terence n. tijuana Office Cubicles in Space

Today’s comic is a very unrefined poop-joke. Also, it’s single-panel because I promised some guest art which I have been putting off…! Must find time….

Drawn with: Flash
Coloured with: Photoshop
Misc: Shower curtains are troublesome. They get filthy real quick and the vacuum effect caused by the heat during a shower always sucks them in and they’re really noisy when water hits them and etc etc….

This was born out of my frustration at the traffic situation I have to face every morning on my commute to work.

Question: Can you realistically rewire a car to make it blow up on ignition?
Answer: Uh….. this is a comic. On the Internet.

Drawn with: Photoshop
Coloured with: Photoshop
Misc: Here’s a bit of trivia: I actually trained as an architect for half a year before I switched over to engineering. I still remember our first outing to draw real-life skyscrapers. And escalators. I hated drawing escalators….

Apparently, certain luxury cars have GPS systems which allow you to download “scenic” routes which were preprogrammed by well-traveled fellow luxury car owners with lots of time on their hands. These routes would presumably take you through rolling Italian landscapes with stops at whimsical but pricey restaurants in rural France. Heh.

Drawn with: Bacon
Coloured with: Grease
Misc: Not really…. I inked and coloured today’s comic in Photoshop.

Here it is, 9 panels of Terence N. Tijuana goodness to nourish you till next Monday! I was able to make this long comic because you readers quietly tolerated the 4 single-panels in my previous updates, so thanks y’all.

In case you didn’t notice the fine-print-punchline, it’s on the bottom edge of the photograph at the end.

If, on the other hand, your eyesight is really good, you might recognize the two giant statues in panel 1. Yes, today’s comic strip gives a nod to One Swoop Fell, a beautifully rendered comic by cartoonist-slash-illustrator Mike Dutton.

The comic introduces us to some really likeable characters and its painterly style is very attractive and makes you stare at each panel slowly, longingly, enviously…… If you clicked on the link/image, it’ll take you to a particular page in One Swoop Fell which I personally feel makes it pretty easy to jump right in. Plus, there’s sushi!

Drawn with: Flash
Coloured with: Photoshop
Misc: Panel 1 took 3 hours, Panel 2 took 2 hours, the smaller panels swallowed 1 hour each, and add to that 15 minutes for the pseudo-panel at the bottom. You do the math… Also, tomorrow I might post up a previous version of Panel 1, just so you can laugh at my artistic fumblings….

Continued from previously…

Talk about misuse of state resources…….

Drawn with: 0.5 Mechanical pencil
Coloured with: Photoshop
Misc: Today’s comic is the last in a series of sketched single-panels, if I can complete Thursday’s 8-PANEL-Monster piece on time…

Continued from previously.

More chronological continuity! If this keeps up, I’ll destroy everything that this comic stands for.

Today’s update my not appear to have any connection with the one before, but next Monday’s comic will dispel that notion, trust me.

Drawn with: 0.5 Mechanical pencil
Coloured with: Photoshop
Misc: The next update also employs similar methods, but will probably be the last one in a series done in this style. These pencil sketches have really helped me cut down production time, and if you liked them, there’ll be more in the future.

This continues from previously.

Also, it’s a week late for Earth Hour, but that was a hyped-up fad anyway.

Drawn with: 0.5 Mechanical pencil
Coloured with: Photoshop
Misc: This update was not inked either. I’m cutting down on production time on these few pieces so I can spend more time on upcoming updates, and work on some promotion. If you like Terence N. Tijuana, even just remotely, why not link to us or mention us? Banners can be found here.

I don’t know if people are going to get this one. Here’s a visual aid: Imagine a nice, clean diagram labelled with steps on how to launch a deathly missile attack. The labels are positioned at different locations on the diagram, with arrows pointing to different parts of the said diagram. Each label is marked with a number, and the launch procedure must be initiated in sequence as denoted by the numbers, in ascending order. Any deviation would be disastrous.

Now imagine that the ascending order of numbers is not the regular 1, 2, 3, 4…. but the Fibonacci sequence.

