002 - Traveling

[Wizard CaT]

http://takozushi.com/Tako2.html

I don't think there are actual titles (unlike the other series) though some have come up with them I guess?

The art is really interesting looking. It is definitely different form your past work, just looking at the sun casting a shadow and the rough looking sky. Did it take you a long time to develop it, moving from your prior art styles?

[Alfador]

Curses, I didn't get it this time!

[Jennifer Diane Reitz]

http://takozushi.com/Tako2.html

I don't think there are actual titles (unlike the other series) though some have come up with them I guess?

The art is really interesting looking. It is definitely different form your past work, just looking at the sun casting a shadow and the rough looking sky. Did it take you a long time to develop it, moving from your prior art styles?

I'm basically just taking a whole new direction. It builds on itself.

The sky, the sun, are all paper. From the same collection of paper that makes up the look of these forums. I bought that paper years ago in preparation for doing this comic. About four years ago, maybe five. No, more, I was still doing Pastel when I bought that paper.

I finally got around to scanning it in just before I built the new forums we are using now. I scanned a lot in, only some got used for the forums. That too was in prep for the look of Takozushi. Indeed the name of the forum style is... Takozushi.

The style I am using for the comic is a mixture of papercraft and ukyo-e/floating world/(original meaning of)manga. I don't mean modern, cartoon manga. The original word 'manga' actually means 'thoughtless drawings', sometimes translated as 'unattended drawings' or even 'whimsical drawings'. It dates from the eighteenth century, and is best exemplified by the painter and illustrator Katsushika Hokusai.

He, and others like him, used a form of drawing that was considered quick and almost careless, in modern terms it was essentially cartoon illustration. It was proto-cartoons, and I adore it. This 'manga' that became our modern cartoon stories and novels, itself originated from earlier forms that also depended on clear lines, bold colors, and a proto-cartoon, illustrative look.

Behind my own adaptation of this style, done as though on animation cel, I put paper, including paper cutout, paper-with-stamps, and paper with paint. In this way I am trying, in every page, to capture the history of manga overall - as painting, as illustration, as block-print, as paper art, as cartoon, and as animation too. That's my notion, anyway. I suppose I am being kind of artsy-fartsy pretentious with this, but, it really is what I am struggling to 'say' with this style I am cooking up as I go.

I am fairly OK with how it looks so far, I hope I can get better as I go. I also hope that this look balances out all the feedback I got from everyone when I was first playing with Takozushi style concepts. I've avoided the dark black lines which some objected to, used more watercolory shades and brushy-yet-clear lines (not overly brushy, I hope), and I have gone for what subtlety I can, instead of bright, super-saturated primary colors, for the most part. All suggestions from everyone here, adapted as best I can.

Really, everyone here helped create this look, to a degree - but don't worry; if it turns out to suck, I take full responsibility.

But if you like it, well, pat yourselves on the back, UJ forum friends!

[draque]

In each of your stories, there has been an evolution in artistic style that's striking when the earlier pages are compared to later ones. I'm really looking forward to seeing how these new styles turn out further down the line of this comic's run.