handcalfieetherington

[handcalfieetherington]

So, speech bubbles, specifically those used in comics, the shape and formation of a speech Bubble can normally lead to there being different interpretations of how a character may say a certain line, Comics are a silent medium mean you need to more heavily rely more on the artwork to understand the emotion's and feelings in the story itself, aside from general stuff such as expression and body language, speech bubbles are also a great way too convey an emotion as again the shape of a speech bubble can imply if a character is whispering, thinking, shouting or just regularly speaking it without having to go over the top with expression if this is like a DC or marvel comic where most of the characters need to have some closer sense of realism with it’s artwork 

[handcalfieetherington]

The idea of a extra page featuring a variety of different advertisement like how old comics did thing in a more Magazine inspired way was suggested and I really liked the idea of it and took it on as one of the major aspects of the project, somewhat Unaware of how much of an undertaking the creation of such a concept would be given how many assets were required

Specifically the final piece features over around 10 unique boxed segments each with there own drawings colouring and gimmick, there were at many points in which the amount required really started to weigh down on me because of how much was i had already done and how much I perceived I needed to get done still, however despite everything i still Pushed to get it done, I chose to be a bit lax in certain areas to help the whole process go a bit smoother, and given the sheer quantity of overall pretty good drawings here I don’t think a few having as in depth shading or simpler shading is exactly too much of a setback

Starting with the sketches things were far less Organised and more obvious that it was in fact “the coming up with ideas phase” specifically the less organised Boxes that aren't even even and just sketched on in an uneven manner, so yeah.

Line arts when you see the neatness and ideas come together as well as some of the concepts and boxes that were added later to fill more space, on the page itself, specifically the magic kit and paint one.  

Basic colour really added a lot more to the piece in general and as you can see this is where i included that old paper filter, which really adds to that “old comic advertisements” idea I was going for with this piece specifically, this was one of the harder sections considering once again there was just a lot to colour here.

And finally the shading “the home stretch and finale” part of the piece, this was one of the easier parts as it was more so adding effects and darker or lighter colours ot characters and segments, as well as that it also includes background and background details like the poison background and the little Bubbles in there as well, which adds some more depth and affect that it’s an advertisement for a different product that’s being advertised within the magazine itself.

I’m incredibly proud of this one personally, again the sheer amount of Line work ideas colours and affects done for each and every piece is pretty ridiculous and is probably one of the biggest projects i’ve done period and while it took a lot out of me I couldn’t be prouder of what I’ve done here.

[handcalfieetherington]

So continuing off from the previous post I wanted to make some specific changes to this ones look in particular, specifically play more with a colourless look that utilised some more elements such as same colour shading and the post paper affect features to really capture a look someone inspired by the colourless strips of peanuts or Calvin and Hobbes, an affect I’m pretty satisfied with overall and I think makes for a better and more consistent look overall than with the previous comic strip shown,

as for the mini story written here, it’s sort of interesting as it was in a way me sort of writing how I was feeling at the time, I had been dealing with specific problems and issues both in college and out and at the time it felt near suffocating overwhelming, I got the idea to use that feeling and write a small story based on that emotion, the mercenary character smiles Felt overwhelmed with things in life and like it wouldn’t get better and wondered if he was the problem, Green thumb not feeling it’s his place on what type of advice to give simply offers his comfort and company as well as asking if he’d want to get something from a place smiles likes, in a way it was sort of me writing an semi happy ending to the feelings I was experiencing at the time, and that makes it by far my more preferred strip with the greater sentimental attachment that I feel towards it.

[handcalfieetherington]

Ok so here’s some more brief recaps of the comic strips I created for this project. 

the project started out with the recommendation of a small skit given to me by Chris when I was making my assassin character that I really liked and decided to use in one of my final results here.

the process of creating the art itself for the comic was a more simple and easy to understand process overall, some alterations to the later pieces of text in which I edited them to be a bit more dynamic and look as though they were moving with the characters themselves.

[handcalfieetherington]

published in 1985 and ending in 1995 Calvin Hobbes is a comic strip about  a six year old boy and His stuffed tiger the comic has enjoyed much acclaim and developed a cult following.

from what I’ve seen in these comics I genuinely Just really Like the writing style it’s understandable and silly but at the same time clever and witty it’s just a very charming style of writing, One where I can see why there’s such a cult following around the little comic strip.

