Character Sketches

I've burnt out of the original steam I had for the new story idea, but fortunately it wont stop my progress. Its just going to go a bit slower. I ran into some hiccups in terms of story. I dont think the cast of characters is strong enough, but then I realized its because the rest of the cast (sans the main two characters) get so little screen time. Not good. Characterization occurs best when in conflict or conversation with more than one character, after all.

So I'm spending more time on fleshing out the WHOLE cast - and writing more scenes with them in it. I focused so much on the COOL parts of the story (Billie, the main character, and her job) that I neglected the important part - how she relates to her friends, her peers, and her day to day life. Once I get that hammered away I believe the story will have better locomotion. After all, plot only makes sure there's a structure for the story, its the character interaction/ conflict that drives the story.

Sherlock Holmes

I've been watching "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" on Youtube lately. I saw just one too many gifs with Jeremy Brett's Sherlock and I decided enough is enough! I MUST WATCH IT. And I did. ITS FABULOUS. I love Benedict Cumberbatch's turn as Sherlock, but its not Sherlock. I now believe Jeremy Brett is Sherlock. The Great Detective personified.

As an aside, how can a 50 year old look so good? Makeup, right? Makeup and 1980's television resolution.

I think I'd like to ramble on and on about what makes Sherlock Holmes' character so attractive to so many people over so many generations, but thats a LONG ramble. Another time, I suppose. Though I will end on this: Jeremy Brett was Freddy in My Fair Lady! What the what – right?

Writing by the seat of your pants

Now that I think about it, anything "by the seat of your pants" sounds like a weird thing. It probably means the car cushion or something, historically. But its still a odd thing to say. Where, exactly, is the seat of my pants? Not the seat of me, or my butt, but of my pants.

Pictured: seat of your pants (Credit: Morguefile.com)

Anyway, I've come to a good realization. Not very startling. Just stumbled upon it this month. As I have been chipping ever so diligently (might I say, even obsessively) at the new series for BigWorldNetwork.com, I've been forced to think about what I learned from my last, not so stellar season/ series.

In general, I tend to write by the seat of my pants. I get a vague skeletal structure to work off of, a great cast of characters with tons of conflict to drive the story, and some sort of fantastical/mysterious element (I like fantasy and I think "mystery" is compelling) to keep it fun. Then I set out to write as my fingers so fall. Its not a bad practice, as so much as misguided. For a personal, novel length project, it can work. But for a weekly updated e-series, not so much. Which was my first mistake with Adeline.

Originally Titled "How Adventure Bit A Polite Society Lady in the Arse"

I had a silly idea, written down on 5 pages. Inspired by "Pirates in an Adventure with Scientists" no less. It was meant to be just goofy fun. I wasn't even going to do anything more with those 5 pages, besides let them sit on my computer to be forgotten. But then one fateful day, while reading one of the multitudes of webcomics I read, I stumbled across a banner for BigWorldNetwork. It looked like a webcomic, actually. In my never-ending quest for more webcomics to read, I clicked on it - to discover it was an e-series! Now, slightly curious, I clicked on the submissions tab and discovered they really didn't have much of a policy besides "submit here please."

Which I did. I took Adeline, an idea I wasn't too particularly attached to that had 5 pages of an intro episode, and sent it in with an introductory email. I figured, what the hell, right? If they like it, it could be a fun experience. If they dont like it, no harm done. Color me surprised when they liked it. The only problem was I didn't have anything planned, like, at ALL. I just had the intro to an odd-world, a reluctant heroine, and an idea about Pirates. Essentially, I wrote by the seat of my pants. And the story paid for it. Because I never was enamoured with the idea in the first place.

NOT my plot (Credit: Morguefile.com)

Oh sure, I boned out a plot, but it was flimsy and ill-fated at best. Each part fell into place after the current episode was written. Word of advice: DONT DO THIS! Its a BAD IDEA.

The second season was better in some places and worse in others. I didn't even have a vague theme to work with this time. At least the first season was Pirates! The second one I came up with in the middle of projects, furiously scribbling out my ideas on an expansive white board. I know everyone has their own method for brainstorming and inception, but I tend to do it in a linear fashion: as in, I write out every last thought, be it stupid or genius in sentence/ paragraph form. It works for me.

something like this, but with much more words

In the end, Season 2 suffered from a lack in character arcs, a flimsy story, and a rushed ending.

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This time around I fully intend to do this better. Again, not right, but improved. I'll learn from my last series and plan, actually plan. Thing is, this e-series spans (from the looks of things) a couple of seasons. It requires specific episodes to set up very specific plot points – while balancing multiple sub plots, characters, and Big Bads. I've been using two particular tv-series to model off of. Well, I use "model" liberally. I figure this style of writing is more the intersection of where novel meets tv-series. We'll see how this all pans out, but I have every intention of creating a sturdy skeleton to work off of before diving into the language and style of the story itself.

