. . .

And now for something completely different: Fable 3

2012-03-01T12:58:00.007+01:00

I like games. The Dragon Age comic Champions and Heroes that I do with Amanda has been running for almost a full year now, so that is a pretty big hint. And I feel that it's time for an update here...

So... I played Fable 3 a while back. I haven't played the first two games, but it is very friendly to people unfamiliar with the series.
It starts out with your older brother, king Logan of Albion, being an asshat. Now, Logan looks like this:

So, black hair? Check. Backslick? Check. Sallow skin? Check. Villainous beard? Check. Grumpy McGrumpypants expression almost constantly? Check. Position of authority? Check.
So, evidently, he's the villain. And, evidently, he's my favorite character. It doesn't hurt that his hair strongly reminds me of Rui from Eyeshield 21, who was one of my favorite characters.

King Logan gives you an offer of killing either your friend/boy- or girlfriend or a bunch of rebel leaders. You have to pick either, or he insists that he'll kill both of them. In other words, a lesson in how you can't save everyone and how to make hard choices, the asshat way. You make your choice, and someone ends up dead. Jolly good. At this point your main character decides that this is unacceptable and s/he has to flee and lead a rebellion against Logan. Cue adventures.

Now, there are some serious issues with this game.
- To even get to play the game that you've paid for, you have to jump through hoops, because it really, really wants you to take part of Windows Live. Regardless if you want to do so. I was on the brink of just saying 'screw this' by the time I managed to get everything sorted out. Unacceptable.
- It's buggy, and I ended up abandoning my first character and started all over again because I suddenly couldn't interact with anyone.
- Interacting with people is awkward, to say the least. You act like a buffoon, but that is the only way to make friends, apparently. It is also so time demanding that it's not really worth it.
- Interacting with major characters is 100% scripted. You can marry random npcs, or several at the same time if you house them in separate cities, but they have no personalities worth mentioning. There is no way of actually getting to know any character, and everything is kept as superficial as possible.
- One should not be able to save the world by playing the lute well. Really.
- No real replay value, because:
- The script railroads you, and it's not even shy about it.
- The game calls itself an RPG, but it is not.

Roleplaying actually involves making choices for your character and determining his/her personality. This game is so determined to railroad you that it refuses to let you do anything of the sort.
While the prince/ss is outraged and believes his/her brother to be a monster, I the player can't help but to feel that all of this could be solved if the protagonist and Logan just sat down and had a long talk. As the game goes on, you learn things which put your brother in a more favorable light, yet the protagonist seems determined to paint Logan the darkest black.

Some attempt at convincing you that your brother truly is as evil as he is designed are made, but they all fall flat. The main offender is a magical vision that a blind seer, Teresa, gives you. We are supposed to accept it as the truth, but it is a magical vision. It could easily be made up, or simply taken out of context. But no, the main character trusts this Teresa blindly, despite never having met her before, and condemns his/her brother instantly, despite having grown up under his guardianship and evidently lived a comfortable, sheltered life.

Now, in my eyes Logan has the best design and is the most interesting character in the game, and I would like the princess to simply marry him in true Targaryen fashion and rule Albion as king and queen. I even adopted a child and named him Logan II, hoping that the game would take a hint. It did not.
However, only half of the game is about the rebellion, the other half is about actually ruling the country. Which was the selling point of this game to me, because so many games are about taking the throne, but practically no games care about what happens afterwards. The scene where you finally confront Logan was absolutely lovely, except for the fact that I wanted to smack my main character silly. Because, again, there is no roleplaying happening here. Your character has decided how this will go, and you are just there to observe, apparently.

On the other hand, it's got some good things going for it:
+ It has beautiful clothing designs. Clearly borrowing heavily from 1700s and 1800s, they are really, really inspiring. The clothing designs is actually one of the most appealing aspects of the game for me.
+ The loading screens have pretty and funny posters, which I must say I really enjoyed. Probably the best loading screens I've encountered.
+ The quest 'The Game'. It didn't really fit the game, but since I giggled right through it I am more than happy to forgive it for that. I fear, however, that as a game master I am Jim.

Characters of note:
Logan - Easily the best character in the game. Best design, best writing, best development. Shitty ending.
Teresa - The blind seer that appears in visions and guides you. I strongly suspect her to be the main villain in the series, and I don't trust her one bit. Voiced by Zoë Wanamaker though, which is a total plus.
Reaver - Probably the funniest character in the game, in that 'necessary evil' kind of way. Also, Stephen Fry. Can't go wrong with Stephen Fry.
The Crawler - Yes. Yes, yes, yes. The oozing black goo - a thousand times yes. But it's still a very 2D villain.

When I really like a game, I make fanart, search for fanfic, and back in the day I'd also write fanfic. There's a period during which I am involved with the fandom, which may stretch on for years. Fable 3? I was pretty over it after a week.

5/10. Would have been a little higher, but I cannot forgive Windows Live.

Finishing up old stuff

2012-02-07T11:42:00.005+01:00

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

2012-01-31T10:02:00.005+01:00

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?

2012-01-03T01:30:00.004+01:00

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

2011-12-12T12:58:00.007+01:00

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

2011-11-21T13:05:00.002+01:00

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

2011-11-14T23:45:00.005+01:00

... 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

2011-10-28T21:23:00.004+02:00

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.

November approaching

2011-10-14T22:16:00.006+02:00

Lots of things to do.

