Tails of Lanschilandia! Here's the page!
Well, I guess I'm updating this weekly for the moment. I have been more or less successfully following a task-based 5-day schedule for creating the pages (layout and rough sketches -> fine sketches -> inking -> colouring -> shading and polishing). Let's see how that will work out in the long term. If I can keep it up without significant breaks, I can establish a buffer and won't need to worry quite as much about being on schedule in the future. Hurra for task-based planning! I highly recommend this method over a single loose deadline for the entire finished work.
I don't have much to say about the page itself. I got lazy on some of the backgrounds, but things have already been shown in detail on the previous pages, so I think it's not too major a thing. Parsley is officially adorable in panel 4. Shading Kakralomino's hat brim shadow was odd, but I think the results look fairly interesting. Be on the lookout for a return of the construction sandman.
I have nothing more to say on this, so enjoy the comic page!
Friday, 9 August 2013
Wednesday, 7 August 2013
Book Review: "The Nut Heist" by Trisha M. Wilson
Like ever so seldom, it's book review time again! Once more (and as will likely be the case in all future reviews), we're looking at an indie ebook: The Nut Heist (A Tale from the Aksoy Forest) by Trisha M. Wilson.
Trouble is brewing in the Aksoy Forest and the kingdom of Aquerna: not only is the squirrel populace being hit by a tough winter, but the malicious Lord Zenith is not making the situation in his cousin's kingdom any easier as he plots to steal their nut stocks for himself. Will the citizens of Aquerna be able to make it through the winter regardless?
The Nut Heist is an interesting take on a "talking animal" story, set in a world of civilised squirrels and similar animals. While this may seem like generic children's book fare (and certainly is appropriate for children), it is through the vivid and charming presentation of the setting that it becomes a lot more than that. Even at its short length, it's an immersive experience full of details and lovable characters (including a lot of strong female ones!), and it's easy to appreciate the amount of care and thought that the author put into her setting - light provided by needles instead of candles, nuts and seeds instead of money in a bank and attacks by "giants" all help shape an interesting world from the perspective of a squirrel.
The only potential criticism I could bring up is the story's length. At about 13k words in 5 chapters, this book is indeed fairly short and may be over too soon for some tastes. However, its compact length allows it to maintain a steady level of quality until the end rather than suffering from fatigue like some other books do, making the overall experience a lot more enjoyable.
The Nut Heist is highly recommended for anyone who wants a short, entertaining read with children's book charm (especially if you're a fan of anthropomorphic animals/Furries). If you missed the link above, the book's Smashwords page is here.
Trouble is brewing in the Aksoy Forest and the kingdom of Aquerna: not only is the squirrel populace being hit by a tough winter, but the malicious Lord Zenith is not making the situation in his cousin's kingdom any easier as he plots to steal their nut stocks for himself. Will the citizens of Aquerna be able to make it through the winter regardless?
The Nut Heist is an interesting take on a "talking animal" story, set in a world of civilised squirrels and similar animals. While this may seem like generic children's book fare (and certainly is appropriate for children), it is through the vivid and charming presentation of the setting that it becomes a lot more than that. Even at its short length, it's an immersive experience full of details and lovable characters (including a lot of strong female ones!), and it's easy to appreciate the amount of care and thought that the author put into her setting - light provided by needles instead of candles, nuts and seeds instead of money in a bank and attacks by "giants" all help shape an interesting world from the perspective of a squirrel.
The only potential criticism I could bring up is the story's length. At about 13k words in 5 chapters, this book is indeed fairly short and may be over too soon for some tastes. However, its compact length allows it to maintain a steady level of quality until the end rather than suffering from fatigue like some other books do, making the overall experience a lot more enjoyable.
The Nut Heist is highly recommended for anyone who wants a short, entertaining read with children's book charm (especially if you're a fan of anthropomorphic animals/Furries). If you missed the link above, the book's Smashwords page is here.
Friday, 2 August 2013
Lanschilandia comic page: Borderline Chaos, pg. 2
Tails of Lanschilandia! Here's the page!
I have been trying to see if I would be able to maintain a weekly update schedule for Tails of Lanschilandia if I were to set one. This page took precisely a week to make (weekend included), but only barely got finished after working on it relentlessly with little time to take care of anything else, which is not really beneficial to my Fantasy writing. I must admit I'm rather puzzled how other webcomics with similar page formats can maintain such a tight schedule, but I shall take my non-existent hat off to their creators.
