Evolution: Part 2 Looking Back and Moving Forward

The evolution from paper to digital art can be a little overwhelming. In my last blog update, I talked about how my process has changed by adding technology into the mix. In this entry I am going to focus on style details, colors, wording, and font creation.

Style Details

Moving into the world of digital art requires additional time to complete each cartoon, but the end product is so much better. Microwave Mac & Cheese is OK, just unwrap then place in microwave. Simple and good. But when you take the time to boil the water, melt the butter, add the cheese, stir in the pasta, and really get the ingredients together, the end product is far better. That is how I feel about my original cartoons. For their time, they were good. Now I have more ways to make them better. I want my ‘toons to be the best that they can be, (within my ability level), so I will spend the time to add in those details. I spend hours getting it just right, and I’m sure once it’s on Instagram my ‘toon gets scrolled by in mere milliseconds. A tear comes to my eye when I think about it… (me and my superior Mac & Cheese), but I believe the combination these details come together to help create a cartoon’s style.

My “style” has always come from what I loved as a kid. If you boiled down my ‘toons (insert pasta reference here) it would be part Muppet characters, part Rankin/Bass, now throw in some big round eyes and give it a swirl of 1970s-1980s Saturday morning cartoon technicolor, and Waaa-Laaaa... You have Zanyee.

Noise Effect

Rankin/Bass created stop motion specials back in the late 1960s and into the 1970s. Their characters had a texture that I’ve always liked. These characters had a felt or velvet look to them. The Muppets have the same look. I started to noticed my color ink work looked really smooth on characters, which is fine if you have skin, but it looks too smooth for fur. One of the filters/effects I found that helps solve this texture issue is called “noise” in Pixelmator. I really like this filter/effect because it gives me the look I was hoping for. Now, I will openly admit I know very little about filters/effects and the proper use of filters/effects. With my luck the “noise” filter/effect is the equivalent of the Comic Sans font and people are silently judging me. But I like what I like. So anything with short fur, textured walls, carpet gets different levels of the “noise” filter/effect.

Fur Brush

On the opposite side of the spectrum I use the “fur” brush to create hair and woodgrain. This adds more detail and smooths out otherwise plain shapes. Noah’s Ark is clearly made of wood, but in the cartoon the boat was just plain brown. Adding just that little extra texture helps the image “pop.” (I feel like I’m going quotation mark crazy, I’m not even sure I’m using them correctly at this point) For a polished hardwood look, I use the fur brush. Dog hair, I use the fur brush. When choosing a filter I figure out the texture, then choose “noise” filter/effect for a rougher texture and the “fur” brush for a smoother texture.

Colors

When it came time to color my ‘toons I wanted to bring in full color. I wanted my Zanyee to feel like the cartoons I watched as I kid. Scooby-Doo, Superfriends, GI Joe, Thundercats, and Robotech were all shows that I loved. I know many cartoonists use water colors on their comics, and it looks great, but I was looking for something different (and I’m terrible at water colors...so there was also that…). In today’s world most art is going to be seen on a computer screen or mobile device so it made sense to pack in vibrant colors and details. In 1991, my best option was a black and white photocopier. Now screen resolutions open up of what we can create, and how we use colors becomes limitless.

Wording

Ugh... words are hard. I’m always amazed at how just switching a few words around helps or ruin a cartoon. There is almost a lyrical flow with wording that can happen and it can be pretty apparent when there is no lyrical flow happening. I tend to ask for help when I get stuck on a caption. Fresh eyes are always helpful. But there are some captions I still look at and want to change, I just feel they could be clearer, or get to the point more efficiently. “There’s just a better way to say that…” repeats in my head, over, and over. Word choice can also be a problem. At some point you have to decide who your audience is going to be. Once you make this choice, the language you use... matters. I think my cartoons are for 15 year olds and up, but they have to be smart 15-year-olds. Not the ones that can’t figure out how to use a belt correctly, you know the ones, their pants just keep falling down. Those “malfunctioning belt" 15-year-olds are going have to wait a few years before they're ready. As a cartoonist (or guy that sorta’ creates cartoons every once in awhile) you have to make this distinction of who your audience will be when you choose to use words like “appendages” in your comics. By no means am I claiming my cartoons to be intelligent in anyway, shape, or form, but there is an entry level when it comes to vocabulary. Again, while I’m not pushing any intellectual boundaries, but it does help when your audience understands what you are trying to say. As we get older I think we acquire more language and life experiences that help to broaden our vocabulary and humor levels. The more things we know, the more things we can laugh about.

