Rick Carlsen's Blog and Comics http://rickcarlsen.com/art The Joy of Drawing Blog - with comics! Wed, 24 Feb 2010 19:21:00 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 en hourly 1 Facial Expressions Reference http://rickcarlsen.com/art/facial-expressions-reference/ http://rickcarlsen.com/art/facial-expressions-reference/#comments Wed, 27 Jan 2010 15:34:36 +0000 Rick http://rickcarlsen.com/art/?p=137 Here are some great books that give you hundreds of pictures of unique facial expressions at unique angles and ages. More information can be found here.  Some are obviously acted but many offer  accurate reference.

]]> http://rickcarlsen.com/art/facial-expressions-reference/feed/ 0 How to Draw Women Videos http://rickcarlsen.com/art/how-to-draw-women-videos/ http://rickcarlsen.com/art/how-to-draw-women-videos/#comments Tue, 26 Jan 2010 15:13:22 +0000 Rick http://rickcarlsen.com/art/?p=122 Here are some good videos for examples of how to draw women.

]]> http://rickcarlsen.com/art/how-to-draw-women-videos/feed/ 0 The Trigan Empire, a Fantastic comic. http://rickcarlsen.com/art/the-trigan-empire-a-fantastic-comic/ http://rickcarlsen.com/art/the-trigan-empire-a-fantastic-comic/#comments Mon, 25 Jan 2010 23:57:56 +0000 Rick http://rickcarlsen.com/art/?p=123 When I was a child my grandmother use to send me Look and Learn magazine from England. The center of the magazine had a two page color comic serial called The Trigan Empire, by Don Lawrence. I still love it and have many of them in book form now.

It is about the leaders of a Roman-like empire with swords and also modern technology on another planet. A must read!




]]> http://rickcarlsen.com/art/the-trigan-empire-a-fantastic-comic/feed/ 0 16 A1 Free Color Design Tools http://rickcarlsen.com/art/16-a1-free-color-design-tools/ http://rickcarlsen.com/art/16-a1-free-color-design-tools/#comments Sun, 24 Jan 2010 23:47:46 +0000 Rick http://rickcarlsen.com/art/?p=101 Choosing colors can be a tricky business, not to mention trying to figure the code you need to get that color to appear in your app.  These should help you!
















]]> http://rickcarlsen.com/art/16-a1-free-color-design-tools/feed/ 0 The Top 50 Web Comic Strips http://rickcarlsen.com/art/the-top-50-web-comic-strips/ http://rickcarlsen.com/art/the-top-50-web-comic-strips/#comments Thu, 21 Jan 2010 15:18:03 +0000 Rick http://rickcarlsen.com/art/?p=90 These should be pretty close in order of popularity, at least for the date of this post.

