The DD Awards 2012

Last year, because of the circumstances surrounding The Duck Webcomics (formerly Drunk Duck Webcomics) site update and name change, I found myself in the position of running The DD Awards last year. Because of the value running a big project like this has toward my career and gives me practice with a lot of things effective managers have to do everyday, I'm hosting again this year.

The awards are still called The DD Awards (or Drunk Duck) in homage to the site's previous and much more interesting name.

Expect for this blog to have some info here and there related to the awards on occasion for the next couple of weeks.

Sadly, Ice Pick, will not be much of a contender this year because it is so new, but my team and I look forward to becoming major competition next year.

These are the awards I was nominated for last year:

The Two Moons Bar

Welcome to the Two Moons Bar:

I actually added the full page

I had made a nice long post about the bar, but then blogger lost all my information. I'm a little ticked off of it right now. I'm not sure I can remember everything I had originally made but I will try.


The Two Moons Bar is based of the Three Moons Pub which was a setting in an RP I did back in high school. I was the one that came up with the name. I might give a prize if anyone can figure out the meaning of the name correctly.


The bar is a sort of fantasy of my husband and me. We would love to gather the money the and resources to actually open this bar for real. We even have ideas for the menu including the Light and Dark Sides of the Moon (healthy and less healthy menu choices). Our bar would probably have a different color scheme and a larger layout.


This manifestation of the bar is owned and run by Jimmy. The name was given to the character in homage to my husband's car that broke down in November. I had originally colored the booth seat a dark color of blue, but Ryan insisted on standard red.

Experimenting With New Effects

I have said it before, and I will say it again: I do my best coloring when I have good line art. Before, I was the one doing the line art for my comics, so I really had no motivation to use photoshop to its full abilities to make a wonderful page. I had just colored it and said, "Done." What is worse I drastically changed my art style several times. (Some changes were good, but some were down right terrible).

Now I am working on coloring the first fight scene for Icepick, and I'm really starting to get into showing what I can do. I'm playing with lighting effects, filters, different brushes, and line color. My goal is to make this comic as professional as I can. I hope my work pays off in the upcoming months when we start releasing the fight scene pages.

Ta-Da!

The time is finally here! Presenting the much anticipated cover of Ice Pick.

*crickets chirp*

Alright, so maybe it is only a cover, but give it another week and Pages 1 and 2 will be out, and we will soon set to a weekly updating pace.

I was really looking forward to use this post to show the other couple of cover redraws that I got, but for some strange reason, the other person that submitted an idea removed his post, and I didn't get a chance to save it. So, I will have to change things up from my original plans.

Ryan and I really appreciate all the hard work that Jaime "RPGgrenade" does for us. He really tolerates a lot. For example, Ryan's original cover concept (colored by me):

 

This is the moment when Ryan and I took a step back and said, "We need an artist." We really did try to go it alone, but we couldn't even get the first two pages done sacrificially. So, like I said, we put out a request for artists. We got two submissions (that I remember) and only one of those submission was able to stay on with us.

Jaime's Original Sketch:

  

Jaime said he didn't mind drawing, but he didn't want to ink. So, I took on the added task of inking in addition to coloring. And the magical team was formed! Please keep checking back here and to the comic for more updates.

Added bonus, we got some art based on the cover for the previously mentioned Secret Santa. This was made by supermathsbeaver:

...we might have been able to make this work...

I Hope This Goes Without Saying

The post for 4/1 was part of an elaborate April Fools day prank between Dan "Harkovast" Stribley and myself. Though I will always be open to help him out when needed on Harkovast, I will not be making a full project with him. (Especially one as terrible as our fake project).

Ice Pick is still on schedule for release this Friday. Though it will only be the cover this week, I cannot wait to unleash this on the unsuspecting world.

My Side Project

My good friend and killer webcomic artist, Harkovast asked me to give him a hand with a new comic he is working on. I had offered to color for him in the past and I guess he took up my offer on it finally. So, I present to you.

This comic features his characters from Harkovast (left to right: Shogun, Chen-chen, Muir) in zany college antics. I'm not given much creative say in the matter so Harkovast keeps ignoring my pleas to do something about the fact that it looks more like "The High School Years" to me.

Harkovast, however has told me what these characters are majoring in and how it will effect this gag a day strip. Shogun is the old fashioned college jock getting his "major" in Kinesiology. Chen is an Art Major, and Muir is getting a degree in General Studies.

Of course, it would be boring to have them in class so much of the comic will be in the hallway. I keep trying to tell him that there is no way these three would see each other frequently in a normal college environment, so he tell me to shut up and get back to coloring...or cause he is from the UK...colouring.

Be sure to read this new comic and his original, Harkovast.