I was a bit baffled today when I googled "barely working" and "barely working comic", because of Hardly Working, an office sketch comedy from collegehumor. Actually having watched some of their episodes, I probably should have known this, but for the life of me, I thought they were either nameless episodes, or they were called "college humor".
That being said, I probably should have chosen a different name for my comic due to the similarities. If only I knew at the time. The name is supposed to be a double entendre about slacking off, and about the two main character's professions. You don't know this yet, but Steve is supposed to be an engineer, and Joe works as tech support and does freelance web design on the side. It's purely coincidental that I chose such a similar name.
12 February 2012
08 February 2012
Meta
Today's strip was originally a test to see if it would be easier to draw the strips, scan them and then post process rather than do the whole shindig on computer. It's not.
The comic you see is vectorized from a pencil sketch that I did. It's incredibly hard to get the proportions right on these characters. It's fine on computer where I can just modify anything until it looks natural but on paper, even with the inherent simplicity of the characters, it's strangely difficult. I honestly find it easier to draw a full human figure on paper than these stick figures.
I also had an inked version of the same comic which removed a large number of dodgy artifacts, unfortunately, it still doesn't come close to the smooth outline you get from bezier curve on a computer. Furthermore, errors on computer are easy to correct, but artifacts that come about from the vectorization processes are hard to get rid of. They generally need to be removed node by node and if you're going into that much effort, you may as well start on computer.
Lettering is also an absolute pain. You'll notice I just superimposed font over the speech bubbles, because no matter how much post processing I did, some words would come out as black blobs, and some would appear as a few sparse dots. also, even though the font is traced from my own handwriting, it is positioned perfectly by the computer. On paper, my lettering is usually variable height and due to human error, not on a straight line.
On the plus side, it only took me about ten minutes to whip up a draft of the strip, and this way, I got a quick visual representation of what the strip could look like. I might use this in the future to draft up strips before I make them properly on computer.
The comic you see is vectorized from a pencil sketch that I did. It's incredibly hard to get the proportions right on these characters. It's fine on computer where I can just modify anything until it looks natural but on paper, even with the inherent simplicity of the characters, it's strangely difficult. I honestly find it easier to draw a full human figure on paper than these stick figures.
I also had an inked version of the same comic which removed a large number of dodgy artifacts, unfortunately, it still doesn't come close to the smooth outline you get from bezier curve on a computer. Furthermore, errors on computer are easy to correct, but artifacts that come about from the vectorization processes are hard to get rid of. They generally need to be removed node by node and if you're going into that much effort, you may as well start on computer.
Lettering is also an absolute pain. You'll notice I just superimposed font over the speech bubbles, because no matter how much post processing I did, some words would come out as black blobs, and some would appear as a few sparse dots. also, even though the font is traced from my own handwriting, it is positioned perfectly by the computer. On paper, my lettering is usually variable height and due to human error, not on a straight line.
On the plus side, it only took me about ten minutes to whip up a draft of the strip, and this way, I got a quick visual representation of what the strip could look like. I might use this in the future to draft up strips before I make them properly on computer.
06 February 2012
Jet Lag
Planes are awesome. Tens of tonnes of aluminium frame, thin sheet metal, and interior coupled with futuristic technology engineered to perfection so that a hundred odd people and their baggage can get from A to B in just a few short hours. Does anyone here marvel at how we get these things in the air at all? They're freaking massive! Planes are awesome, but their achievements are only rivaled by their monumental shittiness.
I'll tell you right now, I ride economy. I also usually take the red eye. Why do I torture myself so? because it's cheap, that's why. I should really stop there because I know I'm just doing this to myself, but I know they can do better with airlines. Let's start with the seats. I swear to god they are designed just badly enough that your ass goes numb after the first five minutes sitting there, and you spend the next four hours of your flight fidgeting so that your legs don't fall off. I am not abusing the word "literally" when I say that a hard wooden pew is literally more tolerable for a longer duration. I can sit on a wooden plank for three hours but when it comes to seats on a plane, ten minutes is more than enough. If you're reading this, send a recommendation to your preferred economy airline and ask them to put wooden planks instead of their usual crap. If they get enough letters, they will surely oblige, after all, wooden planks are a lot cheaper than full leather covers.
