Unforseen Bump in the Road

With all the end of term stuff and a couple of snafus with panels not turning out right and needing fixing, Akari kinda got pushed back and now is on the back burner. So I guess I'll be spending my break working on pages...UGH I want to be done so I can relax a bit! It's not fun to have something hanging over you all the time...

Some new pages

Thought I'd post a couple of pages from Chapter 1 I scanned and used for the book proposal.










That's all for now. A new illustration is almost done, so I hope to be able to put that on Deviantart sometime soon, but I'm starting to get swamped with end of term papers and projects, in addition to trying to finish everything on Akari before next term starts. I can't wait to just be done with everything.
~6H

SEA Report

So the past two days I was at the Self Employment in the Arts Conference, an annual conference hosted by my school every year. It's always been a really good time in that I learn lots of things and get lots on insights, but this year has been the best, hands down, so far.

First off, I presented Akari in a book proposal to Jennifer McCord, a really big name in the publishing business. She gave me lots of great critique, but it was most unexpected when she told me that the book proposal itself was "excellent", that it really made her intrigued and made her want to read more, and that I had an excellent story idea that is very appealing. I'm on the right track.
But there's still a long way to go. She gave some good suggestions I'm considering, but it will require a lot of work to change them.

Next, I met with Micah Farritor, an illustrator and graphic novel artist who is an alumni from my school. He looked over my pages and gave more good suggestions and said that it looked really cool! I'm pretty happy, because I thought my work really sucked. I've been working hard, but...I still have lots to learn about art and drawing, even writing (though I think my writing is light years away from my art in terms of quality).

I'm excited, because it feels like I'm finally in a position to get up and go (if I take the opportunities and work hard rather than being a forgetful lazy bum) but it is a bit daunting. Other people my age are already selling their manuscripts. My friends on deviantart have way more hits on their pages and are selling commissions while I can't even get comments on most of my work. Hell, I don't even have any comments on this blog. But...I'll keep going. I'll find a way to become a graphic novel artist and get my books out there. If nothing else, at least I'll be a really bitchin art history professor.

I also can't wait to write another book proposal, particularly for my next serious work, Dresden 1945
~6H

A Promising Future?!

Hello all!

I'm presenting a book proposal this Friday at the Self Employment in the Arts conference! I'll be meeting with two people from the publishing industry. I'm very excited and nervous! Ack!

Also, I'm happy to have found out I have strep throat, instead of a cold. This means that I have drugs to cure me rather than suffering with a cold for weeks on end! HUZZAH!
~6H

A Book Proposal!

So the Self Employment in the Arts Conference, or the SEA is coming up rapidly and this year they have a mock Book Propsal. I thought I might be adventurous and put myself out there with a book proposal for Akari so we'll see how it goes. (They might not accept it cause it's two weeks late, but considering that the head lady told me about it the week after the deadline...?) I'm not sure I wrote the propisal totally right, but I think the graphic novel pages will think for themselves. They look pretty good, and with the Wildwords font...that really pulls it all together.

The only thing that makes me a bit sad is that the original pages have a bit of a warmer or neutral gray tone to them while the scanned in versions look a little more blue or cooler in tint...hmmm....
~6H

The End is In Sight!

97 pages down, 63 to go! It;s such a great feeling to know that only 63 pages stand between me and a finished book!

And for some reason, 63 seems a like a small amount...

I also have finished the Chapter 3 pencils! But chapter 3 was pretty short (only 15 pages). Some of the panels turned out absolutely gorgeous! In fact, the entirety of Sc. I is amazing and I can't wait to have it complete. I can't stop looking through it and absorbing it...it's such a melancholy scene...but so telling of both Akari and Takaharu, of the sexual and emotional tension between them, and especially insightful of Akari's feelings. And I hadn't gotten to do much with Akari since The beginning of Chapter 2, so it was refreshing to put the action back on her. I had run out of manuscript paper, but luckily some more arrived today (YAY!) so I can pencil Chapter 4 right away...

But that probably won't happen. I got to do some inking and painting, I have a paper due on Friday and my nephew's birthday party is on Saturday. Grrr.... :( I don't like going to these, but now that I drive myself, I can peace out whenever I guess. Just have to stay for cake because my sister makes THE most bitchin cake known to man. She made my birthday cake. Delicious.
~6H

Weekend Challenge 1 defeated! What's Next?

