#1: "With Apologies To Jim Davis" by David Safar -- version 1
This is my first strip, and I'm using it to experiment with materials, drawing techniques, technology, etc.
#1: "With Apologies To Jim Davis" by David Safar -- version 1
Version 1 was done in pencil on printer paper. I like the way the right side of the desk levitates. The panels are separate, they're different sizes, and the borders are not part of the images -- they're added with CSS embedded in the web page.
#1: "With Apologies To Jim Davis" by David Safar -- version 2
Version 2 was done in pencil in 10-square-to-the-inch graph paper with nonreproducing blue lines. I quickly discovered that "nonreproducing" only applies to black-and-white scans, so I now scan that way instead of in greyscale. As you can see, the desk is much straighter when drawn on the graph paper, but I'm going to have to learn to draw free-hand if I want to do color or take advantage of the smoother look of greyscale scans.
This was the first strip that I inked. The first panel was inked with a Uni-Ball Vision Elite -- a very smooth pen that is a pleasure to write with, but as you can see, bleeds horribly. The second panel was inked with three different pens -- I started it with my Ph.D. ballpoint, which is my workhorse pen for writing. It wouldn't reliably ink over pencil lines, though. Most of the time ink just wouldn't flow on top of pencil. I tried to use a Pentel felt-tip pen, but it was very old and dry, so the ink was very thin and inconsistent and looked blue rather than black. Finally I spotted a Bic pen my boss gave me a long time ago sitting on my desk. It had been a promotional item supplied by one of our vendors, so I didn't have much hope that it would out-perform the Uni-Ball or the Ph.D., but lo and behold, it worked! It still gets temperamental about inking over pencil lines, but overall it's MUCH better than any of the other pens I used. Having found a pen that actually worked, I inked the third panel with it.
Now that I have some idea of what works best out of the supplies I already had, it's time to confuse the matter with NEW supplies! I asked around on the KeenSpace forums to find out what real webcomic artists use. I got several recommendations, and will probably try them out on version 3!