http://www.strips4.com/other-works/oh-sweetie/

My goal was to tell a clear narrative without relying on any exposition at all.  There are no words at all between the title and "The End".  On this end I feel I most succeeded. With the possible exception of the icing geyser from the cake I think everything in the piece is presented as clearly and efficiently as possible.

The efficiency may or may not be cause for concern.  I haven't decided yet. Working on this was so incredibly fun.  I love the smiley face aesthetic of the characters, the storybook design of the cake, and the rudimetary perspective for the halls. I feel like it boils the images down to their most relatable a folky, relatable feel.  But is all this an excuse for laziness?  Am I impeding my own progress by constantly practicing these intentionally simplistic projects?  My most popular project stars a bunch of stick figures.  Even at my most detailed, I could never be mistaken for a draftsman. I'm really torn on this issue artistically.  It's a stupid cause for distress, but a real one.

I enjoyed working on a six page story.  It's the direction Timothy wants to head with some future projects and the advantages are very real.  More stories, more practice, more diversity, quicker turn around...the list can go on and on.  It was also an interesting challenge to write everything sans dialogue.  I've read a ridiculous amount of Jim Woodring lately.  I'm constantly amazed at the complexity of narrative he's able to accomplish with only his pictures. They say a picture is worth a thousand words and he really capitalizes on every last one.  Can I?  And then can I with such minimal line work?

- Jon O'Briant

No commentary from me.  Just a peek at how my brain works on a project.  Enjoy!

- Jon O'Briant

Most of the writing is barely legible, and it's generally revised on the way onto the actual boards, but it's always enough to progress the narrative and help me to make sure I have a good progression from panel to panel, page to page.

The dance splashes are really easy in the writing phase.

 And while this is a mess I think it's going to be a pretty action packed page when I get to it.

Well I'm going to go get some Public Educations done, until next time friends.

- Jonathan O'Briant

Panel 1 shows Awful coming into the ice cream shop clearly worked up over something.

Panel 2 has him walking around the front of the counter as he and Billy exchange words.

Panel 3 then has him behind the camera talking face to face with his friend the bat.

The transition from panels two to three isn't intrinsically bad, but on the remainder of the page Awful is back to the front of the counter.  This is where the problem occurs.  I can't have his location switching back and forth between panels, especially on the same page.  It was a rookie mistake that Timothy thankfully caught.

You get so caught up in other things (like the ridiculous perspective problems in the room) and you forget about some of the most basic things.  I made a patch to go over panel three and re did the entire middle section of the page.

This new panel fixes the continuity problem and gives the impression of Awful pausing to carry on the conversation with Billy while still not really wanting to talk to him.  This sets up the final three panels of the page rather nicely, but you'll have to keep reading Awful Lot to see that unfold.

Until next time!

- Jon O'Briant

2012 will be a productive year.  Maps will release.  Public Education 2 will release.  And I'll finish up work on Awful Lot.  I think I'm going to try not to replace every project with something new.  I need to double down on Maps, and ensure that when 3rd World relaunches that it's awesome.  This is my fourth year devoted toward comic creation, and it's going to be the best one yet.

- Jon O'Briant

http://www.strips4.com/other-works/my-history-with-rock/

My vision was sort of a timeline through rock and roll with the Professor as your guide.  What I ended up with as Timothy so eloquently put is was "flash cards".  One problem with the piece was a need for research, a lot of research to have anything to put down for each of the twenty four bands.  This is a big time sink.

The take away: Pre planning is crucial, for any serious project I want to allow myself at least as much planning time as I have on the actual creation.  Also, when creating something on a limited time frame, fiction is going to be an easier way to go.

I also should have had more of a narrative within the Professor's parts, illustrated pop up video remarks do not make for exciting comics.  What may have also been better, is if I'd put a more personal stamp in the comic and talked about how each band affected me personally.

Take away: Comics should tell an interesting story. Always.

On a positive note, I do enjoy the splashes of each band.  Minimalist and instinctual, I felt like the bands really came across as the band most of the time.  Although being as reference heavy as it was I guess I should probably expect that.

Take away: You can create a strong likeness quickly, it's the right line that matters.

I also am pretty happy about being able to share some bands I like.  Even if the comic sucks, you still can't help but take hear about a few awesome bands you may have forgotten to listen to.  And that's awesome.

