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orbyssarchives · 7 years ago

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A Brief tl;dr

This is probably a lot to say for 20 unfinished webcomic pages and I know I can be fairly long-winded so if you just wanna skip ahead and click through the pictures I’ve put up, I understand.

The TL;DR is

Hello and welcome to Mage Punk Archives! My name is Tables and this is some of the work that I’ve done over the last few years and what I’ve been up to in my little corner of the world. This is the third and last of a series of posts, outlining a number of updates that I completed on the site.

Included are some of my inspirations and a little of what I’ve learned so far about myself as an ever growing artist up to this point.

After this, I want to keep the content more focused on the actual art and story.

I’ll post to this site as often as I am able.

Thanks for reading!

***

Long Ago, Before the miracle of handheld internet searches and Instagram

When I was but a young, internet webling, I was heavily into shitty online flash games and looking for anything even remotely related to my interests at the time. From Mario and Sonic to various comics, videos games, anime and things never to be said aloud (pornpornporn). My love of the likes of Super Mario Bros and Sonic the Hedgehog (big fandoms for me at the time) would later lead me to sprite comics. Today, my feelings for the little hodge podge collage strips of old video game sprite sheets and backgrounds are a little mixed.

(They were beautiful and I’m gonna make one someday)

Then, in Highschool, I took a basic Web Design class. It was a VVoid World Web of Notepad and Internet Explorer where a kindly old crone passed on to those of us there, some knowledge of the ancient runic language which forms the foundations of the World Wide Web: HTML. Tables, frames, css, oh my! This knowledge would eventually prove invaluable.

Throughout our studies we were occasionally allowed to venture out into the Wider World Web. It was during these little adventures and travels across the Web that I happened upon the magical land of Webcomics. It was also during this time that I began break free of the enchantment of sprites. Even though I would probably never return to them, they would always hold a special place in my heart.

The Internet is for [Comics]

Webcomics – Synonymous with “Masochism”

At first, I had no idea just how grueling webcomics could be. Most webcomic artists pump out pages one to three times a week. At the time I got into them, MegaTokyo, then still partially a video game webcomic, was just releasing its third printed book; 2-3 updates a week with a loosely set schedule. Evan Dahm was wrapping up his surreal fantasy epic, Rice Boy; with updates consistently going up Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. The various sprite and drawn webcomics that I was following at the time were updating all the time. Seeing all the great work going up, I felt encouraged to try it myself.

I drew these closer to the end of my junior year of high school.

Desu

Taking major inspiration from a lot of the manga and anime that I was enjoying then, I used pen and ink to make my comic pages. I liked working in black and white because it felt direct and skipping on color made it easier to finish faster. I figured I could work faster if I didn’t have to worry about the extra step. When I did want to use color, as is typical for the early pages of a new manga, I used markers.

At the time, I had no idea that mangakas used assistants. That’s messed up.

Not to say that it was completely unrealistic, but back in the real world I could only average one black and white page a week. If even. The spider webs I was drawing all over were so that I wouldn’t have to use a ruler to draw my panel proper borders. I thought it gave the comic an “old archive”. In the end, I concluded that the spider webs should have their place and not be all over.

This time, I decided to work a little more carefully and deliberately.

Moving Forward

It was going pretty well but by the time page 7 rolled around, it was time for midterms and I had become too self-conscious and uncomfortable with the way I was drawing my comic pages then. Then, it was time to take finishing high school seriously and before I knew it, I was a freshman at The Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale. I did a lot of growing in the next four years that I attended there. Unfortunately, I never revisited those pages. Instead, near the end of my sophomore year, I took a Sequential Art class where the Final was a full-color, 5-page comic.

These are the ink-wash versions of the 7-page Final that I submitted. I’d originally colored them digitally to meet project requirements but I don’t want to post those just yet..

In the End

I wasn’t satisfied. The truth was that I waited until the last minute, rushed it, and over-reached on a re-draw that wasn’t much fun for me to work on. During the course of that Sequential Art class my professor turned my attention to artists like Moebius and Mike Mignola. I also came across Katsuya Terada’s stuff around this time.

And school went on…

I worked on Mage Punk when I could between assignments.

Between thinking I could possibly work on a for-print comic…

…and a webcomic at the same time.

