Hats and Cloaks

Sorry for the day late update folks! Yesterday was so busy that I didn't manage to get it done in the time slot I wanted to and so had to push it back to today! :)

The last week has found me making films for college projects. Kathryn and I (plus some friends) spent the entire of last Saturday in the rain attempting to film for my Final Major Project at college. I haven't directed anything like that before so it was quite interesting to see what it's like! 

Stressful. lol 

Anyway, this means that the time I've usually spent on at least trying to write Heartstones had done right the way down so I don't think this weeks writing progress has gotten quite as far as it could of done. Never the less, I did manage to get a little bit down and I think it's one of the best bits I've written for it so far. 

Kathryn stated that the characters were just so much more developed now we've started all over again and she's right. They really are. I don't stop and look at the page anymore wondering what the character "should" say next, I just know. And that's because we've gone through all this development the last year a half. 

We also mused over what Jacks opening outfit should be and Kathryn drew him with a top hat and cloak. :) It grew on me and now I really love the first design of him, course, I suspect the top hat may well get lost somewhere along the way once they encounter these....




And then of course I decided that Jack should also have gloves and he's wound up looking ever the victorian gentlemen that were in fashion at the time and everything that he should be. :) But once he encounters the Shadows (see above) then I suspect the hat and gloves may well get forgotten about...

So yes, once again, we've had a lot of designs (again! :) It's very fun!) and a little bit of writing (which again was very fun!).

Speaking of which, I'm going to do a bit more now. :) I'm nearly 20 pages in and it's time for Henry to be introuduced! Why do I think this is going to be rather funny?

Arty Stuff

This week, I've been busy with college mainly. We didn't spend another tutor lesson trying to choose a font for the header. Instead this week (although granted this wasn't in tutor!) we used a break to try and design the new header. I love the header we've got, but Kathryn doesn't feel satisfied with it and her drawing style has changed so much since we did that little header. So we're changing it and designing another one when we next go out hopefully.

I think the next few weeks are going to be a bit weird, we're finishing college (our second year!) in the next few months and work and projects will be coming to a close. Soon enough we'll be saying goodbye to people we've gotten close to and I think it's going to be quite an emotional time for the both of us.

I'm sure we'll pull through though. :)

Another thing that's drawing to a close is the writing on Heartstones. I've properly planned everything out now. I know the plot points, I know what's going to happen in each volume so it's just a matter of sitting down and writing it. I know it seems like I've still got a lot to do, but when you've really only got about six months left of the writing process left (because I want to have it finished by September!)and have spend the last year a bit getting to this stage, it's not very long at all.

And then once the writing is finished and the scripts are finalised it's Kathryns turn. She'll do the art for it and take it over. :) I'll soon be running to my emails every week to see what the art work is going to be for the newest page!

I can't wait to see that. It's one thing creating a world, creating a story and characters and spending the majority of your free time (or not so free time :P) thinking and planning it. But from an authors point of view, because I am an author with this thing I suppose!, there's something about seeing the pieces of your world and story being brought to life by these drawings that I love. I know Kathryn will do well with it, even if she doesn't believe it herself.

I just hope the story does her art justice.

Header Designs

The weekly Heartstone activities this week consisted of Kathryn and I sitting at my computer on photoshop for a good hour and a half and debating over which fonts we didn't and did like for the Header.

Kathryn, apprantly thinks the cheekbone on one of the characters is too big, to which I replied: "Well it looks fine to me!"

It was rather funny, especially afterwards when our teacher then told us (because we were in the middle of class ;P) that we sounded just like him and his friend. I suppose we must have been quite loud now I think about it, there was only four people in the room that afternoon because everyone else had another class they needed to be at.

There were many different fonts that we went through. But then photoshop does have a lot of them! And by the end of it, we still couldn't decide which font we liked the best. But once we'd narrowed it down, we realised that:

1. The original font that we both liked didn't go with the header.

2. One of the fonts (which we both happened to like the best) just happened to be the same one that another webcomic used. A very popular webcomic for that matter, so we decided against it.

3. The same font that was used for another webcomic is the same one as the font used for Final Fantasy... which we then saw on a bus as we walked out of college! It was very amusing.

