The thing about titles...

... 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

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...

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...

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

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...

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...

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.