Oblesklk
2nd Level Yellow Feather
- Joined
- Apr 18, 2001
- Messages
- 3,461
- Points
- 63
As much as I absolutely adore tickling art, I found myself not posting in this forum very much. I have only my own silly schedule to blame for that, but it's something I'm going to make a conscious effort to change. Both in voicing a positive opinion on the incredible stuff you guys are producing, as well as sharing what we're doing from time to time.
It's hard to believe, but we're actually up to issue seven of our spy thiller universe already. Issue six is currently airing on TickleTown, but we'll probably publish issue seven either in January or February. It's coming up right quick.
I'm really excited about this issue. Depending on the community and our member reaction, I may produce more artwork like this. It's a much higher quality than anything we've done in the past. That's a good thing and bad thing. The good thing is that I'm quite proud of how it turned out. The bad thing is that it was very expensive to produce. I hired a team of professional artists that had done work with several international companies in the past. I wanted this book to take on a different look than the previous additions to the series. It's also quite a bit darker than the others.
I wanted to show the second page of the book, just as a quick run through with the production process, if any of you are interested.
This is the first iteration of the second page of the book:
This is a step after we receive the storyboards. The storyboards are really rough outlines of what the page is going to look like. It gives the director (in this case, me), an idea of how the artist is looking to set up a page and a shot. So the picture above is actually the loose pencils. It's a short action sequence that I set up with Mirth (the main character of this story).
The setup is that Mirth hears a cry for help and before she really thinks about what she's doing, she reacts rather hastily and dispatches two goons who are seemingly threatening a random woman in the alley. In this short sequence I wanted to establish that Mirth is an established swordswoman with her katana, even though she's only 18, and had just enrolled in the Academy. She's been on her own most of her childhood, and learned quite well how to survive on her own. The interesting thing about these stories is how to balance plot with action. If there's too much action (tickling), the whole thing just seems kind of transparent, and the situations seem dull to me. If there's too much story, the readers will fall asleep. This story is a bit more action oriented than my usual stories, so I'm hoping people can still identify with the things that are going on.
These are the inks:
The page is a little busy at this point because it's raining, and I've shrunk down the page considerably. So at this point the entire scene isn't 100% clear yet. Although I like the job these guys have done, I don't feel that the piece is completed without being colored at this point. There's a lot of things that a good colorist can emphasize.
Mirth is a wonderful character, and I really think she deserved her own story arc at this point in the series. There's so much to this universe that is difficult to convey because of the aforementioned lack of space for story. Her part in all of these series is unknown. She isn't truly an agent like the other girls. She's simply a mercenary when the other agents met up with her. But she possesses tremendous power. In addition to being an excellent swordswoman, Mirth holds the power of vibration. She got her nickname because one of her vibration powers is to vibrate the skin of her foes, causing an unbearable, distracting tickling sensation, which usually drops them to their knees. But her power can be much stronger than this, as she can also crush metal and stone with a fully concentrated blast of her vibration shock waves. Until now, it is unclear how she developed such amazingly strong powers without the aid of a mentor, but some of that is explained in this seventh issue, and even more will be explained when the story arc continues.
I've also been toying with the notion of one of the protagonists going bad for awhile. And well, I don't want to spoil any of the story at this point, but suffice to say this particular piece has been fun to write.
This is the finalized colored version of the page. The colorist can really add a lot to the page, as demonstrated above. Although the page seems rather bloody, that's pretty much the end of the violence in the book at that point. We're not up to mixing tickling and gore yet 🙂 It's basically just a setup for the story to begin.
This whole project took about 16 weeks to finish up, from the time I submitted the script, to the time I received the final colorized version of the final page. These tickle project vary quite a bit in time, depending on how much pressure we put on the artistic team at any given point in time. But those 16 weeks were a fairly constant bit of give and go. I got back from pages from production that were amazing, and others that needed clarification/improvement.
