We've all been there: all of the sudden, the trajectory of your own life seems to thwart you from your ambitions! Maybe it's obligations to schoolwork or your day job; maybe your partner or family; maybe you wind up homeless or awkwardly crashing on a series of couches ...
UHG I CAN'T EVEN
HyenaHell at 12:00AM, April 7, 2017The Use of Shadows
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, April 1, 2017
There are some comics where shadows don’t really exist- like Tintin where nothing casts a shadow at all. In other comics, shadows play a huge part, like Sin City. And yet in others they are just part of the natural environment of the comic and nothing more.
All are ...
Character Quirks
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, March 25, 2017
So last time I talked about the little extras that can go into dialogue and how that dialogue can be presented on the page of your comic, so I was thinking today might be good to continue in that general trajectory and talk about little extras in your character design ...
Quackcast 314 - The failure of heroes
Ozoneocean at 12:00AM, March 14, 2017 LISTEN!
When heroes fail… Hey, why would you ever want a hero to fail? Well there are a lot of reasons and listening to this Quackcast will tell you why, but the quick version is that you don't want your hero to be a perfect Mary-Sue sort of character ...
Dialogue is a Paintbrush
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, March 11, 2017
In any work of art where storytelling is concerned, dialogue (should) play a central part. The relatability of the characters hinges on how they behave, and a lot of that behavior is verbal, especially in movies, theatre and comics (but also books. And everything else.)
So how do we create ...
When the Hero Fails
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, Feb. 25, 2017
Failure is the stepping stone to success. That’s what I teach my students and my clients, and it is true, right up there with “whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”: If you learn why you failed, you won’t fail again the same way- and that brings ...
Displaying Intense Emotions Subtly
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, Jan. 21, 2017
Art by Pit-Face and Tantz Aerine
Expressions are key when drawing characters in webcomics- it’s understandably the acting portion of the creative work, and it has to be done well to engage the reader.
In my opinion there are no easy or difficult expressions- only expressions you as a ...
Top Five Tear Jerkers
Banes at 12:00AM, Jan. 12, 2017
I was hanging out with my family over the holidays, explaining that I wasn't sad or sick, but had been rubbing my eye because there was some dust or a hair or something stuck behind the eyeball. It was quite uncomfortable.
As I remembered how tears can flush out ...
Beginnings
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, Dec. 31, 2016
Happy New Year’s Eve!
Thinking about the new year that is just about to begin, I thought to talk about beginnings in stories, and especially in webcomics.
How a story begins, the very first pages of it, are key for catching the audience’s attention and keeping it. The ...
Diminishing Returns
Banes at 12:00AM, Dec. 15, 2016
Emotional Charges and Diminishing Returns
Many writing methodologies suggest mapping out the emotional change of each scene. The scene either starts positive, and goes to either negative or “extra positive”, or starts negative and goes to positive or “extra negative” by the end of the scene.
So if a lovelorn ...