CHAPTER 2: DONE
PAGE COUNT: 97

I feel really....really....exhausted! It's very mentally exhausting! But they all look really cool, especially some of the effects I tried out. I love doing visual effects...

Chapter 3 is a pretty short chapter (only two short scenes!) But it's also my birthday next Saturday...so I'll at least finish the pencils this coming week for sure...but I may need a little breather before I attempt another intense weekend like this. But it's very reassuring to know that I can, in fact, finish 30 pages in 3 days.

The Weekend Challenge 1:3 days/30 pages

Chapter 1: COMPLETELY DONE
Chapter 2 Inks: DONE

Okay so late new year's resolution--update this blog at least once a week. Because now I am cruisin!!

So a couple nights ago I finished all the chapter 2 pencils. Whilst basking in my glory, I began to wonder: "What if I had all of chapter 2 completely finished by Monday? Wouldn't be surprised?!" And then, I decided that was indeed, what I would do.

3 days

30 pages

Lots of Red bull. (Which I'm finding leaves you feeling quite out of sorts if you drink 2 in one night...)

I've already finished all the inks--I can't believe I inked 20 pages in one day! And I didn't even skip class! I went and did everything I needed to do! The first 10 I need to get done were inked previously, so I had a little boost, but now...ugh, I have to paint everything. I'm glad I'm suddenly able to get all this done really quickly. See, I need to get this done in the next 6 weeks...AHHH! That seems terrifying to think of! But I already have a whopping 67 PAGES complete. And by complete, I mean everything that needs to be done by hand is done. I'm not even thinking of putting in the text and final editing. That's all computer stuff. Besides, to get to the fancy dinner at the end of term for early thesis finishers, I just need to have a "Substantial draft", and I figure since you can physically read the story off the raw pages, then that is a substantial draft. And I think I can do it.

If I can finish chapter 2 in just two weeks, and chapter 3 is barely 20 pages....I am on my way. Luckily, chapter 1 was the only monster. 50 some pages! I can hardly believe it.

It's come to the point where I don't even really care about my other classes. I've been blowing off all my reading just to work on my graphic novel. And it a way, that's great, because it means I really love what I'm doing and am working intensely on it. But on the other hand, it's bad cause I'm not doing my homework, which is mostly reading for English classes, and as all good English majors know, you can make most shit up and it will serve your purposes quite nicely.

Also, I'm thinking I need a new DeviantArt ID...another project for another day.

Thought I'd Finally post Some pages...

Hey all! These are some preview pages I put on my deviantart I thought I might share with you all on here.
First off, we have the chapter 1 cover


Then, the first two prologue pages:




Sorry about the watermarks, but I'm really anal about people stealing these. (Though, honestly, who would want to?) But I swear that these are my works taken from my deviantart. They have my name on them! SEE?!
Hope you all enjoy! I'm steadily finishing more pages, and I have up through Ch1 ScIII done! YAY! Better some progress than no progress, even if the progress is slow...
~6H

HOLY CRAP! Some of the First Final Pages!!!

Currently Working on: Chapter 1 Sc3 Inks, Ch. 1 Sc IV/Ch. 2 Sc II pencils
Artist's Status: Empowered

You can go to my deviantart (located here:) to see a preview of some of the final pages and what it will look like when done! There are three story pages up so far and the cover of Chapter 1. It's very excited! I even used REAL comic font for once, so I'm feeling really cool.

I have a nice stack of finished pages, but I'm still in Chapter 1. And there really isn't enough time to work on it this wekk because of two huge papers I have due...hmmm...

Hopefully, when things begin to settle, I'll be able to do more at one time. I'm almost done with this term! And then it's off to Rome for a nice two week study abroad trip, and then home, where I plan to do nothing but pencil and ink like mad. Hopefully....HOPEFULLY this will come true.

Until then, enjoy the preview!
~6H

Rolling Along! But I Forgot to Update the Blog...

Currently: Penciling Chapter 1 Sc IV, CH. 2 Sc II
Inking:Ch 1 Sc 3
Painting: Ch1 Sc I and II
Artist's Status: Embaressed

Embaressed cause I haven't update this in FOREVER! So here's an update, all you people who don't even read my blog!!! HERE IT IS!!!!!