The End was Near

Most of these were actually made towards the end of my four years at Ai. Those of us graduating were tasked with compiling our work from the years past in accordance with the requirements for obtaining our degrees. I believe that we were given two semesters to gather our pieces and do any revisions to previous works to get them up to date with the rest of the portfolio piece. Illustration Graduates at AiFL were typically required to gather a required selection of their work into an on-demand printed book. The year that I graduated, my department decided to change things around a little. Specifically, we were given the option to collect the requirement work into a plain black binder portfolio and make the printed book more geared towards our pursuits. I opted to make a Mage Punk/Orbyss Archives “Zine” as my main portfolio piece.

And Then College was Over

I drew a few more pages of the comic until I became employed full-time. These days, there aren’t enough free hours in my days for me to keep up with any typical webcomic’s update schedule so for a long while I stopped working on the comic altogether. I’m squeezing as much work out of every second that I’m not there; with whatever energy I can muster. This includes planning, writing, sketching and drawing. Before I got back to work on the site, I was posting fairly regularly to my Twitter and Instagram; those posts took time to do as well.

Most of this post was written in separate sessions on my commutes to work.

“Shortcuts”

Even though I always wanted to present Mage Punk as a webcomic, I always worked on it like it would go to print eventually. This created a confusing mindset for me when working on the comic, where I had to work on a whole book, but I have to rush to finish every page. If I wanted to put out pages more frequently I took shortcuts at any point I could to be done with them. Even if I created a good buffer of finished pages, I’d still run into that same pitfall eventually. I wasn’t enjoying my project because of a pressure I applied on myself to finish it in a way I wasn’t necessarily comfortable with. I didn’t even get that much done in the end.

It’s important that I work on it at a pace that lets me show the best of my ability. I would love it if I could be properly finished with the pages before I post them but if I wait before it’s all good and done I’ll just never get around to posting anything, forever floating, aimlessly, throughout creative internet limbo.

Instead, if I have to work on my comic in piecemeal, I’ll just post it up in piecemeal. Mage Punk will still be presented as a webcomic but, until the end of the book is done, certain changes are still a possibility. Editing is an important part of producing any book and I’m going to make its presentation reflect that.

Cue Rhidiculous shouting “I told you so!” from some nearby bushes.

A Webcomic in Presentation Only?

Those Two Images are the Same Page

Instead of trying to finish things at breakneck speeds, I’m going to work on the comics at a more reasonable pace. I’ll try to work on it mainly Chapter to chapter instead of page to page like how a webcomic normally is done (buffers aside) This gives me the opportunity to take a step back and get a broader look at the story while still putting out content in enjoyable chunks.

It’s difficult for me to wrap my head around drawing a comic on a start-to-finish, page-by-page basis. While I was working on the later pages in the chapter I kept finding myself jumping around and making changes to previous pages to make some things more consistent with later parts of the story. Instead of working page-by-page, I was editing the chapter as a whole to try to strengthen the narrative I’m trying to tell.

To that end, I still want to present it on this site as a webcomic; if only in name and archive.

The Process

At the VERY longtime behest of my editor, I’ll be presenting the comic as a work in progress at various points in the following production stages.

Writing

I’ll post dialog excerpts here and there. Nothing that can spoil the story too much.

This step will be kept largely behind the scenes.

Thumbnails

I do these on index cards in ballpoint pen to figure out the sequence of events that I most prefer.

This is the step where I’m prone to overloading a page with information.

First Drafts

Full size roughs of the earlier thumbnails. This step helps me get a better sense of how crowded or unbalanced a page might be early on.

This step also helps to prune out any strenuous scenes or dialog that could otherwise have their own pages.

If it isn’t working visually at this point, it’s not going to work in the next step.

Pencils

This is where the real drawing happens. Drawings in this step are made by either digital or traditional means depending on when or where I’m working.

Inking

This step is exactly like the drawing step but in pen and ink. Despite my affinity for real pen and ink, I’ll mainly be working this step digitally.

Color

This step is wrought with indecision but it also one of the faster, more fun steps to do.

Lettering

I’ve removed the dialog from all the pages currently up, opting to keep that out until a chapter is completed; it’s the thing I’m likeliest to change the most frequently until the end.

All lettering is currently done digitally but I’m considering the possibility of hand lettering.

Drawing dialog can be quite fulfilling but it takes a lot of practice.

Editing

This part will be happening all throughout. Page re-orders, panel redraws, changes in dialog.

Until the book is done.

Here We Are

I’ve already made some revisions to a handful of the pages that are already up; if you browse through the comics you can see the revisions noted in the comic descriptions. I’ll make blog posts for any major revisions or series of revisions that I do. I have a few ideas for some smaller projects that I can work on while I work on Mage Punk. Whether they be illustrations, stories, or even mini-comics like this silly thing down here.

