tonycliff
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Back to Boats (Chapter Three Inks Continue)
🕑 Added 2023-02-09 21:45:13 +0000 UTCTHIS WEEK: a busy week! I've been throwing "Reels" at Instagram, drawing the ins and outs of boats again (hoo boy), and looking after a toddler who is a foot taller every day, it seems.
(As ever, the images above are repeated below, just for ease of reading/viewing, and the inked pages are the last item in this post, in case you want to avoid "spoilers.")
REELS ON INSTAGRAM
I need to get word out about this project some how, so this week I'm experimenting a little. I'm making Instagram "Reels." I've always enjoyed setting videos to music, and it's especially fun to pair PRACTICAL DEFENCE imagery with good ol' Erich Korngold adventure-movie scores; it adds a dimension that I love, and Reels let me do that.
So far this week I've posted a reel introducing PRACTICAL DEFENCE, a reel showcasing this week's public pages, and a reel showing some inking in progress. I'll probably post another inking video either today or tomorrow.
[EDIT: Here's the most recent video. I'll look into putting these on YouTube when I get half a second.]
My only conclusion so far is that frig, making videos for Instagram is hard work. I expected this, but still… sheesh.
Plus, there's something about posting to Instagram that extremely feels like homework. Maybe it's the vile quantity of ads. Maybe it's the suspicion that Instagram is only showing people my "content" as long as it doesn't lead them off the app. Or maybe it's an accumulation of a hundred small details that make me feel like not only does the house always win, but that I should feel lucky to even look at the house from the outside. For example, you—Dear Reader—probably can not watch the videos I've linked above unless you have an Instagram account. That's… frustrating, to say the least.
But I also need to attract readers to this Patreon, so I have to try to find each one of them wherever they may be. If you—Dear Reader—have any ideas as to how I can do this better or smarter, please do not hesitate to let me know below.
[EDIT: My curmudgeonliness about social media does not extend to writing these Patreon updates. I like doing this. Too much, one might argue. :) ]
FIGHTING SHIPS
Boats feature heavily at the end of Chapter Three, so it's time to dig out this bad boy.
I bought this massive book years ago at a Chapters store for only… wait for it… twenty dollars.
Now, perhaps the fact that a big, colourful book about 19th century boats was on sale for twenty dollars should have told me something about the market for books about the 19th century and its boats—something like, "it's going to take a lot of work to get the broader book-buying public up to your level of enthusiasm, Tony." But I didn't care then and, frankly, I don't care now. In fact, I stumbled on this purchase between DD & THE AQUEDUCT and THE TURKISH LEUTENANT, and though I'm not really a "signs from the universe" sort of person, it did seem like some sort of serendipitous cosmic nudge to make these comics.
The reproductions are enormous—the book takes up almost my whole drawing desk—thought the quality of the images is not universally perfect. E.g., the cover looks like it's been upscaled a little bit.
I'm happy to put up with its shortcomings, though. It's been a really useful resource over the years. I find one of the hardest things to understand about sailing ships is the scale of everything relative to the sailors aboard. This book helps with that.
Some of the diagrams and information can be found online, but it's nice to have it all in one place.
Do you have a book like this in your life? Something almost… totemic, let's say? I'd love to hear it. I suspect there are a lot of "Art Of…" books that might be that way for my animator friends.
CHAPTER THREE IS BRINGING THE TENSION
^ The pros and cons of "talking head" comics are a recurring theme around here. This is a two-page spread where I think the focus on the character acting works well. I like how the change in Alexandra's expression reads so clearly.
Also, I can not wait for you to see this sequence in colour. The visual concept for it is—I think!—so strong that I only hope it comes out with half as much mood as I am imagining.
^ The right half of a two-page spread in which Vignelli bribes pirates to frighten the town. My favourite part is the little "skull" cuff link on the pirate.
^ I looked at the first drawing of that ship and worried that it looked too much like the Cordelia (the ship in which Alexandra arrived). I re-drew it, thinking the additional sails and the general shape and scale of the hull would look distinctive enough, but looking at it again, I don't know. Boats kind of just look like boats, unless you have more than the average amount of familiarity. But I got the skull flag blowing in the right direction!
