Episode 325 - walk the line
May 29, 2017
In this Quackcast we cover the Importance of good linework in comics and different line techniques such as Herge's Ligne claire, the traditional thick line for characters and thin for everything else as exemplified in the work of Mucha, variable line widths as in Manga, solid blacks like in American comics, and complex lines like Durer or Hyena Hell. I really seriously thought I could get an entire Quackcast out of the concept and techniques of linework, but honestly I was struggling… Okay, so linework constitutes the skeleton that most comics are built on, with the notable exception of painted comics, photo comics, 3D and vector comic among others… But for most comics line is a pretty essential element. There are a lot of different techniques involved in the use of lines. Herge popularised “ligne claire”, which means that all lines have the same thickness and that there's no line shading. A popular style that I was taut was to have thick lines around characters and overlapping elements, with thin lines for internals and backgrounds. This is popular in a lot of manga, US comics and famously the work of Alphonse Mucha. Part of my technique on Pinky TA involves making my lines grey, so that when I set the line layer to “multiply”, the lines take on some of the background colours beneath them and don't show up as darkly as traditional black lines. The work of Hyena Hell on the Hub is interesting for her use of very complex internal shading line to build up texture and shapes, this can also be seen in the works of Albrecht Durer. Manga is notable for its extensive use of very stylised shading, crisp lines and the use of variable line widths for outlines, while American comics make heavy use of solid blacks for areas of shadow, basically extending the width of the line as far and as solidly as it can go. How do YOU approach your linework? The music for this week by Gunwallace is for The Wallachian Library. It's a dark, black future sounds, neon glows, pulses of energy and ideas, vectors and virtual circuits.Sorry, no link to this comic, the user deleted it from the site.
Topics and Show Notes
Topics and shownotes
Featured comic:
Monster Corp - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2017/may/24/featured-comic-monster-corp/
See the art here - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2017/may/20/quackcast-325-walk-the-line/
Ligne claire by Herge - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ligne_claire
LINKS:
Special thanks to:
Gunwallace - http://www.virtuallycomics.com
Featured music:
The Wallachian Library WAS a comic by TheHereitcLocomotive, who has since deleted it… For what it's worth you can look at their profile here: - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/TheHereitcLocomotive.
Episode 324 - The *Bleeping*cast!
May 22, 2017
In this Quackcast we discuss the interesting notion that censorship can actually be a positive force for creation. Sometimes working WITHIN restrictions of censorship can make you more creative and your work a lot more individual, special and more interesting. I came to this subject after reading a review of how Canadian standards forced very specific and particular changes on the TV show Reboot. Had it been made without the censorship restrictions then it would have been more of a generic show, because the methods they had to use to get around or appease the censors helped to differentiate it from similar children's shows. We also discuss how metaphor in song lyrics and symbolism in art and movies are used to talk about restricted subjects like sex, drugs, politics, and religion and how this is another example of how censorship has given rise to interesting creations. Great examples of obvious coded messages about sex are the song lyrics of AC/DC, Led Zeppelin. We also talk about howl ove songs with secret political messages were used in Greece to foment political revolution. And lastly we mention Heintai and ecchi in Japanese comics and anime and the Drunkduck ratings standards. The music for this week by Gunwallace is for Silly Sweetie, it's a dreamlike tour through clouds and wide heavenly vistas, this in turn leaves you feeling warm and refreshed!
Episode 265 - Drunk Duck updates and the future
Apr 4, 2016
For Quackcast 265 I wanted to steer the direction toward the idea of future fixes and features for Drunk Duck! We talked a bit about the 2nd wave of fixes that will be happening now- HippieVan worked to gather people's suggestions for the most important bugs that needed fixing (with our limited funds), and features people want added, and then did a survey to find what people though were the highest priority. It was a lot of work and took a few weeks to come up with the results. Bellow is a summery of what she learned:
Episode 230 - Getting the formula RIGHT
Aug 3, 2015
We've talked about formulas before, but mostly in the context of escaping formulas and reinventing them. NOW however we're talking about using existing formulas to create a story, or creating new formulas and sticking to them to come up with your stories. Formulas can be a good tool to write with, along with their close sibling “the trope” they take elements that are proven to work and stick them on a solid framework for you to more easily create your story around. All you need to do is plug in your characters and situation and see how it all fits. Formulas are comfortable for people and make it easier for a writer to structure their story faster AND in a way they know should appeal to people. Enjoy Gunwallace's lovely theme for Rismo!
Episode 218 - Sexy and attractive characters, Part 2
May 10, 2015
Once again we're chatting about just WHAT makes characters sexy and or attractive. The sexy Banes and Ozoneocean are joined by two attractive ladies, PitFace and Tantz Aerine, so now we have even more insight into the topic! We discuss the topic with humour and intelligence, with the help of the fantastic contributions for some very canny and sexually attractive Drunk Duckers. And of course we have some lovely music by Gunwallace, a secret agent theme for FOX Academy The New Breed!
Episode 180 - Colour your world! part 1
Aug 14, 2014
For this week's Quackcast I asked people what colour techniques they use and BOY was I surprised by the high calibre of the responses! We had some heavy hitter contributions, people with colour skill beyond what I can conceive of, and I'm no slouch myself when it comes to colouring. We had such good contributions and the subject is so complex that that we decided to split it over two parts so we can properly discuss this very technical concept: COLOUR! Colouring is an important and advanced skill when it comes to comic art. At the most basic level you can restrict yourself to a simple palette with no shading or tones, if you want to be more advanced though there is no limit to how complex you can get. Hopefully the advice presented here can help you with your artwork!
Episode 106 : Real World Comic Collab - Part 2
Dec 17, 2012
In this Quackcast Banes and I come back to our series on real world comic collaboration. If you've been listening a while you may recall that he and I decided to start up a comic together between the two of us. We talked about the process of getting that started. Here we revisit the idea and talk about how we're going with it so far... have there been any arguments? Any flakeouts? Disasters? Can Banes get his soufflé to rise juuuuust right? Will Ozone fail in his first catwalk runway show? The viewers must know! A collaborative comedy comic is a hard road when you're starting from scratch and we give you a real world view on how we two are doing with it. Note: Quackcasts will take a break over Christmas and New Year and will be back on the 8th of January!
Quackcast 105: The Secret Society of Santas
Dec 10, 2012
Welcome back to the Quackcast! Christmas time is just over the horizon so it's the time of year again for the Secret Santa community fanart project! For Quackcast 105 we talk to Reashi who this year is in charge of making sure this all happens. But was is the DD Secret Santa? Well let me tell you! First you visit the secret Santa thread and sign up while there's still time, Deadline has been extended to Friday the 14th- find the sign up thread from the link below and also Skool's lovely newspost. So back to what it IS... Well it's a lucky dip fan art thing. The people who sign up request what they'd like to receive and then after the deadline they're randomly and in secret assigned one of their fellow list members, so it's a surprise who you get your art present done by! So sign up, it might be ME who does your present! ^_^
