Laura's Art Blog

Taiki 5th Anniversary

2011-08-28T20:14:00.000-07:00

Happy 5th Anniversary to Taiki! (I know it was 10 days ago lol) I can't believe it's been so long since I started this comic. I honestly never thought people outside my group of friends would ever read it. haha But I'm so glad that there are people out there that like it! So thinking back on what I've learned over the past 5 years, I'd like to share it with whomever reads this blog in hopes that it'll help you if you are new to drawing webcomics. I am by no means a professional or even super talented, but here goes regardless.

- Have an ending in mind if you don't already have the entire thing written out. When I started Taiki, I was totally like "OH EM GEE, I WANT THIS TO GO ON FOREVEEEERR!" That's not a good idea because then you're not really working towards anything.

- I'd suggest starting some short stories first. Starting a really long comic as your first project may not be a good idea. I have felt burnt out so many times and there's things I would like to change but then I'd have to redo hundreds of pages. For example, I kind of grew out of being a huge anime geek (I still watch some occasionally) so all the characters having Japanese names without being Japanese kind of bothers me now.

- Be sure it's something you want to do and are willing to sacrifice a lot of time doing. It's very unfortunate that people start comics all the time and loose interest. I tend to get ideas for new comics on a weekly basis and just want to run off and start them, but I don't because it's spur of the moment and the story doesn't mean something to me so I'm sure I'd lose interest. I do however keep track of all of these ideas so that maybe one day I can expand on them and complete them.

- Thumbnails, thumbnails, thumbnails! And scripting! (thumbnails are small sketched versions of a page and layout before actually making a page) After rereading Taiki, I feel like the transitions are awkward sometimes and some scenes go on way too long. It's important to thumbnail out at least a chapter ahead. My problem was that I only ever planned 3-6 pages ahead in Taiki when I should have done a lot more. Also having thumbnails makes me more productive because I know what I want to happen next instead of having to try to plan it out as I go.

- When starting a comic, I would suggest posting a few pages up all at once to get the readers interested and hooked. How many really depends on the comic, how long it is in entirety, and how it starts, but I'd suggest around 5 to begin with and then immediately start updating on a set schedule. I know I'm not the best at staying on schedule but I do understand how important it is. It's also important to have extra pages made, or in other words, a buffer.

If anyone has any other questions, feel free to ask!

It is my goal to finish Taiki by the end of 2012 (this date may change depending on how I finalize the ending). Not because I don't enjoy drawing it anymore or something like that, because I really do and I still love all of the characters. It's just that all things must end and all my readers have been waiting for me to work on this for so long. There's other projects I'd like to eventually work on so I hope you guys will enjoy them too when the time comes. C:

Long time no see!

2011-07-01T15:15:00.000-07:00

OH MAN! I can't believe it's been so long since I updated this. I'm sorry! Let me sum up what's been going on.

I read this on Bryan Lee O'Malley's (the creator of Scott Pilgrim) blog:

"My main interest as a writer/creator is in the ways that people rub against each other. Everyone is different, and all the different people interact with every other person in a unique way, so every individual relationship between two characters is its own discrete thing. I guess that’s some kind of insight."

It made me really think. I feel like all of my characters treat everyone else the same way. Like... as if everyone else was the same person to them. So with that, I'm going to try harder to make all of my characters have individual relationships with each other. Also I think one of my biggest problems is that I don't really plan very far ahead in my stories. I always have a basic outline of what I want to happen from beginning to end but I make up everything else as I go and after rereading some of the comics I've done... it really shows. This is also probably because I try to bite off more than I can chew. From what I've learned during my time drawing comics, it's not a very good idea to start with a long comic as your first project. I probably should have started with short one-shots or something. xD; As much as I love Taiki, I do want to do other things too.

As for Taiki in print, I'm sorry for taking so long with the next issue. I keep redrawing the cover because I never like it and I'm finding it hard to find time to edit all the pages like I did with the last one. This was mainly due to my job over at Trisphee but I stepped down there to hopefully get some more free time for my comic stuff, but the timing sucks because with summer here, my regular full time job gets busier and I work more hours.

For my other project Riley: Fighter for Hire, I had gotten the cover and first few pages done but after a lot of thinking I'm probably going to scrap the work I did for that as well. I'm going to take the time to write out the entire script and page thumbnails for the first issue before I start again (before I only had the first like... 5 or 6 pages scripted). I think in the end it will turn out better. I am also considering doing some redesigns on their outfits.

Also, I'd like to introduce my character designs for a comic project I came up with called CMYK:

Some of you may have seen this on my deviant Art but I've changed Key's design because I didn't like what he looked like before. I'm also tempted to change Yellow a little bit. As for when this comic will actually get drawn... I'm not sure because I'm still not confident enough in drawing that style yet.

There's just so many comics I want to make but so little time, it's quite unfortunate. I've been trying to learn to be more productive with my free time and have better time management so hopefully that goes well. haha

Taiki in Print

2010-10-25T17:15:00.000-07:00

I just got these in! My friend Thom at Delmar's Vaudeville Publishing sent them to me to sign and once they get back to him, they'll be for sale~! This first issue of Chapter 3 will have the first 26 pages (pages 151-177 of the comic itself) complete with newly revised word balloons for easier reading, 3 print exclusive mini comics (4-komas), a few sketches, artist comments on all the pages, and brand new cover art! Again, the reason I started with Chapter 3 for print is because the first 2 chapters aren't at a high enough resolution to print in a decent quality and I need to do a lot of editing on them. They will eventually be for sale however so don't worry! I believe the price for this issue will be $6.50.