There's Klara, färdiga, MANGA! which is a Swedish manga competition arranged by Wasabi Press. I'll try to whip something together for it, but what with the main event coming up we'll see if I'll manage in time. If not, I know I can find other uses for the comic I have in mind.

And the main event? Why, it's my tenth year of doing NaNoWriMo. Can't stop now! I'm busy planning ahead, and characters and plots are coming to life in my mind and they need names! Names are... well... harder than they should be. I'm returning to fantasy, and using my old NaNo novel (OLD as in 'my first NaNoWriMo novel 10 years ago, and the one 9 years ago') as history for this world to give it some more depth. That means that a) they cannot be named Bob, b) it has to be pronouncable, at least for the most part, or it's going to be an impossible read, c) different cultures with different languages have different names, and they need to fit together and still have some distinct element that keeps them different from the others. Currently most of the characters (and it's a large group by now) have codes for names.
Also, brand new for this year, I am letting the dice decide most of the decisions. Together with Craig's die roller and my Eon roleplaying books characters are made, with heavy influence from roleplaying characters (from masquerading vampires to pirates in space during 1889) and past stories and comics (such as Grumg'nesh and No Coffin Needed), and it's all coming together beautifully.
I just need to give them all names, and then I'm ready to write those 50 000 words or more during the month of November. My record is 110 601 words, but it's almost always 75 pages, somehow XD

Like a pirate

2011-09-19T11:50:00.008+02:00

So, today is Talk Like a Pirate Day which happens to be the day of choice for Captain Dan and the Scurvy Crew, one of the bands I do the most drawing to, to release their fourth CD. Whoo!
Additionally, it coincides with the completion of Myths of Mars and thus the beginning of The Red Planet. Awesomecakes :D

And by north I mean to this link.

I also managed to make it out into the forest in one of the few days it wasn't raining, for some reference photos and dog walking. I am officially the master of blurry dog. It is known.

Alternative games week

2011-08-30T12:32:00.004+02:00

Over at the Champions and Heroes comic we are currently having an 'alternative games week', in theory meaning that we draw comics about games other than Dragon Age. In practice, it means that we make comics specifically about the mako in Mass Effect 1. And frankly, we have enough things about that mako to make it mako month XD

Not to imply that 60% of my time playing Mass Effect 1 was spent like this (it totally was), but no one was happier than me to see it gone in Mass Effect 2.

Delightful rest

2011-08-03T20:50:00.005+02:00

I've returned home, after a brief little trip with my friend Fanny <3 Got a bit of sunshine and a swim in the sea even.
I got a little bit of drawing done, but by no means a lot. Of course, by then I had already finished The Island and sent it off. I ended up pulling an all nighter to finish in time, but finish in time I did, and in color too :)

Now back to the other projects - making new buffers with both Champions and Heroes and The Red Planet, as well as working on a script for Forest born.

Still alive

2011-07-17T14:11:00.004+02:00

Though barely, it feels. I've managed to go and get sick - most likely catching a cold from a friend during a Harry Potter marathon, but said marathon was a must. We watched all 7 movies, before heading to the cinemas and watched the final one. Tears were shed. Fanart may or may not come in the not too distant future...

But not now, as I'm currently working my arse off to finish a comic for a competition. It's another collaboration with Ollie Masters, who wrote the script for the zombie comic, so I think it's ok that I am blatantly obvious with having favorites among the characters.

And yes, Janx is most certainly my favorite of the crew. Such an ass XD

Champions and Heroes

2011-05-26T14:39:00.004+02:00

Champions and Heroes - the Dragon Age fancomic that I am doing together with my fellow Think Inker Amanda - is still going strong and updating twice a week. Now that I am done with my studies and SPX is over with (so much fun!) I've got a lot more spare time, and that means building a buffer for Champions and Heroes as well as continuing with the work on The Red Planet. And, you know, doing responsible things that are nowhere near as much fun...

Hooray!

2011-04-26T12:00:00.006+02:00

I just finished and sent the art for The Long Haul, written by Ollie Masters who taught me a thing or two :)

I'm really happy that I went with the original plan and did the grey tones with copics. Not only did it go faster than it would have if I had done it digitally, but it got a bit of texture for free. A really rewarding experience and I'm excited to see how the anthology turns out too :D

SPX is quickly approaching as well! And the Absolutely Scandalous Stories fanzine is already finished. For once, with time to spare! If you're going, keep an eye out for us :D

And back to work...

2011-04-09T15:00:00.006+02:00

So after a month of being... fairly occupied with other things, I return to the real world.
The little escape into the world of Thedas was not entirely uninspired, far from it in fact. My fellow Think Inker Amanda and I have started up a twice a week updated Dragon Age webcomic and I have been practically spewing out art... which is sitting prettily on my computer and released to the world on Thursdays. It's been a great opportunity to do less than serious stuff with my copics, and I find that I've been learning a lot... the most important lesson have been "relax" XD

The final bits and pieces of Think Ink's new fanzine Absolutely Scandalous Stories are being put together at the moment, and will be heading for the printers next week barring any unseen events. It will debute at SPX, as will Swedish Comic Sin 2 and Nekronasses citatbok, which I have also participated in. Hooray!

March... month of fun?

2011-03-08T16:55:00.005+01:00

On Friday I will disappear from the face of the world for a couple of days. The long awaited Dragon Age 2 will then be minemineminemine. But while waiting for the game's release I am still working. Mainly catching up on my concept art course, but there are a few other bits and pieces that are getting dealt with while I am procrastinating.

