WTD?: Breeze

The word that came out of the random word generator this week for What the Doodle? was Breeze. Here's what we came up with.


Tami Wicinas



Renee Kurilla



Taryn Johnson



Bob Flynn



John Lechner



Hannah O'Neal


Be sure to check back in a couple weeks for the next word.

Negative Space in Balloon Shapes

Matt Bernier of Comic Tools lays out a great tutorial on the dos and don'ts of lettering in comics. A lot of it applies the common sense rules of typography and positive/negative space to word balloons. These are all really good ideas to keep in mind whether you're lettering by hand or using a font.

Read here --> This week: Balloon Shape.


He points out that while some examples of poor negative space are the result of the ease of computer lettering, even comics greats like Bill Watterson and Winsor McCay had bad lettering habits.

Also, in the comments, a brief discussion comes up about using hyphenation to break up words, which I've always considered a big no-no. But I love how Matt puts it:

"...breaking up a word with a hyphen to make it fit is like breaking your kid's feet to get him into smaller shoes. He'll fit, but he ain't gonna run too good any more."

It's a long thorough read, but a good one—with lots of doodles and samples to go along with it. HIGHLY recommended.

Tami Wicinas: Wooden Rose

We thought we'd try something new on Creative Juices—a Q&A format.

Fablevisionary, Tami Wicinas, has been working for the better part of this year on her webcomic Wooden Rose. Here's what she had to say about it:

What inspired you to begin writing a web comic?

I have always enjoyed telling narratives through my illustrations. I had been toying with the idea of drawing a comic for a while, but my friend Martzi planted the idea for Wooden Rose. While wandering around San Francisco we joked about writing a Jane Austen style webcomic together and the idea stuck with me. The Victorian era is a visually beautiful and romantic historical period. I love it for its lavish dress and gothic settings, the repressed emotions and the manners and courtesy with which people addressed each other. I wondered why there were not more Victorian style comics out there and I thought it would be fun to make one myself. After that the story started coming to me. I began it in January and wrote in a kind of frenzy, thinking of little else for two months. Martzi was a huge help to me – serving as my advisor and editor and cheering me on along the way. Once I had the story mapped out the visuals came naturally.

Who are your influences (writers and artists)?

The only other Victorian webcomic I knew about was The Phoenix Requiem by Sarah Ellerton. It is so well done I could not help being influenced by it. I attempted to write my story in the style of a 19th century romance novel. Wooden Rose has a lot in common with Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility, which I admit I used as a starting point, but I added some of my own fantastical plots twists. I also drew elements from old Irish folk and fairy tales, and probably some other stories that have become ingrained in my subconscious.

As for the artwork, I am largely influenced by art nouveau, specifically Alfonse Mucha. I think Japanese anime also plays a big role in my style – the flat outlined figures against the painterly backgrounds is a style contrast I borrowed from animation.

Describe your process. Are you writing as you go along, or do you already have the story mapped out?

The story is already completed. The first half of the script is polished and ready to be drawn, but the latter half is still very rough and needs more work. As I slowly work my way through new ideas come to me for the second half that I can add to it.


What tools are you using? Do you work on paper at all, or is everything digital?

Though my story is completed, I do not have it all storyboarded because I know that I will be making changes to the second half of the script. I plan out about three pages at a time. I sketch them out roughly by pencil to figure out the layout, composition and pacing of each page. Sketching by hand for me is faster and more natural than sketching on a computer. I then scan the sketches into photoshop to trace the outline and color.

Could you describe your approach to color? It seems to play a large role in setting the atmosphere and mood of the story.

I pick a dominant color for each scene and work my palette around that color. I try to keep the range of colors to a minimum, sometimes using a complimentary color and light and dark for contrast. I try to capture the dark moody atmosphere I like from the time period – the dark deep colors of the walls and wood of the old houses, lots of candle and firelight for the interiors and filtered forest light for the outdoor scenes.

How many chapters can we expect?

I do not know yet since the second half is not finalized and I do not have it all storyboarded. It completely depends on how much I add to the ending and how I decide to pace the scenes. My rough estimate is about 8 to 10 chapters total.

* * * * * *

You can read more about Tami's work on her blog.
And she's also on Twitter @tamiwicinas.

Adventures in Cartooning

via BoingBoing

This fabulous book was just brought to my attention by Bill Gonzalez (thanks, Bill!). I haven't gotten my hands on a copy yet, but it appears to be one of the more creative and charming approaches to teaching comics that I've seen in awhile. Perfect for any aspiring cartoonist, young or old. And any fan of comics!

BoingBoing sums it up nicely:

"Adventures in Cartooning is a comic that tells the story of an elf who teaches a kid how to draw comics -- a kind of Understanding Comics for kids. It's incredibly charming and full of sly wit, and the combination of the story (and there is a real story here) and the instruction is perfect inasmuch as the story illuminates the techniques in the construction. Taking kids through the basics of layout, dialog, and doodling, Adventures in Cartooning is an inspiring text for any kid who loves comics, regardless of artistic abilty."

First Second Books offers a preview on their website --> here

Google Chrome Comic

Google hired Scott McCloud (of Understanding Comics fame) to introduce the concept of their new "Chrome" browser to the world. McCloud is great at explaining ideas in the comic format, so he was obviously the perfect artist for the job. Here's the link to the comic.

Schulz on American Masters

I just caught a preview of a documentary on Charles Schulz to be featured on the PBS series American Masters. It's called "Good Ol' Charles Schulz" and will air on WGBH on October 29 at 9:00. Here's the press release:

This is a quintessentially Midwestern story of an unassuming, self-doubting man who, through expressing his unique view of the world, redefined the comic art form with "Peanuts." His genius lay in depicting the daily collisions of insiders and outsiders, of mundane cruelties and transcendent hopes - seeing the extraordinary in the ordinary. The "Peanuts" cast of characters is as familiar as our own siblings; their trials and tribulations speak of our families and evoke our childhood desperations. They are portrayed with whimsy and poignancy - and always with love and tolerance, each representing different facets of Schulz' personality and his perspectives on 20th-century America.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Thirteen/WNET New York

Persepolis

One of the best animated films of the year (or so some are saying) won't arrive until Christmas Day in the U.S. Persepolis is an animated film based on the graphic novel series of the same name by Marjane Satrapi. They are autobiographical comics that detail her life growing up in Iran after the revolution. The story is amazing, and from what I've seen so far, they've been able to adapt the black and white comic into a lush black and white film, matching and improving upon the style of the comic. Cartoon Brew (they feature a number of clips) and a number of blogs have been covering the lead-up for some time. It was just in the Toronto Film Festival, and already won at the Cannes Film Festival. I've been looking foward to seeing this all year.