Now an issue that comes up a lot is leg room. This is not really an issue for me, personally, I think the problem is lying room. You can't sleep on a plane sitting up, you just sort of flop over. you don't have the support on the sides to keep you up when you fall asleep and relax. There are of course two solutions. Lie on the person next to you, which for some reason tends to creep people out, unless you happen to be an attractive female, which I happen to be neither. The second option is to get a window seat and lean on the wall. This novel solution is perfect if not for the fact that the gap between the seat and the curved wall is exactly the width of your head. This means your neck is permanently contorted into a completely unnatural position while you sleep. This is fine though, until you wake up and three of your vertebrae are broken.
Of course there is one other way to sleep on a plane. Fold down the tray table and sleep on that as if it were an 8 AM Monday morning lecture. unfortunately, the seats are approximately 3 centimeters (1 in) too close to each other in order for you to fit your head lying down.You virtually have to cram your head into the seat pocket in front of you in order to get enough room. This is of course fine except for the aforementioned three broken vertebrae.
Never mind that though, the flight was very enjoyable, and I look forwards to the next one. On a completely unrelated note, I have to go to the hospital now for some spinal surgery.
I'll tell you right now, I ride economy. I also usually take the red eye. Why do I torture myself so? because it's cheap, that's why. I should really stop there because I know I'm just doing this to myself, but I know they can do better with airlines. Let's start with the seats. I swear to god they are designed just badly enough that your ass goes numb after the first five minutes sitting there, and you spend the next four hours of your flight fidgeting so that your legs don't fall off. I am not abusing the word "literally" when I say that a hard wooden pew is literally more tolerable for a longer duration. I can sit on a wooden plank for three hours but when it comes to seats on a plane, ten minutes is more than enough. If you're reading this, send a recommendation to your preferred economy airline and ask them to put wooden planks instead of their usual crap. If they get enough letters, they will surely oblige, after all, wooden planks are a lot cheaper than full leather covers.
Now an issue that comes up a lot is leg room. This is not really an issue for me, personally, I think the problem is lying room. You can't sleep on a plane sitting up, you just sort of flop over. you don't have the support on the sides to keep you up when you fall asleep and relax. There are of course two solutions. Lie on the person next to you, which for some reason tends to creep people out, unless you happen to be an attractive female, which I happen to be neither. The second option is to get a window seat and lean on the wall. This novel solution is perfect if not for the fact that the gap between the seat and the curved wall is exactly the width of your head. This means your neck is permanently contorted into a completely unnatural position while you sleep. This is fine though, until you wake up and three of your vertebrae are broken.
Of course there is one other way to sleep on a plane. Fold down the tray table and sleep on that as if it were an 8 AM Monday morning lecture. unfortunately, the seats are approximately 3 centimeters (1 in) too close to each other in order for you to fit your head lying down.You virtually have to cram your head into the seat pocket in front of you in order to get enough room. This is of course fine except for the aforementioned three broken vertebrae.
Never mind that though, the flight was very enjoyable, and I look forwards to the next one. On a completely unrelated note, I have to go to the hospital now for some spinal surgery.
28 January 2012
Hot.
Let me tell you something about Australia you probably already knew. It's hot. It's hot as fucking shit. Now it's normally just plain unbearable, but that's okay because we have the beach, garden hoses and air conditioning. Summer can be great. But when you have to move furniture or shovel sand in the 42 C heat, you start getting a little pissed. Luckily though, for those who need to do manual labor in heat similar to the surface temperature of the sun, we have beer, which is both refreshing, and alcoholic.
It was Australia day two days ago, and this is my little tribute. I think we sweat the little things too much over here and forget how well off we really are. Sure I missed the train to the city to watch the skyworks for the day. and sure it was 40 C and raining, but we forget what it really means to be Australian. No seriously, we forget. Ask anyone and no one has a clue.
ah well, never mind about all that. Happy Australia day.
It was Australia day two days ago, and this is my little tribute. I think we sweat the little things too much over here and forget how well off we really are. Sure I missed the train to the city to watch the skyworks for the day. and sure it was 40 C and raining, but we forget what it really means to be Australian. No seriously, we forget. Ask anyone and no one has a clue.
ah well, never mind about all that. Happy Australia day.
23 January 2012
Hand-drawn.
Today's strip
It just occurred to me that the only theoretically "hand drawn" part of my strip is actually the text, which is traced from my own handwriting. The rest is made with a mouse.
It just occurred to me that the only theoretically "hand drawn" part of my strip is actually the text, which is traced from my own handwriting. The rest is made with a mouse.
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