I was originally going to wrap up the Force Justify story today, but I’m just having too much damn fun seeing where it goes. Reminds me of Tracer Bullet from Calvin and Hobbes. Makes me happy.

Jem (truly, truly, truly outrageous) asked in Wednesday’s comments about wacoms and how the strip is created. So here it is in all of its glamour:

I use a 4.5″ x 6.5″ wacom intuos, with the snazzy comfort-grip pen. I do my artwork at full-size 300 dpi (planning ahead for other uses) in Photoshop with an oval brush set to a 45º angle at 10 px or 20 px, depending on the stroke width I need.

1PT.Rule has always been drawn using the wacom, which I picked up last year to help color my children’s book. It took a long time to develop a comfort level, as you can see even from the scant few months that separate my first comics from the more recent. I’ve found that working larger helps, and allows for more sweeping, natural hand movements to make a better line. At this point I couldn’t live without it, honestly, and I think most people who gripe about them simply haven’t spent the time to develop that comfort level.

As to Corel Painter, I love everything about it except the interface. Switching from Photoshop to Painter always feels like moving from Mac to Windows for me — Adobe should just buy them and be done with it. Or integrate the tool set into Photoshop for mass global digital-art domination.