So, last time I showed you how to use GIMP to make create.swf comics, but I have found an even easier program to use if you're going to just use each panel as a separate image. Meet the Cropper, a nifty program that will automatically crop a section of the screen and save it as jpg or a variety of other file types.

Once upon a time, there was a man who died in the middle of nowhere. No one knew who he was, and he carried no form of identification. They decided to bury him in the town cemetery with a blank tombstone in case anyone was able to identify him. However, centuries passed and his identity was never found.

This picture ended up a lot smaller than intended, but I think I'm getting the hang of water colors. It's weird that there's no shortcut key for the water brush in SAI, it's kinda annoying having to keep clicking it. I can't think of anything else to say.

I decided to try out using water colors in SAI. I think it matches well with the sketchy outline. I figured out how to get the layers to clip like they do in photoshop, but I didn't really use it here except for recoloring the sketch layer.

I personally use Photoshop CS2 to create my comics, but I realize not everyone has access to photoshop, so I'm going to be making a tutorial on how to create comics using GIMP. One of the main reasons to use GIMP over regular Paint is the use of layers. Layers will greatly improve your work flow.

No sketches today because I was busy working on the create.swf. So instead I'll talk about improvisational storytelling, the art of making up stories on the fly. One of my past times was making up stories right on the spot for people on my MSN list with nothing more than a topic. Let's say the topic is gold. Your mind instantly pulls up a great many number of related things, like gold coins, gold rings, or maybe golden cat breads. Being able to comprehend these abstract ideas is an important part of on the spot story telling. There's generally no time to be picky about which you choose to right about, but you should still take a moment to fish for a good subject rather than just writing the first thing that comes to mind.

I decided to try out drawing different eye styles. Ended up drawing some other things as well. I've become too accustomed to drawing characters looking either straight forward or towards you. I should probably practice making them look up/down more, or at something in the background. Another thing I need to practice is drawing the whole iris to form that surprised expression. Seems like the majority of a character's expression are in their eyes.

It seems people want to see Hina spin, so I decided to try it. Having not paid much attention to the character and never drawn her before, I decided to take a glance at the first picture of her I could find and try to work with it. The first two frames were kinda wobbly as a result as I wasn't sure how exactly I should draw her. After the 8th frame, I was pretty satisfied with how she turned out and gained a new appreciation for the character. However, it was immediately pointed out that I drew her wrong. As funny as I found it, it's also quite depressing that I didn't notice it after drawing her 8 times. Basically, the ribbon on her head is supposed to be on top rather than on the back. Oh well.

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