What is the meaning of this?

Why don’t you tell me.

Well if it wasn’t you? Who was it?

Some joker with no consideration of anybody else.

Seriously. What did he expect would happen? Disappear into the ether?

The nerve. The ignorance. The indignation. Paralyzing anger.  Lurking, strengthening.

Only one thing left to do.

I am the cool spring breeze blowing over the recently uncovered meadow.

That’s it,  you got the right idea.

Where’s the nearest  garbage can?

Just around the corner. I’ll show you.

Cycle be broken.

I’ve been meaning to get back into animating but alas when I was in school Flash was very new and the tools were primitive at best. Thats why every thing I made in Director, Painter or Traditionally hand drawn.

I put together a little experiment to see how Adobe Flash worked. I feel like I barely scratched the surface. The workflow is not there yet but shows promise.

I used the sketching tools to scribble a few hand drawn looping frames for the guitar player. I tossed some automatic inbetweening for the Stubble Bunny. Backgrounds is a quick Japan Sketch over a few photo shop texture filters.

Music is a snippet from Red Elvises, Boogie on the Beach. It’s a neat album if you like surf guitar/rockabilly music

A little later I decided to mess around with the bones features of Flash.

Here I’m just testing some flash IK on a quick Godzilla Doodle. I’m not 100% sold on how easy it is to work with. Seems like there are a lot of bugs. For example adjusting a bone will affect the and throw the entire rig off. Constraints behave a little erratically and there is some wonkyness on how . Still is something new to do.

Hey man long time no see.

What’s it been?  A year? Two years?

I think Three. What have you been up to?

Same thing, working hard, hardly working. How about yourself?

I just had my long lost girlfriend call me up out of the blue to ask me about  an old piece of jewelry.  Except it wasn’t just jewelry, it was a one of a kind celtic relic. Some thugs explained that to me as I was being pinned face down on the floor. Luckily I had pawned something that looked like it the day  before so they needed my help and eventually a second group of thugs rescued me from their speeding van. The rest of the day we ran around looking for the thing, strong arming one pawn shop owner after another and then I meet up with the most gorgeous woman I have ever met, who also happens to know how to clog a pistol with a throwing star from 12 feet away. Honestly, that’s a skill that did not seem handy until that day. Turns out, she thought I looked like her old boyfriend from the telescopic scope of her riffle but she was really looking for the guy who lived across the hall from me. So in fact the jewelry I was thinking of was not the one she was looking for so she got angry and left. How was I supposed to know? She kind of sounded like my girlfriend on the phone and she was very vague and non descriptive when talking about the darn thing.

So you haven’t heard from Adriana since the last time I saw you?

Nope. I have no idea what’s become of her.

Really. She’s on facebook you know? Soon as I get to the computer I’ll send you the info.

Dude that would be rad! Let me give you my email?

Neat.

Boy, It is tough out there.

I heard that. Some days is just hard to even get out of bed.

What can you do? Life is just hard sometimes.

Um hum, at least it’s not personal.

True, true. Strictly business.

I’m thinking about planting flowers this year. Perennials.

You think they’ll take?

I don’t know. It’s worth a shot.

Damn right it is.

The coffee is warm.

The room is mostly empty.

No one is speaking.

Outside, the world  slugs along to seek the future.

And just as you begin to understand it, the moment is gone and a new one arrives.

The coffee is warm.

Cream no sugar.

Sometimes people ask me, I’d like to make comics what should I read? Well here is a start. A good library will carry one of these. Stay away from books that want you to trace characters or those that water down the creative process in how to make your manga character look battle damaged.

• Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud – An easy introductory read to learn about comics as a medium in general. Plus it’s a comic.

• Perspective for Comic Book Artist by David Chelsea – This is a little more advanced and yet a quick read. This technical book will show you how to make better use of your backgrounds. I works best if you practice the exercises as Cup does them.

• The Art of Comic Book Inking by Gary Martin – This is theory and techniques from some very accomplished inkers. Here you really get down to why inking is NOT tracing but rather rendering. You wouldn’t call penciling doodling would you?

• Drawing Words and Writing Pictures by Jessica Abel and Matt Madden – This massive book is everything a student needs, from tools to processes. It does take a while to read and I am still working my way through it.

We can try to deny it but it wouldn’t make a difference.

Nope.

Did you get one?

No, I did not. How about you?

I rather not talk about it.

Well, who’s is this?

If it’s not mine, I don’t want to know?

This is ridiculous! Why don’t we just walk away?

We are too good to be manipulated by such petty things.

Darn right girlfriend let’s book it.

You first.

No you first.