Finally, it looks like I've made it happen. Over the next few months, I will be shifting to my new blog at arcadiacomics.blogspot.com. If you follow me via google+ or email, no changes need to be made. You will know where I am. But if you have my blog bookmarked, be prepared to update it.

Although I know that this move will be for the best, leaving Manga and Mascara behind makes me a bit sad. I've been updating this blog for over three years! When I started, I seriously didn't think I would keep up with it for that long.

My new comic Mandy & Molly will be posted on the new site, as well as Smackjeeves and Tapastic. A little bit at a time, I'm also posting Mascara and Wings to the new site. On the front page, they are listed as "in progress" because I'm still updating the pages to those comics. It will be awhile before all of the pages are posted. Some of the links, such as the ones in the "prose" section, are not live yet, so I have some work to do there.

I like how this new site focuses more on the comics, art, and stories. Since I will be regularly updating with new comic pages, I will be under less pressure to make written posts. It's not that I mind writing regularly for my blog. It's that I know I'm entering a project that will require that I spend more time creating comic pages than posts.

As for the future of Manga & Mascara, I have no plans of deleting it. I believe some will still find the past posts useful.

Click here to check out my new site, arcadiacomics.blogspot.com, and please remember to bookmark it! ^_^ 

Once again I found myself on the receiving end of my husband's sage advice. 

I had been doing some research on digital coloring because I believe it's an area where I can improve--especially when it comes to coloring entire comic pages. After looking at all the tutorials I could find, I felt like I needed to try much harder on everything.

While my husband was driving us home from work, I expressed how I wanted to do more detailed manga-style color artwork--super polished and no outlines. I have the skills to create digital art like that. The only problem is that it would take me forever to create a finished piece. 

After I verbally mulled over how great it would be if I created more art like that, my husband was like, "That's not you."

At first, I didn't know how to take it. 

"What do you mean? I could totally do that. And there is so much anime art like that online. It's like, really popular."

"But it's not you," he said. "You create manga."

"Yes, I do."

"But people who put time into making a lot of art like that aren't working on a manga. If you started doing that, it would take away time from creating your comic."

I sighed. He was right. But I still tried to get what I wanted by saying, "Well, some comic artists create covers like that."

"That's true," he said. "But your covers are fine the way they are. Besides, I wouldn't enjoy a comic with a super fancy cover, but a lame story."

Once again, he was right. It was okay for me to want to improve my technique, but my mistake was wanting dive into a more complicated style that wasn't mine. I already have a style, and taking on something "grander" would take me away from working on the story. And the story could suffer because I would be so busy trying to dazzle everyone. 

As I looked back on our conversation, I realized that it's good that my art is a little different from what's popular. Just to confirm my feelings, this week I read a book called Art, Inc. by Lisa Congdon. It's a wonderful read, and I would recommend it to anyone who's thinking about going into the business of creating art. 

In there is a section about how it's good for artists to unplug from the Internet once in awhile. One of the main benefits mentioned is that taking a break from the Internet allows the artist to unplug from unnecessary comparisons. Then they can analyze and explore their own creative process free of studying the work of others. 

That's what I needed to do!

I needed to detach myself from images of what "good manga-style art" looks like. It's okay if what I do is a little different. My art is still beautiful. I was saved from taking on a style that is not me.

And as a side-note: Seriously, my husband needs to get a job as a therapist for artists or something. It's like I go to him with my issues, and he has this fantastic stuff to say to get me back on track. It is amazing.

 

I found a good deal on this at Ebay. I previously owned the smaller non-note version of this tablet (Galaxy Tab 4), so I knew that it would come with an upgrade to Android Lollipop. It's not the latest, but it's still new enough to be very useful.

I’ve been using Medibang for more than a few months now, and I’m still enjoying it. As I’ve been creating pages with it, I’ve noticed something interesting about the pages I make with Medibang versus the pages I’ve made with Manga Studio.

Made In Medibang

Made in Manga Studio

By the way, both of these pages are good. There's nothing wrong with either of them. I'm simply pointing out differences in the way they look, and how I feel about them.

