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Monday, August 23, 2010 at 12:31AM In the first Logo Hot Seat, we discussed some flaws that fall under the heading of an important element of design:Legibility. In this next group of logos, I'd like to discuss another important aspect of design: Negative Space.
Positive space is the area that can be described as the object in an illustration. The negative space, then, is the area around and between the positive space.
Friday, August 20, 2010 at 8:34AM Today's Archive Dive discusses three common mistakes people make with their word balloons. It's from June 2, 2009.
Want to make a small change in how you do your comics that will elevate your game overnight? Improve your word balloons. It's the single, most common flaw in most beginners' work that immediately identifies them as novices in the eyes of their readers. And, amazingly, they are problems that are ridiculously easy to solve. Address these problems, and your work will take on an air of professionalism that is bound to be noticed by your readers.
Thursday, August 19, 2010 at 10:18AM As I stated in my original post on the subject, designing a good logo is an integral part of the branding of your comic and your site. During the next couple of weeks, I'm going to be grouping some of the submitted logos into groups according to the similar problems that they exhibit so we can discuss those issues one by one.
The first issue I want to discuss is legibility.
That logo isn't doing a lick of good unless it can be read -- and read easily.
And that means if you're using a particularly distressed font -- or toying with the character shapes -- you have to realize that a little bit goes a long, long way.
I found all of the following logos to have legibility problems.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010 at 5:00AM Penny Arcade has been exhibiting at San Diego Comic Con for a decade, and I can say with confidence that we'll never get it 100% right. From shipping mistakes to inventory issues to unplanned expenses, the combination of so many moving parts in your planning process and a show that continues to evolve creates a situation that’s always error-prone.
Despite that incredibly upbeat opener, I actually hope this article will show two things: A. everyone makes mistakes so you shouldn’t feel bad when you do (and you will) and B. you shouldn’t let those mistakes haunt you.
Of course, nothing burns more than when the mistakes are both costly and preventable, so take time to learn from them. It's true that there are things out of your control that will affect your performance at the show, but even in those lie nuggets of wisdom you can consider for the future.
So without further adieu, here are the five things I learned from SDCC this year:
Tuesday, August 17, 2010 at 5:00AM This post was kindly submitted by Jeff Zugale.
Now that I have your attention...
Let me preface this by letting you know that I’m a cartoonist and professional illustrator, making my entire living from making artwork for various clients in games, television, film, animation, advertising, and other industries that hire commercial artists. Artwork is, in fact, valuable, and a professional artist can make a nice living at it.
When I say “worthless,” I’m talking about a specific context and case here, concerning cartooning and comic strips, which until the advent of the Web were primarily published in newspapers and magazines. For a long time, both syndicated and independent strip and political cartoonists were able to make a pretty good living, but we’ve all heard what’s been going on recently. Newspapers are losing circulation or closing entirely, syndicated cartoonists are seeing major drops in their incomes, political cartoonists are being laid off left and right.
All of these cartoonists are finding it very difficult to make a living with their cartoons on the Internet. Some are trying to sell cartoons of various types directly to their reading audiences, either piecemeal or via subscriptions or smartphone and e-reader apps, and finding it far more difficult than expected.
Many express dismay that the readers don’t seem to want to pay for their cartoons anymore, and don’t understand it. Weren’t they paying to read them before? Why don’t they want to pay now? There’s a lot of blame being thrown at the Internet, at Apple Computer, and at stingy readers who don’t understand the value of art.
There’s been endless arguing for years about the “webcomics business model” vs. the “print publishing business model,” about giving a comic strip away for free vs. people paying for it. We’re all tired of it, aren’t we? You’d think there’d be some way to settle it, wouldn’t you?
With this article, I intend to show using hard numbers that the two “opposing” business models are not so different as most people think; that it’s time to stop wasting all that energy arguing; that there are clear and definitive answers that should quell all debate, and that these answers have been right there in front of everyone’s faces the whole time. I’m then going to offer some thoughts on what cartoonists can do about it now and in the future.
