Radiant Comics

Fonts and computers. What a waste of my morning. Some days are like that. I was planning on spending my morning sitting down, relaxing, and reading. That sounded like a good idea to me. It was February first. The day of the big snow storm. So it wan’t like I was running out to do anything that morning.

I usually get up just after 6AM. I get in the shower, eat breakfast, write my comic strips, and get dressed all before 7AM. Then I usually sit down, read, surf the web, play a short video game, or maybe get a few things done that need to be done before I start working at 8AM. I’d like to say I get to spend that hour relaxing and reading but often I have to spend half of it performing some menial task.

That morning I had planned to relax and read a pile of comics I had. After I buy my new comics for the week I read them twice before filing them away. Once within a couple of days of buying them and then for a second time a week or so later. This was my second read through. Or it was supposed to be.

Before I eat my bowl of cereal for breakfast in the morning I get out my laptop, put it on my drawing table, and write one of my comic strips as I stand there. I’m not always standing still as I get dressed and go through my morning routine as I write. This usually takes about 15 minutes and then I get my morning bowl of cereal.

I used to eat Cheerios or Wheaties for breakfast. But now I haven’t had any Wheaties in about a decade. They changed the recipe for them an I no longer like them. After that I started mixing my cereals. Right now my current mixture is about half Cheerios, a third Rice Chex, and a small bit of Lucky Charms on top. Sometimes I swap out the Lucky Charms for some other sugary cereal like Apple Jacks.

As with writing my comic strip I eat my cereal standing at my drawing table with my computer in front of me. This is when I read my morning comic strips. I have a couple of them bookmarked and a bunch more in my RSS reader. I also have some blogs in my RSS feed so I check them all out as I eat breakfast. This usually takes me until 7AM or slightly after.

The snow was falling outside my window as I ate breakfast this morning and I knew it was going to be a bear to clean it all up. But it was supposed to snow all day and into the night so I couldn’t do anything about the clean up then. Instead I was looking forward to sitting for a while and reading. I knew I would need some relaxation because that snow cleanup was going to take a lot out of me.

That’s when I ran into a computer problem. I often run into computer problems in the morning because that’s when I turn the machines on. I wake up, turn on my desktop computer, and then hit the shower. Occasionally after I get out of the shower my computer hasn’t turned on correctly and then I have to figure out why. This time it was my laptop.

Though I turn off my desktop computer every night I usually just close the laptop. This put it to sleep but doesn’t really turn it off. It’s quicker and more convenient that way. So every morning I put my laptop on my drawing table, open it up, put in my password, and I’m ready to go. Except the mornings when things go wrong.

That morning I happened to have written my comic strip the night before. I do that on occasion. So after dressing and such I got right to reading my RSS feed and eating breakfast. After that I decided to glance over at the comic strip I had written.

I use two fonts in my webcomic. One is a custom font a friend made, that’s for the words in the word balloons, and the other is the font at the bottom of the strip that has my name and the title of the strip. As I switched over to Adobe Illustrator, which is what I do my comic strip in, the program told me that my fonts were missing. This is unusual since they’re always there.

I opened up the program that manages fonts, Font Book, to see if the fonts somehow got turned off and if I could turn them on again. Font Book didn’t even acknowledge that the fonts existed. I found the original font files on my laptop and tried to put them into Font Book again. Font Book didn’t even acknowledge that the fonts existed. This was getting annoying so a restart was called for.

I restarted my laptop because that often fixes any problems I might have. This time it didn’t. I did all the same stuff again with all the same results. My fonts wouldn’t activate. I decided to restart again but this time with a Safe Boot. Safe Boot is when you hold down the Shift key as you restart and it fixes even more stuff. Then you restart again regular. This also did nothing.

I tried running Disk Utility. This is a program that fixes things on your Mac. It did nothing. After that I figured maybe the fonts got corrupted somehow. I had a copy of the fonts on my desktop computer so I copied them over to my laptop. Font Book wouldn’t read those either. I was at my wit’s end.