There, I’ve gone and underestimated the intelligence of my readers. Sorry!

Continues here.

Drawn with: 0.5 Mechanical pencil
Coloured with: Photoshop
Misc: This piece was not inked.

Did it make sense to you? It didn’t to me! By the time I finished colouring today’s comic, I’d lost all coherent thought and reasoning…… which is exactly what the inspiration for today’s update does to its readers:

Yes, I pay homage to/parody Brandon Bolt’s Nobody Scores!, a webcomic about inevitable disaster, or so it is claimed. I don’t remember who introduced me to this wacky gem, but it’s been on my list of must-reads since the days of t-n-t and will remain there as long as Mr. Bolt churns out regular doses of *UH…?*

Anyway, the comic was too large to upload in one piece (and would kill anyone trying to load it on a slow connection), and the Comicpress theme I use on my website prevents me from uploading two images into that lil’ space up there, so Part II finds itself in the blog post area. Sorry!

Drawn with: Flash
Coloured with: Photoshop
Misc: Drawing like B. Blot is addictively refreshing….

PS: Oh, the blog post I promised you guys last week about my tardy Thursday updates? It’s…. um…. late. Check back tomorrow!

See, it’s not blatant fanservice! The joke Requires scantily-cladness!

Also, this strip is not an artistic deconstruction of my creative process, an academical insight into my comicking workflow, a revelatory presentation of my technique… no, it’s none of that shit. The comic is in various stages of incomplete because I didn’t have the time to complete it. I offer no apologies!

Drawn with: Flash
Coloured with: Photoshop
Misc: Whoops! I forgot to shade various random objects in the first panel. I’ll write up a whole post to excuse my tardiness soon, maybe this weekend, and you can all read it on Monday… along with a new update, of course.

My earphones (Phillips) broke. Well, they stopped working properly. I think it has something to do with the wiring, because when I tug at them real hard, I can hear my mp3s whispering at me.

It’s time to get them replaced, anyway. I’ve had them for about 2 years now, and the soft rubber covering on both the ear-pieces have fallen off over a year ago. If it wasn’t for the faulty wiring, though, I’d probably have kept them in service for ever.

Today’s ‘Bluetooth’ comic shows our main character at one of his jobs prior to becoming a huge movie star, and way before he became a fighter pilot. The woman looking to purchase a fancy set of wheels is just some random character. You can forget about her…

Drawn with: Flash
Coloured with: Photoshop
Misc: I lova drawing cars. I am really, really crazy about drawing cars. Have I told you how much I like drawing cars? When I was a kid, I would design vehicles, all sporting a trademark grill in front, and pretend I was running my own car manufacturing giant. Yeah, even as a kid, I knew all about corporate identity design.

Miraculously, I finished this ahead of (the revised) schedule!

Today’s comic strip is set against the backdrop of the war mentioned here, here and here. It was inspired by a radio show I was listening to a few days ago, where listeners were calling in to criticize the most annoying Facebook apps they’ve seen. Technically, the event scheduler you see in the last 2 panels above isn’t an app, and neither is it annoying, but it’s still fun to exploit!

This comic also pays homage to Tara Tallan’s amazing comic, Galaxion, which I promise you can read in one sitting, despite the moderately large archives.

I highly recommend you check it out!

Drawn with: Flash
Coloured with: Photoshop
Misc: The interior of that space ship was fun to design, I wish I’d had more time to work on it.

I cannot remember the last time I used a pay-phone. I can’t even recall having looked at one in the past 4 years! What about you guys?

Drawn with: Photoshop
Coloured with: Photoshop
Misc: Here’s a pretty nifty tutorial on cloud-building in Photoshop.

I remember my dad’s old Nokia 3210 with the pre-installed Snake game, which was pretty hilarious at that time. I’m sure most people are familiar with that game. A ’snake’ consisting of a row of pixels zips around the screen rapidly and you have to navigate it in order to ‘eat’ the fruit, which was a pixel that appeared at random spots on the screen. With each meal, the snake would grow longer. The tricky part was to avoid hitting the sides of the screen or the snake’s body itself, which became increasingly difficult as the snake grew.