Like peanuts definitely felt clever, But something about Calvin and Hobbes just feels like a step above somehow, the sort of topics used to make jokes about are just in general relatable no matter whether your 10 or 60 the comic on the bottom specifically about Calvin getting freaked out about time escaping him and things going too fast, honestly that’s just plain relatable even today it’s already the the 8th when I’m writing this and I can barely believe that.

Calvin and Hobbes (2023) Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvin_and_Hobbes (Accessed: 08 May 2023).

[handcalfieetherington]

Alright I’ve done some general stuff time for a weird one.

Brawl in the family is a Smash Bros Inspired comic released around the time of release of Brawl and would create these smaller site gags about a variety of the different characters and universes featured in the game as a whole, with a specific focus on the Frenemy Dynamic of Kirby and King Dedede who were the most prominent characters throughout the comics entire run 

as said though the comic covers other Different franchises as well

Artistically the series employs that colourful Simplicity, with that sort of 2010′s style Web comic look, I really enjoy the aesthetic of it as it gives off that sort of simple charm you see in Comic strip art while also including the fun of more goofy internet webcomic style artwork.

humour wise Brawl in the family is more dedicated at it’s target audience that being people who like Nintendo franchises a lot of Jokes are riffs on game visuals or popular Inside jokes within each Series Individual community, it’s got Less broad appeal than something like Garfield but someone who the comic is clearly being targeted towards would likely have a greater attachment towards the series as a whole. 

TriforceBun (2023) Brawl in the family. Available at: http://brawlinthefamily.keenspot.com/ (Accessed: 08 May 2023).

[handcalfieetherington]

yeah it’s weird I haven’t talked about this one yet.

Peanuts is up there with Garfield and Calvin and Hobbes as one of the most iconic, Newspaper comics out there, to the point that most people who’ve never really read a peanuts comic in there life are able to Recognise Charlie brown, which is always a hallmark of good character design, I know I make a point like this a lot but as someone who’s super big on character design it’s always worth taking note of what makes certain character designs work and feel Iconic, the Childish simplicity of the characters with the wobbly affect of the Line art and simple expressions With Charlie browns face just being 2 dots a smile and a half circle for a nose but there’s enough recognizable traits like the shirt pattern and the squiggle hair that the design still sticks out to you.

The comics are significantly longer than Garfield while still being short and digestible, I’d say I enjoy Peanuts style of humour more because it’s a bit more character focussed and clever in it’s humour while still being Widely accessible, even somewhat making fun of it’s own inside jokes here with the “Charlie brown football joke” with the bottom image here, It’s a bit of clever writing with the writers calling out and making fun of a common joke they’ve re used that usually requires a bit more than entry level understanding with most mediums however with something like peanuts in which a lot of the Characters and gags are known even by people who’ve never read the comics it’s still accessible to a degree, really this feels like more of a post that’s also discussing the general staying power of peanuts as a brand as well as looking at it’s merits as a comic strip.

as for why I’m researching this well that’s pretty simple to answer, I’m making comic strips for my final project and Peanuts is one of the most Iconic Comic series world wide same with why I researched Garfield and other comic strips I’m going to be talking about.

(No date) Peanuts. Available at: https://www.peanuts.com/ (Accessed: 08 May 2023).

Football gag (no date) Peanuts Wiki. Available at: https://peanuts.fandom.com/wiki/Football_gag (Accessed: 08 May 2023).

[handcalfieetherington]

so, your probably wondering how this thing just spawned out of existence huh?

yeah...Same  

to talk about the process of making this thing is going to be sort of long winded so hand tight while I go over everything.

