support art
Last night Seraphim and I squeezed into Wizzywigs just as they were closing, more to just say hi than actually buy anything (I still have a bunch of DVDs that i purchased months ago that I still haven’t watched) but doh, as always, there was something. I think Greg was just WAITING for me to show up, because he instantly went back and grabbed something that he knew i’d want - the Clannad Visual Fan Book.
Damn. Of course, yeah, i had to get the damn thing. 
One of the problems with Clannad is that the base of artwork for the game really isn’t that large. Much of the art in the book is art i’ve seen in a number of other places, and even with the sketches and development drawings there isn’t a lot new here. It’s a beautiful book, and i’m glad to have it, but… it really feels almost empty compared to the Kanon and Air visual art books.
The lack of ’support art’ is a problem i worry about myself. One of the biggest things missing in Megatokyo is a solid base of ’support art’ - the kind of stuff you can throw together as a calendar or grab to make banners, or simply just draw inspiration from. That’s the trouble with doing a ‘comic’ - you have to do so many drawings as it is, its hard to sit down and do stuff that branches out from it, and helps define things.
Not that long ago i talked about the fact that i needed to put my laptop down and pick up the sketchbook more. I haven’t really done that, and i think that i need to get serious about doing it. I need more support art for my projects… not only does Fredart need more sketchage, but i draw a lot of inspiration from drawings, and its from drawings that most of my best ideas come from. Besides, it’d be nice to do a Megatokyo Visual Fan Book someday…
May 7th, 2005 at 11:10 am
Woot! First post!
Hmm… Well, I have to admit, I -would- like to see some more extra art on Megatokyo, but don’t force yourself. You probably know this much better than I do, but pushing yourself too hard won’t get anything done (anything good, at least)
May 7th, 2005 at 12:45 pm
yeah, i think we would all like that. ^^ just don’t force yourself. work on things like this slowly. and don’t put dead lines on things like this.
anyways, the calender that we was talking about a few months ago sound good. :p
May 7th, 2005 at 1:04 pm
I wouldn’t worry about that too much, Fred. *knowing grin*
May 7th, 2005 at 1:29 pm
I was first introduced to MT from vol2 my friend had, since then, I have all the comics and want to get the books as well, (only vol2 is in stock, appearantly getting stock in Ireland is slow.) Anywho, you seemed to have a good deal of random sketch stuff earlier (e.g. introducing Miho, etc), however, your work has got so very good, and the volume has increased as well, so, in otherwords, no one should hold it aganist you that you don’t have as much time for the random/background sketchs. Take your time to develop this material, don’t push yourself too much.
Keep up the great work.
May 7th, 2005 at 3:55 pm
Oooo.. a Megatokyo visual fan book, i’ve got my fingers crossed. >_<
May 7th, 2005 at 5:11 pm
I’d most definitly buy a megatokyo visual art book. <3 ’cause miho is tex hawt sexxors. Keep up the good work fred.
May 7th, 2005 at 7:28 pm
I think there may be less of a need for this “support art” in Megatokyo than a lot of the other games and animes out there. By its own nature, a still-frame comic demands more out of each drawing than an animated production does, and you meet this demand wonderfully. Through your rants, I can tell that the emotions, moods, and… beings? of your characters is what you focus most of your talents toward defining. Since this really seems to be the aim of a lot of the support art, that might even become redundant in the case of Megatokyo. Your characters are so beautifully defined by their expressions… with all your incredible portrayals of them, I don’t really see as much need for additional art here as in any other production.
That being said… more art would be awesome!! I love every extra sketch in fredart, even when I have no idea who the characters are. Megatokyo does not need support art, but please draw some! We all love it so much ^_^
May 7th, 2005 at 10:45 pm
i’m the kind of person who would love that.
i did like the “Fred’s Sketchbook” section of the vol. 1 reissue, and had hoped for something like that in vol. 3.
i can just say that, if i had to put together a visual art book of stuff i’d drawn, i would be _soo_ picky about what went in. like, so much so that there wouldn’t even _be_ a book. it’d be a stapled-together packet of a few drawings.
haven’t seen the clannad one yet, but i have the Kanon and AIR books.
…the AIR visual art book is gorgeous, isn’t it?
May 8th, 2005 at 7:23 am
MT artbook, i’d bite.
May 8th, 2005 at 7:31 am
I don’t have any visual art books… But I would love to buy some (if only they’d stock them in my local comic/book shops).
