The Paper software I mentioned yesterday got me thinking about how a brush-like, variable-width line might help my comic strip seem a little less flat. Sounds like I’m letting the computer dictate my style, but presumably this is about how I’d ink with a real brush. What do you think?

Okay, I’m not quite as grumpy as this guy, but holy crap, am I beat for some reason.

I drew this in a new iPad app called Paper, which may be one of the first drawing apps to approach the ease of sketching on paper. There’s no zooming allowed, but the translation between your brain and finger remains surprisingly intact–but as you can see, it also adds its own style to your scribbles.

I did some digital inking over my red-pencil model sheet. Unfortunately I was in a rush to get to the pesky day job, so I’ll probably end up re-doing most of this. Gotta remember to stay loose when inking!

I’m creating a model sheet for Mary Rae and Kerkel, in anticipation of the next batch of strips (Coming Soonish™). I’ve started with the all-important height comparison. Looking back at the first 11 strips, I realize I did something sort of clever without even trying: never once did I draw them explicitly standing on the same plane. In other words, even when Kerkel seemed a little too tall, their feet were out of frame, so you couldn’t prove in a court of law that anybody was out of proportion.

These model sheets will be mostly about achieving consistency, rather than a complete overhaul of the characters. However, I’ve decided to make a slight modification to Mary Rae’s hair; that pulled-back look was a pain to draw in the comic strip, let alone animation. Now I can indicate her hair in just a few strokes.

I went out and bought some plasticine modeling clay, to help me design characters that work in 3 dimensions. This Kerkel head is a little rough around the edges, but it’s enough to assist me in drawing him from any angle.