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More Drawing Adjustments

2/4/2021

 
Blogs are annual, right? ;)
Yeah, I'm bad at this.

Anyway...more changes in the drawing department.
My hand has abandoned me and I'm drawing almost nothing with pencil & ink these days.
I can draw loosely with a pencil okay, but inking has become quite frustrating. I can't draw curved lines without wobbles and can only draw straight lines if they can be done with short, quick movements. And I have to stop frequently to "crackle" my fingers. I've given up lettering entirely.

Fortunately I can still draw with a computer mouse so that's what I'm doing mostly.
Photoshop is much more forgiving of my spastic line work, I can erase and redraw with the click of the pointer. My latest editorial cartoon for InDepthNH was drawn entirely in Photoshop on my iMac.
​
I have a large library of previously-drawn artwork to draw upon (literally) which I can recycle and use as elements in new cartoons. 
​For example:
Picture
PREVIOUS CARTOON
Picture
OLD ART USED AS GUIDE FOR NEW ART
Picture
AD SHADING WITH PHOTOSHOP BRUSHES
Picture
ISOLATE THE ELEPHANT
Picture
MAKE THE OLD ART DISAPPEAR
Picture
"PEEL" AND ADD COLOR
Picture
PREVIOUSLY USED ART
Picture
CHANGE HIS CLOTHES
Picture
ADD SHADING & COLOR
Picture
PLACE ELEMENTS, DRAW THE BAG
Picture
SHADE, COLOR & REWRITE OF VOICE BALLOON
Picture
ADD THE FINAL TOUCHES AND WA-LA! A FINISHED CARTOON
 Needless to say this process takes a lot longer than the ol' pencil it, ink it, scan it, color it method, which is one of the reasons you're seeing fewer cartoons from me.

My R.F.D. comic strip is drawn the same way now also:
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
And the roughs I draw for the gags I write for Snuffy Smith. These roughs go to the strip's artist, John Rose. All of the finished artwork you see here is his.
Old school pencil with computer lettering on the left, current all-computer on the right.
Further below are some of the sheets from my digital library of Snuffy character art that I continue to build. I'm all about the cut & paste now.
Picture
Old school
Picture
Picture
New school
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
That's it for now.
​-MM
Stephen Kelsey
2/4/2021 04:37:57 pm

The explaination of the changes to your process and hoops you now have to jump through is quite interesting. If you added some the background from your previous blog posts it would make for a good human interest story for one of those newspapers that you work with. Or even better, for the AARP magazine.

Have you ever tried going to open mic night at one of the comedy clubs in Boston (if there are still any)? You have a better understanding of joke construction than many working comedians.

Mike Marland
2/5/2021 08:50:07 am

Thanks for your comments, Stephen.

Re: human interest story - idea worth pursuing!

No open mics for me! But thank you for the compliment on joke construction. Sometimes a gag comes out in perfect, final form as I write it, but I usually rework a gag several times until I get the wording and rhythm just right.


Comments are closed.

    Mike Marland

    Cartoonist

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  • Home
  • InDepthNH
  • Concord Monitor
    • Birch & Finch
    • NH Political Caricatures
    • NH Presidential Primary Caricatures
    • 2016 Concord Monitor Archive
    • 2015 Concord Monitor Archive
    • 2014 Concord Monitor Archive
    • 2013 Concord Monitor Archive
    • 2012 Concord Monitor Archive
    • 2011 Concord Monitor Archive
    • 2010 Concord Monitor Archive
  • The Beach
    • The BEACH Archive 1
    • The Beach Archive 2
    • The BEACH Archive 3
  • UP on the HiLL
    • UP on the HiLL Archive 2
    • UP on the HiLL Archive 3
    • UP on the HiLL Archive 4
    • UP on the HiLL Archive 5
    • UP on the HiLL Archive 6