tonycliff posts
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"El Camino," Chapter Four
[ This is Chapter Four in an ongoing, improvised prose story about three adventurers trying to find their way after the head of their party has died, as well as trying to get paid from a town full of miserable racists. Chapter One; Chapter Two; Chapter Three. ][ Last week, readers voted 60% in favou...
This Week's Inks, and a Publishing Story
In the images above: many arguing heads, some scenery, and some pencil-inked inked pages. I started using a Winsor & Newton Series 7 sable brush (with Dr Martins ink). It's been sitting in my toolkit for years, and I was too scared to break it out because A) it's expensive and B) what if I r...
DD4 Inking, Book Recommendations, and a Character Generation Trick
[ There are captions along with the images if you click through. ]I'm happy with how those big, detailed wallpaper pages turned out. Thanks to a recent reminder from Chris Schweizer, I was careful not to put the outline on the line, but outside the line, since it's all surrounded by black.I ...
"El Camino," Chapter Three
[This is Chapter Three in an ongoing, improvised prose story. Chapter One; Chapter Two. ][ 100% of voters decided that the party would go to the unwelcoming town of Cherry Springs, instead of turning aside, keeping The Traveller safe, and abandoning both their savings and the money owed to them for ...
Inking! Woodworking!
Above: it's tea time once more, and it's time to reminisce about England.Below: since I haven't had to draw a sailing ship in a while, I figured it was time to add back something equally infuriating to draw, so now there's a horse. Horses live at an inconvenient intersection between ...
Coloured Line Art and "Transparency Lock."
A reader (hello Jason!) was asking in the comments about the inking and how it gets coloured. I'm going to describe it in detail, because not only is this technique useful for specifically this application, transparency lock can be a hugely versatile tool in your belt. It's what makes "f...
Down The Rust Shelf Road (El Camino, Chapter Two)
~ The continuing, improvised story of three adventurers and their beloved car, under the working title (and Patreon tag) "El Camino." ~( Chapter One > )- - - - - - - - - - - -CHAPTER TWO.Eyman wanted to demonstrate that he was fit to hold The Traveller’s keys. If he hesitated any longer in...
Chapter Two Inks Fully Underway
Above, three images: the first, a challenging page, but that bridge and those fortress-style walls will be important later.Then, two of my new favourite pages, for reasons I cannot perfectly articulate. So I will not try. It is nighttime. DD and Katerina (who we will meet in the first few pages of t...
A Friend is Buried
This is the very first post of a new venture—an improvised, interactive story that I'll be writing with input from you, Dear Readers. I'm not entirely sure where it will go, because I'll have only half a grip on the wheel. It is exciting.The story starts below. There will be two option...
New Year, New Experiences
Inking begins!Happy New Year, all! Greetings to the new readers who have signed up over the past few months—thank you for your support of what I now consider the world's most slowly-updated, most tightly-focused Little Free Library (in that it is a place where anyone might read a book, so long...
End-of-Year Housekeeping
Literally: housekeeping. I need to clean up this mess.Highlights (to me): Kevin Dart "Space Shuttle" prints, hanging up to uncurl. There are three of them there. I saw them down at SDCC years and years ago and have regretted not buying them ever since. Fortunately, Dart did a reprint, so I j...
Chapter Two Pencilling is DONE.
HUZZAH!Above: Page 6, the last pencilled page.Below: The Stack.Look at those good good green lines, that's what I like to see.EDIT: Whoops, the lines weren't going to 100%. What can I say; I can draw a handsome chimney, but spreadsheet excellence evades me.Inking starts in the new year!Wheee...
Off-Day
Today: talk about drawing hands; highlights from recent pencilled pages; George Saunders makes me feel like a million bucks; a happy progress update; and, though I am not inclined to believe in things like "off-days," sometimes you gotta call a spade a spade.On Tuesday, I Twittered, "Jus...
Chapter Two Pencils Galore, Saunders Again, and More!
This week: I still have George Saunders on the brain, revisiting the Scene-Sequel approach, a TV recommendation, and it turns out I was right??? about how basic it is to light a character in a scene???But first! FIRST! Some drawings in progress.As always, absolutely spoilers galore here, just spoile...
15 Creative Pillars, and George Saunders
This week, something old and something new.My “something new” is George Saunders’ A SWIM IN THE POND IN THE RAIN, wherein author George Saunders (LINCOLN IN THE BARDO) takes a detailed look at four 19th-century Russian short stories to discover what we might learn from them about story-writing...
