The Pledge, Again, and Stumptown

And now for the semi-annual blog update. Right now, I'm running hot; updating all over the place, trying to increase my internet activity everywhere, from deviantart to Heterochromia, and have opened up new shops at both etsy and DaWanda. Right now I'm only selling custom mini journals like this one:

Obviously, journals need not only be used for Stumptown and Convention Planning.

This is the sort of casual "resolution" that I make a lot: I promise myself that I will start updating more, will gain more of an internet presence, will really start networking. And almost always, this means running hot for a day, a week, maybe a month, and then remembering that I have a blog and an art gallery about six months later. It's a challenge not to abandon something when you want everything you put into it to be so good (not that everything I have put into either one has been so good, but that doesn't mean the desire wasn't there). I don't want to update this day because I haven't got the energy to write at my best and most poetical, I don't want to update that day because I haven't done anything worth writing about. Are more frequent updates worth a reduction in quality? But it turns out that on the internet, the answer is yes.

Remiss? Maybe. Printers? Seeking.

If you keep up with my comic at any one of numerous other places news about it is posted (my deviantArt page, its own Smackjeeves page, etc) you will no doubt have read about the arrival of my printed copies of the first chapter of Heterochromia:




I was thrilled to receive them, of course, and launched Heterochromia's comic website with their arrival. There and on my deviantArt page, I wrote longish journals about my decision to put the comic online as well as in print. I didn't post anything about that here. Why? Simply because I didn't want to have to write another entry, to be honest. Here is what has been posted at Smackjeeves since I received the printed copies (August 26th):

"To celebrate the arrival of the first prints of the first chapter of Heterochromia, I've decided to also launch Heterochromia on Smackjeeves.

Difference in Coloration, Changes of Plans

It was a busy school year, being my last in high school, so that's all I have to excuse the lack of postings since the end of March, and the gaps that existed before that. Lots of things have changed for me, but I am still continuing Heterochromia. In fact, I'm making an effort to take it more places now.

For a start, I've finished the first chapter. All the pages are drawn, inked, lettered and toned. Which brings me to the next part, that all the pages which have been posted so far have been redone. The illustrations are the same, I have just found a better style for toning them so that the online pages are more similar to how they will appear in print.

For the early ones, I had been toning each page twice (or more): once for future printing purposes, and once for display on-screen. Screentones which appear fine printed often look hideous onscreen, so it was too tricky a process to try to balance the two in one image. However, I still wanted that "manga" look with screentones instead of grayscale, especially since it was often more visually interesting that way.

Retroactive Insertion and a Little Extra

I've fallen behind on posting the pages on here, so I'm just going to catch up with that. As always, should be doing schoolwork instead...I'll blame that for why I've forgotten to post here. Never mind that I keep my dA account updated...

I added a couple pages between current pages 2 and 3, that set things up a little better. The page numbers from now on will have these pages included (so apparently there are no 8 and 9 pages)

Renewing and Reflecting

Yeah, yeah, long time no entry. School is to blame, not going to rant about it now that it's out. More importantly, I'm back on working on Heterochromia, and decided to make a few revisions.

I realize that it may seem a bit early for such things; after all, only 7 pages have been posted. However, there is a bit of information that I intended to share in that initial conversation (which just ended, essentially) that was not included. It makes more sense to me to go back and add some pages now, when I have a context that easily allows for it, than to try and force it later. It is also more reasonable to slip them in as soon as possible rather than continuing on with the story and backtracking even more.

With the original set up of the story, I was having trouble moving one scene into the next but staying within the chapter--there are lots of events that I know I want to take place, but it wouldn't make sense for them to take place so early. I am somewhat struggling to fill out the first chapter; I know I need things to happen to establish characters, settings, situations, before I can commence telling my favorite parts, I simply cannot seem to figure out how to do that. Extending the conversation is one way for me to do that. After all, Tamino is obviously new to the place where Pan lives (if that isn't as obvious as it is supposed to be, then an extension really is needed, badly) so it is reasonable for him to have more questions than just about her name. I also didn't get a chance to show the interior of the structure seen in the beginning (the rocks)... does it even come across that they've moved inside it? ;; That is partially because I didn't really have a good idea of what the inside looked like (and still don't, in reality).