Last night I finally finished #16. Not that I really feel bad about taking my time with this one. there's a lot of changes in this strip from how I normally illustrate Atomic Tails. This is the first time I tried to do a larger, "Sunday" like, strip. It was fun, and I would like to work these strips in on a regular basis. Maybe every seven strips instead of days, maybe not. It does take me awhile to get a comic produced. Also, this is the first time I used Adobe Photoshop to fully color one of my strips. So, there ways a bit (huge) learning curve on how to work with PS on this level. I've only ever used Adobe Illustrator for my strip, but I can see how learning Photoshop will speed things up, once I get more practice. I still inked (digitally) the strip in Illustrator though. I just like AI's pen and brush tools way more than Photoshop's. Keep in mind too, I'm using CS3 a much older version of Adobe than most people have access too. I'm broke! I can't afford the cloud!
Another thing of note is the logo for the Ascension of the Golden Yo-Yo's, As Designed by Jason (aka: real life Chudd) Murray. I dig the design and think it'll give us a lot to play with in the future. Jason also helped with the writing of this strip and I think it came out a lot better than what I had originally planned.
The last thing of note is the changes to Trog's apartment. I changed the couch to look more like my own couch at home (kind of...) and I also added some posters of stuff similar (kind of...) to stuff I keep on the walls of my own apartment. It wasn't until I had most of the strip done that I noticed how little detail I was putting into my backgrounds. I'm trying to work more with perspective and spacing, but I want to focus more on Chudd and Trog's world. I'm even playing with the idea of designing the layout of Trog's apartment. Right now I'm just throwing up walls, because they're in doors and there should be a wall there somewhere. In the future I'd like their living space to be more planned out and believable. Well, as real as an apartment for cartoon mice can be.
So, I've already got a good bite into #17 and I'm hoping this one won't take more than two weeks! Keep checking back for more Atomic Tails goodness! Check out the full #16 below!
