Things That Drive Me Crazy, pt. 1

27 November 202327 November 2023 ~ Not Alison ~ Leave a comment

Because of the way I assemble and then finalize my comic pages, the text can get shifted a bit when I change image resolution. When I was updating all the pages of Not a Cat Lady last autumn (yes, 2022) I made sure to check all the flattened images as I saved them. But in at least one case I missed something, and I bet I checked all the captions on page 48 (in chapter 23) but overlooked one other important bit.

So what looked like this at the original size of 300×300

panel 3 of page 48 of Not a Cat Lady, as it looked at 300x300 resolution

ended up looking like this at 150×150 when I posted the updated page online.

panel 3 of page 48 of Not a Cat Lady, as it first looked at 150x150 resolution

And I only caught the mistake today.

I hate this kind of error. Hate it hate it hate it. I could’ve caught it if I’d checked more carefully or simply remembered there was extra text in this panel. Rrrrrggh.

I’ve re-updated the page now, though.

Teaser Fragments 9

16 June 202316 June 2023 ~ Not Alison ~ Leave a comment

The final installment of unpolished panels from my work in progress; I’ve now completed all the principal drawings and have started assembling finished pages. I’m going to complete multiple chapters before I start posting them, though.

pencil drawing of an oversized flash drive dropping sparkles onto a mini-computer with a crescent-like shape on top; there is no monitor or screen; darker shading rings the image

•

pencil drawing of a hanging rope bridge from which ten planks have fallen; the planks are disintegrating as they fall; other planks remain in place on both sides of the gap; cliff-faces are visible in the background

•

pencil drawing of someone talking to an elephant that is standing between two trees

•

pencil drawing of a woman, shown from her head to just above the knees, standing facing left and looking up; she wears a facemask; her long hair blows to the right behind her; her hands are in her jacket pockets

•

pencil drawing of a pickup truck, two men in hardhats, and some lengths of fencing; the view is from slightly above

A Little Bit of Process: Sower

2 May 20232 May 2023 ~ Not Alison ~ Leave a comment

For a panel in my work-in-progress, I first sketched out the image I had in my head (3 Jl 2021):

pencil sketch of a faceless, hairless body walking to the left; with her left hand she tosses five small objects away from her; the ground slopes behind her and a sun occupies the top left corner; an orange line is drawn roughly around the image on the left and at bottom

Afterwards I wrote a brief description in the word-processing document that includes the text for the entire story:

<ZAJ: walking along barren, bare yellow-brown land, casting handful of five tiny dark-brown seeds to ground, has NO bag with more seeds; wears simple jeans loose and baggy, thin button-up long-sleeved shirt open at top with undershirt beneath, sleeves rolled at elbows, boots under pants legs; show land going on and on around her, all bare>

A year and a half later (7 Fb 2023) I finally got around to doing a regular drawing, which I did without more than a glance at the original sketch. I ended up with this:

pencil drawing of a woman walking towards the right but looking towards the left; with her right hand she tosses five small items away from her; the land in the background looks rough and shows no vegetation

Two months later I happened to look at the sketch version again and couldn’t help thinking it was much superior in feeling to the “finished” drawing (which I had examined recently when posting it in “Teaser Fragments 8”).

So I made a new drawing (12 Ap 2023):