Four year anniversary!!!!

Today I was thinking that I needn’t do any update because I wasn’t done with the analysis yet... But then I realized that it’s the four year anniversary today! It’s cliché but time really does fly away!

Since the last anniversary I finished my first longer comic (Pilgrim), which fills me with great pride! Since then I’ve finished three more scripts. Currently I’m analyzing some drawing styles that I like, to prepare me for the design process that will start soon.

To have a blog like this is a process, and I do some thinking about which direction I want it to have. These past months I’ve been thinking about if I should start writing about things I like that is already out there, like everyone else does... But I decided to keep it simple and about my own creativity, this blog will continue to be a place where I can show stuff, for those who are interested.

Take care!

Pilgrim's done, what now?

This post will be some sort of a summing up of the whole experience with Pilgrim. There might be some tooting in my own horn, but that's what blogging is all about, or is it? Well, you've been warned! In preparation for this post I've read the earlier posts, so I've taken a trip along memorey lane, you might say.

Pilgrim has been very educational to me. I can't say that I'm an expert cartoonist by now, but I can say that I can tell a story with comics.

This monday I had quite the experience. I had printed all the pages and the for- and afterword, put them all in a binder. Later in the evening I read the comic from cover to cover. I hadn't read it all for a year and a half. I've only read the chapter that I was working on. To my amazement it worked! Well, I have to say that I'm biased, or part in the crime, so to say. But it was quite the experience to read it all, and seeing that it was ok. I mean, how would it have felt if it didn't work, then I've put time and energy on something that didn't work, talk about anti-climax!

Also this week I've been thinking about if I did the right thing by doing the comic now. Since this has been such an important story, maybe I should have done some smaller things first and then returned to this project. But I think like this. The reason it has been made, is because of the importance of the story. If I only did some smaller things, to get to learn how to work with the medium, than I might have not come to get going on Pilgrim. So I think that I made the right decision to do Pilgrim now. The learning experience that it has been has been a bonus, that I'm thankful for!

Script
I put some time and energy on the script, to get the pacing of the story right. When I think about that process it went smoothly. I tried different types of structures to tell the story, before settling on the current one.

Drawing
I always enjoy the sketching of a project, the uphill climb here has clearly been the clean up. It feels like you are re-doing something that you've already done, and that's never fun. But sometimes I'm very cunning, so I could trick myself into doing the clean up, by using the colored pencil! Or as they say, every idea is good except the bad ones!

Inking
Inking has been the steepest learning curve on this project. But that has to do with my earlier attempts at inking, that wasn't that successful. Where the drawing was full of life, the inked drawing was stiff and lifeless. But all along this project I kind of took the inking to my heart. Given off course that I'm basically a tracer, but that has to do with the fact that I've colored the pages, if the comic would have been in black and white the inking would have been quite different.

Coloring
This work has also been smoothly, except for the first pages... When I was coloring the first chapter, I noticed that I hadn't "closed" all the lines, so when I had been sitting in front of the computer for maybe twelve hours I had only done 3 half pages... The coloring for the later chapters went much more smoothly.

Publishing
I've used blogger and I don't regret that at all, it's easy to use and as a comics publishing tool it works fine!

What's going to happen now, with Pilgrim?
I'm currently exploring if there could be an analogue version for the comic. Other then that I'm thinking of doing a cover and a back illustration. As I've written before there might be a translation into English, but I'm not there yet. So there are some things that's going to be done, but for now, its done!

So what's going to happen now?
Well I'm going to take a short break, I'm going to do some smaller things. But my pipeline is filled to the brim with cool stuff. Actually I've got these concepts that I'm going to work on, starting 2014.
1) An ensemble drama about some characters in a small town. It's about following your dreams... Script is done, the character design is next.
2) An action adventure set in the 1930s. The concept is done, the writing's next.
3) A horror/thriller story. The concept is done, the writing's next.

In preparation for these projects I have some inspiration material that I'm going to read/watch.