With nothing left to try I performed another Safe Boot and restarted the laptop. Guess what? After that everything went back to normal. My fonts were there, fine, and would open. I have no idea why. I worked for 45 minutes trying to get the laptop and fonts to run correctly. I have no idea why it wasn’t working and no idea how it got to working correctly again. I do know that it ruined my plan to sit down and read for the morning. Oh well, computers can be crazy.

Time for another “Friends” walkthrough. This time I’m on Season 5 Episode 2. I haven’t watched a lot of “Friends” lately so I’m only one episode further along since the last time I wrote a walkthrough. This episode originally aired on October 1, 1998. Over 22 years ago. I was 32 at the time. Just a couple of years older than the Friends. Now they’re eternally younger than me.

Checking my calender I see that I commuted into Manhattan that day to work at Marvel Comics. I did typesetting. No other notes for that day but I can see a couple of weeks before on September the 18th there is a receipt from Brenner Printing. That from when my friends and I published our own comic. That was a lot harder to do in those days than today. We had fun doing it but never made any money. Good times.

Meanwhile back at the show the episodes name is “The One With All the Kissing.” If memory serves Chandler was being “European” and kissing the girls hello and goodbye to cover for he and Monica secretly sleeping together. I think I’m going to watch this one on my computer instead of my TV as a change of pace.

We open with Monica and Chandler in a bubble bath together. It’s all new, secret, and romantic for them. Of course Joey walks in and Monica has to hide under the bubbles. Joey wants to know if Chandler is up for ordering food. Hijinks ensue. It’s a good opening gag. Here comes the theme song. It’s always enjoyable.

Phoebe shows up. I forgot she was pregnant in the show at this time. But she’s obviously no longer pregnant in real life. Her baby belly looks fake now. She’s feeling left out that she didn’t get to go with everyone else to London as she doesn’t get all their London jokes and references.

Ross shows up to the apartment. He said the wrong woman’s name at his wedding and even though Emily went through with the ceremony she never wants to see him again. And somehow Ross ended up almost going on his honeymoon with Rachel but instead he stood Rachel up and she went on his honeymoon trip by herself. This plot line deals with the aftermath of that. Ross is spinning out a bit. All sorts of jokes about him not being fast enough to catch Emily at the airport.

Rachel returns home after her trip and puts on a brave face for Ross. Says she’s not angry at all. She’s happy about the trip to Greece. But as soon a Ross leaves we find out she’s really pissed. Rachel decides she makes bad decisions so she puts Monica in charge of her decisions for now on. Chandler kisses Monica goodbye accidentally in front of everyone so he puts on a show kissing everyone else.

Now Rachel and Monica are at the coffee shop and we get a joke that would be an anachronism if they did it today. Monica is showing Rachel some snapshots and is getting upset that Rachel isn’t holding the photos by the edges. She’s getting fingerprints on them. This was a real thing back in the days of film photography. There was always someone telling you to hold photos by the edges. And they used that joke in TV shows and such to let you know that a character (like Monica) did things the right way and was bothered by carelessness. Not that we look at photos on screens that never happens anymore.

Since Monica is making Rachel’s decisions she is sending her over to talk to a cute guy at the coffee shop. Joey and Chandler are making funny comments in this scene. Phoebe walks in and gives us more Phoebe hates London stuff. She’s tired of being pregnant and not being able to do anything. Rachel gets a date. Like she wouldn’t.

Next Monica and Chandler get caught kissing in the apartment so Chandler pretends he’s leaving and kisses the other girls too. Joey wants in on the action! Now we’re at the end of Rachel’s date. She needs Monica to decide if she’s going to invite her date inside. Monica is not there but Ross is and he’s heartbroken so Rachel sends her date away never to be seen again.

