CAPTOR [32]

Finally, after I believe what is now a week or more, I sketched the entire chapter. It's twenty five pages, which is 2.5 times more than I thought it was originally going to be. Now I'm getting down to the grit, I think, and outlining is going to be the next step. Hopefully it won't take as long. After lining, I plan to do the text, nice and neat - however, I'm unsure if I should write it or type it. I'm going to consult others for opinions on what would be nicer. I think either would work, as long as I wrote a lot neater... We'll see. After, colors, and then I'll have it wrapped up and I'll be able to continue on with the next chapters throughout the rest of sophomore year. If I could get it done before July, it would be a miracle. However, I don't know how long I'm going to extend each chapter and how many chapters it's going to be due to that. 

Anyhow, Happy Turkey Day to people reading who celebrate it.

media: digital - paint tool sai/bamboo capture

CAPTOR [31]

I started to work, and after a half an hour I had this sneeze that made my intestines hurt. Now any time I move or breath they feel light they just tighten and twist themselves. Like balloons for clowns. Nonetheless, I did make it pas the twenty minutes and have something to show for! It's the shortest amount of time I've ever worked on any given blog entry. Normally at least forty five minutes is given into each... Again, I'm queuing my journals now! It may be a bit odd to know what day I'm typing these, but somewhere I'll specify. 

Nonetheless, there's only one line on these two pages, since panels switch back and forth a lot faster now between Abigale/Zane/Azel and Rob - Rob has now turned into any friend I have that is extremely lazy [you know one name pops into your mind, no matter who you are].

To make this journal not completely useless... here is a link, yes, right here, being linked in this text, that will bring you to a youtube video [in another window or tab] of music. It's the instrumental to Uprising, by Muse. It is one of the sounds I hear within this comic, and figured I should share that fun fact. It's not exactly the ENTIRE comic, but one character you haven't seen yet in these sketches [literally you just haven't seen him, he's there] whose name is Circus. I might have put up one sketch of him entirely on my blog, but thus far I had been keeping him a little secret as to keep under wraps what I was going to end up playing with in the comic. It involves puppet manipulation, mental disorder, drugs, and what some kids on the internet might know as 'creepypastas'. Hope you look forward to that, haha!

media: digital - paint tool sai/bamboo capture

SIDE NOTE: Yes, I most likely will blog the rest of the week as well! Food will not stop me.

CAPTOR [30]

Being able to work weekends is actually something I never thought I would say I would enjoy. I think I spent about two or three, possibly four hours, working on ten pages today. However, the chapter still isn't done. As a catch up, I finished sketching page 18. I think they say every hour you do something take a fifteen minute break? Or was it three hours? Either way, I've been up since about ten working, and it's now two... so I guess it was four hours. I'm so hazed right now due to working so much, and need a well deserved break [this translates to I'm just going to make myself lunch before I pass out]. After I'm going to work my butt off for another four hours and then go pass out on my bed... if I make it up the stairs. I probably will. All this work is in the hands... and eyes... and brain... okay disregard this horrible paragraph.

The plot is pretty chopped and complicated in the beginning; it's all tied up with flashbacks that haven't been seen yet, cut conversations, etc. But you'll get it soon enough. I'm gonna go back to queuing up journals so I can take it easy this week for "family time [help me]."

media: digital - paint tool sai/bamboo capture

CAPTOR [29]

Saturday I went over to Jae's house and we worked on the website. I pointed out a few things that tickled my OCD and ze agreed on them. The following day ze told me that ze fixed up the buttons on the bottom of the Captor page [first, last, previous, next], and probably fixed up the buttons on Cold, Blue's page. Ze's father, later today [Sunday], will help with the html coding to move the "Chapter/Page" title on top of the Captor page later, but soon the website will be public. The downfall is that each of us, in need to open the website to the public, must have at least five pages fully done before we can open it. With what we both would like to do, it may not be open till 2013. We both want to get ahead of our own comics by finishing, say, three chapters or more before we start posting and thus updating continuously. This saves time for both of us. Even though this journal doesn't pertain to the actual comic itself, it is where we will be posting both of our graphic novels, and hopefully any others once one is complete [since we both have multiple story ideas to create art out of].

Since I don't have a screen shot [all the website building is done off Jae's laptop], here is at least the picture I made for the background of the home page of the website. It's Jae on the left and myself on the right. After testing it, it'll re-scale itself alone with the banners and boxes on the page when moved from a larger monitor to a smaller monitor and vice versa [an issue I have hated forever]. Anyhow, it leads that there's only a  matter of time until we're able to show our original works instead of being restricted by prompts in creative writing classes back in 6th grade.

media: digital - paint tool sai/bamboo capture

CAPTOR [28]

Pages 5-8! Four more today, I think I did a bit better than yesterday, comparing sketches at least. I'm zeroing in on what I can do to focus more, and sometimes music isn't actually the answer for me. It's like full comedy specials or shows I can listen to, just someone talking makes me work more or gives me more ideas. It's actually slightly helpful that a certain someone doesn't stop shutting up about how Circus is his favorite character because it's based on him, but I threw a pillow at him earlier and it's all fine and settled now.  I hate him so much, Gott verdammt.