Later versions of the game did away with the ‘walls’ defined by the screen’s boundaries, and this made it harder to avoid the snake running into its own body. Still later, they programmed the game speed to increase with each increment in length.

This comic was in part inspired by a partially-dead pixel on my monitor at work. I say partially, because only the red portion of the pixel is functioning. Thank god this problem isn’t on my home PC!

Oh, and you might have noticed the “Blank It” poster on the wall in the 1st panel! Blank It is a wildly cool webcomic, which you should totally check out here.

It’s smart and wacky and the archives aren’t too huge, so start at the beginning and you should be through in 30 minutes. Why do I love it? Well, it’s about 2 guys who suddenly find themselves on an empty landscape, with no inkling of their past and no sign of what lies ahead. Seeing these 2 characters explore their physics-bending environment is both voyeuristic and humourous. So give it a try!

Drawn with: Flash
Coloured with: Photoshop
Misc: I managed to stumble upon new settings for Photoshop brushes to achieve that paint-like effect from this site. Waaay awesome.

Yes, life’s all about seeing if you match up to others, and when you’re ahead of the pack, to stay there.

Drawn with: Photoshop
Coloured with: NA
Misc: I really enjoyed drawing today’s comic strip. The original sketch I made on paper was much more complex, especially for the first panel, but I still think the simpler end result works. What do you think?

Here’s a new twist on the term “domestic fight”.

Drawn with: Panels 1 and 2 were inked directly in Flash, Panel 3 was sketched on paper, scanned and then inked in Flash, Panel 4 was ‘derived’ from Panel 3.
Coloured with: Photoshop
Misc: It’s been a long time since I scanned something from paper!

Today’s comic is one of those that seemed funny when played out in the creator’s mind, but falls flat when put on paper. Hahaha….. get it? Flat… on paper?

Bad attempts at puns aside, a long weekend is coming up, so I may finally have the time to complete the links section, make some sigs/banners for promotion, and then we can go live.

Drawn with: Photoshop

Coloured with: Photoshop

Misc:

I had a great weekend celebrating my birthday, but at the same time it was really physically exhausting.

Today’s update reveals deaths and a female character not seen previously. It also harks back to those old Road Runner cartoons with the really, really thin cliff overhangs.

Drawn with: Flash
Coloured with: NA
Misc: This piece clocked in at under 2 hours… I rock!

Today is my birthday! (1st March)

I’m turning 26. When you read this, I’ll be on a tropical island for the weekend. Ain’t that nice?

Anyway, the comic! Imagine having to reenter the dating-circuit again after years of marriage fails on you. I can’t! Especially since I’m only 26…

Drawn with: Flash
Coloured with: NA
Misc: Today’s update is… very minimalistic.

I stopped Twittering when I ended my previous webcomic, because that account was created specifically for that comic. I intend to start again when Terence N. Tijuana opens its doors.

Drawn with: Photoshop
Coloured with: Photoshop
Misc: Completed in under 2 hours. Woo!

Finally, Wednesday’s comic is up in one piece. After all the drama of delays and… well, delays.

I really hope the joke was worth it!

Looking at it now, I find I really dislike the first panel. It’s…… off, to put it mildly. I don’t know.

Anyway, here we see more of the war mentioned here. The gag was inspired by my experiences on sites like Imeem, where the commenters have a strange affinity for cringe-worthy chain mail. Seriously, are these people that gullible?

Drawn with: Photoshop
Coloured with: Photoshop
Misc: In case anyone’s interested, the shafts of light were created using Photoshop’s ‘motion blur’ filter. I’m going to put up a step-by-step piece on how I did this later. Stay tuned.

It’s Monday, or at least it already is if you’re in my timezone. You may have noticed in the news column on the left that I’ve managed to push the site towards a more complete state over the weekend, so feel free to wander around.

Today’s comic was put together relatively quickly, and you can’t fail to notice that I substituted a lavish ballroom scene with a solitary, abstract-looking chandelier!