Next time I probably won't be as down on myself.  Probably.

- Jon O'Briant

The images were all done in sumi-e on rice paper.  It's not a medium I'm very familiar with but I love the aesthetics and thought it suited an eastern philosophy piece well.  I drafted tons of each character that would be illustrated on the pages and then chose the best images for the comic page.  I'm using the term comic loosely with this piece as it isn't a very sequential piece.

Once collaged together, I started lettering with a calligraphy pen (another first for this anthology).  These balloons were also taped onto the comic boards along with the backgrounds and characters.  While all of this looks really cool, the scans weren't turning out as nuanced as the originals.  Timothy had a great idea.  What I'm doing now is taking photographs of the originals.  Then I'm converting those files to JPEGs and dropping them down into grayscale.  This makes the pictures look great, it's just going to take a little clean up digitally to get any blue lines back out of the final copy.  

So look at that, I did finish three 2 pagers in three months.  My goal for the anthology is complete, although I think I will be trying to do another piece as well to substitute for my sci fi tale.  I want to always put my best foot forward.  I'll use this extra month to my advantage.

- Jon O'Briant

Christmas is right around the bend, and I'm hard at work as always.  I did this little sketch during my planning yesterday on the kids last day of school.  I love Herriman's work.  He's one of those guys that was just brilliant and understatedly so.  Those are the comics that really stand out the most to me.  I appreciate the clarity of line, and the depths of feeling and philosophy that they can reveal.  George Herriman did it.  Larry Marder does it.  Bill Watterson did it.  I need to study more comic strip artists, they are the guys I group up idolizing and I still have a lot to learn from them.

I did another kids comic this week as well.  I think this story turned out fun, though the characters are certainly rushed.  Panel three makes me laugh out loud though.  I feel like I totally ripped off some of Fleischer cartoon somewhere, but I can't really put my finger on exactly what it reminds me of.  I also stayed very aware of how I was drawing little girls in bathing suits.  I don't want little girls to come off as sexy, ever if I can help it.

I'm also coming along on my third piece for the anthology.  I've figured out that I'm going to be putting the art together with a sumi-e/collage experiment that I'm getting really excited about.  More to come on that in a later Curve.  I'd also like to do a 24 hour comic this Christmas break, we'll see if I can fit it in.  I'm spending a lot of what would otherwise be productive time playing DCU Online.  Now that I've got some more friends playing that game really is about the pinnacle of fantasy wish fulfillment.

Hope you have a wonderful next few days regardless of your holiday preferences!

- Jon O

Here are the kid's strips I've done so far this week.  I'm planning on trying to get another one done tomorrow.

This was the strip I completed Monday.  It's unique in that it's the first time a student wrote out the entire dialogue for me.  I think that's awesome.  It's looser than some of the other student strips but I think the acting is well done, especially in the fourth panel.  That's exactly how I picture this boy hollering for his mom.

And...

Now this doesn't come as a surprise, but two kid's strips in three hours does not come without a bit of consequence.  I can notice less attention to detail in the second kid's strip tonight.  Not to mention a drop in panel counts.  The Scarecrow and Gooey Monster turned out fantastic, maybe my best yet.  This one gets a special mention for being the first comic script that one of my female students turned in. The second comic is a little weak, but I do like the Darth Vader caught by kids.  I'm kind of tired of aliens.

- Jon O'Briant

More correct anatomy, thinner line weights, and different brush sizes weren't enough to mask my charming style.  The character designs, while more ornate are still extremely caricatured and cartoony.  The rings around Moogi's arms add no form to her limbs, just marks.  I'm pretty proud of the layouts for the panels in the piece, but that was accomplished long before the inking phase.  I just wanted to establish that I'm not totally down on the project.

The rocky tunnels was a hard effect to try and create.  I started by pencilling a tunnel, and then adding rocks and jutting bits along those rings. When I inked the major formations there was too much white space and the tunnel sections didn't feel homogonous with the rest of the strip. I then filled in little contour hatching on rocks throughout the piece and that made the page far too busy.  My characters were lost. Tonight I put down thick inky blots over the hatch marks, by getting ink surrounding my characters I can make them pop.  It's no Kirby Krackle, but at least I feel it tells the story.

This has been a difficult two pages from square one.  I had anticipated my third story to be the most difficult of them all.  I'm hoping that doesn't prove to be the case.

- Jon O