Tough Job Part II
You probably came from Part I.
For the Monday update, I have all time in the world (almost). If I feel like it, I can start prep work on Thursday evening, and work through Friday and the weekend to complete a fairly content-rich comic. That’s 4 nights, not to mention time to doodle a bit during the day as well. Even when I’m having a busy weekend with friends and family, I can cram in some work late at night.
The Thursday update is a different story altogether. I work at the office weekdays, and that leaves me with just 2 hours a night, for three nights (Monday to Wednesday), for the comic. That’s not counting the time I take off from webcomicking to hit the gym, catch a movie or wash my car. I think it’s already pretty amazing that I ever get to update regularly on Thursdays at all…
Part of the reason why Terence N. Tijuana is a difficult task can be found in the very concept of the comic itself. I try to learn something new with every update, artwise. The characters, though recurring, are re-visualised each time. This can be likened to drawing a brand new webcomic twice a week. How does this slow me down?
Well, for instance, my right hand has to get accustomed to drawing in a different manner each time, so it doesn’t have the chance to memorise strokes and that. Drawing a constantly redesigned character and maintaining consistency, but only for a particular update, is exhausting and frustrating, especially if I have to rotate the character around to portray a variety of poses and angles. Very often, I start off promisingly, then slip back into old habits and compositions. The old, familiar facial expressions reemerge.
Man!
That sounds awful, but Terence N. Tijuana does give me a lot of freedom. I am not constrained by a fixed number of panels, by a limited genre of gags, nor a need to maintain a uniform ‘feel’ and atmosphere. If I’m busy, I can do a single-panel setup and be done with it. If I’m bored, I can try a totally different approach, anytime I feel like it!
However, as the comic progresses, I sense a need to drift towards a more standard style, both visually, storywise and formatwise. It’ll help me develope my skills in areas I’m more interested in, and maybe cut short the time and research needed for each update.
Whew! Anyway, let me illustrate with the following figures:
Perry Bible Fellowship (above and below) is an excellent webcomic, known for its versatile visual presentation.
However, its creator has a standard, default art-style which he falls back on every now and then.
Optipess (above and below) also dabbles in a variety of visual experiments, with amazing results.
To maintain a regular updating schedule, however, a default style is utilized liberally.
Truck Bearing Kibble (above and below) is a slightly different story. The creators started of with slight experimentation, producing stunning but different creations.
Over time, as the artist’s skills matured, the updates became more asthetically uniform.
Quoting these incredible examples makes my comic look so bad. Damn….