Corrections on Substitute have been made, I've finished the sketch for Think Ink's Absolutely Scandalous Stories cover, the sketch for our talented guest artist Teru has also been completed. Additionally, I've finally sat down and fixed the text in Ilta Dalharuk and as of the 13th of March it will update every Sunday.
The Red Planet's prelude Myths of Mars has been updating three times a month for a little while now, and I've completed four of the five first pages of The Red Planet itself. The fifth needs rescanning...

The zombie anthology is giving me a rather accusing look from the other side of my desk, and I think I'll be working on that next to get away from my studies. At least all procrastination isn't wasting time?

March, at last

2011-03-02T01:44:00.005+01:00

Substitute is done and, finally, I get to sleep again...

Good night, Jerker, Claire... and you too, unnamed woman. Perhaps I'll see you again in The Red Planet, maybe you'll even get a few more lines the second time around.

Happy Valentine's

2011-02-14T13:08:00.003+01:00

Quick coloring of part of Substitute, for Swedish Comic Sin 2. Jerker and Claire :)
Now back to work!

February means deadlines...

2011-02-10T19:40:00.005+01:00

And lots of them.
I'm making a flag for some family members who are going to do the Vasa relay race this year. With old, old material from when I was about seven years old. I'm going to have to buy some new paint...
And I have my course to work on, which is eating a lot of time and I'm stressing out all over the place.

But first and foremost I have been working on Substitute. The inking processes on the first page has taken me... about 25 hours. Yeeeeeah. Details galore. But at least it's pretty.

And none of the other pages have that detailed backgrounds so it shouldn't be the end of the world. Anyway, page 1 is all inked now. Whoo!

The Red Planet

2011-01-30T13:58:00.003+01:00

I've had enough of this hesitating nonsense now. The Red Planet site has gotten kicked around a bit, and the prelude Myths of Mars will start at the fourth of February.

A new year...

2011-01-27T14:02:00.007+01:00

And it's going to be fantastic - Dragon Age 2 and A Game of Thrones are both approaching their release date and I'm trying to convince myself that I won't spend April high on geekery. It's not going well...

The Swedish Comic Sin 2 anthology is in progress and I'm halfway done with the sketches for Substitute - which stars Jerker and Claire from The Red Planet, together with another woman.
Additionally, the calenders were printed and I've sold out. Only my own copy left :)

I'm almost done with all the magpies for the zombie comic, which leaves... pretty much everything else. But since I'm more concerned about managing birds than undead I consider this damn good progress.

I am also working on the cover for Absolutely Scandalous Stories, the next Think Ink fanzine, and something tells me that a certain someone is going to be on it...

Additionally, I've started a course in concept art which has inspired me a great deal already, barely more than a week after it started. I just wish that we were allowed to make our own game rather than the one that they've given us. As it is, I'm afraid I'll try to do both the assigned task and my own thing with what little time is left. I've already been drawing characters, and turned to my beloved The Queen spring and summer 1883 book for dress designs.

The end of the year approaching...

2010-12-30T10:36:00.004+01:00

And all I want is some rest. Doesn't seem like I'm getting it.

Finishing up two comic pages of Show, Don't Tell and the layout on 10 other pages for Substitute, a Red Planet sidestory... while glancing at another comic of 6 pages, and wondering why I don't have time for my school work. Ho hum.

Return to the living

2010-12-01T00:13:00.005+01:00

November is over and with it NaNoWriMo over and done. I really pushed myself this year in order to reach 50 000 early so I could focus on my studies without worrying about my word count. Success. I have since been working my butt off with books, essays and other dull homework. But! Not all school assignments are dull.

I am also doing the dreaded first five pages of The Red Planet. Those horrible, horrible pages that have been putting me off drawing it for... ages. Well! No more! I need to finish them by Tuesday for a presentation. My right hand aches a bit and I've got ink on my fingers, but I've already inked pages 3 and 4. Somehow I always finish the pages in the middle first. And the first are always last. In order to keep up the pirate spirit I've made use of spotify and... oh my, there are a lot of pirate songs out there, in so many different genres. Still, my favorite must be You are a Pirate which unfortunately isn't available on spotify. Very catchy and with a tendency to get stuck in your head, and it certainly keeps you awake at 4 am.

That is not to say that I didn't laugh at finding Pirate Jenny... as female Jerker is indeed named Jenny. Additionally it's of the best pirate results spotify has offered me, though I have grown quite fond of the Merry Wives of Windsor, especially their song Letters from Sea.

Drawing five pages of only men did leave me rather itching for drawing more curves. I managed to squeeze in a pinup at a wall, and I fear it pleased me almost as much as finishing the 3D model of the steering cabin. Thank goodness for Jenny and the fact that I was also working on a cover for the about to be extended Show, Don't Tell. The picture has been giving me hell though. My friends have thankfully given me constructive critism (sometimes quite contradictory XD) but I feel that she's ready now. Just need some shade... possibly some color.

No Coffin Needed

2010-11-19T18:07:00.003+01:00

... is the title of this year's NaNoWriMo novel. My curvy heroine is named Rigmor Mortis, because I have grown to like bad puns way too much, and she is a necromancer... in other words, a mage who raise the dead.

I'm currently at 45 000 words and I'm aiming to reaching the goal of 50 000 this weekend. Then I'll be able to focus on homework, comics and illustrations without that nagging feeling of doing something wrong.