I needed a title cover for my alternate comic series, understandable right, yeah I guess so, comic covers usually look good right? yeah we can both agree on that so let’s just take you through the methods and story of this thing okay?

so it started out with the earlier sketch where I doodled some of the character from faulty visions and honestly for some reason the doodle really stuck with me for some reason I decided to use it as a reference point for a theoretical cover for this segment of the comic 

so yeah, things started off with this new sketch expanding on the idea a bit, showing the Main characters Jess and Steve just kind of chilling near a canyon with an exploded middle area to show a bit of the story telling implying that the area there hanging around in might of been where one of the nukes went off, pretty dark theming for what I earlier stated to be a buddy adventure comic about a pupil-less Lady and her sentient Tv but considering it’s a background element you’d have to further put thought into to understand the greater implications of I’d say it’s fine to show something considering it isn’t fully upfront with the darker concept of this initially being where a nuke went off.

also quick note about the mild face change I made with the mouth, I personally felt it added more character to her, combined with the pure white Eyes it gives off a sort of “no thoughts head empty” type of vibe and I was kinda endeared to that idea, that Jess is trapped in this completely horrific and hopeless situation yet is completely oblivious to that fact through sheer the sheer power of never questioning where all the humans went, you see a lot of straight man type characters or skilled warrior type character or someone who grows into that archetype be the main character of an apocalypse story, so flipping the script and having somewhat who is completely oblivious to the implications and horror of everything around them yet is also scarily adept at self suffixion despite literally having no idea what the hell is going on is a very funny twist on the trope.

So as for colours explaining my process I began  by doing the colours of the characters first before anything with the background being in post i’ll just show everything together though.

ah right the sky, using a similar tactic to my last project I used the gradiant tool with a combined reddish pink and purple to make a convincing looking sunset view and then adding a sun in there as well to complete the look, as sunset covers are really appealing in my eyes and we don’t see those types of views in apocalypses much so having a more pretty view would change things up a bit in a good way hopefully

moving onto shading for the characters first I really tried to make extra care to show how the setting sun background effects the lighting and hading of the characters in the foreground with the side closest to the sun being brightened near the end and the harshness creating a bigger contrast with the rest of there colours being darkened from the far harsher shadows made by the bright lights and setting sun.

with the shading for the background wanted the tips of the mountains to better show the brightness of the sun contrasted by the lower areas growing ever darker as the sun slowly lowers ever more. 

and here we are back at square one, aside from the dirt applied, to the sign at the bottom right, so were done right? haha no! we still have at leas a few more things to add at this point.

to add more to the comic idea included the logo design had made sometime after completing this piece along with a white segment to show the issue number and brand name. 

at last i had selected a font to serve as the title, one that would fit the “post apocalypse theme as well as serve as contrast with the somewhat comedic title of the comic.

And at last to finish it all off a old paper layer to fully complete the old comic look.

let me just say i am shocking proud of how this one turned out and is probably my second favourite piece of the project, the lighting position background use of lighting and dedication to the bit make it a massive step up from the previous one made and sort of show as a showing of my improvement over the last year or so, utilising an old comic story as a piece in the project itself was honestly one i’m somewhat proud of coming up with as again, it was an opportunity to show my growth over this past yeah, what i learned, what mistakes I’ve learned to avoid and how I innovated from the last piece. 

[handcalfieetherington]

Garfield one one of the most famous fictional felines the world Has ever Known and the title character of his absurdly long comic strip ever so creatively titled “Garfield” 

created by Jim Davis, the comic strip Stars the said talked about cat Garfield His owner, John Arbuckle and sometimes there dog Odie.

Garfiled is not a complex comic to understand, it’s usually Garfield or John in some mundane or slightly awkward situation and then delivering a somewhat predictable punchline, Garfield in all honesty isn’t exactly the funnies comic but there’s something very enjoyable about it, on a more objective Level there’s nothing super remarkable about it but at the same time it’s somewhat hard to not be endeared by the every day lives of Garfield in co even if it’s just the feeling of familiarity, that no matter what happens in the world, Garfield's still gonna be there every week to deliver some silly punchline and then eat some lasagne, the more general Nature of the jokes used in the comic also give it a a very Broad and wide reaching appeal, whether your like 6 or 60 it’s pretty easy to understand the Appeal of Garfield. 

[handcalfieetherington]

so Warhammer has a race of lizard people, that’s pretty interesting and something to talk about quickly.

design wise they seem to be going for a more tribal warrior look in terms of there design and culture with some of there necklaces and even one using a creatures skull a helmet, it’s somewhat of a common thing to see in which more monstrous looking alien races are portrayed, but even then it’s still a solid deign aesthetic.

the most interesting aspect about these guys is that they use dinosaurs as there own personal steeds to ride into battle, and I just can’t properly Express how COOL that idea is I know your supposed to be more descriptive with these type of things but “cool” truly is the best world for it, the sheer confidence and swagger that can be described by Riding a DINOSAUR into battle is simply an undeniably appealing idea.

and it’s interesting as in terms of rides and weaponry I went with a very different concept that being the My lizard army having more advanced but rusted and overgrown mechanical technology, it just shows how different you can make similar ideas.