We're starting to pump out the final pages. Everything else is done. Except for the thumbnails for chapter II Sc III, a scene I, not lying, bullshitted on the spot. I am sooooo not a professional....Whoops.
~6H

It's been awhile! But the Project continues full speed Ahead!

THUMBNAILS:Done
SCRIPT: DONE
FINAL PAGES STARTED!
Currently drawing: Chapter 1 Sc II

HUZZAH!
That how I feel when I think that I have the whole story of "Akari" done in some form, that I know every that's going to happen. However, at the same time I'm quite far behind, so I'm worried. I was able to pencil 15 pages in about 4 days, which wasn't too bad considering that the paper came in late. (Even though they made me pay 15 dollars for shipping! FIFTEEN!!!)
Then my advsior wanted a typed up copy of the script. That took from monday till today with much non stop typing, except that Tuesday night I got sick so yesterday I couldn't work on it very much. I was able to finish typing it this morning, at least, but no pages have been worked on this week and I jsut don't feel with it enough. Also, the inking takes FOREVER, and I'm being totally anal about everything. But oh well.

Back to taking cold meds! AWAY!
~6H

A New Direction

"Akari Saito and Sana Arai...two women may be linked by fate..."

This is the new theme of Akari. I'm going to bring Sana in and make her more prominant, whilst cutting out some things like the smugglers in Chapter 1, and some other things that actually happened OFF screen! I have a new strategy for doing this now. I'm going to take scenes from the script that I absolutely think are important and thumbnail them out with stick figures and scribbles, to get an idea of how long each one is. Then I will arrange them in a way that makes the most sense. At the end, we'll see if I need to do storyboards at all or if I can jump straight to final pages.

The new theme doesn't really change the overall theme of the story, but I hope it will make it much more cohesive. It's still about the 5th Division of the Inaka police trying to hunt down the serial killer Ghost. What's changing are the roles of Akari and Sana.

Sana Arai, who is murdered in the beginning, is Takaharu's old girlfriend. At first, Junko tries to keep her death a secret from him, but he finds out anyway. Akari is his partner, and his new assignment, as he is supposed to watch over her as well. However, his failures in the past still haunt him...

Please look forward to how Sana and Akari will be connected in the story!

DISASTER! DISASTER!!!

Currently Storyboarding:Chapter 1, Scene VI
Artist's Status: PANIC

Okay, so it's been awhile. A long while. I apoligize....but now there is a disaster and the whole futre of this project has been thrown into Jeopardy once more. ANDNOBEFOREYOUASKIDIDNOTFINISHTHESCRIPT!!!!

I'm storyboarding chapter one and everything is going great till I do a page count...I'm currently on page 70. 70...in Chapter one...granted, the first 8 pages are prolouge, so chapter one is really only sixty some pages at the moment. But still, this is about twice the length that I had origianlly thought. Chapter one is not the longest part of the script either. So what I had originally thought to be a 150-200 page graphic novel is now completly out of control. The thing is, that it doesn't FEEL long when reading it. One of my friends said that the pacing was fast enough to not make it feel long. This is terrible...

Looks like I gotta totally scrap chapter one and figure out something else...I got an idea, which invovles getting rid of the smugglers in chapter one and merging in parts of chapter two...but it's very complicated...ack.

The Race to The Finish! Does it All Take off from Here?!

Currently Scripting: Chapter 6 Scene 1
Artist Status: Dazed

I finished chapter 5! Now there's only two chapters left, and I'm excited because they are action packed a full of awesome! It's pretty much like a race to the finish from here on out, because I have a more solid idea of what needs to happen in these chapters. It was the middle part up to Chapter 5 Scene 6 that was iffy. Now it should be smooth sailing....should being the operative word in that scentence.

To gather some interest, I decided to include a little preview from part of the script to entertain you. It's from Chapter 2 Scene 5. The 5th Division has just finished investigating a crime scene in the office of Soujiro Gintoki. His android, Eimi, has (for seemingly no reason) jumped out of his fifth floor office to her death. The group is in the elevator, heading out of the building.