In other news I attended AltCom, an adult comic festival, this Sunday. Unfortunately I'm so stressed that I didn't have time to be there Friday and Saturday, but at least I made it on the Sunday :)
I've begun to work on my addition to the anthology Swedish Comic Sin's sequel. This year my theme is fantasy in a different way altogether, no dryads in sight, and it's called Substitute.
As far as the first Swedish Comic Sin anthology is concerned, there's been an exhibition at Makeriet in Malmö where those who wish can view originals and pages from the anthology. I say 'been', but it's up until the 21st, so not too late yet :)

Fanart

2010-10-30T23:08:00.000+02:00

Morrigan, from Dragon Age: Origins. Scanner killed the colors, but... yeah.

In other news, I'm still behind on my studies. I don't think anyone's surprised. And NaNo begins in... less than 25 hours. Ye-es. This is going to be... fantastic. Goodbye social life?

Copics

2010-10-19T12:11:00.001+02:00

The markers have arrived <3

Unfortunately I'm swamped in studies, so I really shouldn't play around with them. Let's just say that I'm not entirely convinced that I'll be able to keep my hands off them D:

I've picked up some characters that I was working on while doing the Grumg'nesh strips for the Sydsvenskan competition, and I'm considering making a fantasy humor comic with them. Nothing too long, of course, but... yeah. I'm working on character designs and plot at the moment. It is inspired by a book I read many years ago, called Villains by Necessity by Eve Forward. I loved the villains-as-heros and heros-doing-less-than-heroic-things theme, and since I always love the villain better than the hero... well... this is the type of story that fits me just right <3
I've also taken my comic art teacher Gunnar's advice and handed the role as main character over to the female necromancer, rather than Grumg'nesh the orc. It fits better this way :)

At the same time, I'm working on getting started with the Red Planet comic. Script has been slightly edited, some scenes removed, some characters removed from scenes, other scenes added, etc. Two awkward 'I don't know how to solve this' sections have been removed and rewritten... So, progress at least :)

Comicpress

2010-09-29T13:04:00.001+02:00

Perhaps the two weeks of being half braindead was a good thing. Once I got better I finally sat down and figured out how to install wordpress, in order to get comicpress going. So, the Red Planet homepage has seen some changes, and hopefully I'll have it look a whole lot better soon. And then... comics!
Now, I'll be the first to admit that I'm lousy at this sort of thing. It took me a good 2 hours to figure out what to write in four lines wordpress requires you to fill in (actually, just the one... three were easy) and then I went right ahead and messed up half an hour later. Do it again, do it right, indeed... This means that the 'fixing up' process is likely to be painfully slow, but at the very least I'll get there. Like some particularly stubborn snail, turtle or... perhaps mole?

Technology has been the theme for me recently in more ways than one. I've moved my little old scanner to my new home, only to be informed that my laptop doesn't do 'little old scanners'. Of course it's Vista that messes things up. Of course! Who thought this Vista was a good idea anyway?
Well, between the choice of 'spend half a day fixing this' and 'take it back and scan on weekends only'... frankly, option B is the winner. The homepage is giving me a big enough headache as it is.

Recovering...

2010-09-24T01:07:00.000+02:00

Of course I ended up getting sick after I finished Show, don't tell. Of course my computer got a virus as well. Of course. Well... nothing lost, computer restored (still lacking some programs though), and I'm... almost well again.
The lack of internet and general non-functioning of so many things (such as being able to walk up the stairs without getting dizzy) did leave me with a lot of time to sit down and draw.

For years I've wanted to do a story about a 'skogsrå' (a Swedish mythological creature with either a fox or a cow's tail and a hollow back) and now... well, let's just say that I've been drawing this character a lot recently.

And yes, I do like those forest spirits quite a bit... :)

In less exciting news, I've got a lot of catching up to do as far as my studies go. Hooray...

It's been one week...

2010-09-09T23:19:00.000+02:00

It's been one week since I got the idea,
Sat down, wrote the script and started working.
Four days since I laughed,
Finally done with sketching.
Three days since I inked the lot
And then spent two days fighting the scanner
Today I did the last
Of that horrendous grayscale-ing.

One comic, four pages, one week. Show, Don't Tell, starring Jenny (alternative universe!Jerker... sometimes I toy with the idea of having her as a main character instead, though the story would be mighty darker, methinks) and poor Ian who gets bossed around most heinously.

Copic markers

2010-08-30T12:39:00.000+02:00

My friend Amanda let me borrow her copics a while back (before my trip to Plymouth) and I am completely in love.
My first attempt was the dryad of my Dry Spell comic, because I was a scaredy cat and didn't want to mess up the skin color. After that I did give regular skin colors a go, and that worked out well too :) I'm definitely going to buy some pens of my own.

Home again

2010-08-25T12:15:00.000+02:00

Back from Plymouth now - two weeks and some 3000+ pictures and videos later. I have so much reference material now that I barely know what to do with it. But it was a most enjoyable trip, even though I was probably THE most touristy tourist of all there. 200 pictures of one building is perfectly normal, I say D:

I have to say that the staff of the church St Andrews was probably what made me the happiest. They thought that my interest in their church (where one of my main characters seeks refuge in my vampire comic) was a good thing and let me run around and take pictures inside <3 I left one and a half hour later...