The pages from Manga Studio have a more standard look. I didn’t create the speech bubbles myself, and I often used a template for panels instead of making the panels myself. Also there are many different styles of tone and backgrounds in Manga Studio, so it’s less work for the artist. However, if you use those backgrounds in the comic, people who use the software will know it’s Manga Studio. I’ve seen webcomics where I notice the tone the artist used, and I know right away it’s Manga Studio.

Then when I look at my pages made with Medibang, I laugh because of how much the pages are saturated with my style. I designed the speech bubbles myself. I also made the page layouts myself since there are no page templates. There isn’t as wide of a selection of tone, so some designs I decided to draw myself. Combine that with the font I created and this comic becomes very much me.

It’s like since Manga Studio has everything, it’s possible for the software to have a stronger influence on how pages turn out. With Medibang, the software is more out of the way, so the artist has a stronger influence on how pages look.

I like Manga Studio and Medibang, but each have their uses. I think artists who have been making comics for awhile could enjoy the amount of artistic control Medibang gives them. Artists who have uniquely styled comics will especially like it.

When I think back to when I was first started creating comics, I may have found Medibang a little frustrating because so many pages would depend on my skill. I wasn’t good at drawing backgrounds yet, so it was nice having the ability to just pick one from the library and drop it in there. The tone, page layouts, and other features made getting started in comics super easy. Only now have I started wishing for more control over my pages.

I’m happy that I didn’t wait until I felt like I was “Good Enough” at drawing to start creating comics. First of all, for many artists who are focused on being good enough, that day never seems to come. And second, working on comics led to my artwork improving.

If you are afraid of starting on a comic because you feel your drawing skills are not the best, check out this post, The Difference Between Those Who Make it in Art and Everyone Else at Pencilkings.com.

Even if you can only draw stick figures, you can draw comics with those too.



The hardest part about starting when you feel like your skills are not developed is that they are probably not. I received plenty of criticism about my artwork when I started Mascara. However as I worked on it, I improved. Then the same people who commented on how my artwork needed to be better were telling me how nice my art had become. Then again others from the start said that they liked my art--flaws and all.

The main thing is getting started and then growing from that.

Part Three: Create Chapters and Weave in a Theme

This is the final post my series about writing flexible stories. To back track, here's part one and part two.

So after organizing my events, I now have a story outline, more or less. The problem is that the events are separate things. They don't blend together. The best thing I can compare this to is a sitcom where each episode has something different going on, but there is not a cohesive story. There's nothing wrong with that, and that kind of outline will probably work well for a four panel/gag manga. However, I enjoy stories that flow from one happening to the next.

This is how I transform my list of events into an ongoing story.

I've already organized my events (for more info on what events are, see post two) into acts, so I now have a chronological story. From here I group the events into chapters.

When I group events into chapters, I don't move them around. I simply divide them up while leaving them in the order that they are in. For example, let's say I'm looking at Act One and it has 10 events. The first five events look like they have enough content to make an interesting short story--like a chapter of a book. So without moving them around, I label those five events as a chapter (sometimes I also call chapters episodes). After taking care of those 5, I have five more events in Act 1. I may decide that the next three would make a good chapter, so I label them as chapter 2. Then I could assign the last two events to be chapter 3.

So basically I look at my events, see how many in a row can make a harmonious chapter, and group them together. Some of my chapters only have one event.


Weaving in a Theme

This is the most creatively challenging part, but it's the key to making an ongoing story.

I go back and look at my chapters. Although they are in the chronological order that I want, they still are very separate from each other.

This is when I step back and look at the big picture of the story.

What do I want to happen to character A? I want her to be more social and learn to make friends.

What do I want for character B? I want her to appreciate who she is and not worry about being as talented as her sister.

Then I go through each episode and add something that will help the characters to get a tiny bit closer to their goals. And it doesn't take much. For the shy younger sister, it could be that in chapter one she sees the next door neighbor from a distance, in chapter two she manages to say hello (thanks to the prodding of her more social older sister), and in chapter three she tries to have a conversation, and so on.

These advancements aren't the point of the chapter. It isn't like a wrote an entire chapter about the younger sister trying to say "hi" to her neighbor, although I could have. It's simply a moment that's woven into a chapter and that progressively changes from chapter to chapter.