Takaharu: Cares about his andoid, is devestated over her "death" and then wants to sell the parts to get his money back. A real sweetheart for sure.
Yukina: An android throws herself out a window. Someone's got a secret.
Junko: We still need to talk to the wife. There could be a breakthrough.
Takaharu: It'd be easier to conceal abuse in the home.
Junko: Kagehito, you'll come with me to get the remains. Katsuaki and Yukina--find this Hoda he spoke of. Takaharu, Akari--go question the wife.
--The elevator opens to the lobby, they get out--
Junko:Meet back at the station. --She and Kagehito start to walk away--
Takaharu: Eh, Kagehito!
--Kagehito turns as Takaharu throws him something--
Takaharu: Thought this might be of interest to you. --It's a used condom in an evidence bag--
Kagehito: (smiling) What a nice gift...

Hope you enjoyed!

Stuck in Every Way

Cureently Scripting: Chapter 5, Scene 3/4
Artist's Status: Meh

Should there be a foruth murder victim?

When should Captian Suzuki storm the 5th Division's office?

When will Yukina get her big moment?

When should I reveal Junko's past?

Can I learn to draw guns?

Can Mark Webber get his lead back i nthe driver's championship?

These are the questions I've been asking myself lately. I'm very stuck at this point because I'm past the middle of the cript (for the love of God, I am in chapter 5) and I need to start tying things together. So I have to make alot of descions, some I knew I would have to make and others I didn't expect to have to make at all. I'm so confused.

I also think I need to go back and take out some scenes, add in some others, and change the oens taht are left. There are some things I'm very happy with in the script, but I feel that the pacing sometiems gets off. Sometimes, things go very fast, and at other times I feel they are slow. They don't really drag, so that's good, but I'd like a more even pacing so a reader isn't feeling whiplash, you know? If it's too hard to follow, then people will give up.

My other fear is that there is too much going on and it doesn't hold the reader's interest. I don't want to explain too much and spell everything out, but at the same tiem I don't want it to be too ambiguous. I really want it to be that the readers feels that things are very ambiguous and cloudy, but that they inatly feel they udnerstand everything, as if they have always been a part of this world, or that this world is possible. Does that make sense?

I've been fooling around with these new templates, but I still kind of want to come up with my own background or sidebar that features some nifty art. That, and I'd like to go back to the blue/orange color scheme. Maybe I will....

I really need to learn how to code...

Also, i want to post pictures, but since I'm home for the summer, I have no access to photo editing software. All I would really need to do is resize the pictures on the computer so they show up nicely on your screen, but I have no photoshop...all I have is the stuff that comes with windows, and that is usually pretty usless. Grrrr I hate having to go back and forth between school and home, being limitied to what equipment I can bring with me. I have photoshop 6 on my desktop, but that is packed up in pieces in a basement in Illinois, so I'm stuck there....

I'll figure out something. I really need to start posting some stuff on the blog.

The plotholes fill!

Currently Scripting: Chapter 5 Scene 2
Status: Going Nuts

Well, I am home for the summer which means lots of time to work on Akari, ideally. IDEALLY. If I get off my lazy bum and do some work. But it's hard to be motivated sometimes when I'm feling down. AT home, I don't really have anyone to talk to, and I never have any exciting plans to go anywhere. Most of my high school firends (and there weren't many of them) don't talk to me anymore, which is the natural part of going to college, so it's not like I'm that upset about it. But is does make it kind of lonely and boring, just sitting in my house all the time and surfing the internet...well, I've been doing more sleeping than anything elsse really.

I don't even have a summer job though. So I feel totally worthless about that.

But I have had a rough year at school, so damnit, I devesre to sleep a little bit, right? Right?

I have been working on the script though! I got some good work done yesterday while I was watching Law & Order, which is always a good show. And usually inspires me to write or draw, for some reason. I was just kind of going along like always, when suddenly, everything fell in to place. See, I had this gaping plothole between chapter 5 and the happenings that lead to the ending, and I had no idea how to fill it. Then, with just two lines of dialouge and a deflected bullet, it all made sense and then BAM! plothoel filled. I love these moments. Hopefully from here on out, the script will go alot smoother and then I can get it done and go to the storyboards. But I still need a bunch more in my production sketches. Most of them are really rough, so I feel I should do some more refined ones so I can have clear pictures of everyone and everything. Also, I haven't been doing as many background sketches as I should. I just really hate backgrounds! It's bad of me, and I know I have to do it, but I just don't want to! I'll get down to it eventually. I want to try and do backgrounds in as many panels as possible, so it looks refined and professional. It'd be pretty boring if it was all just white space in the background. However, I also have trouble drawing buildings and tables and other background objects...ARGH it never ends.