And with the current lack of a bank account (which shouldn’t be a problem for much longer) I have no method’s of buying any, except through friends and relatives…
But a Megatokyo art book would definatly be one I’d get (if there ever is one)
May 8th, 2005 at 9:06 pm
*sigh*
Every time I saw someone mention “visual art book” I kept thinking to myself, why does that remind me of “visual type art book”? Oh. riiiight. Visual kei. (See wikipedia for more info.)
Heh.
Imagining a nice coffee table book* of glossy illustrations of Largo as an effeminate J-Rock/Glam-Rock Idol. With everyone’s favorite EGL at his side.
R.
*Seriously, Fred, ever since I saw Wizzywig’s window display of Mt made from 8 1/2 by 11 laser prints, I’ve thought that a big, high-rez glossy paper softcover of the whole series would be excellent, perhaps with a shorter matching volume of the full color work, or with color plates tipped in. I know enough about printing to know that this would be a very, very, expensive print run that would basically have to be pre-ordered per unit by the fans to make it worth the risk. Right. So, yeah, if you made a short, “best of” with some of your favorite plot bits, favorite illustrations, (like cityscape backgrounds you’ve drawn but never got around to using?)I’d be all over that.
May 8th, 2005 at 9:32 pm
oops. The wikipedia reference was meant to be an html link to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_kei
Sorry. (The reference wasn’t for Fred’s sake anyway.)
R.
May 8th, 2005 at 10:46 pm
mmmmm more MT art.. I’d be all over that one with a quickness.
The more MT art, the better, but certainly don’t force yourself to rush these things. As much as I’d like to see a MT art book, I’d rather see it without seeing an influx of DPD’s.
May 9th, 2005 at 12:04 am
If you truly feel like you need to put together a collection of support drawings, you may want to scrap MT for a while, maybe have a few SGDs or FanComic things. Take a week or two to turn out five or six good support works. If time is really against you, you could PM some of the good artists in the A+D forum (on MT) if they’ll do the coloring for you. Personally, I’d just do my own coloring, but we all know how little time you have. Meh. Just my two cents.
May 9th, 2005 at 12:43 am
Oooo…MT artbook… Fred, you will be the (financial) end of me, you know that?
If I weren’t stuck in the middle of the Pacific right now with no place to put stuff, I’d order another couple of posters to put up…but I’m not at all sure my boss would be happy if I put them up in the office. :/
(off-topic: I’m starting up my random WESTPAC e-mails again, so would you mind if I added you to the list, Fred? I figure I’d ask this time, you get enough e-mail as it is these days… ^_^; )
May 9th, 2005 at 2:17 pm
In the May 9 rant, Fred wrote:
“odd how the floral companies are more organized around the globe than our nations are :P”
My reaction: LOL!! So true, so true! Ow, my ribs XD hahahahahaha
May 9th, 2005 at 2:23 pm
Now that I’m no longer laughing my fool head off — I like the Pirogoeth sketch. The window worked just fine without a wall pattern; its placement gave me a good idea of how large the hall was without needing any other reference point.
I like how even on your DPDs you still manage to turn out something lovely.
May 9th, 2005 at 6:35 pm
DPD are the things that I like to look at a lot; they stand for themselves and even look great.
May 9th, 2005 at 6:37 pm
DVD are good and stand on their own. They are drawn well and are as great as a normal Megatokyo strip to me.
May 9th, 2005 at 8:00 pm
Dont sweat it Fred,your doing fine. I seriosly think that your comics are getting better and better. Thats why I cant stop reading them. Even though your comics are awsome I do think that they need a bit more humor and shouldnt be as serious. What happened to Largo and Piro? It seemed that they were in every pannel doing somthing wierd and crazy toghether and Largo always got Piro in trouble but now it seems that they have two completely different lives and dont see each other anymore. They just get in each others way. Its hard to write comics and keep them as good as they were in the past because you suddenly run out of ideas and then your progress starts to go down the drain. Ive always liked to draw comics and I admire the way you can make the charecters seem real. Even though I am far from a computer I cant stop thinking about megatokyo because I can relate to the charecters so much. I often compare megatokyo to real life events when im sitting in school with nothing else to do boored as hell. Ive told some of my friends about your website and I hope they are willing to try it out. Keep up the good work.
May 9th, 2005 at 8:02 pm
hehe um sry but i was gonna post this in sucsess in the promotion of faliure
May 11th, 2005 at 9:16 am
“…he instantly went back and grabbed something that he knew i’d want…”
Hey, I know how to take care of my customers. Give’em what they want, but don’t necessarily need. ^_^
Besides, I don’t think it ever left your hands the moment I showed it to you! *cough*fan boy!*cough*