How To Be Cool About Drawing a High School Bike Rack
The other night I posted this image over on Twitter, saying, “Filed under ‘cruel things I am doing to myself on a Friday night.’”This casual quip touches on a topic about which I have strong opinions, despite my recent attempts to have fewer strong opinions, because I read some advice that s...
Chapter Two Roughs, and Cinematography/Colour Planning
[ ^ Above: an elaborate cemetery complex carved into the hillside. ]Roughs continue! I've included a few notable panels. As always, mild spoilers. You know what you're doing, I trust you.[ ^ while working on this panel, I felt immensely grateful for all the time I'd spent doing location ...
Chapter Two Roughs-in-Progress, and other fun items.
I'm now neck-deep in the process of laying out my pages for Chapter Two. (Specifically: I take a big sheet of drawing paper, trace my page-size border template onto it, then, referencing that page's thumbnail, I start roughing out the drawings.)At the top of the post, one of my favourite dra...
A personal post, a cautionary tale.
This is a cautionary tale, and is a personal story about my mother’s death. It is not gruesome, but you might not want to read something like that, for a whole variety of very good reasons.I am not asking for condolences. On the other hand, I have discovered that it can lighten your heart to conne...
DD4 Chapter Two "Value Studies." Also: Vonnegut Check.
This is exciting. I was reminded of a long-running, irritating problem that I often forget, and am now, finally, solving it.The other day, friend and brilliant artist Rebecca Dart posted this tweet:…where what we're looking at are Rebecca's quick black-white value studies for upcoming illu...
In Praise of "Just Writing."
Thumbnails for Chapter Two are finished! I still have to review everything, but in my mind, right now, it feels good and solid and like it does what it needs to do. And my worst fears were in fact unjustified—the whole chapter only came out to 80-someodd pages (instead of the 176 that my lazy esti...
Thumbnails for Chapter Two are Underway!
I had a scare yesterday. I wrote about 14 pages of "writing." Yesterday, I finished thumbnails representing the three of those 14 pages, and, if I follow through on those thumbnails, they will be thirty-ish finished comic book pages.Thinking, "that seems like a lot," I did a quick es...
Chapter Two Writing Process: New Strategy
I'm in the middle of writing Chapter Two. Here's how things have gone so far and how I'm planning to proceed.1) POST-ITS. You've seen these before. They serve two purposes: they let me keep a simple birds-eye view of the whole storyline, and this space serves to let me add in new ide...
"I was miserable…" (DD4, Chapter One, Pages 41-43)
The final pages of Chapter One! It is a small update, I will admit, but these are also a few of my favourite pages.He he he. During the writing process, when I stumbled across that final line, I knew, "yes, yes, this is exactly how I want to end the chapter, it is perfect." I like how the se...
Webcomic Release Day
In the past, when I was posting DD to the web, I put out new instalments on Saturday morning, thinking it would be a nice part of peoples' weekends.Thinking about DD4, I figured I would ask: assuming you read webcomics, is there a day you would like DD4 to pop up in your various feeds, however y...
Whispering, "The Website Has Been Updated…"
If you'd like to see what the page presentation looks like on delilahdirk.com, I've posted the first few pages… including the Patron Acknowledgements. If there are CSS issues or something else, I guess I would be grateful if you let me know, though I am skeptical of my ability to fix them....
Looking Forward
First, what to anticipate from Chapter Two. Then, a promise. Finally, a little bit of blue-sky dreaming.CHAPTER TWO!“Hey Tony,” you say, “why are you so excited for Chapter Two? Explain yourself!”Dear Reader, I will be happy to do so.HEY, THESE ARE ALL "SPOILERS!" (If that’s someth...
Always the Jester (DD4, Chapter One, Pages 38-40a)
… in which the truest type of familial affection is demonstrated.- - -Good news everybody!Finally, FINALLY! I get to start work on Chapter Two. I am excited (there are so many fun/dumb things I want to do) and terrified (I'm certain it will be the most difficult chapter to bring together in a ...
A Warm Welcome (DD4, Chapter One, Pages 34-37)
…in which Alexandra's mother demonstrates a disappointing view on human behaviour.- - - - -Okay, arts grants are sent off! After proofreading my applications one million times, I'm sure there are only a dozen embarrassing gaffes in there, as opposed to a-dozen-and-one.I've been busy wi...
Chapter One Post-Mortem
We're at a big milestone: after many months, Chapter One is done. The first chapter of DD4, wherein I thought I'd try a few new things, is all coloured-up and finished. Let's do a little reflection, a little personal accounting, and see where things stand.What’s been accomplished so fa...
