At least rats do. We always hear stories of animals and pets helping those they have bonds to. On the other hand wild life is also given to rules of the jungle: strongest survive and the weak get abused. As with most things the truth lies somewhere in the middle.
I just found this article suggesting that for Rats, a social animal, helping a nest mate is more important than a slab of chocolate. I’m sure Rat owners have known this for a long time that rules of the jungle don’t always apply.
You want to create a comic, particularly a story comic with complex art, but you can’t draw a polar bear in a snow storm.
Normally, this is a bad idea but there are times when the writer has no choice. A story will call out for the marriage of arts and words. It simply must be done.
There are two ways to bridge the gaps of your un artisty ways, learn how to draw or work with an artist.
I tried really hard to learn how to draw. I minored in studio art in college. I got to the point where I was at the edge of being decent at figure drawing, but I never enjoyed the process of making art. There was never a time where I started to creaeart for myself and not for a class.
Despite my failure to establish a Ménage à trois between my hand, the pencil and the paper, I still wanted to create a comic.
That left option number two. Work with an Artist.
Over the course of Walking the Lethe’s lifetime I’ve worked with four different artists on Walking the Lethe, two of them have worked on the main story line, one has done a short story and another worked on a few concept designs before we parted ways.
Overall I’ve had a real easy time of it compared to many who have taken this route. Everyone I’ve worked with has been very professional and I’ve never been left in the lurch.
Over the next couple weeks I want to share my process and experiences with you by tackling the following topics (and perhaps more):
1. TVTropes Check out Underling’s page!
2. Animals Being Dicks Every thing from bowling for children with goats to baby panda tossing.
3. We are the 99 Percent- inflicts depression on 99 out of a hundred people
4. ArmorGames- Two words: KINGDOM RUSH
5. Instructables- Because you must have your own flamethrower
6. Reddit/science- Find out what those wacky science guys have discovered/blown up this week!
7. Do an archive dive on a webcomic that has been in existence for over five years!
What? Your still here? After all that? Okay okay let me find something else. Oh I know!
8. Concept Art dot Org - The Pretty!
9. Dubstep dance videos O.O
10. Alright. You’re still here? Thats it. I’m bringing out the ultimate timesink that I personally lost a year or two worth of free (and not so free) time to. WoW
I learn a lot about color just by playing with it. Now you can too with this handy list of time sinks websites and games featuring color.
This was a talk I gave at a Pecha Kucha event last year. Pecha Kucha is somewhat like a regional TED conference, presenters get 20 slides, 20 seconds per slide about anything they want. I talked about creating Walking the Lethe.
“Where do your ideas come from?” It’s a question writers hear all the time, and I’m here to tell you, there is no special place we get our ideas. We get our ideas from EVERYWHERE. Most of them are the same mundane nonsense ideas and experiences everybody else has.
What writers do, or at least strive to do, is take those mundane ideas, and make them magnificent. It’s not the size of the idea, it’s how you use it, and I’m here to show you how.
This month, I’m going to talk a bit about my National Novel Writing Month novel and where I got the idea for that: A single drawing. Continue reading
