Wormie Page 2

I may modify this one in the future... I had a hard time fitting the letter in without covering up parts of drawings I was proud of. Either way, this is when the story gets good! Can you possibly wait for the exciting conclusion next week?!

Just a reminder... If you CTRL-click the picture you can zoom in and see it better.

Luke's obituary

 

Wormie Issue I p.1

Behold! My first attempt at a graphic novel! Page 1 of the first—and only—issue of Wormie!

(for best results, open in a new window to enlarge)

 I just made this comic as a practice for the real graphic novel I have in mind, which you can see a sample of here. I learned a lot of techniques while making this, which took about 8 or 9 hours total to make from start to finish. It's basically nothing more than the introduction to the Wormie RPG (see the Project List) my friend Jason and I made. I plan on finishing the intro with two or three more pages of the story, and you can plan on a project spotlight for Wormie soon.
This was a lot of fun and I'm glad to have discovered a new form of art that I'm capable of!
P.S. I would love your feedback. Enjoy!

Abelhawk Hand update

So, I found a program called Font Creator that looked professional and easy to use. Unfortunately, on the 30-day trial they don't actually allow you to save your font! What's the point in having a useless program for 30 days? Anyway... I'm trying out a new online thing that seems to work... okay...

Basically it has you fill out a form, scan it in, and then it somehow converts it into a vector font. Pretty complicated, so I give it some credit. If I can just reorient the characters on my computer itself it may work for something.

More Samples: Wormie Intro

Hey there! I was thinking of ways to practice sketching, inking, coloring, paneling, shading, highlighting, and lettering (making a graphic novel's hard work, yo), and I thought of the story of an RPG project my friend Jason and I worked on years ago (see the Project List for details). I've finished 3 of the 5 panels, which is on the first of 5 pages. But it's going very well and I'd like to present you with an unlettered sample of the first panel.

Graphic Novel Sample Art

Hey! I'm really excited about this new art style I'm practicing. I remember always shunning pencil sketching as a kid because I felt like I knew how to doodle well enough freestyle on my own. I think I missed the point though. This way I can plan where lines would normally overlap; for example, if there's a straight spear that someone's holding, I can draw the hand and the spear and the spear will always remain straight. Before, I ran the risk of having it jut out at a weird angle because I drew it after the hand.
I also really enjoy coloring pictures on Photoshop. It's been a lot of fun to be able to experiment with colors, shading and lighting so far. I'm sure my graphic novel will need a lot of all three, though due to time constraints I may just draw out the entire story and then color it.
Anyhow, here are a couple of art samples from my graphic novel concept, starring the main villain Bancotha and another character yet unnamed. Feedback is appreciated!

A Discussion on Handwriting

Recipe written in Old Austinian, c. 1996

My childhood handwriting was like most children's. It was loopy and awkward, and I would often mix up the lowercase 'd's and 'b's. I would also flip my 'z's and '9's backwards. I kept this handwriting throughout Elementary School, and though it got steadily better, it died out completely when I got to 5th grade.

In 5th grade, I began writing the Never Ending Comic. Since the words in comic books are in all capitals, I adopted this new system as my handwriting for everything. Naturally, my teachers were bothered by it, especially since that was still in the age of cursive.

Personal narrative written in Middle Austinian, c. 2000

On a slight tangent, have you noticed that cursive is pretty much dead here in the United States? Its dying out has been so gradual that I didn't notice until I went to Brazil, where it's still a common practice. I think it's an interesting development for America to kill the loopy, connected type of writing in favor of simply printing. I'm not sure if this is contributing to that one type of people who basically contorts their hand into a knot just to write (You'll know this when you see it. Watch people (particularly girls) when they write, and there's bound to be one who it's a wonder doesn't have carpal tunnel), but that's that. My opinion on the death of cursive? Good riddance.

Anyway, this "all-caps" style of writing lingered as part of my comic-drawing personality throughout Middle School, but as Junior High time approached, I decided that I needed to stop writing in all capitals. I distinctly remember the interesting day when I made a conscious decision to design my own handwriting. I sat down at my desk, thinking of various options I had for various letters in the alphabet. I decided that I liked my lowercase 't's to have tails. I decided I liked simple letters like 'p' and 'b' to be drawn without the little foot at the bottom, drawn with a single looping flourish. I designed my handwriting that day in late 7th Grade and have used it ever since.

