We'n'sday Comics Volume 2 Issue 1

Previous issues:
vol. 1, iss. 1
vol. 1, iss. 2
vol. 1, iss. 3
vol. 1, iss. 4
vol. 1, iss. 5
vol. 1, iss. 6

Henchmen Fever

They say a villain is only as good as his henchmen, (okay, so actually, they don't say that, I just made it up- just go with me on this) and the next installment of the Frogman and Tadpole strip will be introducing 3 of The Beatle's henchmen.

Gentlemen-er-Henchmen, step forward and say hi to all the nice blog readers...

Wacky Walkabouts

here is some reference video I shot for a walk cycle assignment in my animation studies.

Graphic Tanning

I did a quick graphic design today. Here it is, along with the initial sketches.

planning doodle done with a ball-point pen on a scrap of paper:
Quick mock-up done to get feedback:Inked images which I used as basis for my final design:
Full final design, after I re-sized and aligned all the elements, added color and special touches in Adobe photoshop:
Postcard image advertising the location:Grayscale version:a b&w version for miscellaneous purposes:

New Character Roll-out

I have all sorts of characters in my head and on paper whom I have yet to introduce into my comic stories, but I am trying to introduce them gradually and in a logical fashion which will allow their different personalities to be illustrated and their relationships with established characters to be displayed clearly. One new character that will be seen in the next Edwin Aardvark page is a female turkey named Hedda Gobbler.

She is a close confidante for Edwina, the object of Edwin's affection. The name I gave her is an example of the theater nerd in me coming out, as it is a reference to the Henrik Ibsen play Hedda Gabler.

Here is a cleaned-up pencil from the first panel of the upcoming strip:

new comics...but not yet.

You probably haven't noticed yet, but I haven't posted a new We'n'sday Comics page for a while.
Rest assured that I have not given up on this creative endeavor. I just have a lot of other things to do... but there are still a million ideas rolling around in my head for each of the strips included in the page.

However, due to the incredible inconsisency for which this series will inevitably come to be associated for posterity, I am offically re-christening the irregularly scheduled digital comic page.


And due to the fact that i haven't drawn one since December 12th, the next one I post, which may be soon, will be Volume 2, Issue 1.

See you Wednesday (but which one is TBD)!

until then, you can peruse the previous 6 issues:

vol. 1, iss. 1
vol. 1, iss. 2
vol. 1, iss. 3
vol. 1, iss. 4
vol. 1, iss. 5
vol. 1, iss. 6

Time to Ride Alone

a friend asked me to draw this for him; he didn't say what it was for, but simply described what he wanted it to depict- "a mother is following her child, who is learning to ride a bike. he is beginning to pull away, but she is reaching out as if she is not quite ready to let him go."

So this is what I came up with.

Animaniacal Activities...

This was my assignment for this week in my animation studies; depict a pendulum reacting to the movements of its base with proper follow-through and weight :



And from the previous week, a bouncing ball navigating an obstacle course, employing the technique of squash-and-stretch:



oh, and here's a silly video i made solely for the amusement of my classmates around the globe:

the mice will play...

Another reason why there has been a dearth of cartoonage on this page for the last month-and-a-half is that i was heavily involved in the production of a play called "The Christmas Con," (original script by Warren Sager) serving as a collaborator on the script revisions and directorial responsibilities, as well as editing together several video sequences that played between scenes. In addition to these duties, I was in the cast as an old man who appeared in one extended scene intended to provide a bit of comedy in a play that was mostly suspense and drama. Additionally I ended up filling in at the last minute as a second minor character, a police detective, when the actor cast in the role (my brother) had an apendectomy the weekend before the show.

here are some pictures:these two are an elderly couple who come to the main character (a con posing as a minister in order to abscond with money intended to be a christmas fundraiser for a local children's hospital) with an unsual problem: they won a large sum of money, and are embarrassed because they feel like the way they got it was, according to my character "sort of like gambling," and they aren't sure what they should do with it. Of course, the con has a good idea what HE wants to do with the money, and convinces them to donate it to his "mission trip" (a perfect way to provide a way out of the country with the christmas funds!)here I am silently waiting for my "wife" to stop talking (she didn't, but I'm used to it).

here, I nod off while I wait for my lines...


above, I'm the guy in the middle with the handlebar moustache, the detective who arrests the con, as well as catching a mob boss who is after the con for some money he is owed.

Upon learning I had to play two roles, I set about trying to find a way to quickly alter my appearance enough that the audience wouldn't be saying, "Wait, that's the same actor!" and would instead be caught up in the scene.

I messed around with makeup at home fine-tuning the two different characters' appearances- and this is what I came up with:

this is a practice where I was trying out the mustache- notice how different my "wife" looks without age makeup and gray wig- she did a pretty good job of altering her appearance too:

Here I am with just the mustache and a bit of gray in my eyebrows:and the final makeup:
again:


and the cop ended up being a combination of this mustache and stubble-beard:
and these glasses:The transition between the two characters (old man was first, the cop showed up at the end of the play to make important arrests) involved spraying black hair spray over my already gray-colored hair, removing the gray moustache and replacing it with the black one, penciling black into my grayed eyebrows, and adding the stubble with a stipple and black makeup, then removing a bit of padding I had in my stomach as the old man, and changing into the black suit, complete with hip holster, pistol, and handcuffs!

And, just for fun, here is me goofing around during practice:

freelancin' it...

I've had a coupla graphic design projects recently, here are the results:
some other time i may compose a post detailing the process from initial sketches to final products, but right now i'm feeling lazy, so this will have to tide you over...