'Resurgam' (sign put up after WW2 when the church was bombed, so sadly will not appear in the actual comic which takes place in the 18th century) means 'I will rise again.' Very fitting for a story about the undead :p

Pin-up

2010-07-24T22:28:00.000+02:00

Moving and preparing a trip and... well, a lot of things happening all at once.
At least I'm done with the pin-up for the calender :D

And yes... drow are still awesome...

Practice makes perfect...

2010-06-23T13:29:00.000+02:00

I've started practicing drawing birds (magpies, specifically) for a short comic. The first attempt looked more like a pidgeon, but I'm getting there...

Think Ink are working on our next fanzine, and this time I'm the one who is in charge of drawing our animal-selves. Spiders, birds, horses and now this. Not to mention that I have a dog illustration that I should be working on. Lots of animals right now.

Currently planning a research trip to Plymouth, England, and I'm really excited about it. Lots of 18th century buildings that I need to photograph for reference, and they've got a bunch of Victorian exhibitions (and buildings, for that matter) so it's two birds, one stone.

Then there's the pinup calendar that's in the making, together with 11 other wonderful artists. Lots of sketches and few of them good enough, but I think I've got the pose now :)

Aaaaaand I'm reworking the script for The Red Planet. We've got a 24 hour comic day coming up next week, and though I probably won't manage 24 pages (20 is my record) I think I'll treat it as a 'draw a lot for a period of 24 hours and spend the next day sleeping' thing. So, script and layout are to be done beforehand, and with a little bit of luck some serious progress will be made. Of course, it all starts with a fighting scene, just to make things extra difficult for me.

And it's over...

2010-06-14T09:53:00.000+02:00

My year at Malmö Comic Art School is over, and I must admit to feeling a little bit lost. There is some comfort in the fact that I will be taking their summer course (though, to be frank, as I have already received one year of education I am essentially there to have a place to work) together with a couple of my classmates. This also means that it doesn't quite feel like it's over, just... strange.

I did manage to finish Ilta Dalharuk in one month *victory pose* I still need to fix those sound effects because they look horrendous, but... whatever. Still counts!
I've also been re-working the character designs for most of The Red Planet crew. Still not entirely pleased with the outcome, but it's better at any rate.

The good, the bad, the sad

2010-06-04T20:36:00.000+02:00

My year at Malmö Comic Art School is coming to an end, and it's down to the last week now. Likelihood of tears: 72%
On a more positive note: We are going to have an exhibition: The end is here and you are invited If you have the opportunity to come and have a look, don't hesitate.

On a related note: the second years at the Comic Art School had their final examinations yesterday. I was there and observed last year (two of my fellow Think Ink-ers took part of it, after all), so I knew what to expect. I was still caught off guard when T Wadbro chose to present the comics in video form. Bo Ashi and I were the opponents, but I was so in love with the semi-animated Prison Boy and Fernando that I couldn't think of a single question at first. Luckily, my partner had his wits about him at the very least XD

3 weeks of work on Ilta Dalharuk and *drumroll* it's almost done. Unless things really blow up in my face, I'll manage to finish the 11 page comic in one month. Dry Spell, also 11 pages and no backgrounds worth mentioning, took me two months.
Progress: I like it.

The break from Mars has already paid off. I've made changes to the plot of The Red Planet, altered the introduction of a certain character, made some changes to designs, etc, in a single moment of massive 'oh!'. Not only do I like this beginning better, I think it will flow smoother and pay off later down the line.

The thing about titles...

2010-05-28T23:27:00.000+02:00

... is that they ought to have 'umph'. A title with umph will make you pick it up and have a closer look. It sticks around in your brain, getting friendly with your grocery list and teases your imagination. They are also painfully hard to come by and I am notoriously picky and often forced to settle for less. I had no less than 20 potential titles for my drow story, but I've finally chosen Ilta Dalharuk ("her son") because it was relevant and yet neutral. Several of the other alternatives gave too much away or were just horrendously difficult to twist your tongue around.
So far I've inked 7½ of 11 pages in a period of about two weeks (!) and, well, it's looking good. I'm quite pleased with how this experiment is turning out. Unfortunately this would-be one-shot wants more attention than I originally wanted to give it. Three more scenes are clamoring for attention and... well... we shall see.

I think of it as my little break before I sit down and do some serious work on the Space script, letting my brain rest a little in dark caverns below ground before it's off to Mars again.

Now that I have a little bit of spare time again, I'm working on the iphone game once more. Trying a new style there too, to have the illustrations blend with the other artists' work. Interesting, to say the least.

Komiks.dk

2010-05-24T18:29:00.000+02:00

I finally managed to finish Myths of Mars at long last and I brought it along with me to komiks.dk. Maria, T. Wadbro, Fanny and I sat and sold our fanzines and posters at the Genki table. Met a lot of interesting people and got a few things signed as well :)
Got home at a reasonable time last night, ate, and went to sleep. Back to school today, and the inspiration-lull that I've suffered from since SPX seems to have evaporated at long last.

I'm currently working on a drow comic, and it's surprisingly easy. Maybe one week of work and I feel like I am almost half-way through the sketching stage. I'm revisiting one of my old characters, Sszafein, who's been with me for not a full ten years, but close. I haven't played with him in years so in a lot of ways it's like meeting an old friend you haven't seen in ages.
However, drow means spiders. Searching and looking at the spider references brought tears to my eyes out of sheer disgust. I wasn't even aware of how much I disliked spiders until now. There were some pictures I couldn't even open because the preview was so awful. That is not to say that they were horrible. It's just me really, really not liking large spiders... especially not up close.
I secretly wish that drow would hang out with some more pleasant animals. Like dogs. Or horses. Though I recon it wouldn't be half as intimidating.