I'm not pleased with my progress, however, and I think over the weekend [mainly Sunday; I'm having a  day-long meeting with Jae tomorrow to fix and finalize the website] I can get more done with more available hours instead of just three. I feel like at this point I should have the entire chapter sketched, so I just want to pick up my pace more. Over the upcoming break I think I still will be posting even though we won't be in school. It's mainly because several people outside of my school come to view this blog, and would probably be more interested in more frequent updates as to how the comic is going and all the progress and "I hate my life" screeches I make in between. My other reason is it's just fun and when I'm old and can barely walk I can go back through my blog and laugh at myself... isn't that what you do when you're like thirty? A guest artist did mention when you're thirty, you're dead...

media: digital - paint tool sai/bamboo capture/I spilled hot chocolate all over my tablet, phone, and my entire desk; I am so disappointed in myself right now [that last one is not a media].

CAPTOR [27]

Slowly getting there. I kind of want to get at LEAST ten pages per chapter, since I tend to bunch a load of stuff into that many pages and kind of want it divided into different segments. I'm still trying to decide on how to do the certain flash backs that will be in the comic, nonetheless the entrances of certain characters. It's the only thing screwing me over right now, but I'll figure it out soon enough. On note of the site, I need to go over Jae's house over the weekend so we can have our fourth meeting and confirm all the designs of the website and a few tinkering things, and then after that, we're set and ready to go and it'll be up. Hopefully I can squeeze it in this weekend and all will be good.

media: digital - paint tool sai/bamboo capture

CAPTOR [26]

I'll say this off the bat - I won't be posting the actual pages here, just screen shots of them. When I do get to the full pages, they'll be up on the website Jae and I are creating. I think we're in the final stages of wrapping it up, so once I get more and more into Captor [though I was set back due to the storms], I'll post chapter by chapter. But, my goal is to be ahead enough as to where I can have some leeway and free time between doing updates and working on other comics, along with school work and any other theater work on the side. Currently trying to do plates AND a graphic novel at the same time is murdering me, but I'm busting my ass on it.

Anyhow, since I finished the first page, the next few posts will just be sketches of the rest of the chapter. I want to know where I'm going instead of trying one at a time, and instead plan in advance as to where each chapter will lead and dovetail to the next. The comic will be flat colored, as shown above, with some shading here and there [for example, the light and dark shown above in Abigale turning on Rob's bedroom light], and  such.

media: digital - paint tool sai/bamboo capture

CAPTOR [25]

From here on out is just going to be screen shots of every twenty minutes [which honestly tends to be an hour with me, which is why I sometimes forget to post a blog some nights]. What I want to really plan on doing is to finish the entire first page, make it look pretty damn good, and then move on to the rest of the chapter, just sketching it. This way, I know where I'm going within a certain number of pages [though I do know each chapter will be 20 or less pages]. I'm prepared for the emotional turmoil and the entire period of the art process where I hate my life. I think I'm braced enough to start banging my head on the desk... I haven't even finished the first page and I regret ever saying I can do a chapter in a marking period. I like how I started that portion of the process within a few sentences. 

media: digital - paint tool sai/bamboo capture

CAPTOR [24]

I wanted these few pictures to have their own blog entry because it's something I'm actually kind of proud of for once. During the recent hurricane and nor'easter, and being out of power for fourteen days, I decided over that time, I would try to catch up a bit and concept more new characters or add onto plot of some of the comics I'm working on. Although, I didn't really have to do that with Captor, I did end up filling in a pot hole in part of the unexplained story and made it kind of make sense. The above image is a bit more morbid looking than his usual self, but this is a character who goes by the name Circus. He'll be seen in Captor in later chapters, but just as a hint as to what he is... well, it involves something which is known as a tulpa, or thought form.

It's a little complex to explain, but once it's shown more throughout the comic one will understand better.

Asides from adding onto story and plot, I also did a few "comic practice" things, or really, just parts of the story I wanted to really draw out ASAP and see how they looked on paper. I want to do them more often, and it'll be worth it to look back at what it was previously to what it made in the final cut. Some of them might not even make it, but that's the only sad part. So here are the two I did thus far.

This one shows the first interaction between Rob and Zane. It kind of opens up a bit on Rob's past, which is basically shadowed throughout the entire comic and you don't hear much about it.

This one, however, cracks open more of the theme of tulpas and mental disease I'm toying with in the comic. There is German in the comic, and I'll post up a sheet that I wrote with the majority of translations. Not many are hard, like FICK means FUCK. Others are a bit trickier, like SCHEIBE [which I spelt wrong on the paper] means SHIT, SIE means HE, and then there's other terms that no one who doesn't speak the language could guess, like WEGGEHEN means GO AWAY. A few other German curses will be tossed around A LOT within the comic. So even if it's not entertaining to you, you get to learn a few new terms.

media: gel pen