Bear, Badger, Hare.
Three travelers. Inkbeard post #33.
This Week
This week I finished the inking of the sketch I portrayed last post. But before I had done that, I had an idea inspired by my bother. What he had done was ask Chat GPT to write a plot outline for a film that he and his friends wanted to create. I thought to myself, “Why can’t I do the same thing?”
And so I did. I do not enjoy the process of writing a script or plot for a comic or even a regular book. It somehow sucks the fun out of it, despite the fact that I am very good at writing, due to years of homeschooled training and thousands of hours (probably) reading and listening to books. What I did was I asked the AI to write me an outline for a comic based off of Adventure Time and Adventure Zone. I am reasonably well-pleased with the outcome. This Idea is my next art project after this poster.
The Art
This week I inked the sketch. I took a page of 17×22 smooth Bristol, the standard size for comic books, and made a quick sketch of what I wanted, based off the original thumbnails. Then I edited that sketch, and edited it, and edited it again. To begin with, I drew the letters, which went terribly. Then I drew the shack itself, which with I had the most fun, and then the trees.
The text you see in the picture is not the original. I disliked my first attempt so much that I wanted to erase it, but since you cant erase ink I simply cut that piece out and flipped it around and did it again. the second attempt is worlds better, and I am moderately satisfied with it. Unfortunately, my scanner at home is only meant for standard sized paper, and the printshop I usually go to is closed on Sundays. So I merely took a photo of the finished work with my phone and have posted it below.
Three Travelers
Once upon a time in Wild Hollow, three travelers were walking down a long dusty highway to the next town. It was sunset. There was a brown bear, a badger, and a rabbit. Bear said to his fellows,
“My belly is rumbling. Can we stop for food?”
To which the badger replied,
“We could, if we hadn’t eaten our lunches at noon, as is the want of things.”
And so they didn’t. Luckily for the bear, and for the other two, who were honestly getting quite peckish as well, A certain goblin had decided to build a small wayside shack along this very highway, paced just so, so that any passerby who happened to be getting hungry would stumble across the shack and buy a small meal, or a large one in the case of the bear. Just when they despaired of their good moods, the small party of travelers came across this very shack run by this very same goblin, and ordered a meal.
Admittedly, there isn’t much to the story, but the bear remarked from then on that,
“It was just the sort of place where one could rest one’s feet for a bit. And so well placed. I never saw a more conveniently-located building in all my life, except for that one outhouse.”
Farewells.
Many thanks for reading to the end of another instalment of the Inkbeard blog. As I was waiting for the image to load, I took a look at Chat GPT’s image-creating software, and I was instantly on edge. I took the description given by the bot of a character which I had already fleshed out and put it into the image creator, and loved the outcome. The temptation to simply use AI to create the entire comic is still roiling about in my mind. And that’s not the point of this whole exercise; if I use AI exclusively, than I will have learned nothing except how to use a new software, which has no weight. While I do intend to tweak the character I drew a little based on the AI Image (it was to good to pass up), that is the extent. I don’t want to get lazy here.
But I digress. Many thanks again, and I hope the next fortnight sees you all happy and healthy. Please comment and sign up for the newsletter if you have not yet. it should work, but if you don’t receive the email in two weeks then go to my contact page and email me so that I can add you to the list. Spread the word!
Farewell,
Inkbeard.
One response to “#033”
The snack shack drawing is awesome. Great job