Ask The Authors

[masterpainter72]

Do ideas come to you in unusual places(sitting in a bathroom stall,dining out,etc.),or just staring at a blank piece of paper or when you remember something from either your own childhood or high school days?

[Erika]

Ideas CAN come at any time for any reason. But most of the time, they come when you are actively thinking about or talking about the subject at hand. Different people have different means of coaxing out ideas. For us, with the comic, most of the ideas come when we are sitting and TALKING about the story. Other people use other means of brainstorming, like doodles, lists, carrying a voice recorder for random thoughts, journaling, taking pictures, etc. For me personally, talking about ideas is the most important part, and I tend to do it for most of my plot stuff, AND Laura's plot stuff. I have some of my best ideas while being a sounding board for HER plots, and someday my name will be on the dedication page of a novel to prove it.

If you want more details on the creative process, just ask The Google. There are a million resources out there for budding writers. Here's an article I found, third result from the top, by Neil Gaiman. Being that he is a genius, you can't go wrong reading it. www.neilgaiman.com/p/Cool_Stuff/Essays/Essays_By_Neil/Where_do_you_get_your_ideas%3F

The big point, though, is that ideas are not magical. They do not come forth like Athena, fully formed from the brow of her father. Everybody has a million ideas a day. Writers are the ones that are able to distill ideas into stories. It is not magic, nor is it a mystic talent that you either are gifted with, or not. It's WORK. It's a combination of education and experience, with just the barest bit of intuition.

Also, a blank piece of paper is at once the most magical, promising, frustrating, intimidating things that there is. I would challenge you to find a creator cannot relate to that sentiment.

[coriolis]

Okay, y'all's personal taste doesn't run to the other superhero webcomics that I (and other readers) have mentioned, are there any superhero webcomics out there that you do like? Or are you too busy doing your own thing to pay much attention to other people's stuff? Kudos for at least giving GrrlPower a try

[Erika]

None of the comics that I read are superheroes.

[Lore]

Hm, actually I don't read any superhero webcomics either. That's kinda funny.

[masterpainter72]

Should there be a fictional account of how Erika and Lore created Sidekick Girl,whereas the characters would make cameos in different roles?

[Erika]

nope

[masterpainter72]

This for the artist of this comic....

Do you sometimes use photo references when drawing this like buildings or vehicles or whatever else and do draw it straight out or trace over it?

[Lore]

I do use general reference, as backgrounds and non-human objects are a weak spot for me. Luckily, my boyfriend is a photographer and downtown Detroit is a fifteen minute drive from our house, so I use his photos a lot for city references. For people, i tend to take pictures of myself (or the boyfriend, if I can't quite get the right angle on myself) and draw from my phone.

[masterpainter72]

Would you ever use Google Images in a pinch if you had to,say...you wanted to draw the main character in the Australian outback and used Google Images to find that right image of the outback that you wanted?!?!

[Erika]

Yes. Google image search is a good way to search for images.

However, You do have to be careful how you use them, because those images are copyrighted (either by the people that created them, or the entities they were created for,) and you don't want to move past reference and into derivative work. Copying an image in your own artwork that no one will ever see isn't going to ruffle any feathers, but for those that publish or sell their art, things should be kept on the up and up, both because that's legal and that's ethical.

Another option for reference work is images that are specifically made to BE stock images. Photos that come with permission to use in derivative works. Deviantart, for example, has a huge collection of stock images free for anyone to use. The creators of those images decide what the conditions of using them are (usually they involve crediting the artist for the stock, sometimes with a link back to the original. Sometimes they allow personal use but not commercial use.)

[masterpainter72]

I've found and bookmarked some stock photo websites that are royalty free,check them out...

www.123rf.com/
www.shutterstock.com/

If there are OTHER royalty free image sites out there,let me know.

[masterpainter72]

Are there times that either the story or artwork doesn't exactly come out the way YOU want it and so you just scrap it and start over?

[Lore]

Jun 15, 2016 5:34:11 GMT -5 masterpainter72 said:

Are there times that either the story or artwork doesn't exactly come out the way YOU want it and so you just scrap it and start over?

Yes, often. Many pages have had a face or a pose that I had trouble rendering. If the inks just don't come together, I'll erase the pencils are rework the panel. Sometimes entire pages have been reworked to make sure the flow of the visual story is more coherent. There are also times that I wish I HAD scrapped something but didn't and, while looking back through the archive, come across the panel and cringe inwardly. It's part of the process.

[masterpainter72]

I know it's been a week but I wanted to ask either Erika or Laura where they were when 9/11 happened...!