First time drawing infants too, and it went surprisingly well. I think I'll try some new techniques for this 11 page comic, to see if what we've learned in class is something I'd like to make use of in the future. And since the spider-drawing is over and done with now, I might be able to enjoy the rest...

Another week, another con...

2010-05-14T11:11:00.001+02:00

It seems as if the conventions never end. SPX, KodachiCon, and next weekend... komiks.dk. I'm insanely busy right now, but at the very least this monster was finished in time (a few weeks back)

Whatever the reason, role-playing games seem to be my biggest source of inspiration. These characters are from a Vampire the Masquerade chronicle that has been going for... two years now? It was used as an illustration in the yearbook, as a Sverok ad, though in black and white. Despite the less than satisfactory print of the yearbook, this actually turned out quite well.

Home again...

2010-04-26T10:45:00.000+02:00

Just got home a couple of hours ago from SPX and the long bus ride home in the dead of night. Slept better on the way home than on the way up to Stockholm, so while I'm definitely groggy and in no state to do any real thinking, I can still get some work done.

Though I didn't get to see much of Stockholm (aside from the tubes and escalators... saw a lot of those) I really enjoyed my trip there, despite (obviously) being sick half of the time. Think Ink had a table of our own, and we sold very well indeed :D Swedish Comic Sin was well received too, though unfortunately the release party was at the same time that Tim Pilcher had his lecture about erotic comics which I wanted to go to (and, obviously, was of interest to the same audience). I also met lots of interesting and fun people, some who I have met before and others who were fresh and sparkly new to me.
Though I have to say that one of the best parts was meeting Peter Madsen (who makes Valhalla which I have been following since I was 8-9 years old and still love to bits and pieces) and get a copy of the final volume signed, complete with a picture of Loke <3 I also got to see the old sketches and the new absolutely gorgeous cover designs.

Far too tired to crawl my way to school, so I'll settle for doing all those mindless things that needs to be done at home (the laundry pile is about as big and impressive as the fridge is sad and empty).

Swedish Comic Sin has arrived

2010-04-19T22:49:00.000+02:00

Swedish Comic Sin has, indeed, arrived and it looks beautiful. As previously mentioned, it will be available for sale at SPX. As I'll be taking the buss in the middle of the night, I will with all likelihood be dead tired but at the very least I will be there.

However, photoshop has decided that this is the time to act up... Creating a new layer causes it to freeze 50% of the time, choosing a new color from the palette is a chore that may or may not have the same result as the other Dreadful Action.

I am not pleased. At all.
A couple of final 12+ hours a day might have been enough to finish Myths of Mars, but at this rate it probably won't happen. 3 pages that are not fully inked, and 7 additional pages in various states of coloring are what's left and... ugh.

Think Ink #4, SPX and more...

2010-04-10T11:57:00.000+02:00

The Swedish Comic Sin has been sent to the printers and everyone involved are excited and nervous and hopeful. It will be for sale at SPX (Small Press Expo, which takes place April 23-25 in Stockholm, Sweden) and we will have a release party at Debaser.

4 out of 5 Think Ink members will be present at SPX and we are currently putting our fourth fanzine together. I will contribute with a seven page preview of The Red Planet, and possibly my Grumg'nesh strips.

I finished coloring the Sverok illustration a while back, and I have officially broken up with Photoshop's smudge tool. On the other hand, my tablet and I have made friends and we are getting along wonderfully. I'm currently working on finishing Myths of Mars, something which I will probably be working on at least 12 hours a day for the next week...
During all of this I'm supposed to squeeze out something for the fourth class fanzine as well, but I'm a little bit skeptical at this point. Myths of Mars is more important, but at the same time I have an old comic which would fit the theme and I do sort of like it still (just not the raster...) We shall see, I suppose.

Progress...

2010-03-27T18:19:00.000+01:00

Actually managed to get some spare time this week but still got quite a lot of work done.
The first game illustration is done and sent, and hopefully they like it or won't require too much change made at the very least. It went surprisingly smoothly, seeing as I am not at home with working with a tablet. That will probably change though as I found it quite enjoyable :)

I've also completed the lineart to the ad for Sverok in the yearbook, which was ridiculously fun as I got to play with characters I haven't drawn in ages. I still need to color it... or rather, I want to color it.

I bought a domain earlier this month and I've found a little bit of time to work on it now. It's nowhere near done yet, but it's a beginning at the very least. Eventually The Red Planet will be posted there, but first the prelude Myths of Mars. And before that... well, SPX.

Deadlines...

2010-03-19T17:48:00.000+01:00

Had the yearbook deadline this Wednesday, and I've concluded that working 12 hours a day is not good for my memory... I forgot my laptop at home today (for one horrible moment I thought I had forgotten it on the bus), then I forgot my notebook at school and just now I realized that I forgot that I let the dog out... But I can remember pretty much everything related to the yearbook and the information I was given about a game that I might help illustrate...
I'm so taking it easy this weekend.

I finished a 7 pages long mini-chapter of The Red Planet for the yearbook, as well as a related illustration and the Grumg'nesh strips that I made for Sydsvenskan. 10 pages in total, and I'll start working on an illustration for the ads section come Tuesday.
Up until Tuesday, however, I have to focus on getting Myths of Mars somewhat presentable.

