It is August...

This summer has left me both mentally and physically exhausted.

Work has been steady, and when it hasn't I have had to spend my time working on the house. We recently finished re-roofing the house and that drained me financially. So I pretty much sat around doodling, but never focusing because I was worrying over how the bills were going to get paid.

I am trying to schedule my days out so that way I can take a little time to draw every day, unfortunately everything is an ASAP deadline right now so I am working from 7AM till 2 AM pretty much every day. (Sleep? What is this... sleep you speak of?)

Its okay. I'll catch up and things will be fantastic.

I am going to make Krystle get a blog on here too. It helps to have people around posting and whatnot. Its more encouraging. =)

Still around and drawing when I can.

Mostly livestreaming when I have something worth showing.

Danielle and Lania

Roughly an hour.

Done instead of comic pages. Because thats how I roll. Yo. Yo.

See what I did thar?

So I got bored while doing an upload and sketched Lania holding some Calla Lilies.

And from there I added a crappy background and whatnot. Yes, epic fail, but grassy hills are a bitch to color. I at least got the point across that it is a green hilly area. So

I followed the rule that I picked up somewhere about there being no pure white in nature. So everything is a tinge. The clouds are bluey, the shirt (which was supposed to be white but kinda looks tan so I suppose that was fail) and the lilies are greener.

Other than that, meh. Just a colored sketch.

Lana copyright me
Tainted copyright me

blah blah blah...

Mac Crash

I fried my harddrive.

I lost everything I was working on. All the re-worked Tainted art and stuff. I am kinda bummed about it, but I should just take it as a new opportunity to try something different for my first four pages.

So... chin up. Once I get things squared away and get these few deadlines out of the way I'll be back to working on Tainted. Sketches and whatnot will resume soon.

Old Tainted Pages

Okay, so lets take a moment to look back. These were my first four original pages for Tainted Book One. My art style was different back then and I had a different coloring style. I think. M'not sure. At any rate, I started these back in 2007, but because of changing circumstances I had to put the project on the back burner, and then I kinda lost interest.

I got nudged into looking at them again by my friend Star. So I pulled out my notes and spent an entire night reading over all the material I'd scribbled around various sketch books and note pads. I decided half of it was crap and threw it all out and started from the beginning.

I have already finished the first page. (Except lettering, I'll do that once I get the art done.) The layouts for the comic will be staying the same for these first four pages, but I made a decision to keep the panel count down because I am working on an 8.5x11 page. I don't have a large enough scanner for anything bigger, and I am pretty bad at piecing things together in photoshop. Even with a Cintiq, I still cannot seem to do it right. I am just lame.

I have glanced around at comic hosting, since I have decided that I'll make it a web comic. Comic Genesis looks the most promising since their only stipulation is no spite comics and their rating system goes up to NC-17. I have been going back and forth with uploading to dA. It would be great for exposure, but I'd have to completely cover it in copyright stuff. Meh, I suppose it wouldn't matter so much.

So, I think it'll be updated once a week. I am going to get 25 pages (at least) ahead before I start uploading, just so I can go ahead and take a week per page so it won't interfere with work.

First thing is first, get these pages re-done and whatnot. I have up to page 12 sketched, and I have been able to get several done over the last few days. The longest part will be coloring. My pencils are sloppy, but I can afford them to be since the Cintiq allows for inking to be a million times easier.

Alright, gotta get back to work. Moo/

Colored work?

I am a dirty liar.

Oh well! Updates.

Ahahaha...

Yes, yes yes, I know.

I have been drawing, I really have. Actually, I should check and see if I have a few things to upload here first.

I was hammered with work, then went a week waiting for files and whatnot, and am once again being hammered. Which is fine, I'd rather be getting hammered than not getting anything at all. I am also looking for a part time job because (as most people in the industry know) February to June is a pretty dead season for freelancers. All the companies are waiting for SDCC where they release all their new titles and whatnot.

Here is to hoping I might get some work around that time. Part-time jobs in this area more or less mean retail, and when it comes to retail... *sigh* Lets just say Flint isn't the kindest to their retail workers.

I actually planned on doing a comic about that, just a weekly short comic. I still do, I have a long list of experiences that I can write about. My only fear is that a lot of it (When I was working in a worse part of town) has to do with racism (reverse racism actually) and I don't want to be viewed like I am causing a rift. Really though, that was one of the huge hitches when I worked at Big Lots. It is hilarious now, but at the time it was actually a very hurtful and frustrating experience. (Lets make it clear that it WAS NOT the WORKERS causing the problems, but the CUSTOMERS.)

So... is it worth it? Should I ignore the racist experiences? Would that cause too much of a problem you think? I know some people have built up their comic-ing reputations on racist stereotypes, but is that still acceptable now-a-days?

Because I have been blocked with my Darkness Binding idea, I trashed it and combined it with Tainted. Star actually pushed me to pull out my notes and art. After a few sketches (and I noticed a huge improvement in my art from back then) I decided that maybe I needed to revisit the concept. I had a couple pages done, colored and submitted to dA. They got... decent reception, I am sure if I had done more it would have caught on. Unfortunately I get swamped with work, so I would need to be a chapter ahead in order to keep with a weekly update. (1 Chapter= 24 pages and 1 splash art page.)

I had to keep rules. Nothing more than 5 panels per page, no breaking the panels either. I may break that second rule at some point, but I noticed that a lot of colored comics, when you break the panels, you get a bit of a messier transition. At least, its messy when I do it. Maybe I am just doing it wrong.

At any rate, it is officially half off chocolate day. So after a trip to the bank (got paid! YAY! Most of it goes to taxes, buuuuut at least I got paid, YAY!) I will have to hit up Wallie World or Rite aid to cash in on some of those heart shape boxes filled with deliciousness.

Scans and updates later tonight. Promise.

I am around, I am just busy as hell right now.

Winter time chores aren't helping much either.