As you may have noticed, I am yet again fiddling with my style. What exactly is my problem? Simply put, I’ve not found a style that I’m satisfied with. I played with the “flat” style and it’s not working for me. It was really too flat and I felt lacked life. And I still feel the colors were too saturated.
So this is my next attempt. I’ve brought back in more of the texture/detail work, and at least with this strip, I like how it came out. If you’ve been around awhile, you will remember I did some stuff like this before. (In fact, a few older strips still show some of it that weren’t redone). I partly stopped because I didn’t feel I was doing it well and it took more time. In fact, this strip took me longer than usual.
I’ve also gone with a more organic look to the speech balloons (made with the pen tool in PhotoShop, not drawn) and the border on the balloons has returned. In a way I liked the borderless balloons, but I was already running into problems with them on light backgrounds and it was forcing me to do things I didn’t want to do.
I have to find that line of getting it done fast enough and yet up to the quality I want it to be. I look forward to hearing your thoughts.
Some of this came to a head this week when I read the judge’s comments on my strip for the Webcomic Idol competition.
Speaking of which, if you have not voted yet, please go there and vote for some comic OTHER than mine if you want me to move to the next round. I repeat: DO NOT vote for my comic. You are voting a comic OUT, not in. 
You can vote here.
The truth is I’m on the outside looking in right now for the next round, so I could use the help.
Oh, and Ugo is back – gee, he sure missed a lot. I believe this was the first strip I ever drew without Asimov… that was weird…
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Hi! I like the less flat style of course! And about the saturation, I think that the old ones (see #50) were too saturated, and these ones aren’t enough
Maybe you could try something in between.
The less saturated colors perhaps suit better the sci-fi side of your story, but not the humorous side and the cuteness of the characters. IMHO.
Good points Sal, thanks!
hopefully that walking talking trash can didn’t get put into…well…a trash can.
I hope not as well…
If you’re looking for votes on the subject – I’d go with a little more saturation, particularly play the oranges off the blues, the reds off the purples (this is a Mars story after all, red planet and all that).
And the backgrounds – c’est magnifique! (Mwo!) *pretentious kissing sound* Love that look. It’s climbing up onto the Moebius aesthetic, and that’s a great beat to pursue. Roll on with your exceedingly bad self.
Thanks Og
You make a good point about the saturation. I gotta work on that. I’m definitely chasing Moebius a bit, as I’ve told you, but trying to make it work with my own style. (Not gonna be able to do what he did – that’s for sure!)
No. 1 pick up line: “Hey babe, I’d like to play in your nuclear reactor with my cube.”
Sorry Tom, I had to go there. The urge was too strong.
Well she is cute..wait! Stop!
As you could probably guess from my art, I prefer a sketchy, less saturated style. But I agree that maybe this is a little too under saturated for your comic. Especially the skin tones, Ugo’s green, and just generally the foreground characters.
One of the things to watch out for (and sorry, this is a pet peeve of mine) is tangential lines. In the first panel Ugo’s back lines up almost perfectly with the building behind him. This really draws my eye and is distracting.
Finally, I really like the second panel without the border. I should try doing that myself sometime!
Thanks for the insight Tony. Yes, I know better than to leave tangents. Somehow I missed that. I’ve been wanting to do some “open” panels for awhile. It’s too easy to get locked into the same old layouts. Starting with #50, one of my goals is to start breaking some rules.
FYI people, I kicked up the saturation a bit and updated the comic.
Tom- I really dig the new technique and color story you have going here. It looks great! Also like the new ad you’re running on Zap! Great looking ad.
~B
Thanks Barb
Sometimes making the ad is just as fun!
I don’t know, John looks kinda pale. But less flat is good and the layout is nice.
He does look a little pekid!
I like where you’re going with this, Tom. I wouldn’t get TOO crazy on the detail but this looks really nice.
Thanks Wit!
Tom, I am LOVING this alteration in style. This is looking fantastic! And I really like the new word balloons as well. I did that exact same change a couple of months back. I went more “organic” and used the pen tool to draw them. I think it’s MUCH better.
Thanks Irma, I appreciate the input!