Three in a Series of Three

Panels from an all-digital comic that I toyed with a few years back - all done on a Wacom Graphics Tablet (Intuos 2, I believe). I was reminded of these when I reinstalled the software for the Wacom the other day, which allows you to really do all that it's built to do. Of particular use is the tablet's pressure sensitivity, meaning you can make lines that have the natural curve and thickening of a brush or dip pen.

What I really want to do is get my hands on a copy of Painter and see what I can do. I couldn't really 'do' color in the real world until I worked out a lot of problems in Photoshop, where a mistake is infinitely correctable. The confidence I gained working with color in the digital environment allowed me to loosen up in traditional media, particularly watercolors. I wonder if Painter will give me the same results in terms of working with oils and other opaque media? Talk about a feedback loop.

Like the Rambler, the point of doing this comic was entirely as an exercise; draw quickly, loosely, and don't get caught up in the expectations of being great. I'm pretty sure it was my first return to comics (and drawing in general) in quite a while, so it was a success in the regard of getting me motivated to work. It was more decidedly not a success as an actual comic, a fact I saw right away.

These three panels are the extent of it. Where does it go from there? I don't know; it was inspired by Scott McCloud's Morning Improv, which title is pretty self-explanatory. That's another one I owe McCloud - more than anyone else, he's given me the needed confidence to do the work that I can do in the medium I love.

D.