Early Modern Austinian creative writing exercise, written c. 2003

I am admittedly rather proud of my unique style of writing, most often written with a G-2 07mm black pen, and I decided recently to begin working on an "Abelhawk Hand" font that I can use for my comics, graphic novel dialog, etc. There may be other uses as well, such as cutting corners when having to handwrite something, but for the most part this is just going to be a fun little scheme to add to my list of personalized creative projects.

The font will be available for presentation soon!

Anticipated Projects

Projects! They're what make my creative world spin 'round. I have started a great many projects, finished very few, but that's what adds the elements of anticipation and progress to my life. There are a few projects that have been swimming around in my mind for years, but have never actually been started. I hope that by listing them, and perhaps by hearing your encouragement for specific ones through your comments, some can emerge from the darkness of nonbeing and be started!

Anticipated Projects

1. Radio Drama - I have been interested in old-fashioned radio dramas since I discovered Relic Radio over a year ago, but my interest in making some sort of a radio drama has stemmed from my early, early youth. When my brother and I were in fourth and second grades respectively, we were fascinated by our own voices in the Windows Sound Recorder, and recorded simple voice acting sequences, stories, and impersonations. Sometimes we'd use it to illustrate an echo effect we figured out how to make. Other times we used sound effects from Age of Empires and WarCraft 2 to add further color. I still have several of our favorite ones saved on my computer, but am currently not at liberty to share them (i.e. I'm much too embarrassed to).

In sixth grade, I obtained a mini-tape recorder, and often took it to school with me to record the antics of me and my friends. We acted out sketches and even pretended to host our own radio station, called Boom 205. Since I've been listening to old-fashioned mystery classics and sci-fi stories I've admired to job of the actors to illustrate a story with their voices so that it appears visually in my mind. I have always wanted to use my wealth of sound effects, music and voice impression skills to make my own Radio Drama... but ideas for storylines are scarce. I really should just try to adapt an existing story, which seems to be my cop-out forté. Or, perhaps this project will begin with the help of someone else. I recently got a high-quality microphone, so a lack of inspiration is literally the only thing standing in my way now!
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2. Silent Film - In perhaps a similar yet completely opposite sense of #1, I've always admired silent films because of the actors' abilities to tell a story without sound effects. Facial expressions and body language were key in the age of silent films. Again, my same lame excuse of writer's block comes into play when considering a silent film, but someday I truly hope to be able to doctor a black and white video into a silent film of my own composition.
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3. Short Film - Everyone wants to make their own short film, myself included. I have a couple of mediocre film editing programs as well as a decent camera and tripod, so when I come up with an idea and group of actors this will definitely be something I want to do. In Late Highschool Era, my friends and I wrote some notes to make a basic movie trailer, but no filming, screenwriting, or even planning beyond saying "This would be cool" was ever done.

4. Never-Ending Comic Finale - If you've read the "Never-Ending Comic" or "N.E.C." (a page featured here on Pretzel Lectern), you're probably familiar with the juvenile yet creative and enduring charm of my fifth-grade comic strip. But I have always regretted its disappointing last chapter and abrupt stop. Mostly during the time I spent digitally scanning the pages to this blog, I thought about possible endings and chapters to round out the ancient comic, to give it some much-needed closure. Drawing the characters would probably be just as easy as it was 15 years ago, and with the maturity and understanding of plot that has come with time, I'm sure I could come up with a brilliant end to a mediocre and cheesy series. I'm sure that this project will eventually come to light.

5. Novella - I think this one's just a given for any creative person, but I figured I would elaborate a little more on what I would prefer to write about: Probably fantasy. And not cliché fantasy, such as most of the stuff you'll see in your typical fantasy section in the library. With the only exception of the Discworld series (written by my favorite writer of all time, Terry Pratchett), which is a rare case of fantasy satire, I'm tired of the countless stories about infinite-power swords, councils of wizards, dark lords, and reluctant peasant heroes. Stories like that not only bore me, they discourage me. Granted, there is a timeless plot outline that involves a reluctant beginning, awakening powers, defeating "the other" and being reborn, but this is put so often in fantasy, which is a completely moldable genre, that it becomes vastly overused. No, if I ever actually sit down and write a fantasy novel, it will try to flip the Tolkienized fantasy genre on its head, much like Brandon Sanderson's books have (His trilogy Mistborn happens to be my favorite three books). Actually taking a class from Branderson himself has really inspired me, so we'll see if I can actually get one written sometime.

