Eureka!

So about a week or two ago, I finally stumbled over the reason I hate my inking so much; I'm drawing too small.

Eagle-eyed readers may have noticed that several strips over the last two weeks have taken on a different look. Compare this strip, inked using Photoshop CS, to this one, inked using Pigma Micron pens.

Ye Gods, what a difference! Laying down the lines in Photoshop with a Wacom pen lets me zoom in to 300% of normal size and get almost perfect detail. Don't believe me?This could very well be the art breakthrough I've been looking for. The big disappointment of Haley's debut story last year was that the art was so rushed; I'm almost ashamed of it. But now I'm hopeful that I can make up for that with this follow-up story and new technique.

The only caveat here is that I would much rather use Corel Painter to do my inking, simply because it lets me turn the "page," making drawing easier. However, I've already become used to my new Photoshop brushes. Does anyone know of a way to convert/export Photoshop brushes to Painter brushes? Please let me know.

In other Tribe news, I have discovered why nearly all self-published comics are in black and white and not color. It's not the expense, it's the time involved. If all self-published creators colored their work, it would cut their output by 1/2, easy.

This means that I've decided that the first print collection will only have one story arc in color; the second story arc will be black and white. I hate to it, but if I don't, I'll never get this thing published.