Lemon Inc.

I just realized that I forgot to post about this here. I just figured that nobody who actually reads this blog wouldn't know about it already. My webcomic, Lemon Inc., has officially launched. Check it out, leave comments and stuff.

-Tim

Allison Character Design Sketches

Allison Character Design Sketches, originally uploaded by timlai.

These are some sketches of Allison I did a while ago when I was trying to design her caracter. I apologize for the poor image quality. I'll try to get a better one.

Bad Kitteh!!

Bad Kitteh!!, originally uploaded by timlai.

My cat ripped up this comic after I spent hours working on it. It made me pretty frustrated at the time because I was particularly happy with the art in this one and was really looking forward to colouring it. I'd intended to try to tape it back together or redraw it but I haven't gotten around to it yet. Why does my cat seem to have a compulsion to tear up paper?

Economic Sandcastles

Economic Sandcastles, originally uploaded by timlai.

Okay, I know I said I wouldn't show you any more comics before I launched the official site but I am. However I'm not really sure if I should use this one or not. I created it as the first strip I would post to try to introduce the strip and explain why Andy decides to set up a lemonade stand. I'm not sure if it makes a very good introductory strip anymore though. What do you think? What is the best way to start off a webcomic? Is it better to just launch right into it with a bunch of one-off gags and slowly progress into storylines or is it better to start with storylines from the beginning?

Isn't She a Doll?

It's been awhile since I updated this. I debated posting another comic but decided that this will be the last comic preview before I launch the official site. It won't be the last preview on this blog, just the last full comic that I'll give away. This particular comic is actually the FIRST comic I tried to draw. It didn't go well. I tried to draw it again and it didn't go much better. This was the third time I drew this comic. YES I know that Tommy's pose is really weird in the last panel but otherwise I think this one went pretty well. I could have done more with the colouring but I'll probably add to it later. I hand lettered this one. Then I decided that that was a bad idea and switched back to digital lettering for the next one. I don't know why but for some reason I hand lettered the one I did after that. I'm experimenting.

On a side note: I know that it seems like it's taking me a really long time to get this site up. It is somewhat due to circumstances which are out of my control and unexpected events. I might elaborate a bit more about this later on the Lai Guys Comics blog...

-Tim

Website Design

I know I haven't posted anything for awhile. I've been busy creating a proper home for Lemon Inc. You may recall that I mentioned that I was currently designing a website for Lemon Inc. I was doing so in Dreamweaver, a WYSIWYG, (what you see is what you get) editor. This website was alright but it was very limited in terms of both design and features. I realised that it simply isn't practical to be updating a simple HTML site every other week. I also became aware of what could be considered an industry standard of webcomics websites, Wordpress and Comicpress. I am now scraping the site I had previously designed and I'm endeavoring to design a Comicpress site. So far I've really liked using Wordpress and I've found that it's both more functionally and asthetically pleasing and has taken me less time to design thus far than my previous website design. I've included a screenshot of what the site looks like right now. This will probably change a bit but It'll give you a rough idea.

-Tim

Secret Ingredients

What the Hell I figured I'd post this strip too. It might be a bit hard to read in the blogger layout so you can click on it to see it at full size. I'm pretty happy with the first panel. I think the background looks pretty good. I also think that this joke is pretty funny. Please tell me what you think by leaving a comment or by sending me a tweet on Twitter.

Dude, It's Just a Tie...

Okay I know it's been awhile since I posted anything. Let's just say that it took me way longer to get around to this than perhaps it should have. That's all gonna change this year though. This year I'm gonna make time for comics every single day. I think this one's kinda funny. It's a great representation of Craig's character. I've got funnier ones planned that I'm hesitant to post here. I think the art is improving though! What do you think?

-Tim

Sample Strips!

I've been debating whether or not to post some sample strips. I still don't have a whole lot of strips that are completely done. I've basically got a bunch written, some drawn, and these ones inked and coloured. I realize that these aren't comedic gold or anything... That's partly why I'm posting them. Why would I give away my best material before I even get my site up? I found these funny when I wrote them but I'm not sure if I still do. I do have comics planned that I know are funny. If anyone does find these funny (or doesn't) then I'd like to know.

I might not even use these strips. I drew them cause right now I'm trying to just get some experience doing finished strips and these were some of my simpler ones. I'm still trying to decide on some artistic details (you may notice that the way I colour the windows changes from strip to strip) so I would appreciate any feedback on the overall look of the strips.

-Tim

Lemcorp Character Designs

In my last post I announced Lemcorp, the lemonade stand that's competing with Lemon Inc.. These are the employees of Lemcorp. From top left to bottom right they are: Rachel, Alison,
Jane, Becky, and Brenda. None of their names are final yet. Names are hard.

-Tim

Update: Note that I've already changed their names once since I first posted this. This just proves that names are hard.