• EDIT: Alfred Shortstaff and the Cavern of Time published!

6. Text Adventure - When I was a kid, I found a game entitled "Zork" on my uncle's computer. When I opened it, I was fascinated to find a story that I could interact with. I would type "jump" and the computer would say "Congratulations. Now you can move on to the third grade." I would type "go east" and a new description of surroundings would appear. It was like my favorite Choose Your Own Adventure books, except with seemingly infinite possibilities! I have since found a couple of text adventure game makers online and taken a C++ class, so I hope someday to make my own Text Adventure game to share.

7. Adventure Game - One of the earliest games I've ever played was Kings Quest VI. I loved watching my uncles play it, and when I got the game myself it was one of the most brilliantly told stories and complex puzzle games I ever played. I loved being able to point and click "SEE" on anything and get an explanation, or get humorous texts when trying to "TALK" to inanimate objects. I also submit that Kings Quest VI is the best of the Kings Quests, partly because of its amazing voice acting and multiple endings. In high school I found a program called AGS ("Adventure Game Studio") which allows one to make their own point-and-click adventure. My brother and I were able to make some crude games with no real storyline, but it was still incredible to have designed my own Kings Quest lookalike, complete with different icons for SEE, TALK, TOUCH and WALK. I still want to be able to do this some day, but this is one project that is very low on my patience list.

8. Menu - I'm a food fanatic, and if I had been born in a restaurant family I probably would've gone on to make my own family business. Currently, I have ideas for a fun little restaurant, and I'm compiling ideas for a menu. If I ever round out the menu, I plan to make dishes, take pictures of them, and completely Photoshop an entire menu. This, like most of my projects, would just be for the fun of it, and I probably won't ever make an actual restaurant.

9. Audiobook Reading - When I got into audiobooks a couple of years ago, I thought it would be one of the funnest jobs ever to be one of the voice actors behind that. I've never had an interest in actual acting, but a voice actor, even to read a book, would be a lot of fun. Using different voices for each character is one thing I like to do, and was very impressed with in audiobook performances such as the Harry Potter series read by Jim Dale and the Discworld books performed by Steven Briggs. I myself may in the future read one of the stories from my forum RPG, Argaenothruzil. If not that, then perhaps a book in the public domain. My only concern is hard drive space for the recording as well as the quality possible with my resources.

• EDIT: A Christmas Carol audiobook created!

10. Podcast - I've been into podcasts for some time, among my favorites being The Sporkful, Stuff You Should Know, RadioLab, and Elder Lore. I think it would be fun, should I come up with a good and expansive enough topic to talk about, to publish one of my own onto iTunes. I think it's an interesting art to have a form of media that is purely audio-based. It allows for a lot of liberties in flawless editing, as well as the fun aspect of having some sort of theme jingle or opening and a way to close. Judging by certain podcasts I've heard, and just the psychology of dialog, this is a project I would definitely have to do with someone else. Possibly my brother.

11. YouTube Channel - I'm really impressed with some of the YouTube personalities out there—PeanutButterGamer, JonTron, Spacehamster. They make something like showcasing old video games or playing online together not only interesting, but downright entertaining. Many people neglect playing video games themselves just to watch these guys play together! Anyway, I've always wanted to have a following of YouTube subscribers that would encourage me to post often. I know from experience on this blog that it's difficult to stay motivated when it doesn't seem like anyone cares. If I did make my own channel, it would either showcase my friends and me playing games (which would be entertaining indeed, and give me a chance to practice video editing), or it would be an informative channel for my WordLore page.

• EDIT: Warcraft III Easter eggs series kicked off!

12. Dungeons & Dragons Adventure - D&D has been my life for the past few years, and now that I feel like I finally have some experience under my belt, I really want to create and publish a full-length adventure on DMsGuild. I've got a lot of ideas for what I think would make the most fun setting and storyline for an adventure, most of them revolving around Zelda-style mechanics and storytelling elements. And with Inkarnate, Dungeondraft, and FlowScape (and hopefully, soon, HeroForge 2.0), I'll have all the elements I need for the creative process!