Unless I can find a way to speed up the creation process (cloning device?) or decide to go with a strange schedule like "a new page every 9 3/4 days", Laschilandia is likely going to remain sporadic for now. (Hint: You can follow this blog or other various accounts of mine to know when it updates *cough*.)
Enjoy the comic page!
I have been trying to see if I would be able to maintain a weekly update schedule for Tails of Lanschilandia if I were to set one. This page took precisely a week to make (weekend included), but only barely got finished after working on it relentlessly with little time to take care of anything else, which is not really beneficial to my Fantasy writing. I must admit I'm rather puzzled how other webcomics with similar page formats can maintain such a tight schedule, but I shall take my non-existent hat off to their creators.
Unless I can find a way to speed up the creation process (cloning device?) or decide to go with a strange schedule like "a new page every 9 3/4 days", Laschilandia is likely going to remain sporadic for now. (Hint: You can follow this blog or other various accounts of mine to know when it updates *cough*.)
Enjoy the comic page!
Saturday, 27 July 2013
Lanschilandia comic page: Borderline Chaos, pg. 1
Tails of Lanschilandia! Here's the page!
It's been a while, but here's the beginning of the next story for my webcomic! I am moderately excited about this, though I doubt that will be enough to keep me working at full power, so don't expect any noticeable increase in update frequency. The story will focus more on the characters that didn't really get to contribute much to the previous storyline, so this should be interesting; especially with a major change in art style.
As you could probably tell, the art looks very different than it did on previous pages; this is because I am now drawing the pages at a higher resolution in Photoshop and shrinking them down for the website, which allows me to more easily add details and results in much more slender linework (which remains the only thing slender about Hayfa the cow). I am also experimenting with shading, though I won't make that too elaborate as I don't want to slow down the page creation process even further (to achieve this shading style, I am drawing black spots on a semi-transparent layer, which is squeezed between the linework and the colour layers).
Not quite as noticeably, I am now semi-consistently sketching panels and characters before I "ink" them, which helps a lot and the result may actually begin to not look like scribbles from a preschooler anymore. It's a strange process to get used to, but I have some faith that it will be worth it and I might even be able to draw non-crooked limbs and hands eventually (gasp!).
Enjoy the comic page!
It's been a while, but here's the beginning of the next story for my webcomic! I am moderately excited about this, though I doubt that will be enough to keep me working at full power, so don't expect any noticeable increase in update frequency. The story will focus more on the characters that didn't really get to contribute much to the previous storyline, so this should be interesting; especially with a major change in art style.
As you could probably tell, the art looks very different than it did on previous pages; this is because I am now drawing the pages at a higher resolution in Photoshop and shrinking them down for the website, which allows me to more easily add details and results in much more slender linework (which remains the only thing slender about Hayfa the cow). I am also experimenting with shading, though I won't make that too elaborate as I don't want to slow down the page creation process even further (to achieve this shading style, I am drawing black spots on a semi-transparent layer, which is squeezed between the linework and the colour layers).
Not quite as noticeably, I am now semi-consistently sketching panels and characters before I "ink" them, which helps a lot and the result may actually begin to not look like scribbles from a preschooler anymore. It's a strange process to get used to, but I have some faith that it will be worth it and I might even be able to draw non-crooked limbs and hands eventually (gasp!).
Enjoy the comic page!
Tuesday, 9 July 2013
Got it Covered? Think Again
"Don't judge a book by its cover" — so goes the common saying. A good piece of advice that most people have heard of and many strive to learn from, but which almost no one follows in the non-metaphorical sense. Especially in a chiefly text-based medium like literature, the cover is often the first and potentially only "visual" impression anyone gets of a book, and a lot of the time, the attempt to win the interest of the curious reader is promptly bungled by a badly designed cover. But is it really true that the cover sells the book? Not always, but it certainly can make a notable contribution. At the very least, it attracts attention. From personal experience, I can say that an eye-catching cover is more likely to make me look twice and make the book remain in my memory. So what makes a cover "eye-catching"? Hard to say, and certainly dependant on the genre as well as the time and place of publication. An eye-catching cover is a cover that stands out from the masses, and in order to do that, it needs to differ from the masses.
