Weekend Comic (A Short Guide To Camping Moods)

Blog posted by Ste Pickford on Tue, 27 Aug 2013
Subject: Project Joy Comics

I was supposed to be spending the bank holiday weekend away from work and camping with family and friends.

Unfortunately the Yorkshire weather had other ideas and we were back home less than 24 hours after we left (and no longer owning a tent), so I drew this comic strip instead.

The moment depicted in panel six was UTTERLY terrifying in a way I'm not sure I've really captured. It felt like a combination of being born and drowning, and I for a moment I was genuinely scared that my daughters (who were sleeping in separate 'pods' in the tent) we already drowned when they didn't reply to my shouts. The reality was that they were happily asleep, oblivious to the disaster unfolding above our heads.

This is something a little bit different to the Plok comic strips I've been doing lately. If you like it there are a load more in a similar vein if you click the More Comics link at the bottom of the post.

It actually took me about twice as long to colour this strip as the time taken to write, pencil and ink it combined. And colouring is the only part I do on the computer, which is supposed to speed things up. I'm generally a bit uncomfortable with my colouring as I don't really know what I'm doing. I mean, I know how to operate Photoshop, but I don't really have any education in colour theory or anything, and kind of pick colours at random sometimes, then when in doubt I crank up the saturation (that's a video game artist for you!). Occasionally I think the colours come out well, but often I think they're a bit garish, and I often feel embarrassed by how amateurish my colours look compared to 'proper' colours in real comics, in a way that I don't about the actual lines and drawings.

Anyway. I'm reasonably pleased with the colours here, probably because I toned down the saturation for a change.

PS - We didn't actually drive off leaving the wreckage of the tent on the campsite floor. We packed it up and chucked it in the bin, but it was harder to squeeze all that into the last panel.

PPS - There were also about 10 other people on the camping trip with us, in various tents and motor homes, who I couldn't squeeze in to my tiny panels, so apologies to all the people I've omitted.

» More Comics

Tags: comic, camping, holiday, tent, rain, mood, yorkshire

Follow up post: Weekend comic (Caravan)

Predecessor post: Work comic (Night & Day & Night)

Permalink to this post: http://www.zee-3.com/pickfordbros/blog/view.php?post=727

Needs a rubber ducky.

Comment by JPickford, added Tue, 27 Aug 2013 19:18:28 GMT