  1. xkcd
    xkcd.com/
    Stick-figure strip featuring humour about technology, science, mathematics and relationships, by Randall Munroe.
  2. Penny Arcade
    www.penny-arcade.com/
    Equal parts comics and commentary, Penny Arcade features
  3. Dilbert Zone
    www.dilbert.com/
    Dilbert and gang offer daily comic strips, archived comics, e-cards, games and desktop diversions.
  4. Questionable Content
    www.questionablecontent.net/
    Centers around an average frustrated 20-something music nerd, his PC and Faye. Includes archive, FAQ and overview.
  5. VG Cats
    www.vgcats.com/
    A webcomic about videogames. Features the cast, an archive, weblog, and a forum.
  6. Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
    www.smbc-comics.com/
    A collection of bizarre humor.
  7. Giant in the Playground
    www.giantitp.com/
    Giant in the Playground is a game and publishing company run by Rich Burlew. The site hosts two popular webcomics: Burlew s own the Order of the Stick, and Erfworld by Rob Balder and Jamie Noguchi. The Order of the Stick is a fantasy role playing oriented strip, and Erfworld is rooted in turn-based strategy games. Both comics are full-color, full-page format and alternate updates 5 days a week.
  8. Keenspot Entertainment
    www.keenspot.com/
    A pioneering webcomics publishing powerhouse since 2000, Keenspot publishes and creates a number of popular comic properties and is a top comic publisher on the iPhone App Store.
  9. PvP: Player vs. Player
    www.pvponline.com
    Online strip about videogamers, by Scott Kurtz.
  10. SinFest
    www.sinfest.net/
    Strip dealing with contemporary issues and religion. Created by Tatsuya Ishida.
  11. Piled Higher and Deeper
    www.phdcomics.com/
    About graduate students, by university professor Jorge Cham. Strip archive, merchandise available.
  12. Wulffmorgenthaler.com
    www.wulffmorgenthaler.com
    Features the daily comic strip from Mikael Wulff and Anders Morgenthaler.
  13. Comic Genesis
    www.comicgenesis.com/
    Hosts over 6000 fresh, experimental webcomics. Run by comic authors for comic authors. Formerly Keenspace.
  14. Drunk Duck
    www.drunkduck.com/
    Community containing comic strips and stories organized by categories. Includes commenting and forums.
  15. User Friendly
    www.userfriendly.org/
    Amusing strip following the antics of Columbia Internet and its employees. Frequently touches on Open Source, Linux, hacker culture, and holy wars.
  16. Garfield
    www.garfield.com/
    The official web site for Garfield and Friends. Jim Davis’ feline sensation has an appropriately huge website, with an online catalog, fan club information, news, and a strip archive.
  17. Another Garfield web ring (unofficial)
    v.webring.com/hub?sid=&ring=garfield25&id=&list
    The original WebRing, now separated from Yahoo.
  18. Qwantz Dinosaur Comics
    www.qwantz.com
    Dinosaurs discuss difficult issues of life. Each strip repeats the same six images. By Ryan North.
  19. Dominic Deegan: Oracle for Hire
    www.dominic-deegan.com/
    Seeing the past, the future, and idiots. He is a seer with a weird life.
  20. Doonesbury Electronic Town Hall
    www.doonesbury.com/
    Access to a searchable database of Doonesbury comic strips, and daily news updates.
  21. A Softer World.
    www.asofterworld.com/
    Weekly webcomic and a collection of subversive resumes.
  22. Wondermark
    www.wondermark.com
    Features a collection using old-fashioned black and white characters, Updated regularly.
  23. Extra Life
    www.myextralife.com/
    A cartoon about and for gamers. By Scott Johnson.
  24. Sluggy Freelance
    www.sluggy.com
    Daily online comic by Pete Abrams about aliens, demons, dating, and bunnies with switchblades. Also color Sunday episodes, weekly overviews and animated gifs.
  25. Schlock Mercenary
    www.schlockmercenary.com/
    An online comic space opera
  26. Calvin and Hobbes.com
    www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/
    Includes comic strips, editorial comics and columns that can be delivered via e-mail.
  27. Real Life Comics
    www.reallifecomics.com/
    A daily online comic about the normal lives of some abnormal people. By Greg Dean.
  28. Webcomics Nation
    www.webcomicsnation.com/
    Business services for cartoonists online.
  29. Shortpacked
    www.shortpacked.com/
    A webcomic about toys by David Willis.
  30. For Better or For Worse
    www.fborfw.com/
    Official site: Archives, books, and latest installments.
  31. Drshnaps Productions
    www.drshnaps.com
    Dedicated to helping amateur comic artists get their work noticed online. Serves as a hub for several different kinds of comics, mainly features sprite-based comics.
  32. Achewood
    www.achewood.com/
    A cartoon of modern life as lived by a retarded otter, an alcoholic tiger, and two bears.
  33. Savage Chickens
    www.savagechickens.com/
    Chicken cartoons on sticky notes.
  34. Diesel Sweeties
    www.dieselsweeties.com/
    Love and Pixels. Pixelated adventures starring a burnt-out, retired porn star and her robot boyfriend Clango.
  35. Basic Instructions
    basicinstructions.net/
    Webcomic by Scott Meyer. Each strip takes the form of a “How To” guide.
  36. Irregular Webcomic!
    www.irregularwebcomic.net/
    Lego and gaming photo comics by David Morgan-Mar.
  37. Overdue Media
    www.overduemedia.com/
    Daily comic strip set in a public library.
  38. Daisy Owl
    www.daisyowl.com/
    Surreal strip about a little girl being brought up by an owl and a bear, by Ben Driscoll.
  39. Wapsi Square
    www.wapsisquare.com/
    Monica, Amanda, their lives, their tribulations and friends. By Paul Taylor.
  40. Daryl Cagle’s Professional Cartoonists Index
    cagle.msnbc.com/
    Features daily cartoons, and a listing of cartoonists on the internet.
  41. Goats
    www.goats.com
    Daily geek strip about a programmer in search of beer and true love. Includes such fan favorites as demonic chickens and the Panties of Potency.
  42. Sam and Fuzzy
    www.samandfuzzy.com/
    Serial about a cab driver and his bear-like friend by Sam Logan. Offers a reader’s guide, forum, and frequently asked questions.
  43. Stivers, Mark
    www.markstivers.com/
    The cartoonist features an archive and is a piano tuner too. Features original songs and a weblog.
  44. Red Meat
    www.redmeat.com/
    The self-proclaimed “most tasteless and twisted comic strip in the world”. From the secret files of Max Cannon. Regularly updated, with a generous backlog.
  45. General Protection Fault
    www.gpf-comics.com/
    General Protection Fault is an on-line comic strip full of geeky fun, bizarre characters, and a sentient slime mold or two. Join Nick, Ki, Fooker, Dwayne, Trudy and Fred the Slime Mold as they try to keep GPF Software afloat, while surviving odd parodies and wacky situations. The strip runs every Monday through Saturday. A strip archive, plus “geeky games”.
  46. Foxtrot by Bill Amend
    www.foxtrot.com/
    Information on Foxtrot, recent strips, and a news page from the author.
  47. Little Gamers
    www.little-gamers.com/
    Little Gamers is a web comic created and illustrated by
  48. PartiallyClips
    www.partiallyclips.com/
    This is a twice-weekly clip art comic strip for grownups, by Rob Balder.
  49. White Ninja Comics
    www.whiteninjacomics.com
    Features include archive, press, fan art, history.
  50. College Roomies from Hell
    www.crfh.net/
    Daily online strip by Maritza Campos about the sometimes mundane, sometimes surreal adventures of college roommates.
]]> http://rickcarlsen.com/art/the-top-50-web-comic-strips/feed/ 0 Digital Coloring Videos http://rickcarlsen.com/art/digital-coloring-videos/ http://rickcarlsen.com/art/digital-coloring-videos/#comments Wed, 20 Jan 2010 15:32:19 +0000 Rick http://rickcarlsen.com/art/?p=87 Most of us will end up using the computer to finalize the coloring of our work. Here are a few tutorial videos I found that may help you with doing  just that!

