Brush with Temptation

[richardf8]

After spending my drawing time wrestling car parts into place, I found my self sorely tempted to do a cut and paste theatre Cat-Tharsis. The dialogue didn't demand much in the way of staging, and there weren't really any sight gags, except the dish of mouse-butts that are mouse-dippers.

But as I started to make the first selection, something in me just . . . rebelled. I knew if I did this, I would not respect myself in the morning, and that I would wince every time I looked at the strip. And since I use cat-tharsis.com as the portal to my regular webcomic fare (that links page isn't just for visitors' convenience), that means every day for the next week, and every time I go through the archives to see how my story is holding together. And so I sat down to pencil and ink two additional panels (both of which were better than the first). It's not my best art, but I'm getting more comfortable with 3 quarter views. Now I just need to figure out how to draw people sitting comfortably on the sofa, instead of bolt upright like they've got poles up their . . . ah well.

But the upshot is, I'm alot prouder of this week's strip than I would have been had I given in to the dark side. I may have got only 5 hours sleep last night, but I still have my honor!

Comments

[kevinjdog.livejournal.com]

Congratulations. I know how you feel sometimes, but like you say, it's how well you can live with the final product that counts. :)

[mortonfox.livejournal.com]

Good for you! I too avoid cutting and pasting although I think it's a personal choice that shouldn't reflect badly on cartoonists who do cut and paste.

[richardf8]

Well . . . Chris Wright of Help Desk started doing it when producing art of any sort on a computer was a huge challenge, and having a collection of bits and pieces to assemble into story-supporting images was the only way to do a computer comic. It became his style, and the colorforms approach works really well with his writing. He's also the only person out there who could bash Microsoft for six or seven years straight and keep it funny. Even Illiad can't manage that.

However, if you look through the archives of Dead Funny you will see the dark path that cut-and-paste can lead down. I count three panels used over and over for six months. Oh, and one punchline.

[mortonfox.livejournal.com]

*nods* The writing is more of an issue than the cut and paste.

[richardf8]

Brains