You can buy the first six issues of this comic universe at Our Tickling Comic Web Site, and look for this issue to be available early 2005!
And yes, TickleTown members will be able to see this issue for free, as a normal benefit to their membership dues to the site, at no additional charge.
It's hard to believe, but we're actually up to issue seven of our spy thiller universe already. Issue six is currently airing on TickleTown, but we'll probably publish issue seven either in January or February. It's coming up right quick.
I'm really excited about this issue. Depending on the community and our member reaction, I may produce more artwork like this. It's a much higher quality than anything we've done in the past. That's a good thing and bad thing. The good thing is that I'm quite proud of how it turned out. The bad thing is that it was very expensive to produce. I hired a team of professional artists that had done work with several international companies in the past. I wanted this book to take on a different look than the previous additions to the series. It's also quite a bit darker than the others.
I wanted to show the second page of the book, just as a quick run through with the production process, if any of you are interested.
This is the first iteration of the second page of the book:
This is a step after we receive the storyboards. The storyboards are really rough outlines of what the page is going to look like. It gives the director (in this case, me), an idea of how the artist is looking to set up a page and a shot. So the picture above is actually the loose pencils. It's a short action sequence that I set up with Mirth (the main character of this story).
The setup is that Mirth hears a cry for help and before she really thinks about what she's doing, she reacts rather hastily and dispatches two goons who are seemingly threatening a random woman in the alley. In this short sequence I wanted to establish that Mirth is an established swordswoman with her katana, even though she's only 18, and had just enrolled in the Academy. She's been on her own most of her childhood, and learned quite well how to survive on her own. The interesting thing about these stories is how to balance plot with action. If there's too much action (tickling), the whole thing just seems kind of transparent, and the situations seem dull to me. If there's too much story, the readers will fall asleep. This story is a bit more action oriented than my usual stories, so I'm hoping people can still identify with the things that are going on.
These are the inks:
The page is a little busy at this point because it's raining, and I've shrunk down the page considerably. So at this point the entire scene isn't 100% clear yet. Although I like the job these guys have done, I don't feel that the piece is completed without being colored at this point. There's a lot of things that a good colorist can emphasize.
Mirth is a wonderful character, and I really think she deserved her own story arc at this point in the series. There's so much to this universe that is difficult to convey because of the aforementioned lack of space for story. Her part in all of these series is unknown. She isn't truly an agent like the other girls. She's simply a mercenary when the other agents met up with her. But she possesses tremendous power. In addition to being an excellent swordswoman, Mirth holds the power of vibration. She got her nickname because one of her vibration powers is to vibrate the skin of her foes, causing an unbearable, distracting tickling sensation, which usually drops them to their knees. But her power can be much stronger than this, as she can also crush metal and stone with a fully concentrated blast of her vibration shock waves. Until now, it is unclear how she developed such amazingly strong powers without the aid of a mentor, but some of that is explained in this seventh issue, and even more will be explained when the story arc continues.
I've also been toying with the notion of one of the protagonists going bad for awhile. And well, I don't want to spoil any of the story at this point, but suffice to say this particular piece has been fun to write.
This is the finalized colored version of the page. The colorist can really add a lot to the page, as demonstrated above. Although the page seems rather bloody, that's pretty much the end of the violence in the book at that point. We're not up to mixing tickling and gore yet 🙂 It's basically just a setup for the story to begin.
This whole project took about 16 weeks to finish up, from the time I submitted the script, to the time I received the final colorized version of the final page. These tickle project vary quite a bit in time, depending on how much pressure we put on the artistic team at any given point in time. But those 16 weeks were a fairly constant bit of give and go. I got back from pages from production that were amazing, and others that needed clarification/improvement.
You can buy the first six issues of this comic universe at Our Tickling Comic Web Site, and look for this issue to be available early 2005!
And yes, TickleTown members will be able to see this issue for free, as a normal benefit to their membership dues to the site, at no additional charge.