Moving on

I might have also mentioned before that I have a few other drawings that I wanted to make for the site. In particular I have a neat idea for some social media icon illustrations. I wanna make something that takes advantage of what I’ve learned with using CSS. It’s nothing too fancy.

All that said, future posts will be a bit more brief than these last three were. I’d much rather write and post about the work itself, but I feel like I’ve hit a personal milestone and felt the need to ramble on about it a little.

Until next time,

Thanks for reading!

The Big Site Update (Part 3) A Brief tl;dr This is probably a lot to say for 20 unfinished webcomic pages and

#Comics #Process #Social Media #Website #WIP

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orbyssarchives · 7 years ago

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4/20/2018//Friends Only Laugh WITH You Communication is Key Never hesitate to ask a friend to explain something to you if you don't understand; and when explaining something to someone that doesn't understand, please try to be patient.

#Big Thumbs #Pencils #Process

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orbyssarchives · 7 years ago

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4/30/2018//Seedy Tagalongs Upon Leaving the Darkened FFHQ It's not uncommon for one to find that some manner of seedy creature may have attached itself to them in hopes of escaping FFHQ shadowy abyss. Fairly often they can turn out to be close friends or acquaintances. Don't trust them.

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orbyssarchives · 7 years ago

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4/30/2018//The Matter at Hand

Despite outward appearances

The Leaders of the Final Flame take their jobs very seriously.

★★★

View On WordPress

#Big Thumbs #Pencils

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orbyssarchives · 7 years ago

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4/29/2018//Chandra Returns .bigthumb After Chandra's Great Courier Adventure After an epic quest of great unwanted ardor, Chandra Moon returns to find that her children have been been indoctrinated by the enemy against her and that her greatest friend on Orbyss is the traitor who just handed them over.

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orbyssarchives · 7 years ago

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4/29/2018//Rocket G of the Final Flame.thumb

Rocket G of the Final Flame

He composes a third of the leadership for the Final Flame.

He can be a bit hot-headed.

♦♦♦

View On WordPress

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orbyssarchives · 7 years ago

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4/29/2018//An Eavesdropper Appears.thumbs

The Listening Flames

Within the shadowy corridors of Final Flame HQ, it is not uncommon to spot an eavesdropper skulking about nearby. Despite appearances, they never hesitate to offer a friendly greeting or make friendly idle chat. Since they’re typically harmless, the Flames usually pay them no mind.

***

I’m going to try to use less panels for the actual illustrations on this page. I want…

View On WordPress

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orbyssarchives · 7 years ago

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After the Death of Phillip Mk. V

It was time to switch gears and work on something else for a little while. Up until that point I’d managed to do a few revisions to some of the comic pages that are up as well as first draft pencils of the rest of the 1st chapter. With that in mind I decided to start working on the site again.

If you scroll through the blog archives you’ll probably come across my “devlog” that I was writing as I first started putting this site together. It’s not the most ground breaking or beautiful thing in the digital world, but I’m fairly content for now. I’ve wanted my own site since the olden days in middle school when everyone was off on the net making their own Angelfire and Geocities.

I was hooked from the moment I found Angelfire’s old html editor and learned

<html> <head> <title>Mage Punk Archives</title> </head> <body> </body> </html>

I think I still have an old website from my high school web design class stashed away on a hard drive somewhere. I’ll revisit that in the future. But for now, let’s outline the changes I’ve made since the update that didn’t happen in November.

First, I reformatted the website a little.

Created new icons for the menubar

Reformatted the website.

Changed the site width. Made it a little more compact.

Removed the sidebar

Recent posts on the front page are now more compact in appearance.

Added a Gallery and a placeholder page for the Shop.

Revised the About section a little.

Might just move this info to the bottom of the front page and turn this space into a Profiles section.

Tidied up the Archives page a little.

Uploaded comic revision and wrote full posts for each one

Created new comic title cards (seen on the front page)

Added published dates to the comic page titles to account for reordering.

While the sidebar was useful for putting out a lot of static info at once, it made the front page a little too busy/cluttered. I like the simplicity of the no-column layout and the challenge of giving everything a fair chance at being seen. I still have to re-implement many of the widgets that were there into the current layout of the front page but I think that it can wait for now.

Then, I made the navbar illustrations.

The first time around, I made them too big and detailed for the size they’d be displayed at, so I used the default ComicPress navbar for a while instead. You’ll probably still see a few of these make their way into the pages of this site as little spot illustrations. It’d be a shame to let them just sit in the gallery.