Heartbroken Ross is funny as well as sad. Rachel comforts him but Monica shows up and, as the maker of Rachel’s decisions, wants her to leave Ross alone. Rachel admits to Monica that she’s still in love with Ross. Rachel fires Monica from decision making. That goes around and around.

Still in the apartment Rachel wants to confess her feeling to Ross but Monica interrupts. For me this is Rachel at her most annoying. She loves Ross best when she can’t have him. When she can have him she’s less interested in him. Ross keeps sending Emily love momentos to try and win her back and she keeps destroying them.

Back to the coffee shop and Rachel is trying to find someone to back up her plan to tell Ross she’s still in love with him but none of the Friends agree. Then they try to cheer up Phoebe by planning a trip to Central Park (not Perk). It doesn’t work. Rachel confronts Chandler about the kissing. Monica protests the kissing a bit to hard. New Phoebe plan. They’re all going to Atlantic City.

Rachel still wants to confront Ross. She awkwardly tries to speak to him as he’s reading his paper in the coffee shop but then actually tells him she’s still in love with him. He’s not sure to do with that and then she sees the ridiculousness of it all. They both kinda just revel in their absurd misery. What a weird scene but Rachel finally comes off as likable. She asks him to forget all about it.

Now one last scene with the girls. Monica wants to know how it worked out with Ross but then the boys come in and they cheer on their trip to Atlantic City. Phoebe’s water breaks. They’re on their way to the hospital and we end on another kiss between Chandler and Monica. This time privately.

Now it’s time to check http://links.giveawayoftheday.com/uncutfriendsepisodes.tripod.com/ and see what was cut out of this episode for syndication. A couple of lines from the opening bubble bath scene including Joey saying that his date threw up. They cut a whole lot of the Ross spinning out scene. There was good stuff in there. Especially with Monica. They also cut out Rachel running through all her recent bad decisions. That was funny too. And some Monica and the photos stuff. Plus the Joey trying to get some kisses scene. A lot of the Monica trying to get Rachel not to tell Ross scene. More Central Perk stuff. They also cut out all of Rachel telling Ross about a mix tape full of “Their Songs.” And most of the final “We’re going to Atlantic City” scene. That’s a lot.

I’m glad I watch these old DVD copies of the show with all the extra stuff still in. This must have been one of the extra length 40 minute (with commercials) shows they occasionally ran. There is more stuff cut out of this one than usual. I’d prefer they keep it in.

I finished coloring a “Dreams of Things” cover this week. Number 101. I colored it with Copic sketch markers over India ink. I used Blick Black Cat India ink on this one. For these covers I usually pencil them one day and then put them away to ink another day. After I feel like inking one I then ink it and put it away again for coloring some other time. Though I keep a calendar and write down exactly what I do each day I don’t put a date on the piece until I finish it.

I don’t know how long it’s been since I’ve mentioned this but I print out the logos and trade dress on the piece of paper I’m going to ink and color on. That’s because I want the finished piece to look like a comic book cover with all its accoutrements. I even print the production markings around the outside of the paper to make it look authentic. Comic book companies used to print up paper with similar markings to give to their artists to draw on. This ensured that the artwork was done at the correct size. I like the way the marks look.

Here is a tip for anybody interested in working with markers. Write down what colors you use for a specific purpose. I call them “Color Recipes.” I did this a lot more back when I was just starting to figure out a finished technique with the markers but it came in handy with this piece. There are three faces in this one and I wanted to make them three different colors. I went to my notebook where I wrote down my recipes and and picked three skin colors to use. I didn’t have to figure it all out over again.

The most complex part of this cover is the background. There is a lot of it. Though there are three faces and two figures they don’t take up a lot of the image. That’s unusual fo me. I count at least six major areas of background. The very top (right under the logo), the clouds on top, the landscape in the back, the side stripes, the checkerboard, and the fence at the bottom. I knew I’d have to figure out the background first.