Looking at a great amount of book covers especially for indie Fantasy, I have been noticing two trends in particular: stock art (especially photography) and generic designs that don't say anything about the book (or a combination of both!). Good as they may look in any other context, these require a lot of creativity to turn into unique and memorable covers. That skull or sword on the cover may have some relation to the book and that random woman on her best way to catching a cold if she doesn't put on some clothes may even be a depiction of the main character, but they do nothing to set the book apart from the hundreds of others using a different version of the same motif.
So, what should be done? I'm certainly no expert on covers (though I may have to become one), but here are some fairly obvious suggestions (specifically for Fantasy covers) that still tend to be ignored:
The conclusion? Think about the cover, its relation to your book and how to make it stick out. Especially with no professional advertising, it really does matter.
Looking at a great amount of book covers especially for indie Fantasy, I have been noticing two trends in particular: stock art (especially photography) and generic designs that don't say anything about the book (or a combination of both!). Good as they may look in any other context, these require a lot of creativity to turn into unique and memorable covers. That skull or sword on the cover may have some relation to the book and that random woman on her best way to catching a cold if she doesn't put on some clothes may even be a depiction of the main character, but they do nothing to set the book apart from the hundreds of others using a different version of the same motif.
So, what should be done? I'm certainly no expert on covers (though I may have to become one), but here are some fairly obvious suggestions (specifically for Fantasy covers) that still tend to be ignored:
- Don't use photos. Photos are exact captures of real life images and without a lot of digital enhancement, they are rarely ever going to exhibit any style unique enough to be eye-catching to the layperson. Take advantage of the many traditional and digital ways there are to create art. If you can't do it yourself, find someone who can.
- Don't force a run-of-the-mill Fantasy style on the cover; it does not need to look "realistic", and the more quirky it looks, the better. You are not creating art for a gallery; people most likely will not stand idly and gawk in awe at your cover, even if you get a Dutch master to paint it (though that would certainly be something to enhance your advertising campaign!). The cover is an ad for the book, and it will need to stand out by being individual, not by demonstrating how well it can follow conventions of painting.
- Think about something unique in your book's story; a "highlight", which is recognisable as belonging to that specific book your wrote. Use that as the cover. (Many of the Harry Potter books generally use interesting cover scenes (that are easily associated with the books) in a number of of their publications; for instance, the German release of Philosopher's Stone shows the well-known "wizard's chess" trial.) Don't go metaphorical unless you actually have an interesting metaphor to present. Skulls, swords and random things on fire are not interesting metaphors for anything and have been used a quadrillion times. Even if they fit, no one would think of associating them with your particular book.
- For something really unique, do something with the text! For the vast majority of book covers, the convention tends to be to stick plain, uninteresting text on top of the cover art as an afterthought. If you are publishing indie, you should be in full control of what your cover looks like; there is nothing that prevents you from making the text interesting in itself. You can go further and make it express something about your book or its feel; going even further still, you can incorporate the text into the very cover art! Conventions are made to be broken if you wish to stand out. Just ensure it's still easy to read!
The conclusion? Think about the cover, its relation to your book and how to make it stick out. Especially with no professional advertising, it really does matter.
Saturday, 29 June 2013
Lanschilandia comic page: A Spoony Experience, pg. 14
Tails of Lanschilandia! Here's the page!
So it seems I am announcing these here as they are put up. Updates to the comic are happening rarely enough these days anyway to not be obtrusive. Here's the 14th page of "A Spoony Experience" and the first major milestone in my webcomic's history: the final page of the first story! So, with one complete story, where's the comic going to go from here? Well, to the next story. As mentioned in the last Lanschilandia post, I would like to try a better art style for that one, namely drawing the pages at a higher resolution so it becomes less annoying pixel work and I can more easily add details to the pages (the final display size on the site will remain the same, as I think this is about as big as I can make them while keeping them convenient to read in most screen resolutions).
The colouring on this page took almost as long as the linework. Can't say if I'm happy with how it turned out, but I believe the art has come a long way throughout the first story (especially in terms of backgrounds) and I am satisfied with some of the drawings at least. This is one of the first times I have actually bothered to sketch some of the panels/character poses before drawing them properly, and those have turned out better than the rest, so I may be taking this idea further. These are also the first detailed drawings of Parsley I have made since her panel on the introduction page, and the latter was pretty much directly copied from her concept art. It took me a while to get used to drawing her, which is probably evident in how her looks change slightly across the page. I am not quite sure where to go with her personality yet, but that will probably work itself out as I use her in more significant roles. The red book on her table is "Haley Topper", which sadly isn't fully visible.
