jonsaintamant
Jon St Amant
tapastic.com/series/shelbyandtheblooms
I am an artist and middle school art teacher. My students inspired me to create the comic series, Shelby and the Blooms, which is about a snail girl named Shelby, who struggles with fitting in at a high school for insects. My goal is to get my series officially published (either through publishing companies or Kickstarter), and eventually animated.
- Joined
- Oct 2, '14
- Last Post
- Feb 1, '16
- Seen
- Nov 28, '17
- Views
- 39
- Trust Level
- member
I'm still interested too
Good topic! My strength is character design. I love coming up with new characters to populate the worlds in my stories. I went through a wizard phase where I designed 23 really odd wizards (Jacuzzi Face Wizard, Hind Legs of a Horse Face Wizard, etc.) in about a month. My weakness is interior …
That's really interesting about Japanese artists and their acceptance of fan art. I didn't know that. I agree that if the creator is okay with it, then go for it.
Hahaha! I really dont care. In fact, I get along great with fan artists! I just thought I would share my feelings about fan art with this post. When I see someone with amazing art skills doing nothing but fan art, I think, "If so-and-so came up with an original series or teamed up with a writer,…
When signing up for Anime Expo,I think I saw something about a limit or restriction on the amount of fan art an artist can sell. Maybe "crackdown" is a bit harsh. But maybe a licensing fee to artists who plan on selling fan art at conventions would encourage more original work, and make it legal f…
I agree that someone else's take on a famous character can be interesting and nice to look at. I also think that it's a great idea to use fan art on social networking to draw more attention to an artist's site, thereby having those fans discover (and hopefully support) the original work. I underst…
Fan art is something I've been mentally grappling with for some time. As someone who uses most of his creative talent actually creating something 100% ORIGINAL, it's kind of frustrating to watch people make TONS of money off of copyrighted and famous characters that aren't theirs. I had a booth at…
This is the first page of my comic, Shelby and the Blooms! The bottom panel is one of my favorites. [image]
![[image]](http://forum.tapastic.com/uploads/default/5724/2380e820c0f8508f.jpg){kind=link}
My dad and I spent about a year on weekends converting an old tool shed in my backyard into my current studio. It's really small, but it keeps me apart from the distractions in our house. There's no internet nor television, just a radio, some lighting, and all the supplies I need. I work there af…
I used to teach a comic and cartooning class in the summer, and I needed a sample character to show my students the various aspects of character design, story development, layout, etc. I came up with a way to help students create characters by writing random things on popsicle sticks, color coding …
That's awesome, Cyndi! Getting kids excited about reading is a great goal and accomplishment. Very cool! Is your comic self published?
I'd like to have an Eisner Award-winning all-ages graphic novel series that allows me and my family to travel the world so I can be on convention panels and appear at international book signings. I'd like the novel series to be offered several animation deals, which result in a long-running cartoon…
This may sound like a bit much, but today I sent a package of some of my series merch (zines, stickers, bookmarks, etc.) to one of my subscribers in Poland (I'm in the U.S.)! I did it because that particular subscriber has always given supportive comments and seems committed to the series. This s…
If you ever happen to subscribe to my comic, I won't post anything. What I find annoying is the constant creator updates and posts that are always filling up my activity feed. As a creator, I get excited when I see a red number in the activity (heart word balloon) feed, because that USED to mea…
I agree with what most are saying. As a comic creator with under 100 subscribers, I get really excited (I even shout to my wife across the house when I see my subscriber number go up one). A decent drawing of my main character is a nice way to show that I noticed them, even if it is a saved file t…
I agree. Vertical looks great on a mobile device. I design all of my comic pages in horizontal format to be printed as zines and sold at conventions. When I started posting Shelby and the Blooms here, it was in horizontal format. I emailed a question to Tapastic about how I can get my comic fe…
My name is Jon, and my comic is called Shelby and the Blooms. It's about a snail freshman girl in a high school for insects who struggles to fit in. I have 50 subscribers, and I guess I have space for a few more! Thanks for reading! [image]
![[image]](http://forum.tapastic.com/uploads/default/3554/1deb2159787144f3.jpg){kind=link}
Thanks for organizing this, Lui! I enjoyed the challenge, and I'm still looking forward to receiving mine!
For my series, Shelby and the Blooms, I start with basic bullet points of what happens in the chapter. Then, I do a script style format, where every panel and dialogue within each panel is accounted for, similar to what UzukiCheverie describes above. I started doing this recently because I've been…
With the internet nowadays, it's so easy to "level up" in almost anything! I have a lot of students that learn art techniques through YouTube; things I didn't learn until college!
I was an Fine Arts major (Drawing and Painting), and now I teach art at a middle school.
I'm in! This sounds awesome!
I totally agree with a character feature. It could even be as simple as having a character introduce themselves by answering some random question. The key is to provide an enticing sample for prospective subscribers.
Yeah, I agree with avoiding the Facebook promotion machine. They employ "Like Farms," which make you think you're getting genuine likes and fans, but if you look at the names of the "people" who have clicked "like," on your page, you'll find names like, "Dingh Footghrt" "Wragn Beedotug" "Chan Qitno…
Thanks for the great advice! I filled a few post-it notes with all those site and app names you dropped. -Jon creator of: Shelby and the Blooms
I'm in too! I would like a mashup drawing of my main character, Shelby, and your main character! In case you don't know what a mashup is, imagine what that offspring of the two characters would look like, then draw him or her. Here's my comic: Shelby and the Blooms
My comic is called Shelby and the Blooms, and it tells the story of a cute snail girl who has trouble fitting in as freshman in a high school for insects. An embarrassing encounter with a bully sends her on a path that changes everything. Here is a picture of the bully (also a snail): [image]
![[image]](http://forum.tapastic.com/uploads/default/1661/d5cadb636408b1ab.jpg){kind=link}
I typically use pen and ink for the line art, then scan it to Photoshop to drop in color. I like the line variety that a brush and ink provides. it's most apparent in the panel borders, because I use an inked brush without a ruler. My comic is called Shelby and the Blooms.
Hi everyone, My name is Jon, and I am an artist and middle school art teacher. I started posting my comic about a week ago on this site, but I have been developing the series for about 4 years now. My series is called Shelby and the Blooms and it is about a freshman snail girl in a high school f…