Stuck inspirationally

[Tinna]

Last time I posted about the comic I had 1 singular idea. And now I have 21 different story arcs to work with, 18 pages worth of preliminary drawings and sketches, 3 of those are actual parts of the comic and 1 of the is completed. =/ I'm honest to god, stuck. I'm not a comedy person, but I don't want it to be all drama I want a set direction for the comic to go in if anyone could suggest anything for "Parrot Tales" first issue please do. Some of the story arcs relate to things as benign as Clipping wings, disabled birds, taking them on vacation etc...just fun things you'd wanna do with the birds, issues you sometimes have to deal with. I am stumped on a good way to introduce these characters. 3 of which will be there at the beginning (the GCC the SC and the Budgie) If anyone has any idea how best to introduce those three with the main human character please step up. I don't want to give away too much otherwise everyone will know all the plot points for later stories I have and then ruin the purpose or interest of reading. What would you like to read in the first issue of a Parrot comic? I know thats where you introduce everybody. The main parrot character is the SC named Jean Luc, his little buddy is a disabled GC, juvenile, and the eldest one is a Parakeet named Alexander who is a little more level headed and kind of the grandfatherly character. I've put 6 days worth of effort into this, sitting in front of a mac racking my brains out, searching my giant comic book collection, pouring over my script writing book and all 5 of my reference drawing books and I'm still stuck on the door step. I've got character designs out the wazoo...rulers, pens, erasers, posing manikans...I mean gosh dang it I'm a professional! I've never had writers block before and I always considered that to mean I'm special but now I'm stuck. I mean, the best ideas I guess I have for a first issue is:

- Nosey Neighbors: She's got a neighbor with bratty kids who keep trying to harrass her birds and at one point the woman tries to get her birds taken away because she has dogs that bark constantly at them but that doesn't seem to bother the birds. The woman is a nuisence and so forth and the story relates to a battle of wills. This wouldn't really require the birds so much to the forefront it'd put the owner in the lead. But the comic is called Parrot Tales, so wouldn't that defeat the purpose?

- Prologue: Maybe start with Jean Luc's first day with her meeting Alexander before Sushek was in the picture (The GCC) and just go through the bonding process and so forth until he finally gets it that this person loves him.

- The new Boyfriend: her going through a transition between the ex who treated her and the birds like crap until she got the new one and the birds trying to get rid of the new one despite the fact he's a new guy, this personally seems too deeply involved for character development and is more or less just like shoving a child into a pool unprepared. So I have strong doubts towards this one, but it was the original idea to start.

Any ideas? Please I'll credit you for helping me out.
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[ROYJOY]

In noisy neighbors, have the birds telling the story, and maybe have them taunt the dogs, while nobody's (humans) looking.

[LouieBird]

I like having the birds tell the story too. Possibly start with Jean Luc's parront (what is her name?) fitting him (him or her? like Jean Luc in Star Trek?) into a harness or carry-cage for a claw clip or wing clip. Probably some good humor in that from the birds point of view. Introduce Alexander as they leave the house - he could be a lost keet flying for days and sees them, lands on her shoulder and poops. "Ah good people, could you possible spare a hungry budgie some millet and water?" She homes him. Have JL and Alex build a relationship for awhile, discussing her and her boyfriend (but not actually see him in the strip for awhile) and the nosy neighbor and those dumb noisy dogs. I like the idea of them taunting the dogs when the humans aren't looking. Possibly introduce Sushek as a lost bird that maybe was injured by one of the dogs and also taken in. Lots of good, funny and serious stuff that is possible here.

Good luck! I used to write short stories in school but that was 30 years ago

Brad & Flock

[Tinna]

Hmmm....I like those ideas and yes I was intending on having the birds tell the stories 80% of the time. Jean Luc is the main boy, thank you for your suggestions I can feel some wheels turning. Jean Luc is a boy yes He's named for Jean Luc Picard and currently..::looks behind her:: he is foraging my pants pocket for nuts again. It sounds like we'll start with the annoying neighbors then as the intro :hugs both em:: Thank you. I'm still open if anyone tosses anymore ideas.

[Tinna]

Alright, I'm going to get my programs downloaded today so that I can start fleshing out the drawings, I have the first 10 pages outlined, scaled and so forth. I just have to print the frames out, redraw the images in, erase all the pencil marks, scan it in, break the pictures apart into individual JPGs. Bring it onto Adobe Illustrator, ink all the lines in after creating a seperate vector mask (so I'm only drawing on one layer) drop the bottom layer to a lock. After I've completed inking I copy the lines, drag them over to photoshop color and shade them in, then drag them back after making sure the lines are thinner on the colored version, thicken the lines on the top outline vector mask so that way there are no blurs. Create a third layer where I refill the text and talking bubbles since I can't seem to export from my sketching program and so forth onto the web I have to redo the entire templet OVER which is...about 15 minutes but then I won't ever have to do it again I'll just save it in my library so I can pull it out as a stamp and reuse it. Still designing a Notes to the Editor page and so forth where I can respond to like 2 or 3 viewers questions or maybe post fan art if anyone wants to doodle in. I'm going to do my best to try to keep it enjoyable for both age groups, you know, 5 and 100? =P. I don't know I just felt like updating and saying that by next week before I move into my new apartment with Jean Luc (which I'm considering using as the back board ground for the comic and then have the awful neighbors come in during the next set of comics when she moves out with the bird etc) I SHOULD have the sample first issue up to be read. And I'm hoping people will read, comment and maybe recommend my name around. I'd like to be at least somewhat like the other webcomic artists ...except....I troll around on other forums and read other comics....and of the 11 I used to read, I won't go and read one of them anymore in fact I down right will tell people not to bother with it. The mods are all corrupt, slanderous, awful people (They call me stuck up because I won't lower to their level, hmph) so they banned me for finally standing up to em and giving them the piece of my mind they so deserved, they're the kind of people who DON"T CARE if you curse at them or return fire because they think they're better than you, but I felt satisfied telling them how awful I thought they were and that god was going to get them in the end....and bad. Anyway, that one, and the other forum near there is crap if you go into another section...but everywhere else I've been besides those two webcomic forums everyone has been great, very well behaved and courtious. Anyway...I think I'll make a small forum, but I'm hoping the owner of this place would just let me link to this site to refer all people here since this is where I really got the idea to start. Anyway, I'm starting to get off topic =O! I was thinking I'd have a tiny forum because this isn't the place to have anyone who likes it discuss it as it is not my forum. That was just a thought on my part since there aren't many people willing to not abuse their powers as moderators. And for the RoyJoy and LouieBird who posted ideas here, would you like your names to appear under Special Thanks as your screen names, or your real names?