As another first, the page marks the debut of Prof. Manatide and is the first time I have drawn him apart from a quick design sketch. He's sort of Doc Brown- and Ludwig von Drake-inspired and I'm pretty happy with how he turned out. His design is fairly complex, but as he is a minor character (and will remain one), I won't have to draw him often. I do have some things in mind for him, but that's for a later story to be told at a later time.
Well, what more can I say. Enjoy the comic page and see you when the next adventure begins!
So it seems I am announcing these here as they are put up. Updates to the comic are happening rarely enough these days anyway to not be obtrusive. Here's the 14th page of "A Spoony Experience" and the first major milestone in my webcomic's history: the final page of the first story! So, with one complete story, where's the comic going to go from here? Well, to the next story. As mentioned in the last Lanschilandia post, I would like to try a better art style for that one, namely drawing the pages at a higher resolution so it becomes less annoying pixel work and I can more easily add details to the pages (the final display size on the site will remain the same, as I think this is about as big as I can make them while keeping them convenient to read in most screen resolutions).
The colouring on this page took almost as long as the linework. Can't say if I'm happy with how it turned out, but I believe the art has come a long way throughout the first story (especially in terms of backgrounds) and I am satisfied with some of the drawings at least. This is one of the first times I have actually bothered to sketch some of the panels/character poses before drawing them properly, and those have turned out better than the rest, so I may be taking this idea further. These are also the first detailed drawings of Parsley I have made since her panel on the introduction page, and the latter was pretty much directly copied from her concept art. It took me a while to get used to drawing her, which is probably evident in how her looks change slightly across the page. I am not quite sure where to go with her personality yet, but that will probably work itself out as I use her in more significant roles. The red book on her table is "Haley Topper", which sadly isn't fully visible.
As another first, the page marks the debut of Prof. Manatide and is the first time I have drawn him apart from a quick design sketch. He's sort of Doc Brown- and Ludwig von Drake-inspired and I'm pretty happy with how he turned out. His design is fairly complex, but as he is a minor character (and will remain one), I won't have to draw him often. I do have some things in mind for him, but that's for a later story to be told at a later time.
Well, what more can I say. Enjoy the comic page and see you when the next adventure begins!
Wednesday, 19 June 2013
The Conquest
Behind horizons, hills and dells
Hidden well
Tales oft tell
Is found a fort where no one dwells
A fortune in its shell
A path is plagued by stalwart storms
Curved as strait
Cursèd fate
The only path to thither forms
But ne'er does grip the gate
A wall as tall as mountain looms
Strong as stone
Hard as bone
A journey from the outset dooms
To settle seeker's throne
A thousand bowmen never miss
Sure in mark
Safe in arc
Each eye itself an arrow is
To pierce protective dark
A thousand horsemen full gallop
Steeds of state
Skins of plate
Infaust invaders swift to stop
A-routing out the gate
A thousand demons at the rear
Ghastly gaze
Breath of blaze
Entwine the shrine by sneer and jeer
And heal it in a haze
Enshrined inside: a mythic good
Most beseech
Few to reach
So seldom seen, oft understood
As "happiness" in speech
Hidden well
Tales oft tell
Is found a fort where no one dwells
A fortune in its shell
A path is plagued by stalwart storms
Curved as strait
Cursèd fate
The only path to thither forms
But ne'er does grip the gate
A wall as tall as mountain looms
Strong as stone
Hard as bone
A journey from the outset dooms
To settle seeker's throne
A thousand bowmen never miss
Sure in mark
Safe in arc
Each eye itself an arrow is
To pierce protective dark
A thousand horsemen full gallop
Steeds of state
Skins of plate
Infaust invaders swift to stop
A-routing out the gate
A thousand demons at the rear
Ghastly gaze
Breath of blaze
Entwine the shrine by sneer and jeer
And heal it in a haze
Enshrined inside: a mythic good
Most beseech
Few to reach
So seldom seen, oft understood
As "happiness" in speech
Just a poem to sum up my feelings as of late... I'm relieved I can still at least get those right, to a degree.
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