I bought a device the other week and it improved my comic drawing workflow by eleventy-thousand percent.

If any of that sentence interests you, read on.

Alright cool, let me first set the scene: To draw my comics I use Adobe Photoshop, and with it I use hotkeys. A lot of hotkeys. If I didn’t use hotkeys I would have been celebrating my 85th birthday last month not my 25th.

TIP: A hotkey is a key you press to get quick access to a function

I used my keyboard for pressing these hotkeys and life was dandy. I’d push B for Brush, and E for Erase, and Ctrl+Z for Undo.. and.. Alt+L+N+L for New Layer.. and so on. It wasn’t perfect, my hand went all over the place, but it did the job.

Fast-forward to a month ago I’m sitting next to Jordan and I’m watching him code my website like a goddamn pr0 hacker. I swooned over his skills of efficiency. I wanted to be like that! But.. in an artist way.

Say hello to my little friend: the Logitech G13.

This “advanced gameboard” is marketed toward the enthusiastic gamer, but secretly it’s the perfect addition for digital artists. After assigning hotkeys and actions to each key, I admit it was a little rough at first. Trying to reprogram my brain into pushing a different key from the one I’ve been pushing for 11+ years was tricky and made me doubt I’d ever end up saving more time than I was spending looking at my awkwardly positioned hand.

… but after a while it just clicked, and now I’m faster than I ever fasted before.

I love it.

– Gregor

Some Q&A:

Can you upload your hotkey file?

I showed an image of my set up to give you an idea of how I’m using the buttons and that lovely analog stick, but it’s tailored for me and my way of working. The whole point of this is to improve your workflow, and for that you need to set up your own hotkeys the way you want them.

Why not just reassign hotkeys on your regular keyboard?

I didn’t want to change the default Photoshop hotkeys because I still use Photoshop at work and I don’t want to completely unlearn the standard hotkey language. Also the Logitech G13 is much easier to carry around than a full keyboard if I need it on the go (I look forward to trying it out with my Surface Pro 2).

Things are different!

If you’re curious about the change, please continue reading this post! (Yes, a post! First one since 2012!) Or if you just want to get to the latest comic, click on the big thumbnail at the top or just go to www.loadingartist.com/latest for the latest comic every time!

I have been a User Interface Artist at Gameloft for the past three years, during which I have learned many things regarding the way menus are designed and how people interact with them. The more I learned, the more I realised how limited Loading Artist was as a website. So a few months ago I decided to redesign Loading Artist from the ground up, thinking twice about every webcomic element and figuring out how to improve upon it.

Once I had my designs done and ready, I met with Jordan from ‘Extra Ordinary’ (a great webcomic by Li Chen (check it out!)) who at first I thought was just a web developer, but have since realised also some kind of a god. The couple months that followed were spent working side by side every Sunday, bringing the designs to life (well, Jordan coded like a pro, and I kinda just watched, sometimes convincing myself I know enough about code to offer the occasional solution).

I am extremely happy with the result, and it’s only going to get better. There are still some ideas up my sleeve that weren’t quite ready yet for today’s launch, but I’ll be adding them over time. So have a look around, I’d really like to hear your thoughts on it so far.

Thank you so much, Jordan, and thanks to everyone who is reading this right now. It sounds cliché I know, but if it wasn’t for all of you this wouldn’t have been possible and I would have been in bed ages ago.

Oh yeah, best viewed on Chrome or Firefox. If you’re using Internet Explorer you won’t get to see all the cool features of the site! And if you’re using Internet Explorer 8 or below.. don’t.

Lots of news to share today!

First of all: As you’ve probably noticed from the new banner; the online shirt store is finally open! Now you can buy t-shirts and stuff! Make sure you use the coupon SHIPFREEUS before Dec 31st to save on shipping ( Save on Standard shipping costs on orders over $50. (* Maximum $9.50 off for International shipping.) ). If you have any suggestions for designs you’d like to see in the future (or a design on a particular type of clothing), feel free to email me.

Second piece of news is directed towards the New Zealanders: I’m going to have a table at Armageddon Auckland next month (October 19th til the 22nd)! This will be the first convention I attend as Loading Artist! I’m hoping to be selling a book (I’m thinking 40-48 pages of good/recent comics at the moment), bookmarks, badges, and more?! (Not shirts, though. That will be online only for now). I’ll reveal more details on what exactly I’ll have at Armageddon, because I’m not sure just yet (I really need to get on with it).

Also, I will be selling prints online at some point in the near future. I have to focus on Armageddon for now, though, but it’s coming!

Goodnight.

Wow, I haven’t done a blog post in AGES. I finally have something to talk about that isn’t just a new comic or a delay! (*cough* uhh more on that later). I recorded my screen while I made last week’s comic ‘The End Is Near’ and compressed that 9 or so hours of footage down to about ten minutes. Check it out below or click here!

A lot of you have asked me how I make my comics, so this will be my answer from now on.

Let me know what you think of the video. If enough people like the idea, I might look into recording the making of each comic (from now on).

I know this isn’t a new comic that most of you were hoping for, but I didn’t think of anything good enough yet and it’s been (and will be) a busy week. Lots to doooOOooOOobbghhhrgghh. Sleep is first on my list now.

Goodnight!

What do you get when you mix an interview, a subreddit, Google plus, and a favicon? You get this blog post:

Interview

A couple weeks ago I had my first ever Loading Artist interview, and it went live just a few days ago, so check it out here if you want to read it.

Subreddit

Are there any redditors reading this? If so, check out and/or subscribe to the newest and most ‘Loading Artist’ themed subreddit in town: /r/loadingartist. Feel free to post anything (provided it’s somewhat related to Loading Artist). I will wait a few days before submitting a link to each new comic in case someone else wants to post it first and reap all the potential juicy karma.

(Would just like to quickly mention that if you do intend to submit a link to a comic, please link to the actual page rather than the comic image directly, thanks!)

Google Plus

A few of you have emailed me demanding I make an official Google Plus (or as we in the biz call it: G+) for fans to follow. I already have a G+ profile page that some of you have started following, and then when Google made it available to create a ‘page’ I made one of those too, except not as many follow that one. Now I’m a little confused on which one to continue as the official G+ related thing for fans to follow.. I choose.. hmm.. my profile page? Yes, I choose that one. I will add a graphic/link on the side bar (like for my Twitter and Facebook pages) soon.

Favicon

Oh, and I updated the favicon. If you still see the old [LA] favicon or have no idea what I am talking about, I guess it takes some time before it refreshes (or you can empty your page cache). I can’t believe how long I had the old favicon for, it was from back when Loading Artist wasn’t even a comic and just a personal site where I posted my art progress!

Thanks for reading, see you around.

– Gregor