Frozen and other Animations

Was looking at "Frozen" artwork. Some claim it isnt the real artwork - just really high quality fan work - but I find that hard to believe. Well, not that hard. It would explain why each bit of art looks exactly like previous Disney properties. Its still... rather depressing. "The Snow Queen" is one of my all-time favorite fairytales - though I always forget to add as a caveat "except I ignore all the religiosity within the tale." But maybe thats because I owned the abridged version when I was a kid. 

In response I started drawing more kids-y characters. Actually, she's a character from an older story I've decide to tinker with. Why create new stories when there's so many old ones to fix?

Cover Design - Process Work

From start to rough color blocking: took me 2 hours. Then I went in and started smoothing out the color and adding details, which took another... oh, 2 hours I'd guess. I stopped to wash my dinner plates, to open a window, and then to surf the web a bit. ... Its rather awful how much the internet sucks my time. That and tv shows. I have a choice to make. Either I can be productive and make stuff, or I can watch the next 6 episodes of Person of Interest (and catch up with the recent season). Its hard! I love PoI! Its addictive. And I'm in for a doozy, as the next 3 episodes are all tied to each other (cliff-hanger style) so I cant just decide to watch one episode and stop. :/

Finished at 10 pm

Time and Other Problems

I'm not very good at keeping a time log. In fact, I dont. Keep a time log. As in, how long I work on a single project/ illustration. See, it depends. If I finish (and I use finish very loosely) within the day, then I'll have a fair idea. Because I'll have checked when I started (or maybe I started "somewhere after lunch but before snack") and I'll glance at the clock when I finished ("wow! I've been working on this for 6 hours!") But for things like, say, FemDocWho or any other massive photoshop painting project that I've recently undertaken, time becomes... less countable. Sure, if I kept an excel document it would be easy to tell, but I dont.

Why is this important? I dunno - I've been told that on my portfolio its good to include how long it takes you to complete a project. Some of my projects (that I have completed but didn't time) were made so long ago that I have no clue how long it could have taken. Was it a month? A week? A whole semester?

Here's what I do know: I spend far more time painting in photoshop than I do drawing on paper. I dont know if I'm over painting or under painting. I draw really fast. Maybe not super fast - but I can usually beat out a rough  thumbnail /illustration in under five minutes. Full, pretty looking graphite (non digital) illustrations usually take two to three hours. Sometimes even four. The massive drawings I did for Drawing III (as I like to call it, UGA liked to call it "Intermediate Drawing") took me about a week each (not including the rough - prelims, the thumbnails, and the 14 x 9s).

Making a decision or two...

... And managing not to stick to any. I was possessed (as one usually is) by an idea and began pursuing it in my nighttime hours. I'm thinking of doing a new series for Big World Network. Or something. Its been a sad dry spell for more than a couple of months - so writing anything at this point is good news. Upside: its not a comic, so I dont have to decide whether or not to stop working on TSU. Downside: I know how long my furious spur of inspiration lasts, and its very short. I know, inspiration is overrated. SERIOUSLY. But I've been staying up SUPER late trying to get all these scenes and thoughts out of my head before they get lost. Just to have a framework to go off of. Interestingly enough, I have a whole second season planned, but no first season... I'm going to have to work on that.

Anyway: I figure I'd be able to hack something out, framework wise, for the first season, and then resume writing for BWN. And include illustrations, as they seem to be working the most for me (instead of comics >.> poo poo).

I started drawing specific scenes from my night time endeavors - and discovered that the easiest way to take it from thumbnail to final product is to just trace it in photoshop and draw/color it in there. Which I'll have to do for the Not-God Loki scenes I doodled in January. And I'll have to start drawing scenes for the first season of this new idea. ... Oh, it needs a title, doesn't it? YEAH. 

One such scene. In fact, the only scene I've taken from all the little sketches I've doodled. I've got a lot more work to do on this one, but at least its started. And I really like the color scheme and character expression. Sadly, this is an illustration from the second season. I know - how can you have a second season without a first!? Easy: I'm the queen of getting ahead of myself and writing what I like to call "fanfictions of my own, unwritten stories." In fact, I think I may have more fanfictions of unwritten stories than the stories themselves. One of my friends claims that its technically cannon if I wrote it for myself, but I like to think of them as backstories (or future stories) that no one but me will ever read.

Season two, on the other hand, is cannon, I've just got to figure out how the character gets there. Where does she start? What does she do? What sort of character arc occurs? Who's the big bad - and what sort of themes does the storyline deal with? There's a lot of work ahead of me. But at least I have a clear vision of where I want to go. Its the getting there thats going to be interesting.