I've essentially destroyed my place looking for a simple pen, with no avail. I know you're saying "But Vance, how can you still create such a wonderful comic without your tools of the trade?" A very excellent question my friend and let me tell you how.
Previosly I've just sketched and inked in my sketchbook, scanned in the images and adjusted the contrast to remove the gray from the image. I never liked how gritty the lines seemed to be though, so to not loose the smoothness in these past few comics I've actually imported the image to illustrator and did a live trace, which adds a very nice smoothness/weight to the lines. I then transfer the image back to photoshop, chop it up into the panels and color.
The one thing I've found truly suffering without my digital painting miracle is the coloring. I feel very limited on my abilities to layer and form truly shiny coloring, so sad to say, that will probably not change until I aquire my, or another, wacom pen again.
"But Vance, why don't you just go through wacom.com and purchase another pen, they can have it shipped to you within a few days?" Man! You are on a roll with this question thing. The answer is... I'm poor, and that doesn't seem to be changing any time soon.
"But Vance, why isn't there mouse-flavored cat food?" Shush... I'm done with you now.
Previosly I've just sketched and inked in my sketchbook, scanned in the images and adjusted the contrast to remove the gray from the image. I never liked how gritty the lines seemed to be though, so to not loose the smoothness in these past few comics I've actually imported the image to illustrator and did a live trace, which adds a very nice smoothness/weight to the lines. I then transfer the image back to photoshop, chop it up into the panels and color.
The one thing I've found truly suffering without my digital painting miracle is the coloring. I feel very limited on my abilities to layer and form truly shiny coloring, so sad to say, that will probably not change until I aquire my, or another, wacom pen again.
"But Vance, why don't you just go through wacom.com and purchase another pen, they can have it shipped to you within a few days?" Man! You are on a roll with this question thing. The answer is... I'm poor, and that doesn't seem to be changing any time soon.
"But Vance, why isn't there mouse-flavored cat food?" Shush... I'm done with you now.
The funny thing about all of this, is that I don't actually use my phone that much. This is mostly due to the fact that I own what is termed a dumb phone as opposed to a smart phone. I'm planning on fixing that shortly but being the tech guy that I am, I've been researching all the latest and greatest in smart phones and none of them are perfect. This sucks, since I have never owned one before I'm not sure what features are the most relevant to me.
I don't wish to sign up with AT&T, so the iPhone is out. I'm currently with Verizon and their best offer is the up and coming Blackberry Tour. This sounds like a decent option, but Verizon charges a ton for their Blackberry data plans and that is what will cost me the most in the long run. I've also looked at the Palm Pre, but there have been some hardware issues recently and that makes me wary. Sprint also should be getting the Tour, so I may just switch to them. Which may work out, since for the exact same plan they charge thirty dollars less a month than Verizon, those bastards.
I don't wish to sign up with AT&T, so the iPhone is out. I'm currently with Verizon and their best offer is the up and coming Blackberry Tour. This sounds like a decent option, but Verizon charges a ton for their Blackberry data plans and that is what will cost me the most in the long run. I've also looked at the Palm Pre, but there have been some hardware issues recently and that makes me wary. Sprint also should be getting the Tour, so I may just switch to them. Which may work out, since for the exact same plan they charge thirty dollars less a month than Verizon, those bastards.