]]> http://rickcarlsen.com/art/digital-coloring-videos/feed/ 0 01/20/2010 http://rickcarlsen.com/art/01202010/ http://rickcarlsen.com/art/01202010/#comments Wed, 20 Jan 2010 08:00:00 +0000 Rick http://rickcarlsen.com/art/01202010/ 01/20/2010

More to come – This is just a place holder until I get the real stuff uploaded (and drawn!) ]]> 01/20/2010

More to come – This is just a place holder until I get the real stuff uploaded (and drawn!)

]]> http://rickcarlsen.com/art/01202010/feed/ 0 16 great comic free comic fonts http://rickcarlsen.com/art/17-great-comic-free-comic-fonts/ http://rickcarlsen.com/art/17-great-comic-free-comic-fonts/#comments Tue, 19 Jan 2010 20:03:13 +0000 Rick http://rickcarlsen.com/art/?p=60 Just click on the image to go to the site for the free font download.
]]> http://rickcarlsen.com/art/17-great-comic-free-comic-fonts/feed/ 0 Caricatures http://rickcarlsen.com/art/caricatures/ http://rickcarlsen.com/art/caricatures/#comments Mon, 18 Jan 2010 15:06:21 +0000 Rick http://rickcarlsen.com/art/?p=57 If you are interested in learning how to do caracatures then look no farther. Tom Richmond of MAD magazine has an excellent blog that not only teaches you about how to draw but also gives you inside tips on the cartooning industry in general.

Definitely a site you should visit regularly.

Here are some of his tutorials:


Tom Richmond.com

]]> http://rickcarlsen.com/art/caricatures/feed/ 0 The best comic art http://rickcarlsen.com/art/the-best-comic-art/ http://rickcarlsen.com/art/the-best-comic-art/#comments Sun, 17 Jan 2010 15:11:16 +0000 Rick http://rickcarlsen.com/art/?p=52 OK we all know the best way to learn is to have some really good examples. Well when it comes to professional comic art where can you find some great art?

The comic covers always have been the best examples as we really do judge a book by its cover. This site has nothing but the covers of comics , magazine and books!

http://www.coverbrowser.com/

This site has the collected art for all the main artists in the industry:

http://www.comicartcommunity.com/

Now you don’t have any excuses. Go and learn from the best! :-D

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