Swedish Comic Sin has begun adding interviews, and I'm first up. I've also had a look at the test print and it looks wonderful. Everyone's worked hard and it shows - I'm really excited about it :D

So many things to do...

2010-03-04T18:41:00.000+01:00

Dry spell is done. Complete. Finished. Thank whatever god is listening (probably an ent of some kind). Not entirely happy with everything, but overall I'm pretty satisfied (now that I don't have to do anything more with it - unless the lovely Natalia Batista finds something that I need to fix).

I've bought a domain and begun making small illustrations for it, and hopefully it will be up and running in the near future.
Additionally, I'm working on a suggestion for the cover of the yearbook. I quite like it, even though it's a lot of fiddling with details no one will care about. As usual, I guess. Gears take more time than they should...

Should finish those Myths of Mars pages too, which means... a final design for the Airbitch - the airship which carries the crew of the Red Planet all over Mars. A quite important member of the 'cast', in other words.

Facebook

2010-02-17T23:21:00.000+01:00

Just lost my facebook virginity...

It has been concluded that March is a horrible, horrible month with far too many deadlines. I think I will stay at home and work tomorrow so not to waste two hours on the bus, especially as there won't be any classes.
Because really... I need to get that Malmö Fria thing done by Friday X(
On the other hand... the two comic pages I plan on using will be added to Think Ink's new fanzine, and it's Red Planet related so I know that once I get started I'll enjoy it. I just don't like having the deadline just around the corner.

The dryad story now has a good and proper name - Dryspell. Enough double entendre to amuse me, but not silly enough to ruin the mood. There has also been progress (thankfully). I've finished 7 out of 11 pages and gotten some serious work done on the others. Hopefully I'll manage to finish the rest this week so that I can ink and greyscale in peace next week.
Friends (and myself for that matter) have concluded that it is far too easy to make bad jokes and silly omakes for this story. I think I could make a small fanzine with the ideas offered so far.

Back to work...

2010-01-30T20:55:00.000+01:00

So, the second term at Malmö Comic Art School started a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately I seem to have misplaced my inspiration somewhere in December...

Yet I'm working on a couple of comics at the same time. It makes it more difficult to actually finish anything but easier to find something I want to work with.

First and foremost there is the nameless Dryad comic for a sexanthology, which I want to call 'Knock wood' just for shits and giggles but it wouldn't really suit the mood. Boo. Deadline March 1st, and... I have zero inspiration.

I've done a couple of pages for The Red Planet (that Space 1889 comic that I keep talking about but never seem to actually get to work on) for a class assignment. We were given a feeling which we were supposed to convey, and I got 'ensamhet' (loneliness) which suited Jerker oh so well. So I did the first two out of four-ish pages of a dream he has. I was really surprised how easy it was to draw considering the difficulties I've had with the Dryad comic.

Another class assignment was to brainstorm a bit on humorous comics of some sort, so I continued with Grumg'nesh. Four new ideas that I like, and I've inked and colored one of them. One of the two secondary characters seems to be developing on her own, and suddenly has an ickle paladin running after her. It's always nice when the characters know what's going on when you don't.

I've also started the coloring of Myths of Mars, the 24 hour comic that I did in November. Just the basics so far as I'll need to test-print them to see how the colors look before shading. I would hate to have to redo everything because the printer messes up the colors (it tends to mess up green and add a shade of brown to everything for some reason).

Furthermore, the newspaper Malmö Fria (well, technically all (city of choice) Fria as they publish in other cities as well) have made a deal with the Comic Art School, and so we students will be granted one page every Saturday for our art and comics. Each student get one page each, or half a page if they feel more comfortable with that. I have a vague idea of what I want, but as I'm part of the group organizing the whole mess I really ought to get a move on. To set a good example or something.

Christmas approaching

2009-12-21T22:59:00.000+01:00

Regular as clockwork... or something...

Time off for the holidays as of... last Friday. I've already gotten a bit restless, and it's just Monday. Lazing about and reading comics online is fine enough but it feels wrong not to sit and draw for 6 hours or so a day.

So instead I've spent my day trying to sort out the horrible Space 1889 mess of a plot, or lack of plot rather, that I've avoided dealing with so far. I think I'm beginning to get a pretty good idea of the Big Plot, but there's still a few chinks that I need to work out. Some scenes are very vivid to me already, and then there are a few black holes of horror that I need to explore. What gives me a headache though is the character development. How much to keep, what to rewrite, which parts to remove entirely and how will that affect the interactions and later character developments? The same goes for characters, their pasts, their motives and whatnot.

I've managed to finish all the lineart for a good four pages though, which makes me happy. Unfortunately it's pages smack in the middle of the story (well, part one of the story) so I still have the horrible fighting scene in the very beginning to deal with. In medias res and all of that. Bothersome, to say the least. But aside from that first chapter of horror I'm pretty much done with the script for the first half of part one. Progress, at last!

December...

2009-12-02T17:46:00.000+01:00

This teeny weeny thing? Not so tiny in real life.It took two A3 papers to get all 14 of the Airbitch crew and the 2 Very Important Women in one single picture. Still not entirely satisfied with the coloring but I'm going to let it be for a while as the deadlines keep clustering.

We did the 24 hour comic exercise last week, and though I didn't finish I did a whole lot better than I've ever done before - 20 complete pages, out of which I am pretty satisfied with 14. It's a small Space 1889 thing, semi-related to the actual project but only in the sense that the captain appears in it (at the age of 8-10). I like it though, and hopefully I'll be able to finish it by Christmas.