As I was figuring out the background colors I had two things in mind. I thought the woman on the right’s shirt should be green and the little area under the D and R should be pink. I didn’t put those colors in until the background was all finished but I had them in mind. Sometimes a couple of colors jump out at me from the very beginning and it happened this time.

I’m usually a top to bottom artist. That means I don’t work on different areas of the page willy nilly. I start at the top of the page and work my way to the bottom. Most of the time. There are exceptions.

With this piece the first color I put down was the brown area underneath the logo. I went with three colors in the diagonal pattern to make that area a little less flat and more visually complex than it would be with a simpler color scheme. The clouds under the brown part also has three colors of blue in it. That was my theme for the part part of this piece. There color combos. I think that was the are that had the least going for it drawing-wise so I needed some rich color up there.

At this point I skipped over the area right under the blue to color in the landscape. I knew I wanted that skipped area to be a neutral color but which neutral I didn’t know yet. Once I decided I wanted a three-tone orange sky I decided the building should be a darker orange tone. That kept my complex tone theme going. It was natural to keep the ground of the landscape green but I also kept the greens dark since I knew I wanted that shirt green. I had the idea to make the sides red but I wasn’t sure and didn’t color them yet.

Here is where I skipped down to the bottom and made the fences brown. I went with only two tones of brown each because if I went with three tones that would be too much color change. I wanted to calm things down a little on the bottom since there was a lot of color in the figures at the bottom. I also thought to go with light purple and pink in the checkerboard at this time. So the top has color in threes and the bottom has it in twos.

Then I went on to color all three faces from three different color recipes from my notebook. These faces have the most colors in the smallest areas of this piece. For some reason I often like orange hair and the biggest face got the orange hair this time. There is some light green and yellow in there too but orange is the main theme. That made me give the top face yellow hair. I made the hat thing neutral grays and browns and then finally decided the biggest character’s shirt should be blue.

Now is when I finally got around to coloring the figure on the left. I knew I wanted her shirt to be green all along but I wasn’t sure if the pants should be green or not. I put down the two tones of green in the shirt and then decided that the thin stripe should be purple. This lead me to the purple and violet pants with a green stripe. I like the way that worked out and colored her head gear like that too. I even decided to bring that color theme into the space under the clouds. I finally colored that area.

Though I had the idea for the red sides earlier on I didn’t actually put in the red until late. I wasn’t sure if it would be too much but since I used no other red in the piece it wasn’t. It also makes a nice triangle of color with the orange buttons on the shirt. The last thing I filled in was they little bit of hot pink under the D and the R. And it was done.

I like the way this one came out. I wasn’t sure of what I was going to do with it and was hesitant going in but I took it step by step and it ended up nice. If only they could all go like that.

I wrote recently about some new art supplies that I bought. Among those supplies are some new color inks. Though I’ve worked in many types of paint I’ve never worked with color inks. I’ve used plenty of black ink but not color. This year I think I’m going to work on developing a color ink style. I’m not sure how that style will end up looking but at least for now it’s all about making brush strokes in ink.

I bought three big bottle of ink a few years ago. Process Cyan, Flame Red, and Process Yellow were my three colors. I’ve used them over the years mostly in single color drawings. Instead of drawing in black ink I’d draw in blue ink.

Since I bought big pint bottles of those inks (around $15 a bottle) I had to pour a bit of the ink into a smaller container to work from. I ended up using these half cup Rubbermaid containers (I call them cubbies) that I had lying around the place. They worked well. I only put about an once of ink in the container so there was plenty of room to dip my brush and then roll the brush point on the side of the container to point the brush. That’s what you have to do after you dip a round watercolor brush in ink. Roll it on a piece of paper or some such to bring it to a point.

