our productivity, but it really is more temptation than some people can handle. Me, for example.
Without the whips of management to drive me forward, I have to call upon something darker and more evil to elicit the slightest ebb of work. I am forced to open the oubliette inside my mind and set my conscience free. Though not as powerful a motivator as a work ethic, a conscience can still maintain the tiniest spark of productivity. Its not necessarily about quantity or quality this week. "Phoning it in" will suffice. A conscience can fit the bill for the diminished expectations of a holiday work week. I just hope my consience realizes that next week, it goes back in the box.
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