[handcalfieetherington]

Oh speaking of that logo let’s talk about it for a second alright?

I wanted to make a sort of logo/mascot type of creation to put into the side of logo’s similar to other comic publishers/companies, 

starting off I make a sketch of the same idea, a little cartoony white face that’s doing something with a mug of coffee 

after checking through popular demand after asking which of these was everyone's favourite the large one in the middle won by majority landslide even if I did prefer the top right one in all honesty but the middle is a close second.

the line are was suprisingly simple all in all there was no real trouble with it despite some problems with the one of the college drawing tablets I was lent but I replaced it and everything went smoothly 

moving onto colours there’s once again not much to say the colours were simple to implement and did the job though roughly moving onto shading.

for shading I wanted to do something a little different with a different more blurry pen to create a more 3 dimensional style of shading  implemented to the eyes head and teeth.

it’s definitely a piece I was more proud of than I thought I would, it might get me to use more unique and varied shading styles into the future to better branch out 

[handcalfieetherington]

search up cuphead and it’s different boss’s, possibly talk about what they may be referencing. 

Cupheads deisgn style is based off of old 1920′s cartoons which were dominated by the rubber hose aesthetic, a style called as such due to the very wobble and stretchy animation style used in a majority of it’s characters at the time 

fun fact due to the lack of colours a lot of the characters were design to be pure black in terms of colour to better stand out more from the background but would usually have clothing accessories like white gloves to better show off hand gestures and prevent it from just looking like a weird blob on the end of there arms.

as for why I was tasked with researching this, one of the Teachers made note of one of my logo drawings looking something similar to a boss character In cuphead and asked me to look a bit into cuphead bosses and rubber hose animation. 

honestly of all the cuphead bosses I’d say they most resemble loopy le grande due to the more circular shape and large eyes and teeth 

[handcalfieetherington]

anthropomorphism: the attribution of human characteristics or behaviour to a god, animal, or object. 

a pretty common Technique done with specifically animal characters for a variety of reasons those being

.Animals on there own are already naturally endearing to humans so applying more characteristic and human features upon that would create an even greater sense of attachment than if you were to give human features to say.....A box.

and another solid reason is the fact that using animals as a basis for this type of things allows you to have a point of reference to take and innovate from, as well as having a massive variety given how many other sentient creatures there are on this planet aside from us.

anthropomorphic animals have existed in fiction for almost as long as fiction has existed, so it’s not exactly a new concept, as you can tell the concept has and still is in popular usage within fiction from video games with characters like Sonic and Crash.

and even within comics this trend is still plenty alive with characters like Garfield and Snoopy still remaining iconic in media to this day, so clearly even literal generations after the idea was introduced to storytelling it still remains popular in the realm of character design 

as for why I’m talking about this it more so relates to the lizard characters of my comic strip story and how they themselves are anthropomorphic given they have very human behaviour 

Talking animals in fiction (2023) Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talking_animals_in_fiction (Accessed: 03 May 2023).

Anthropomorphism (2023) Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropomorphism (Accessed: 03 May 2023).

[handcalfieetherington]

Remember when I made that post about Team fortress 2, yeah good times good times, time to actually talk about the main part of why I started talking about it that being Mann Vs Machine

The game mode is about the red team of 6 players fighting against a hoard of robotic duplicates of themselves in a cooperate game mode in which players work together to fight back hoards of robots, sound familiar?

yeah this is where a large part of the inspiration of where my concept came from, the concept of an entire amada of baddies being thwarted by only a couple fighters was really appealing to me.

also helped by that is the excellent trailer animation created for it.

https://youtu.be/C4cfo0f88Ug

Mann vs. machine (2012) YouTube. Available at: https://youtu.be/C4cfo0f88Ug (Accessed: April 24, 2023).

[handcalfieetherington]

Tom Gauld, a comic Writer with a particular minimal but memorable Look to it.

