The troubles with flipping

When I’m making comics, it’s not unusual to realize I’m doing something completely wrong when I’m already half-way done. I think this situation it’s not uncommon to every artist or at least many of them.

Well, to me, one of the worst mistakes is missing the correct direction a scene or the characters should be oriented to. And I just can’t simply flip it!

I can flip it, yeah, but there’s a lot of things to fix. My panels always have a lot of letters and logos and other stuff that would get mirrored if I just flip it.

The sequence above, for instance, from Ferda Boys #33. I was already finishing the third panel (below) when I realized I was putting English-hand traffic in Ontario. So besides flipping, I had to redraw letters (and I hate lettering!) and had to redraw some stuff. That guy is right-handed, he couldn’t be spinning his yo-yo down with his left hand!

Oh, handling is something. When I make this kind of mistake in a hockey scene panel, I usually have to redraw the characters, because, besides the jersey number and eventually the logo that can’t be flipped, there’s the handling. The pose and stance would be completely different if the player shoots left or shoots right… yeah, that’s a pain.

Uh… of course there are much bigger problems in life, but any time I realize such errors, I breath in deeply and go grab a coffee cup before telling myself… alright, let’s get back to the start. 😂

Webcomics is not about talent or techniques, y’know?

Resilience.