Sometime before I started working on the site again, I started work on some little icon illustrations as a break from some beetle and flower studies that I was doing at the time. Before I knew it –(no, actually, it took about a week of work. I totally knew the whole time.) –before. I. knew. it. I’d made a whole set of illustrated graphics for the site.

Lesson learned I think.

Finally, it was time for comic revisions to go up.

I’d mentioned doing revisions on the pages I’d posted but I’d rather go into more detail about this in a separate post (The Big Update Part 3: End). For this post I only wanted to mention and show off the title cards that I made for the front page. Before the update, I made these smaller title card images that went in the side bar. They were fun to make, but I’m more attracted to the idea of using splash images on the front page.

Basically, there was a lot of image editing near the end

From the time I first dipped my toes into it in college, to the many years of putting it off or not having enough time at once, it has been an interesting ride tinkering around and learning to use WordPress. It currently feels like a Chimera-esque menagerie of plugins and self-taught CSS. I still have a lot to learn but I’m at a good enough stopping point for the time being. I’ve spent as much time as I could working on this site for the past two weeks (counting illustrations and image editing). It’s been an experience.

I’m hoping to dive back into drawing for a little while. Unfortunately, I only ever have enough time for one project at any extended period of time. I still have a handful of small spot illustrations and banners that I want to draw for the site but nothing too numerous or complex. This coming Sunday, I want to try to post the 1st draft pencils for the rest of Chapter 1. I’ll also be writing one last post explaining what I have planned for Mage Punk and how I hope to present it on this site. I also have a ton of older art that I’ll be uploading in the coming weeks. After that blog posts should hopefully be a little more succinct than these have been.

I do love to ramble.

★★★

The Big Site Update (Part 2) After the Death of Phillip Mk. V It was time to switch gears and work on something else for a little while.

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orbyssarchives · 7 years ago

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The one update that didn’t happen in November as originally intended

Back in the years of old (2017)…

During the month of Inktober, I posted an announcement some big update planned for the middle of November. As fate would have it, the Ides of My Month passed by and nothing went up.

It was a cold Inktober

For a while, I succeeded in keeping up with Inktober’s tight deadlines; but I was dissatisfied. I got off too a rocky start, daunted by the ages-old question of “what the FUCK do I draw?” Then, a week into Inktober, I came across 2pblog‘s own super gorgeous Inktober illustrations.

They reminded of Katsuya Terada’s old Legend of Zelda illustrations, whose style I sought to emulate and adapt into my own before I finished college. Having found a niche that I was comfortable drawing in, I tried to create a few illustrations of Mage Punk scenes along similar veins as theirs. Taking up, at most, half of a 5″x 8″ sketchbook page, they were meant to be small illustrations that I could finish in a timely manner.

Neuroticism is a Terrible Hubris

Despite their small size,, my drawings still proved to be a little too ambitious. Inktober’s daily deadlines and my own tight schedule made a tiring combination. The plan was to finish the pen and ink line art in October; then, color them in that first two weeks of November. Ultimately, I only managed to finish 17 of the 31 planned drawings for the month. Colors were done in December. The holiday season wore me down until I was unable to work on much of anything at all.

I kept fairly active on Twitter and Instagram, where first I posted the colored illustrations after finishing them; but that was about the most that I could manage at the time. I was still proud.

You can see the rest of these drawings in the new Gallery page! Check em out!

Then, November was over and suddenly, it was 2018.

The 18th year of the Third Millennium began with a few miscellaneous drawings here and there. I worked to get back into the flow of working regularly. I also began wrapping up work on some revisions for the comic pages that had already been posted on this site. Chipping away at my goals for the year was a slow going process, but everything was going smoothly otherwise. I’d taken some time off work in February to take photos of the buttons I was selling at cons last year. Along with a little research, I was starting prep for opening on online store and it’s possible that I over value presentation. I thought the photos looked pretty neat.

My phone dropped dead on me a few weeks ago.

As suddenly as that sub-headline, Phillip Mk V (my phone) just shut off on me and wouldn’t turn back on; And preparations for opening up a proper online shop were suddenly derailed because I didn’t have my phone automatically backing photos up into a cloud. Disheartened by my loss, I began working on what would eventually turn out to be the finishing touches on this website.

The Big Site Update (Part 1) The one update that didn't happen in November as originally intended Back in the years of old (2017)...

#Dashed Hopes #Inktober #Website

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