Vogue

Did you see that I updated the comic on Friday? Click back if you missed it. I was a bit late.

I'm trying to work on a big ol' design bible for Ashayta, with character designs, props, locations, alphabets, etc. This is the beginning of a model sheet for Sashka, though I'm not sure how "on model" he is. I've been having trouble drawing him, after a month hiatus and a bunch of pages where he was off screen.

I once went to animation school, so I tend to think of drawing in terms of animation: line of action, on model, squash and stretch, film direction, etc. I still draw all my roughs (pre-pencils) in blue animation pencil. They don't tend to get all over the side of your hand while you're drawing, like soft graphite pencils do. My model sheets and other design work that isn't done in my sketchbook is all done on ACME punched 12-field animation paper. That's 10.5" by 12.5", about the aspect ratio of a non-widescreen TV. It is comfortable to me. So of course, all the background work for the comic is done as if we were working on an animated TV show.

I stopped animation school long before I got to do animation past bouncing balls and walk cycles, but I still think of it wistfully. Dashing around behind the scenes as though I was drawing more than 9 "frames" a week makes me feel better though.