^ In this sequence, I'm trying to suggest a "fog" or "mist" creeping in through the portholes, over the ship. I wanted to render it in a new way, compared to, say, drawing the outlines of lumpy clouds or misty tendrils. This is part of my effort to think about the colouring early-on, to consider my approach as a joint effort with the line art, as opposed to thinking of colour as something that is added on top.
^ So far, I think the effect is working, but again I'm looking forward to seeing it complete with colour.
Now I'm off to finish this very spread.
This sequence is so much fun. I can't wait to see it finished and I can't wait to share it with you.
- - - - -
I remain,
as ever,
enshrouded in spooky, foreboding green mist,
TC
❤️
Comments
Jana
No worries!! I have one more idea 🙈 you could get in contact with Janna’s team with Kids Comics United about being interviewed on their youtube channel. That’s it for ideas, I’m off I swear. 😅 https://youtube.com/@KidsComicsUnite
Tony Cliff
[Hmm, I just tried messaging you in response to this comment and when I hit "send" it just deletes what I wrote. ] ANYWAY, Don't worry about it! I'll just email Jake. :) Thank you again! TC
Jana
Weird! Yeah I don’t see a private message, that’s disappointing. Hmmmm it was one of their q&a episodes and I’m pretty sure it was this year but it’s not in their show notes because it was in response to a side request in a question that they do an episode about comics, not a specific question they covered. When I have a moment I’ll see if I can find it, but it might take a bit cos they have done a few and they go awhile. 😅
Tony Cliff
(I messaged to ask if you knew which episode of THREE POINT PERSPECTIVE that was, and I'm not sure if the message went through. The messaging system seems to be acting weird.)
Tony Cliff
Yeah, I decided not to use Tapas or Webtoon for exactly the reason you mentioned. I sought some legal advice and talked to my agent and came away feeling not QUITE secure enough in the language of (specifically Webtoon’s) TOS. I don’t think everyone needs to be as cautious as I am being (I’d hope it’s all fine), but I’m covering my ass in the case of one specific (secret) scenario which many people are unlikely to encounter. Yes! Podcasts are a great idea. Thank you for the specific recommendations!
Jana
So I thought you might be posting on Webtoon and Tapas but I can't seed PDAP on them. Were you uncomfortable with the Terms and Conditions or did I just imagine that you were on those platforms? I'm just a new small fry comic creator but when I shared my 26 page comic before my Kickstarter I got a good number of backers from the Tapas (definitely) and Webtoon (I think, hard to say when you can't use referral links). Tapas.io actually allows linking off the platform and Webtoon does have some integration with Patreon which adds a button to promotes it at the end of every episode (see https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/a-spell-for-a-smith/list?title_no=804977 for an example). Another thought is that you could reach out to some comic podcasts and ask if you could be an interview guest. I listen to 'Comic Lab', '3 Point Perspective' and 'Comixlaunch' and I would loooooove to hear you on all of them. I know 3 Point Perspective in particular talked about wanting to do a comic episode and that Jake Parker would need to interview a guest because the other 2 hosts are children book authors and don't know much about the comics world.
Tony Cliff
Thanks for the heads up! Perhaps bizarrely, I am making the process palatable by using an iPad - I have a really excellent little video editing app on it (LumaFusion) and I can just lie on the couch during the… um… 45 minutes? it shamefully takes me to pick the perfect piece of music. No scheduling, but that's okay, I don't need to worry about that unless this whole approach actually pays off.
Tealin
P.S. Everything looks unnecessarily awesome. C'mon, Tony!
Tealin
Oh man I HEAR YOU on Instagram. I have just discovered a tool which I haven't used much but promises to make it just a microscopic smidge easier to deal with – the INSSIST plugin for Chrome (also works in Opera) simulates the phone interface on your browser, but with extra gadgets like pre-populated tag lists, scheduling(!!!!), and various other things. It won't make editing quicker or easier (nothing will, alas) but it ... helps. A bit. I'm really looking forward to taking a day to line up a bunch of posts, because having to post 'live' was really draining my will to live.
Troy Fischnaller
I have always been such a fan of swashbuckling epics. So great to see your process (through all of this), and so excited to see these pages! I also cannot wait for the finished version!
Stephen Reed
That fighting ships book is epic. And your progress on those pages is awesome. So keen to see them all in colour!
Abrian Curington
These pages look amazing already! Can't wait to see where you take them.