The Concept of Lemon Inc. and a Full Colour Lemon Inc. Illustration

I have neglected to explain what this comic strip is actually about besides the brief description on the sidebar. I wanted to wait until we had the website ready to explain the concept in full detail but since I've got this blog going I think I should probably elaborate a little since these posts probably don't make a lot of sense to you. So, here it is: Lemon Inc. is (or will be) a comic about childhood innocence colliding with corporate coruption. Andy, a deadly serious seven-year-old opens up a Lemonade stand with his naive friend and business partner, Jeff, and runs it as if it was an office, thus creating the company, Lemon Inc. He hires other kids as employees including Tommy, a cynical kid who doesn't understand why he is working at the age of seven, Craig, who has severe anger management problems, and Derek, who thinks he's really smart but is a complete idiot and ends up ruining all the lemonade through botched experiments. Andy also employs his stuffed animals: Elephanté the elephant as a salesman, and Minsky the monkey as his secretary. However Andy didn't expect a bunch of girls to open up a competing lemonade stand: Lemcorp. Lemcorp is run by Rachel, a seven-year-old female rights activist. Her employees include Becky, a bubblely girl that is always irritatingly happy and sweet, Alison, a quirky and obsessive girl, Jane, an incredibly calm girl, and Brenda who is smarter than everyone else.

Below is the colour version of the image I inked in the previous post. It's the first full colour image I have drawn for Lemon Inc. that has all the characters (except Elephanté and Minsky, unfortunately who wouldn't fit) and a background in it. I feel that it captures many of the elements of the comic.

Lemon Inc Cast, originally uploaded by timlai.

I think it looks pretty good. The colouring is pretty clean looking. However I realized that the perspective in the background doesn't work very well. We intend to put this image into a sort of Flash application that would show several images relating to each of our comics. We would also put this text over it: Lemon Inc. Updates on (whenever I decide to update), and then we would add a witty slogan over it. Here's one that I came up with:

When life gives us lemons, we make lemonade.

Like always, you can tell me what you think of the image and the concept by leaving comments or sending me a tweet on Twitter.

-Tim

"Lemon Inking"

This is an image I drew for the flash image on the official site. Here's a video of me inking it:

This is the first time I've ever really inked something before with real ink, (as opposed to on the computer) with the exception of an experiment or two. Therefore let me make it very clear that this is NOT a tutorial and nor is anything you see on any of our blogs. We are far too inexperienced to be giving out any advice at this point. This is more just a look at how I'm Inking right now for anyone who's interested in that kind of thing or has any suggestions for me. Here are some pics of my workspace:

This is the image before I inked it.
This is the ink and pen I'm using. Both are Speedball.
I'm using bristol board. I usually just use flimsy printer paper that gets ripped and crinkled.

Here is the finished inked image. I kept accidentally smuging the ink with my hand as I inked and had to cover the smuges up with white paint but I think it looks pretty good.

Here are some closeups!
Andy!
Derek!
Craig!

Jeff!
...and Tommy!

-Tim

Lemon Inc. Pencils

Hi. It's been awhile since I've posted anything. I thought I'd post a portion of one of the first Lemon Inc. strips just to give you an idea of what they'll look like. This is only black and white now but when they're finished they'll be in colour. I can't wait to get our site up and start posting comics. Unfortunately I still need to build up a buffer of strips so that I won't run out of material. There's also some work left to do on the website...

That's all for now,

- Tim

Sketches

I know that nobody is reading this blog, but hopefully someone will soon! Until then I'm going to write this like I would if someone was reading this! Recently I've been busy coming up with strips ideas and developing the official Lai Guys Comics website. While I was doing that stuff I actually neglected to keep up my routine drawing practices so I've been trying to do more sketches for Lemon Inc. recently to prepare myself for when I start posting comics. I know that some people like to look at artist's sketches and process work (me included) so I figured I'd post a bunch of Lemon Inc Sketches. Here we go...

These are some early sketches of the characters in Lemon Inc.. As you can see Andy is in the middle, to his left is an early sketch of Minsky, and at the top are a couple of early sketches of Elephanté. At the bottom left is what was an early sketch of what Tommy might look like - Obviously he looks much different now - and at the bottom right is jeff. The poses are pretty stiff and there's something very wrong about Jeff's expression.
These are early sketches of Andy and Jeff. I was trying to make Jeff kinda fat but he ended up getting too tall making him look a little too old. Their hands look pretty bad...

These ones are more recent. Some of them are okay. There's some Andy, some Jeff, some Tommy and even a little Minsky. The sketches at the bottom are of a character called Becky that I havn't Mentioned yet. The poses are still kinda stiff but at least Tommy's making a hand gesture. In case anybody is wondering, that Thing that Andy's holding is supposed to be an Elmo mug.

These ones are the most recent. Here you've got some very angry Craig sketches, some very bored Tommy sketches and a couple of Jeffs... The posing is getting better. It's still not great but it's better... I think Craig's enraged pose at the top looks pretty funny. The best part of these is probably the facial expressions. I think their personalities come across really well here.

It's getting pretty late. That's all for now...

-Tim

Note: All art and words are © copyright 2008 Tim Lai

Elephanté & Minsky

These are some stuffed animals that will be featured prominently in Lemon Inc.Their names are Elephanté (the elephant) and Minsky (the Monkey). Aren't they adorable!

Character Designs

These are the main characters in Lemon Inc. :
From left to right, top to bottom, these characters are: Andy, Jeff, Craig, Tommy, and Derek. All art is © copyright Tim Lai 2008.