After I bought the recent batch of inks (the first recent batch, turns out I got two batches) I bought some more cubbies to go with them. So when both of them arrived I poured each bottle of ink (these ones are only one ounce bottles for around $5 a bottle) into a cubby. I also made sure to place a piece of tape on the lid and write the name of the color and the brand of ink. That way I alway will know what I’m dealing with. A lot of these inks need to be stirred too. So the cubby makes that easier.

After I emptied the ink out of their bottles there was still a bit of ink residue in them. So I ended up filling the ink bottle up with water to make a wash of the ink. It’s funny because the bottles still look like they have ink in them, the pigment is strong in the water, but if I brush that “Ink” onto paper it makes a really light colored wash. “Wash” means watered down paint.

Now I use those bottles of color to make a toned ground on paper. I don’t need to point the brush when doing that. I just dunk a thick and chunky brush into the ink wash and drag it around the paper. I use three or four colors to make an ink wash. It’s for when I don’t want to work on white paper. I want the paper to have a little bit of color to it. I toned some art card paper and then made drawings on them.

After that first batch of inks I bought at the Dick Blick website I ordered another batch from the Jerry’s Artarama website. They had a couple of different brands than Blick. I bought FW inks at Blick and then Abstract and Amsterdam brand inks at Jerry’s Artarama. It turns out that the Abstract brand is by Sennilier who makes a very nice black India ink. It’s one of my two favorites. Turns out I also had a couple of one ounce bottle of Liquitex ink that I forgot about.

After I ordered that second batch of inks I knew I had to order some more cubbies. It turns out that the Rubbermaid containers I had (and the six I just bought) were being discontinued (I wondered why the price on them rose) but they had a new model with black lids instead of red lids. I read a review of them on Amazon that said the two models, though the same size, weren’t compatrable with each other. I found this odd but ordered a set of ten black lidded ones anyway.

It was shortly after that I discovered I had about six more of the red lidded cubbies that held dice in my dice collection. Coincidentally I just purchased some dice bags to put some dice in so that made me notice the cubbies in a tucked away area of the dice collection. I also had another four red lidded cubbies that I kept little snacks in. I decided to use the red lidded ones for ink and the new black lidded ones for snacks and whatever else.

Then the black lidded ones were delivered and guess what? They’re compatible. You can swap lids with the red ones and stack them all you want. The lids and bottoms of the containers snap together so the stack becomes stuck together. That’s helpful. That reviewer didn’t know what he or she was talking about. I’m still planning on using the black lidded ones for snacks.

The last thing I did was to make a swatch set. I do this with my markers too. I have a digital master sheet of small rectangles that I print out on bristol board (or whatever paper I’m planning to work on) and then I fill in the rectangles with a color. That way I have a visual reference guide to work with. I don’t have to guess what a particular marker, or in this case ink, looks like as I can look at the swatch sheet and see. That helps a lot.

I made a mistake the first time I tried to make a swatch sheet. I printed out the page of rectangles but I forgot that the ink from my inkjet printer isn’t waterproof. That’s okay with alcohol based markers, like Copic Markers, but with water based stuff (like these new inks) the black line of the box will bleed into the ink or paint. So I started making strokes with my brush and ink and the black line started bleeding into the color. I thought it would be okay since it only bled a little but in the end it was distorting the color too much. I had to start over.

I knew the only solution to this problem was to draw the boxes in pencil or waterproof ink. After a quick experiment with an ink pen I decided to stick with a pencil. I measured out and drew a grid on a 9×12 inch piece of Bristol paper. After that I made my ink strokes and wrote the name and brand of each color underneath the swatch.

I decided to use ink strokes of color rather than fill in the grid with a solid color because I plan on using this ink in strokes. I’m still not exactly sure what style I’ll develop with them but I think it’ll be built around brush strokes. Either way it took a lot of prep work to set myself up to use these nineteen color inks. But that’s the way I am. When I want to try something new I dabble in it at first but then when I want to continue beyond dabbling I have to put things in order. It’s good to make things as easy as possible. That way I’ve got a chance at getting something done.