Bad Breath, Dizrahk

Bad Breath, Dizrahk

 This comic has been in my mind for some time. How it came about; it was a small day dream that I had when briefly interacting with Dizrahk, a DA buddy of mine; see his page here on DA (Disturbulator). 

I've had several day dreams of what would happen if his character and my character were to bump into each other, and the outcomes tend to be rather comedic. One of the first ones I ever had is where his character says hi to Pearllight, and his breath wafts in her face as a cloud of stink. Her innocent reaction is to then awkwardly offer a tick tack; a subtle, "sweet" way of saying his breath stinks. 

Granted, Dizrahk is a civilized Rahkshi, but a Rahkshi none the less, hence he may have stinky breath on the occasion, which can be rather repulsive.

 My guess on what Disturbulator's character would be like towards Pearllight's gesture is slightly irritated, but all at once neutral in feeling.

Judging by this first comic, and other day dreams I've had; I think our characters are quite interesting when interacting with each other; especially since my character is me, and Disturbulator is Dizrahk.

How I Made the Comic

Above are the two stages before color of the comic panel. I started my project with a 2 HB mechanical pencil on a 9x12 sheet of medium weight drawing paper; final sketch results (right).

The next step was to scan the sketches and outline them digitally; final results (left). I switched between a size four and a size five brush to outline most of the piece;a few spots here and there were done with a size 3 brush, specifically where I needed more control in smaller sections.

Last step was coloring and text. I selected areas for easier coloring, tweaked it, used dodge and burn for some shading and lighting, and painted a few highlights on Dizrahk.

One of my favorite parts was adding in the green cloud of bad breath that surrounds Pearllight's head. Just added so much more life to the picture.

I'll also add a fun extra, notice the tick tacks are blue green; Pearllight goes so far as to carry matching candy to go with her suit. ^.^

 Once the character coloring was done; I chose two colors that seemed good for a background, and matched the characters, then I used the gradient option and got a nice color combo.

The thing I enjoy most is adding mini sound affects with words, and painting in expression. Note, I drew little lines in spots where a sound effect is, and directed the lines to follow movement. I added one line indicating where Pearllight's nose is, and wrote in red, *sniff*. And with the Tic Tac I drew a line indicating the way the container opens and put, *click*.

One thing I also like to do to express emotion if you can't actually see the character's face, is to draw an emoticon bubble to show what their reaction is underneath a mask or in their minds (which in this case the image of a sick face is what's mentally going on in Pearllight's head).

Enjoy, and be sure to check out Disturbulator's page! ^.~