Also, I'd also suggest ordering a copy of Go Get a Roomie when it is released as well if you like Girl Love stuff! I personally love the comic and have a copy. ;D Though it is more Adult than Taiki. xD

Pokemon: Ultimate Quest

2010-09-07T01:24:00.001-07:00

So I was kicking around this idea to do a really cartoonie comic in my Riley drawing style but quickly didn't like where it was going. I spent a few weeks trying to establish a new cartoonie style and came up with what you see here. The style is for a different comic, but I wanted to practice it a bit so I started this parody Pokemon webcomic called Ultimate Quest. (I don't really want to spend a lot of time on the strips, so I sketch them straight into the computer at 72 dpi, so it looks a bit sketchy). My future comic that this style is for is called CMYK. I will try to redo the character sheets I made for it and show it off a bit.

Taiki in Print - Coming Soon!

2010-08-30T17:11:00.000-07:00

Soooo who's ready for some Taiki?! The first part of Chapter 3 is being sent to the printers~! After much collaboration with my friend Thom (of Delmar's Vaudeville Publishing), we decided it would be best to start with Chapter 3 for print because Chapters 1 and 2 need a ton of editing and are at such a low resolution. I didn't start making the resolution higher when drawing the comic until Chapter 3. The first issue of Chapter 3 will have the first 26 pages (pages 151-177 of the comic itself) complete with newly revised word balloons for easier reading, 3 print exclusive mini comics (4-komas), a few sketches, artist comments on all the pages, and brand new cover art! Also, the first 20 copies ordered will be signed by me! C: And don't worry fans of Taiki, the first 2 chapters will eventually be printed as Trades when I get done fixing them up.

Riley, the old and the new!

2010-08-03T23:31:00.000-07:00

So here's a comparison to the original 1st page to what is now Riley! I don't know the exact date that I drew it except I know that it was during my sophmore year of high school which was 2003/2004. Back when I used to ink everything with pens. haha The "insert this here" things aren't part of the original, I just had never gotten around to drawing those panels. I found the first 5 pages to this comic in a box of old art in my closet. I really wanted to redraw it because it is deffinately one of my favorite stories I've written. C:

Poor Cody got his intro kicked to the 2nd page in the remake though. haha oh well~

More on Riley

2010-07-26T00:13:00.000-07:00

Here's what I got for a cover for the first issue. I'm not starting it right away, I just made the cover because I wanted to take a small break from a bunch of Taiki stuff. I may change a few things on it later but for now this is what it is. I'm not sure how distracting the doodles behind them are. haha I added a link to the blog header thing to the Smackjeeves page I made for it for when I do get it going. Also, I will only be posting the first issue online and after that, the issues will be released into the store. Sorry to everyone who is unable to buy things online. D: I will not be putting Taiki on hiatus or anything for Riley. Taiki is my main comic and my priority.

Riley Concepts

2010-07-16T03:34:00.000-07:00

I actually started this comic before Taiki back in 2004. I started it by inking and shading (with a pencil) it back before I really knew how to edit things on the computer. I only got like... 6 or so pages into it. haha Maybe if I dig through my old art box I can find the original pages. I know they're in there somewhere. I took a comicing class last year and one of the projects was to make a comic with each page in a different style (I posted it on dA) and the final page was to make our own style and these are the characters I used for it and it was in this style. Recently I've been drawing them a lot in this style instead of my normal style just for fun and practice and I'm really considering redrawing the comic and continuing it like this. I also decided it was better if I changed their names. It was originally called "Reikai : Fighter for Hire". Reikai isn't even a name, I just added an "i" to the name "Reika" for some reason. Also I did not want the boy's name to be Sasuke. I was going to make it into a joke but I decided against that as well. So Reikai is now Riley and Sasuke is now Cody (not 100% set in stone, but those are what I'm going with for the time being). I can't decide on Miya, I kind of want to keep her name the same but I'm also concidering Leila. I don't want my comics to look uber Weeaboo or whatever so since they aren't Japanese, I don't want them all to have Japanese names.

Taiki Buttons!

2010-06-16T02:55:00.001-07:00

Taiki : The Webcomic buttons are now available in the store! They look so amazing! :D

KH : CS

2010-06-13T00:58:00.000-07:00

I'm sure some of you are wondering, what's "KH : CS"? It stands for "Kingdom Hearts : Crimson Secrets". It was a Kingdom Hearts fan comic I drew about 2 years ago and eventually I stopped because I realized that I had just rushed into it without any character depth or full out story. I decided that I would restart it when I had time and I still plan to. Above is concept sketches of the characters. Some of them are kinda old. haha Last year I designed a new main character and outfits for the other characters. I redrew the first 3 pages almost the same as before but with the new character and I decided that wasn't the best way to start the story. Below are those pages:

It's not really spoilers to the next remake of the comic because after Birth By Sleep came out, I learned more about the history of the canon characters and have changed the story to go along with it. I want this comic's story to be as linear with the actual Kingdom Hearts story as possible. Along with a few original characters, this comic will have some canon characters as well as other Disney characters that aren't (yet?) in KH. Such as Kim Possible and Shego. Why a fan comic you ask? I'm usually against drawing fan stuff since I love doing original things, but I really do love KH and this is going to be a practice comic where I try out a lot of new techniques. Since it has copyrighted stuff in it, I could never get it published, so I won't ever worry about it being "good enough". It's just for fun and learning.