Tom’s work as mentioned Before really do lean on the more simplistic side, with everything in his pieces being viewed from a side view, but Done so in a way that feels intentional, the style is very Children's book like, fitting Considering Tom has produced several Childrens Books, One of the more popular being the Little Wooden Robot and the log Princess. 

honestly His work gives me very DIary Of a wimpy Kid Vibes in terms that it’s almost always seen from a 2D Perspective 

Tom himself Tends to play with this perspective in a few Ways though such as in Certain Covers.

my favourite among his comic work is his graphic Novel MoonCop, the art still has that Childish and simplistic 2D look but has a far more empty and almost somber feeling due to the colour scheming having greyish Blues and usage of more empty space with the story taking place on the moon.

As for ideas, I can from this I’m not sure in all honesty, I’m not really planning on wanting to use the 2D look or minimalist style, maybe take reference of the more simplistic Style of Panelling fitting his more basic look of things?

Tomgauld.com (no date) tomgauld.com. Available at: https://www.tomgauld.com/ (Accessed: April 23, 2023).

[handcalfieetherington]

Dragon Ball, one of the most popular Japanese franchises for very year forty years at this point the franchise has essentially ingrained itself into pop culture pretty much worldwide to the point that even people who have never watched any anime have a passing familiarity with Goku the main protagonist of the series.

starting out with general Art of the manga series of dragon ball the original first part of the manga started out with a more simple, and comedic art style this period of time Dragon Ball was more focussed simplistic and fun stories with generally lower stakes but still having more of an action lean with it’s fight scenes.

over time though as the Series leaned further and further into the action and more serious story telling the style evolved to be a bit more detailed and serious though still keeping some of that old dragon ball styling, such can be seen with Goku’s design change in the final arc as well as the introduction of the Character Piccolo Jr

and it kinda just keeps going with this more serious Tone through the different arcs reaching a sort of peak of that in Frieza Saga which Really went off the Walls with the More graphic detail and violence 

looking back at this it’s clear to see the starting intentions and how the series and it’s styled evolved and developed instead of limiting itself without losing the expressive charm that they had in the first few arcs, it’s pretty great and a solid showing of how things can evolve without losing what made it special.

next I may consider looking at more manga as well as different other mangas and there artstyles and aesthetics.

Dragon Ball (manga) (no date) Dragon Ball Wiki. Available at: https://dragonball.fandom.com/wiki/Dragon_Ball_(manga)#Story_arcs (Accessed: April 18, 2023).

[handcalfieetherington]

yo it’s the clown from downtown and by downtown i mean I have no idea where I’m going with thi- look it’s the Joker were doing a post about the Joker ok roll the script.

The joker is one of those villains that have been around so long that you probably know him even if you’ve never read a batman comic in your life, the cackling clown has followed his brooding adversary like the worlds least subtle shadow to basically every medium he’s taken on, movies Games TV show’s all of it, he’s reached a level of popularity that his stand alone film became literally the best selling R rated film of all time, to say the Joker has a lot of clout is like saying that the floor is made of floor, this cackling clod of a clown has reached pop culture omnipresence due to just how many mediums and interpretations he’s been able to create and Plateau 

To go more into why exactly the joker has remained such an iconic villain in fiction, in that being how he mirrors and opposes his main Nemesis, Batman.

with someone as stone cold and brooding but with a good heart and heroic ideals as Batman is to have his main Adversary be a Colourful jovial Jester with a complete lack of restraint or empathy for what all the horrible things he does it makes perfect sense, the Joker is Batmans figurative and literal opposite and nearly every aspects and makes all of there interactions incredibly interesting considering how the two are so connected yet Worlds apart at the exact same time.

another Aspect of the Joker that makes him an interesting Villain is just the presence he exudes, Look if your gonna go into the world of Crime Dressed up as a clown with water flowers and make up to match you might as well have some fun with it, an element Joker is happy to revel in, the Crazy Clown takes his Persona and runs to the Moon and back with it, Razor Sharp Playing cards and a Gas that causes uncontrollable laughter, The joker is an incredibly intelligent guy but uses his mind for lethal versions of classic Clown tricks is just this crooked Jesters type of humour.

The joker (no date) Batman Wiki. Available at: https://batman.fandom.com/wiki/The_Joker (Accessed: April 18, 2023).