As we get older we also add more colorful language to our vocabulary. Foul language or “cuss words” can always add humor to any situation. They are a perfect distillation (the extraction of the essential meaning) of a feeling. The problem is, they are not always appropriate for polite society. So here is the dilemma. A cuss word is funnier to use, but because it is inappropriate to use, it can only be accessed by a smaller group of people. I’m not one of those people that say, “I only create my art for myself.” I create my art to hopefully make people giggle. So I made the decision to keep my ‘toons free from “inappropriate language.” And once I made that decision, I’ve had to go back and change the word “screw” more than a few times.

Words/Fonts

I see different variations of fonts used in comics and cartoons. Cartoonists all have an opinion on how the lettering in word balloons should be. Some cartoonists love a certain font type while others feel you should write out the captions by hand. All my early work was hand-written letters and I used more white out on my lettering than I did in all the rest of my work. Fast forward to the digital present and my lettering has the same issues, but instead of white out, it is lost time. I found I was spending a great deal of time fixing my lettering, so much that I decided to create my own font system that I could copy and paste from. I created a file and wrote down the whole alphabet, including, lower and capital letters, punctuation, the works! I would copy and paste one letter at a time into my word balloons. Was it fast? Oh no... it was not. Did it work better than me just writing it? Oh yes... very much so. After doing this for several cartoons a little Obi Wan Kenobi voice in the back of my head spoke to me, “Dummy... you could probably find an easier way of doing this.” And that voice was right! I searched up “create your own fonts” and a bunch of options popped up. I chose Calligraphr. It’s web based and pretty easy to use. I already had my alphabet ready to go, so I transferred it to their font page, loaded it up, and done! HA Ha Ha! Just kidding, it took me around 8 versions to get it right. There are always weird issues with fonts. Despite the 8 versions, I could not be happier with creating my own font. I’m able to rework word balloons with ease and I have saved massive amounts of time compared to what I was doing before. Calligraphr’s help section even directed me to an app called AnyFont that helped me put my new font on my iPad. Calligraphr did cost money, but the $7 that I spent was totally worth it.

Worms

To demonstrate how all these style details come together I present to you…Worms! My worms cartoon has stayed close to the original, but I was able to add style details to improve it.

This cartoon shows off the noise effect, fur brush, and the colors I use. The noise effect was used on the dirt to give it a little texture. Since it seemed off to have the smooth worm look the same as the dirt. Next up, the fur brush was used on the blades of grass. I’m probably the only one that notices, but it helps the worms pop out of the background a bit more. These effects combined with vibrant colors help to achieve the look I’m going for.

Next up, retyping the word balloons was a breeze with the Zanyee font I created. I just retype and then adjust to fit it into the balloon.

These style details are things I never had to think about in the old days. I would walk out the door with a clipboard, paper, pencils, pens, and an eraser... and white-out… lots of white-out. Now I walk out the door with an iPad and more style options than I could ever know how to use. I’m only touching the surface of what can be done with these art programs and I think that is the balance I’m trying to achieve. I want my cartoons to have just enough style to make them appealing, but not so much that it becomes distracting. I do believe each one of these steps helps to make Zanyee better and is something I only dreamt of doing back in 1991.

In Evolution: Part 3 we will explore backgrounds and world building.