How It Went
A little bit of a Calvin and Hobbes thing going on in this one with Jeff jumping rocks over the creek. I’m having issues with his anatomy — sometimes he’s four-legged, sometimes two-legged with arms. It’s causing me grief.
Ellie on Planet X
Comics!
I don’t know. I think that gives him quite useful flexibility. . . .
I like how Jeff’s limbs are. Come over and watch my parrots use their feet as hands and think of how interesting it would be having 4 of them. I enjoy how your characters interact with their environment. I like Jeff’s hat, too. I want one.
72 answers? That’s 3.6 times the number of answers in the magic 8 ball! Maybe the mind shrub does know what it’s saying!
As for the issue on their anatomy, I think that’s actually one of “the wonderful things about quadrapodes”: any of their arms can double as legs and any of their legs can double as arms. If you want to affix this to something with less issues, maybe you can try watching squirrels: they sometimes use their front paws as hands
Oh, and the hat; I thought at first it was some funny-looking tree in the background, which just happened to be located close to Jeff’s head. Glad you found a way to clear that up
Take advantage of Jeff’s flexibilty to tell your story and further the strip. He’s an alien so you can explain it however you like oreven make a joke of it. Lookin forward to Thursdays episode.
@ Dale: Much like mush being able to conform to any environment! Doesn’t sound so bad now, does it?
@ Melinda: It’s always been my intention to have Jeff with four appendages that are both arms and legs — it’s the drawing of the anatomy that’s awkward.
@ Frank: Lots of squirrels hanging out here at Mission Control to look at. I was actually inspired by squid and octopi (maybe even spider monkeys).
And yeah, that hat did get a little lost in that drawing. I’m sure I’ll make a ton more messes like that as I go.
@ Shat: I’ve actually got sketchbooks and sketchbooks full of animals that all have a common evolutionary kinship to Jeff and Muffin. I’d like to work that in somehow but the strip is just going where it goes. I’m just following it. We’ll see what happens!
I thought there were only yes or no answers. How did she get 72 different ones from the tree?
@ Lesley: Yes or No questions. 😉
Finally, i’m upto speed with ellie’s adventure. Enjoyed it very much. Gr8 work Jim 🙂
Thanks Deepa! Hope you’re doing gr8 too! 🙂
am really liking the character development here!
I got here via webcomics.com and immediately fell in love with your art style. Really awesome use of line and colors. May I ask how you do it and what tools you use? Is it traditional? Digital? Or a combination?
Also love your sense of humour. Going through your archive and just can’t stop reading 😀
Thanks Skar, I’m glad you like it! It’s all digital. I use Sketchbook Pro, Corel Painter, and Photoshop – custom brushes in all three.