And the deadline for the third class fanzine is steadily approaching while I'm slaving away at horrible, horrible backgrounds. Victorian houses are not my friend, that's for sure. At least NaNoWriMo is over and completed so I don't have to stress out over that too, just... Christmas now, I guess.

Ahhh...

2009-11-11T19:37:00.000+01:00

That's my official sigh of relief.

J-pop con 2009 is over and done with, Stronger (the Naruto doujinshi) sold surprisingly well. I was surprised at any rate, my friends were not. The cosplay went well too (the Black Lagoon group which I participated in won Best Music), and overall it was a very enjoyable event.

Also, I finished the Grumg'nesh strips (aka "Grumg'nesh the one toothed orc's magnificent adventures") for Sydsvenskan. Keeping it simple was quite a challenge, and I couldn't resist shading, even though coloring it took twice as long that way. It didn't help that I had no choice but to work with it in photoshop rather than paint shop pro which I know how to work with... but finished it is, regardless.

We'll see how that goes. For now, I finally get to play with those Space 1889 characters without feeling guilty about it. Well, aside from all those NaNo words I should be writing...

Holy shit...

2009-11-06T10:48:00.001+01:00

All three comics are done, not a single deadline missed. A whole 7 minutes before midnight I finished the two year old Naruto doujinshi.

The vast majority of the art is old, but when I found it again after two years and didn't hate it and it was almost completed it felt wrong not to sit down and finish it now that I have the time. Sort of. Perhaps "now that I'm supposed to be drawing comics" is a better way to put it.

It will be coming along with me to Jpopcon this weekend where hopefully I'll sell enough to feel that the hard work was worth it.

NaNoWriMo

2009-11-01T09:26:00.000+01:00

And so begins NaNoWriMo 2009 (which stands for National Novel Writing Month), my 8th NaNo total. 50 000 words or more shall be written during November, no matter how many cheap tricks I have to pull. Random dares? Flash backs? Cookie recipes? Excessive ramblings? Not leaving the house for a full week to make up for lost time? All is fair in the battle for those 50 000 words.

In more comic related news Think Ink's Mangazine is now available, and in it is Royal Games, finally completed.

All the inking on the doujinshi is done, so I'm left with the coloring of the cover and back and adding the greyscale... which I sincerely hope will not take too long because I have a bad novel to write. And a cosplay to sew.

I've also cheated a bit and started sketching on Space 1889... and to my horror realized that one page every three days will not be enough, because somehow I underestimated how many pages I need for every chapter. I'm fantastic like that. Three of the pages will definitely be done for December, as the class fanzine group decided that 'snusk' ('filth/smut') should be the theme and that really doesn't work with the vampire story. It does, however, work fabulously for my pirate captain and his beloved girlfriend when they meet at the Captain's Bounty, an inn/brothel in Karkarham where she works.

The strips for Sydsvenskan are also underway. I have eleven strip ideas with Grumg'nesh the one toothed orc, out of which I like five. But I do love the way that deadline is smack in the middle of the second week of November, which is about the last days when the writing is easy. Why oh why can't the world just stay on hold for November so I and the rest of the rabid authors in NaNo land can write in peace?

One down...

2009-10-19T22:02:00.000+02:00

... two to go.
Sat up until 2 am in order to finish the grey scales on the class fanzine comic, which is the same as my long vampire comic which is still lacking a titel. Insurrection has been suggested so I guess I'll have to see if it sticks.

Hopefully I'll be able to flirt a bit with the fanzine group in order to get the theme for the next fanzine (due in December) to be something which allows me to continue the comic. I'll probably mainly work on the Space 1889 fanzine in November though, so if it's not for the class fanzine the continuation for this comic will have to wait for a while.

Doooooone~

2009-10-08T21:38:00.000+02:00

I've been working on the coloring on and off since July, but the monster is finally done. Just because I say that, I'm sure I'll discover several mistakes in just a few days...

It will with all probability be the cover of a Space 1889 fanzine... which I can start working on more seriously in November...

Comics online

2009-10-03T10:03:00.000+02:00

After hesitating for a long while I've gotten started on Smack Jeeves, and have started to publish The Queen and the Soldier, which appeared in the Think Ink fanzine Welcome to Wonderland.

The second class fanzine is on its way, which of course means that I'm suddenly working on six projects rather than five. Three of which practically have the same deadline. Oh well... I've inked the first eight pages as well as the back and cover on one, and can see the end approaching in the distance as far as sketching goes on the other one, so I'm sure it's possible. It's mainly a lack of ideas to the class fanzine which irks me. "Party" isn't really a theme that inspires, but I'm sure it will work out...

...

2009-09-21T21:08:00.000+02:00

Busy preparing for the book fair - first book fair for me so it's nervosity mixed with curiosity. The class (the first year of Malmö's Comic Art school) has done a fanzine, after some ups and downs and troubles with the printer. No theme so I chose to do the first three pages on a vampire story I'm planning on doing.

Furthermore, I'm continuing to work on a couple of comics - an old, old doujinshi and Kungaspel/Royal Games which wasn't finished in time for Mangatalangen 2009 (which didn't happen anyway). Kungaspel will be printed in Think Ink's 'Mangazine' this autumn instead, together with our other Mangatalangen contributions. However, what I really want to do is a proper Space 1889 fanzine with Jerker and his crew. Oh well... in time, I guess...