Gobo's World

Can-I-balism

2009-10-21T17:09:00.005+02:00

I got the idea for this strip on the way home from work today and decided to do it as soon as I could. Here's the result.
As always, click the image for a full size view.

The drawing itself went along faster than I had anticipated. I was expecting to sit and twiddle with the details forever to give the character that forsaken quality, but it came naturally.

Please drop a comment to let me know what you think, good and bad...

Time used: About 2 hours

Epic lootz!

2009-10-18T13:38:00.005+02:00

Hello there and welcome to the first comic in a brand new series.
Gobo's World will be all about the games, and in this first installment I've taken inspiration from World of Warcraft. There will be more WoW comics to come, but I'll also draw comics based on other games as well.

Click the image to see the fullsize comic. You know, the one with legible text. ^_^

Please take the time to comment and let me know what you think, or at least click the love/hate/neutral checkboxes below this post. All feedback is highly appreciated.

Eye see you...

2009-10-12T23:16:00.003+02:00

I browsed through YouTube today and came across a new submission from one of the people that I subscribe to: Sycra. She had made a rather decent tutorial about how to draw manga eyes (or at least one TYPE of eyes), and it really made my penhand start to itch so I sat down to give it a try.

Here's what I ended up with after about ten minutes of experimenting...

Beauty and the beast

2009-10-09T23:22:00.002+02:00

It's now less than a day till a friend of mine binds his fate to the woman of his dreams, and to commemorate the occation I decided to give then a rather... um... unique card...

The process for drawing it was much the same as I recited in the previous topic. I could (and should) have spent more time on it, but a nasty couch and general fatigue kept distracting me.

Oh, and related to the topic title; I recently discovered a webcomic with both deautiful women and horrible monsters. Atland is a fantasy story of swords and sorcery, but with a very funny and twisted sense of humor and a decent plot.
The drawing style is exagerated and beautiful and fits the mood perfectly. A bit rougher and less shaded in the earlier comics, but I find it interesting how it slowly evolves as the series go on.

I highly recommend taking a gander. Updated every thursday with 252 episodes available as I write this.

Finding my feet

2009-10-03T14:59:00.003+02:00

Lately I've been experimenting a little with different drawing styles, none of which came naturally to me. I tried a new one today, and here's the result of 10 minutes of work.

It's by no means a finished work, just a quick sketch/trial of how to quickly colour and shade a cartoon. A lot of refinement will have to be done, as well as exploring how to draw faster and more precise lines. I'm still not sure if this style is quite "me", but at least I feel like I'm on the right track.

The process itself is relatively simple.
Start off with a sketch-layer and get down the broad strokes. Then create a new layer for refining the linework. Beneath the lines add a layer for basic colours and get them all filled in. Then add the final layer for shading between colours and lines, set it to about 20% opacity and paint in with solid black for the shading.

Credit should be given where credit's due, and the technique with the shadow layer is not mine originally. I picked it up from Scott Johnson, the author of Experience Points and My Extra Life. Well worth a look, both for the funny comics and the splendid podcasts.

Disgusting drops

2009-08-17T21:25:00.006+02:00

Welcome to Gobo's World!

As a first post I guess the right thing to do would be an introduction, so here goes.
My name is Fredrik Somerville and I live in Norway. I'm a 35 year old guy living with my fiance and our two children and a mostly absent cat.

I have several passions in my life, and one of the strongest is gaming. I love computer games, board games and roleplaying games. I've even been a LARPer at a previous stage of my life.
But I also love to draw. I started drawing in earnest last year during the summer vacation and I've kept it up since. I love to look through old sketches and see how much my techniques have changed and improved.
For a glimpse of my past work, check out my horribly un-updated blog Unsketchionable Lines.

Online I'm mostly known through the nicks Gobo, Gormash and Mashiem, hence the name of this site.
I follow several webcomics online and will throughout this blog give you links to the ones I feel are worth looking at. I'll also add small snippets of info about the tools I use and how I do the things I do, both just to help out and to have something to write.

I'll start off with a comic I drew a few months ago, based on World of Warcraft. I've been a WOW player for about 4 years now and play regularly with both my fiance and a few close friends, running a small and casual scandinavian guild together.
At the moment I'm drawing a new comic based on a different game. I'll probably have it done in just a few days. Until then, may luck and fortune be your friends.