Drawn with: Photoshop & Flash

Coloured with: Photoshop

Misc: I just realized she has no bling on! Cheapo…

Today’s update is late because I was sick. It’s up now.

Drawn with: Flash
Coloured with: Flash & Photoshop
Misc: All the textures use are Photoshop patterns. I didn’t have time to search the net for cooler textures. Maybe next time…?

I debated whether to make this strip multi-panelled, as I originally intended, or wash my car. In the end, I tightened the dialogue and flow of the comic and went to hose down the car.

The pregnancy in question is seen at a later stage here.

Also, this appears to be some kind of high-level brainstorming session. Politics, maybe? That guy was previously seen proposing an ultimately failed piece of legislation here.

Drawn with: Photoshop
Coloured with: Photoshop
Misc: I shaded and added highlights using a method adopted by Tony Piro of “Calamities of Nature”.

I’ve been devoting some time to fine-tune the site. In fact, I got so carried away that I almost forgot to make today’s update. If it looks a bit like a rush job, believe me, you’re right.

Today’s strip makes a reference to a past (well, past in terms of update sequence, since Terence N. Tijuana bends time and space) event, which you can read here.

Drawn with: Photoshop
Coloured with: Photoshop
Misc: I was considering throwing in “Angel Biology for Beginners” in there as well…

The inspiration behind today’s comic is my job. I’m currently still undergoing training, and my assignment involves a heavy dose of XAML, which is basically an XML-based language.

This strip took more hours than I can count, but the result looks deceptively simple. Damn you, false appearances!

Drawn with: Flash
Coloured with: Photoshop
Misc: There’s a big-ass ‘T’ on the car for Terence N. Tijuana. Betcha didn’t notice that…

In case you:

a) forgot,
b) are reading from the newest comic to the oldest,
c) are using the RANDOM button,

here’s a reminder of the main character’s ‘affection’ for his girlfriend’s mom.

In today’s update, I also tried making a neon-light sign for the first time. My stubborn streak led me to ignore an online tutorial’s recommendation that I only use ’round-edged-fonts’, so the sign looks… funky bad.

Drawn with: Photoshop
Coloured with: Photoshop
Misc: See the shirt he’s wearing under the hoodie? I have one just like that.

Yesterday’s comic was the result of another severe case of “too-many-panels, too-little-time”, and visually, it ended up too much like t-n-t stylistically. That always happens whenever I do a rush job with little regard for technique and art.

So today, you get just 3 panels, and each one featuring just one character. So much easier on my wrist!

This strip was actually inspired by an impromptu joke I made over lunch a few weeks back when a heavily-pregnant colleague of mine offered her drink to another co-worker. I quickly warned him about the risk of “catching a pregnancy”……

Drawn with: Flash
Coloured with: Photoshop
Misc: For reasons I cannot now fathom, I drew the wedding rings on the couple’s middle fingers.

A comic for these uncertain times of ours.

Drawn with: Photoshop
Coloured with: Photoshop
Misc: The coffee mug keeps shrinking from panel to panel, and then grows big again. I’m so bad at maintaining consistency.

Here’s today’s update. I was planning to do a water-colour-like piece with some nice scenery, but decided against attempting something that complicated as it would take too long. Maybe next time.

In case you were wondering why the school girls’ in panel 2 have such weird, angular figures, the inspiration behind that was Paris Hilton, who has been unusually quiet recently. She’s probably planning her campaign for Hilton 2012.

Drawn with: Flash
Coloured with: Flash
Misc: The text was added in Photoshop.

Would you believe me if I told you I spent 3 whole hours on this? Nonstop, without a break? I never thought stick-figure-like comics took so much effort. Never again…… *curse mumble curse*

Anyway, a good bedtime story should teach some positive values or have a good, morally-correct ending. So I guess someone’s parenting skills is a little bit offbeat, huh?

Drawn with: Photoshop
Coloured with: Photoshop
Misc: Originally, each of the three alternatives had another extra panel. But I’m totally exhausted as it is…