Idea
| Tools | The Idea | Penciling | Inking | Scanning / Touch Up | Lettering | Finishing Up |
Well, this is the step that EVERY cartoonist is going to do differently in one form or another. All I can do is kind of give you insight into how I come up with ideas.
But first a little back story …
I have always wanted to be a cartoonist and have been drawing since I was but a wee one. I even got my degree in traditional (cell) animation. After moving to California I had aspirations of working on a syndicated comic strip. I did tons of research and saw that my chances were VERY slim. I tried to come up with situations, characters, gags, and whatnot that would appeal to a mainstream audience. I wrote characters with talking pets, penned cutesy dialogue, the whole shebang. But for some reason I wasn’t motivated. Perhaps the thought of writing saccharine sweet sayings for a lifetime was too much for me to bear.
Then I discovered the Internet and it’s myriad of outlets. The online comic community sparked my interest and I finally realized that self publishing on the Internet could be a good “proving ground”. Eventually I learned that it could be profitable and that there were folks who actually made a living doing web-toons.
Well I just finally just threw my hat in the ring and created a strip about what I know and like (computer games) and used a setting that I am familiar with and have a history in (company life). This provides me with tons (I hope) of good ideas based on real life experiences. Plus there are certain archetypes in corporate life and in the computer industry that folks can easily identify with.
Most of the time I get an idea from something I read or hear (or mishear). I read a lot of magazines, surf the web, play games, watch TV, and generally immerse myself in pop culture. I’ve been doing it for years, so it is nothing new to me. Since I have ideas all the time, I don’t want to loose any of them just in case the river ever dries up, so to speak. I keep a small notebook with me at all times to jot down words, ideas, phrases, punchlines, etc. I put a lot of stuff in there and eventually organize it and transfer it to a blue notebook I keep. I do sketches in there, flesh out ideas, maybe write dialogue bits, and generally make sense of my nonsensical little notebook.
Also, I also try to break up story lines with a few one shots and spread out the ideas over time. Sometimes I get very anxious about a joke or gag, but I save it if I feel it would be used better elsewhere or by a character I haven’t introduced yet.
That is about it.
