I have been wrestling with something for the past several months. As you may have noticed, I have not been terribly timely with updates to the strip. I think the primary cause of this is my tendency to obsess over tiny little details that no one will ever see, or they will see them, but will not spend as much time thinking about them as I do. For example, how often do you ever look at Jaine's ponytail and say to yourself, "Wow, Rob sure drew that lower curl just right?" I am willing to bet that thought has never crossed your mind, nor should it - you all have lives ;)
What I plan to do is to find ways to streamline my drawing style so as to increase my work flow and bring you folks the best strip I can make. Essentially, I need to loosen up. I plan to do this over the next couple of months, starting with today's strip. If you'd like to see the direction I'm hoping to go towards, look at Jaine's face in the second panel. She still looks like Jaine, but slightly different, softer. It is a learning process and I appreciate your patience while I try to figure out how to draw all over again.:)
Onward!
~Rob
So much for trying to be overly formal and polite.
Poor Dhur. He’s finally actually in his element, and nobody’s letting him do his thing!
I like the evolving art style! It looks more…natural, I guess (for a cartoon, anyway). Not sure how you feel about finishing out the eyes, though…pupils, irises, etc. If that’s a signature thing, cool, or if you’re just not comfortable with that particular detail.
Either way, it’s been fun watching your writing and art develop. Keep up the great work!
It seems to be time for an “Ale Conference”,…. have Chi’p cook,… Jayne can sing,… and Dhur can talk,….lol
That sort of simplification over time is fairly common in comics. Garfield is a lot less detailed than he used to be. So too are Slick and Monique (Sinfest). Since the point of Meatshield is to tell a story, it’s only reasonable to make your characters a little less detailed and a little more abstract.
I think it might be spelled “desmenes”…