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.

With the technique I currently use, I only have to make one version of the image at hi-res for print, and lower that for screen. I've decided that the screentone technique wasn't really giving me the results I wanted; instead, I now use grayscale. As I mentioned, I didn't find this to be as visually interesting as screentones. However, the newer pages feature textures which provide more variation than flat tones and gradients to solve that problem. Now, what you see on screen is (more or less) the same as what will be in the printed version of Heterochromia. Which brings me nicely to my next point.

As I have now finished the first chapter of Heterochromia, I am now in the process of ordering printed copies through Ka-Blam Digital Printing. After my order goes through, the comic will hopefully also be available for print through IndyPlanet (currently having technical difficulties) and/or Comics Monkey (whenever that launches). I'll be posting more as I get more information.

Finally, I think, I am considering starting a SmackJeeves or similar account on a comics website. Although I may still upload pages to my deviantart account, I don't think that posting them on a blog is a very good way to display them, as it is difficult to move from one page to the next. Heterochromia may also benefit from increased traffic through these sites. On the other hand, I hate to start another account because, if the past has taught us anything it has taught us this: if I become busy, the comic will have to be put aside again. As I am starting college, this is highly likely. I would like to say that I've become more focused on this comic, but I can't promise it. Situations change. Returning to the first hand, though, maybe having more readers would encourage me more, and I think I can expect to become faster at completing pages as I gain experience. (Compare: the first 4 pages took me a year. The next 21 were completed within the following one.)

That's it for Heterochromia news, for now. Pages will be posted weekly or perhaps semiweekly--if I think I'm making enough progress getting further pages done--on my deviantart account. Scripting for chapter two is finished, though page designs aren't. After working on the cover of Chapter One, I've been considering trying to do more illustration. My skills, they need work.

A final, cute illustration: