I’ve tried a different approach with the shading in this and the previous page. let me know if you like/dislike. I’m sort of torn, myself.
Busybody Part II
Character: Babushka
Reconnaissance
Babcia certainly means well, but–she may just be selling Rudek up the river. It’s unlike her to not be a step ahead. though. For this comic I did a little research on Belarusian folk motifs. And it turns out there’s a whole vocabulary of symbolic designs. Fascinating stuff! The design Babcia’s working on incorporates protective…Read more
Black Tuesday
At long last, it’s here! A couple weeks of tender loving care went into this one. I shaded the backgrounds with pencil. I’m ambivalent about the effect, though. Shading the characters ended up being pretty haphazard. In the past I’ve tended to add shading on a new layer, so that my flats remained editable blocks…Read more
The Next Morning
Babcia just can’t seem to stop falling in these dang holes! In this comic I worked on the shading effect I developed. I think I was able to control the modeling of the shadows a little better in this one. I also discovered, to my delight, that you can select, move, and transform a selection on…Read more
Recipes
Is the old lady trying to wear down the border guards, and gain entry to Poland? or is she just bored? I’ve had the idea to do a comic like this for a while. I dunno, I kind of like that old babushka. The art’s a bit different here for a couple reasons. I recycled…Read more
Tactics
Rudek has a philosophical disagreement with his superior officer. Problems with Background Art So, with the last few comics I’ve been experimenting with traditionally drawn, inked, and colored backgrounds. But I’ve been finding that it’s a double-edged sword. On the one hand, I’m very happy with how the backgrounds look, in and of themselves. But…Read more
Integrity
So, this one was a long time in the making. After my mixed feelings about the traditionally-colored backgrounds in the last cartoon, I wanted to see what it looked like if I outlined the backgrounds as well. I also did a lot of color manipulation. A lot. My idea was to get the textures and atmosphere…Read more
Imports
I wasn’t sure about this one, because it’s a little weird to have livestock in a world of anthropomorphic animals. But I couldn’t resist illustrating this idea. The babushka doesn’t seem too surprised that her plan has failed. Coloring Experiments I tried a couple experiments with this one. Like the experiment with this comic, I…Read more
Soviet Invasion?
Process Pencilled in non-photo blue on Blue Line Pro board Inked characters with Copic liner brush; inked backgrounds with Copic liner (.3) and black Copic marker. Scanned at 400 dpi Edited and colored in PhotoShop. What I Learned Attempting a limited palette proved much more difficult than I thought. Coloring this comic took over eight…Read more
Introduction.
This full-page comic is meant to establish the basic premise of Rudek and the Bear. I had fun experimenting with different techniques while making it–which took about two weeks of work, on and off. Any questions? Feel free to leave a comment, and I’ll get back to you! Update 6/17/2014: I’ve redone the typography and…Read more