And stairs. I always want to put stairs in the background, but I can't draw them! I do this to myself, I swear. Urgh...

Is it a Post for the Sake of a Post? Or Has Something Important Happened? Well, Someone Gets Shot!

Curretnly Scripting: Chapter 5, Scene 1 (it's kinda long)
Storyboards: ON HOLD
Artist's Status: Discontent

QUITE DISCONTENT! With this layout! I wish I understood better the language of HTML. But if I couldn't learn French in four years, then there's no chance of HTML happening. I used to know some basics, but you can't FTP anything on this site, so I'm at a lost of how to upload my images...I guess I have to get one of them image hosting sites? Hmmm...

In other news, someone gets shot in Chapter 5. You'll have to wait to find out who though!!! *evil laugh*

I'm really starting to fall in love with my characters though. I was showing some of my production sketches to the painting teacher here who's standing in for the REAL painting professor. Real painting prof is a jerkface. This one is lovely. She sad Akari was "beautiful!" WOW! And she loves my page layouts! I feel so awesome from that.

I'm gonna do some artwork soon. Like, offical Akari artwork, so that I can show you guys what the characters look like. And also, so that I can get some images in the blog layout. Seroiusly, how the hell am I supposed to edit this thing! I AM SO INADEQAUTE! RAWR!!!!!!

And that is all.
~6H

We're rolling with the Script again!

Currently Scripting: Chapter 5, Scene I
Storyboards: Chapter 1, Scene 2
Status: Unaccomplished, though I should be

Good news! Chapter 4 is finished with a bang! It's shorter than chapter 3, granted. A LOT shorter. Chapter 3 is going to need some help, that's for sure. But today wasa big step. I feel that the plot is about to take another huge step forward, and my characters are developing nicely.

EXCEPT YUKINA. I was making some character notes for my thesis director, and I realized that Yukina has so far done nothing extremely influential. It's not that she's useless...she just doesn't seem to have a big impact. She has a big part at the end and nearly dies but...oops, I'm giving away the plot now...

Also, another character may be entirely superfluous. And I like him...he's awesome, but he's not a main character and just adds a lot more complication to the plot rather than driving home any important plot points of moving the story along, besides for being the gang's doctor and fixing their parts when they break. Is it odd to call a cybernetics technician a doctor? Hmmm....

Still really cold here. Hope that it's warming up soon. Maybe I'll be able to kick it into high gear and finish this script. But then I have to change around a few scenes in order to get things to run a little smoother. I might even split chapter 3 in two part or something...but 8 chapters doesn't sound as nice as 7. Ah....I'll figure it out.
~6H

Somehow, Work is Getting Done. Honest!

Currently Scripting: Chapter 4, Scene 3
Storyboards: Chapter 1 Scene 2
Status: Relaxed

First of all, I like Romanian pop music too much. Way too much. Remember that internet fad, the Numa-numa song? It's actually "Dragostea din Tei" by Moldovian/Romanian pop group O-ZONE. Now I'm really into a group called Akcent. I've gotten two of their albums already and I just love it. Oh Romanian...your music is so good.

In other news, after a few decisions that had to be made, I am going home for the summer. Hopefully, this will be condusive to honor thesis work. Though I probably won't be able to do many color illustrations, because bringing my water colors home will be a pain. Hmmm...but I'm almost finished with the chaper 1 scene 2 storyboards. Yay! It's not looking too bad so far either! Now if only I could find my thesis director...she's an associate dean of students at my school in addition to being a professor, so she gets really busy. But I have to fill out this learning agreement for the thesis by Week 10 and we're going on Week 7! AH!

Just as I predicted, once I started work on the storyboards, work on the script stopped. Whoops. I'll at least try and finish chapter 4 soon!

Also, I'm working on my proposal for an art show at school next year, which will feature works from Akari and will highlight the creative process. I'm so excited for it! I'm alredy deciding what food to serve!

May is a fantatic month. Not only is it warm out and there are lilacs, but there is (at least this month), The Spanish Grand Prix this weekend, Monaco next weekend, and the Eurovision Song Contest after that! It doesn't get any better than this... ^_^
~6H