Currently Browsing: Tips & Tricks

Bug Pudding Sketching

As part of the layout process for my comic strip, Bug Pudding, I make character pose sketches. I work both traditionally with pencil and paper as well as digitally using SketchBook Pro, Illustrator, and Photoshop. (more on the process steps in future posts). Here are some recent sketches for the strip. These...

Using a Model Sheet

Model sheets are important not just for animation projects but for comic strips too. Even if you aren’t working with a team of artists, it is very useful to capture, for reference purposes, the way that a character looks. Of course, characters evolve and change the more that you draw them, but with the...

Using Digitally Painted Backgrounds and Props

Animators normally think of characters, props, and backgrounds as separate elements. These distinctions are less formal in a sequential comic. But none the less, in the age of digital production, it is possible to composite comic strip panels similarly to the way we composite shots in an animated movie.  To...

Visual Fun

One of the best parts of drawing a comic strip is doing panels that are just plain visual fun. I particularly enjoy drawing action poses or “in your face” poses. Here are a couple examples from a recent Bug Pudding strip. This was a really interesting sketch to draw. I wanted to capture as much...

A Banner Day

I just updated the Bug Pudding comic site with an improved look and a new top banner. Part of publishing a comic on the web is constructing and maintaining your publishing platform. For many people this is a difficult task due to the “roll your own” aspect of customizing a website. I use a...

Drawing a Comic Strip Classically

My friend Bill Riling loves drawing comics and he is a master of the classical approach to creating and drawing a comic strip. His creation is called The Adventures of Lewis and Cluck. In this article, I’ve included some behind the scenes insight into Bill’s creative process. I hope you will pick...

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