The more I draw, the more I wonder if I'll actually be able to create a webcomic. Just two hours of drawing makes my hand ache. I also have the bad luck of being double-jointed which locks my fingers up, very painfully sometimes.
It happens more often in cold weather, but now it seems that hours of holding onto a pen does it too. Ugh.
It was happening a lot today. 🙁 And as a result, I feel as though after all of the practice I've been doing over the weeks now my attempts are suddenly worse than what they were.
I started off with a quick sketch.
My original idea changed while I was drawing. Originally I was inspired by a previous freewrite prompt -- carrot cake -- and I was going to have Jenny sitting at the table, watching in gobsmacked horror as Joey was making a literal carrot cake. But then I thought of another idea: her at one of her many short-lived jobs.
Evidently, I'm still working on poses and things and trying to not have my people just standing there like lifeless mannequins. 😬
I'll also note here that I found another webcomic "drawing" program in which there are thousands of pre-made backgrounds, bodies, heads, hairs, faces, etc, for manga creation and I was highly tempted to grab that so I didn't have to draw. Just use them to put my story out there. 😆
Shhhh, that's cheating!!!
Soon everything was all inked in and the background sketch was needed no more and so deleted!
I'm not exactly fond of her arm positioning, but, as I will keep telling myself, I'm getting better. 😅
After the inking was complete, it was colouring-in time!
It was at this stage my fingers were starting to lock up and be irritating. 😒 But I wasn't finished! I had plans to do a part two where Jenny is describing the scene to Joey after the fact.
I like to think I got the shoulders right in the shrugging pose. I know the hands are shocking. LOLHANDS. But this was where I started to question my resolve.
Unfortunately "want" exceeds ability.
I couldn't bring myself to draw Joey too so just focused on inking Jenny in.
At this rate... if I want to do a webcomic I think it's going to have to be a one episode a week type of thing, that is worked on over several days. There's no way I can complete an entire strip in one day and do a daily thing like I was originally imagining.
In order to equalise "want" with "ability", I need to be more realistic and understand my own capabilities.
I've been trying to see how much I can do in one day, and that's not the answer. I need to see how something goes after working on it for a whole week.
Also, her face has changed since my last post where I was trying to work on keeping my character's faces recognisable whilst positioned in different poses. I didn't mean for that to happen -- well, I meant for her chin to not be so gargantuan like in my last post! -- but the art of keeping people looking the same is still beyond me just yet.
In time!
WITH time.
When my hand stops being a bitch, I'm going to try slowly drawing something over the course of a week, taking my time... and see how it goes. Maybe, if I'm lucky, I'll be able to do a bi-weekly comic!!
Whatever the case, it definitely won't be daily. 🤷♀
Until next time...
Thanks for commiserating with me 😆
If you can only do one a week, then you can do only do one a week. Nothing to get down on yourself on. Before I took a break from working on my book (just before Christmas) I learned that we can't push ourself so hard. I was spending around 6 hours a day at my computer writing and editing, and it just burnt me out. Your drawing skills are frigging amazing, btw!
Amazing might be a little toooooo complimentary, haha! But thank you. 🙂😄
Oh I understand that so much! I've been there too with my writing and editing, hours and hours of words and eye strain!!! 👀
With this, I was really hoping to do a daily slice-of-life comic where the story continually progressed like a few other webcomics that I read, but in order to do actually good drawings and with my double-jointed fingers locking up and causing pain, once a week is far more realistic. And maybe I could progress to bi-weekly as I improved! The drawings would certainly be much nicer and of better quality, which is a small price to pay I guess. 🙂
That's the thing, just setting realistic goals. It's good to push yourself, but not to the point when you're stressing about it. I'm a seasonal business owner. I work during the summer/early fall months, so I love the fact that I've got the time to do what I love!
I know the feeling about having your hands hurt, too. I have weak fine motor skills, and because of that I often find it sore to do certain things with my hands. Typing isn't the hardest, but after a couple of hours, they start to act up.
I wish i could upvote you but i have no upvote power maybe in 3 days