Finishing up old stuff

So in the middle of the night inspiration struck, and I HAD TO finish this meme. I haven't colored digitally in a long while, and though it's not the best I can do I still like it.

Of course, the problem with doing anything related to TV tropes is that it eats your life. So it took me a day, with plenty of reading. Sigh... time to do something useful today, me thinks.
So yeah, characters from the Vampire the Masquerade game I've been running since... 2007. Dear lord.

Back from Angouleme

I returned home this Sunday from Angouleme, France, and its comic festival, but I've been far too tired to do anything useful up until now. So many people, all there for comics! It was quite amazing.
I went there with Amanda, Fanny and Anders and we were lucky to be able to stay with a lovely French-German family <3 We helped out a bit with the Swedish exhibition, but mostly Amanda and I walked around and took everything in.

There are a lot of these in Angouleme, but this one is my favorite mainly because it's Lucky Luke. My grandfather used to read Lucky Luke to me when I was a child, and the Dalton brothers were my favorites. I've always preferred the villains, it seems XD
Still, most of my photographs are more like this one

Gargoyles! Old buildings! They really have some beautiful old buildings in Angouleme, and I'm a sucker for those. Amanda and I also ended up going to a museum for the sake of an exhibition but ended up spending more time in the actual museum ooh-ing and ahh-ing over the old paintings and objects.

I did get some drawing done too, and tried out a new pen which is going to force me to learn to think when I ink. I like the feel of it, but it dries really slowly. One of the pictures turned into a smudgefest, but I can still clean it up digitally so all is well I suppose.

And... an attentive new year?

A happy surprise awaited Amanda and I today when we looked at the stats for today's update. And a lot of confusion. It's not every day we get 30k+ visitors, is what we're saying. After a bit of unsuccessful googling I got a sneaking suspicion and went to check my facebook updates.
As it turns out, our comic Champions and Heroes got linked on Dragon Age's facebook page. Whoo! Completely random, but awesome :D

November is over

So, November over and NaNoWriMo finished (which this year is going to continue, but a little break is in order) my mother and I went to England for a couple of days, and it was glorious.

Stonehenge at dawn, during the best possible weather - frost in the grass, clear blue sky, and thick fog that made it look truly magical. That was followed by a trip to Bath and the roman bath there.

And I am so inspired! As we wandered around there I got an idea and it grew clearer and clearer and... I really have to do it. A sidestory connected to the fairy comic Amanda and I are working on, set here.
We also visited the British Museum (and promptly lost each other) and I was surprised to see all the old horse bits. They haven't changed one bit (hur hur) since the time of the Celts and the Romans! The smithing has become better and the shapes softer, but the design is the same. Astonishing.

And in preparation of the end of the year I have been finishing old pictures. I couldn't for the life of me find the original of this, but I had scanned it and so I erased one part and redid it on the printed copy and inked it and so on and so forth. Done! With several flaws I would have changed if I did it all over again, but that's not important. It's waited a year and a half to be completed and now it is.

Barry and Rosario, two of my characters in a Vampire: the Masquerade roleplaying game I'm running, thus the symbols in the background.

50k and beyond

I managed to reach 50 000 words on day 20, and only a small part of that is the blatant word padding that is NaNoWriMo. I'll be continuing the writing, though likely at a slower pace and focusing more on getting the plot moving and developing the world and characters than getting at least 2000 words a day out.
I've had plenty of characters from the very beginning, and apparently I have been more keen on killing them than getting the plot moving. Then again, one could argue that the whole "killing the Emperor's children" (2 down, another 3 waiting in line for the chopping block) is important to the plot.
Ahem. Time to sharpen that ax, me thinks. The sooner they die, the sooner things will get moving.

35k later

... and still going strong.
The beginning has been bumpy and uncertain, and more difficult than I am used to. The story is usually flowing during week one for me, so to find it hard to work with this time made me a bit uncertain, but by the second week it started moving and now as the third week begins it's all good. Though I have, of course, started padding like mad. That's what NaNoWriMo is all about anyway. It's quantity, not quality. Quality is for December.
I got real sick this Friday, and considered not actually writing that day. It was a good excuse, but at the end of the day it was an excuse, and so I sat down and did my daily words regardless.
That was followed by a day where I forgot that I had only written 500 words, and ended up writing 1500 in the last 40 minutes before midnight. And then continued to begin the next day's words once midnight had arrived.


Suffice to say, NaNoWriMo is taking a lot of my time, but... I still find time to do other things. Such as draw more Champions and Heroes comics, even though I'm set until December. Too fun to stop.

Now, the Emperor's chosen dozen are fighting pirates on foreign seas and seem to require my attention. Excuse me.

Distractions

For the past month I've been watching Horrible Histories, in theory while working but in truth while being distracted from work (but getting inspired).
However, recently it's gotten some serious competition by Modern Family. Gloria has won me over completely <3 The show has the advantage everyone having very distinct voices, so I can actually get some work done while watching it.


And now, back to preparing for NaNoWriMo.