So that's it for now, Pilgrim's done and not just done, it's donelly-donelly-done! I'm really looking forward to the next projects. I think they are going to kick some serious derrières!

Take care!

Chapter 5 is up and running

Yes, there you have it, chapter 5 in all it's glory! As I've probably written before this one became a tad longer, actually the longest chapter yet! After I was done with the inking last week, I colored it this week, and now it's done! I won't keep you from it any longer, enjoy:

http://pilgrimserien.blogspot.se/

Take care!

Chapter 4 is done!

Yep! It's true, the chapter is finally done! Have a look!

http://www.pilgrimserien.blogspot.se/

At the moment we are more than halfway through the storyline. If my memory serves me right I wrote something like, it would only take a month to do this chapter... You might say that I jinxed it, big time... so therefore I won't write when the next chapter will be done, but I will continue to write about the progress here on the blog!

Take care!

Clean up is proceeding!

No it's not a joke, se below:

So both my thumbs are not longer situated in my derriere... Well as I've been writing before I've been quite busy with other stuff, my internship, my studies and other stuff. So just so you know I haven't just been laying on my sofa and eating popcorn... hm, but some times I do that... Anyway, the project is back on track, which feels great, now I only have to figure out how to make clean up fun? ;-)

Take care!

P.s Make sure you enjoy these days of summer that we have at the moment. I don't know why but I have to stand on my balcony and look right up in the sky, at the light summer night sky and just stand there, maybe it's the poet in me... Speaking of poetry, maybe I'll pester you with my unsuccessful attempt at poetry, I don't know if you should see that as a gift or as a punishment...!

Half way through!

I'm half way through the project, well almost! So far it's been fun and educational, and I learn stuff all along the way. It will be fun and exciting to see the end result.

I've always enjoyed the sketching part of a project, when you're searching for the right expression or pose. When it comes to clean up, I find that to be of a more up hill climb with more resistance. During chapter 3, I tried to work around this by doing more detailed sketches in blue. And to my amazement it worked, maybe this is a fluke, but the clean up process of this chapter went really smooth and was not that difficult as it can be.

One funny thing I've noticed is that I can sometimes feel a bit worried about some panels that contain a lot of information, or are complicated for some reason. When I've drawn them they almost always turn out to be the best panels!

I've come to terms with the fact that the process of it all will be quite visible through this project, just like the fact that I've in chapter 3 centered the text in the word balloons, which I haven't done earlier.

For you that are not fluent in the Swedish language I can comfort you that with about 94% certainty there will be a translation in English! When I'm done with the final chapter I will make a translation.

Very soon I'm going to begin the work on chapter 4... And as always I can't tell you when chapter 4 will be done. For a progress report you will have to come back here!

Take care!

Pilrim is launched!

Yes it's true ladies and gentlemen, it's finally launched! My first venture in the web comics and comics field! It's up and running so head on over to it and read, the link is to your right and below:

http://pilgrimserien.blogspot.se/

It feels go-ood!

After spending some time in front of the screen and decide how to publish my comic, I decided to do it with Blogger, because I already know that tool and it's nice and easy for me to use and that makes me a happy man! I took a glance at comicpress but you needed some hard programming skills that I don't possess, so I let that one go, I also took a gander at the various webcomic places on the web but I didn't really find one where my comic would place. So Blogger it is! I truly think it's a win-win situation, it's easy to use and easy on the eyes to read and as a reader you don't have to spend time waiting for pages to load!

It will be very interesting to see where this will take my comic. Will it be read? I hope so... Speaking of reading I decided to publish it in the language of legends and heroes...Swedish! I did this to stay true to the script that I've written. But in the future there might be translations. But I don't think it will be that hard to follow even if you don't speak the language.

There will probably be things that I miss along the way, one can only try so much to do it right. If there will be things that I missed, like facts or other stuff, I will take the opportunity after the final chapter to write an essay or article where I put things right.

Now it's only to go ahead with the second chapter!

Take care!