It does take a little bit of imagination stretching to do this well, but that's what writers do!

Quite a few recent TV shows have writing like this. There is an ongoing story that is mixed into episodes that may or may not be related to it.


Start Writing!


I write the script for a chapter, draw it, and then when I'm almost done drawing it, I start writing the next one. If I waited to write the entire script for a long story before drawing it, I know I would lose interest. And with a story that will take years to create, the transitions between drawing and writing are what keep it exciting.

This method is very flexible because since the episodes aren't tightly tied together, it's easy to remove the ones that don't work, and add ones that will work better. Still, they are all related to a central theme and goal, so the story doesn't lose being harmonious.

I can alter my story if I need to based on my personal feelings and even audience feedback almost on the fly. I changed the episodes of Mascara many times. Some I used, some I threw out, but readers typically can't tell that anything has been left out or added.

So this is my process of putting together the story for a long, ongoing comic. I'm actually working on a long comic right now, so my posts have been a little sparodic, but I also like taking the time to share what it's like to create a story that can go on for a very long time. ^_^

Brainstorm and Get Organized!


This a continuation of my previous post, Creating Flexible Serialized Stories: Part One. That post covered developing characters that compliment and contrast with each other in order to create an ongoing dynamic.

As I develop the characters, I like to think about their personalities and their situation. Then I write down everything that they could possibly do and all the trouble that they could cause together. It doesn't matter if it makes sense or not. The ideas don't need to be directly related or connect. I write it all. When outlining, each situation gets its own bullet point. I call each bullet point an "event."

It's best to do this using a digital program like Word or even Workflowy, because after brainstorming, everything will need to be rearranged. 

Getting Everything Organized


After writing down all the possible situations that the characters could get themselves into, I arrange the events into a chronological order that makes sense to me. I've found it helpful to group events into sections called Act 1, Act 2, and Act 3. Creating acts was a suggestion from my husband, and I like how it works.

Act 1 is everything that helps the audience learn more about who the characters are, what they are like, and what problems they are dealing with. This is where I put every event that sounds like it could be at the beginning of the story.

Act 2 is where the characters grapple with their problems and fight their way to the solution. This is also a good time to introduce new characters and friends that either help the main characters to reach their goals, or hold them back from reaching their potential. I put the most interesting events in this category. Here is also where I sometimes put events that don't seem to fit anywhere, but are still interesting and exciting.

Act 3 is the wind down. This is where problems are solved, and when the characters realize that they are not quite the same as they were at the beginning. If the characters don't realize that they've changed, at least make it obvious to the audience.

Going back to the example I started with in Part One, by the end of the series the younger sister could be a little bit more social and the older sister could learn how to appreciate her own unique gifts.

It's okay not to use all of the events. Some I set aside. If I feel like using them, I'll pull them out of the reserve, and if I don't, than that's alright. But I try to use the majority of them.

At this point I do have an outline, but as far as story goes, it's a bit disjointed. The next part is how I bring it all together. 

The first direction is a complete, contained story. For Couture and Wings, I wrote the script from start to finish, like how someone would write a novel. It's all one contained piece. 

For long, continuous comics though, I've found that it's better to be flexible. 

This blog post series covers the steps I take when creating a long comic. All of it is related to the post I wrote about writing scripts, but this is more about the planning that is done before writing a script.

These steps are especially important when creating a long webcomic, because with a webcomic it's difficult to go back and edit the story once it's posted. It's more like making a TV show than a novel. 

For a long story, I like to come up with two main characters with traits that will lead to them getting into many different situations together. 

Example: There are two sisters who live together. The oldest one is social, outgoing and good at making friends. She wishes to have creative talents like her younger sister, but she does not. She tries to do creative stuff sometimes, but it usually ends up being a disaster, and her younger sister has to help her. On the other hand, the younger sister is not social, but she is imaginative. She wishes to be more social sometimes, so her older sister helps her out with that.  

The two characters are different, but they work together. Mascara is written the same way. Two characters with complementary or opposing traits that work together.

The situations that arise from their combined chemistry takes me to part two, which I'll be sharing in my next post.