4. None of the colours we tried, would work. The goldy yellow merged itself into the background, the blue was too light, the darker blue was too dark, the black didn't look right and by the time we'd gotten through that it was time to leave.

I think Kathryn wants to redesign the header. Maybe then we'll think of a colour scheme, until then though I'm happy to stick with the one we've got.

I rather like it despite Jack having a supposedly too big cheek.

Us creative s, never satisfied eh? Which reminds me, I need to go and change a bit of dialogue in Heartstones.

That's something I'm not satisfied with!

Header up

I'm very pleased to say that I've managed to get the header up, it's driving me mad that the font is grey and can barely be seen though!

My IT skills haven't quite gotten that far just yet, it's rather annoying.

But then I suppose that's all a big learning curve. Teaching myself to write a graphic novel is a big learning curve (and I'm probably doing a lot of it wrong!) but along side that there's artists to consider (well Kathryn to consider, and once again she's taught me a lot about Art! I find myself now looking at people and thinking "ohhh they have 10 whatever between they're eyes!") And then there's the website, which if anyone has been following this from the start will know the three week struggle to get the header up on the actual website.

So yes, not only am I investing a lot of my time on writing a graphic novel, I'm also learning a lot about codes and htmls and websites!

thank goodness I passed that IT exam! It's almost as if all these little codes was helping me.

Maybe.

Jack and Riley's pillow... problem.

AN: This was written as a small fun scene within my notebook on a bus after college. It really does bring out the nature of Jack and Rileys relationship... I wouldn't say they were the best of friends!

Page one:

Panel 1: Long/wide shot. Jack and Riley fast asleep on the floor of a tent. They’re sharing a pillow and blanket, Jack looking as if he was taking up the majority of the pillow.

Panel 2: Close up (on Riley). He’s staring at Jack with one eye open.

Panel 3: Mid shot. Riley sitting up, watching Jack who’s now wrapping his arms round the majority of the pillow and is snoring away.

Panel 4: Close/Mid shot. Riley pulling the pillow back towards himself.

Panel 5: Riley holding onto one side of the pillow, trying to pull it more towards him. Jack (still asleep) is holding onto the other gripping it hard.

RILEY THOUGHT BUBBLE: I WISH HE WASN’T SUCH A HEAVY SLEEPER!

Panel 6: Close up on Jacks eye open wide.

SFX: SHRIINKKKK

Page Two:

Splashpage: Riley, now standing up holding a fencing sword out towards Jack. Jack, sitting up, looking rather eye wide/dishevelled/shocked/bemused.

TO BE CONTINUED.

(AN: MWHAHAHAHA! :P)

More Costume Designs

This week, we chose Eliza's first outfit and designed it more. Well Kathryn designed it, I was going slightly hyper at the time and looking at a film I helped out on last weekend.... I think.

That may have been Monday, I can't even remember.

Anyway! So Eliza now has a very modern outfit and it suits her! :D She also has a costume change for as the story goes on, and as Kathryn and I both refused to put her in a dress we decided on a look that would still be Victorian, yet it's still Eliza all over too. I may have shown a picture of that last week, but it's been a busy week since last friday so there may be a slight continuity error here! :P

Can you tell I'm a bit tired?

So that's what this week has consisted off. :) Costume designing! And there may even be more when I see Kathryn later on today, all depends on a few things I suppose. :)

Another thing we did, which was a half joke/half serious thing was give Jack stubble. In the storyline they travel quite a lot and I suddenly realised that Jack was going through months of travelling without having any kind of stubble. Riley already has a bit of stubble so he's completely different, so to give the story a little bit more of a realistic touch I've decided that we're giving him stubble.

I've just got to work out where exactly he might get it! I think it may have to be after they lose a bag or something. I'm just guessing the audience will presume he's not got anymore razors when he starts getting a bit more stubble. :P

I have a feeling this may be another thing Kathryn and I have a good debate about. Where exactly he'd get the stubble! 0_o Being a girl is really not handy when it comes to knowing how long it takes beards to grow... it'd be very handy if I lived with a man! So friends who are boys are getting the beard questions... loll.... well they already have. :P

I'm about to go off and do more of the script in a moment and then send it off to Kathryn. I'm looking forward to seeing what she says about it and whether she has any alterations for it. :P

It's her job to watch out for continuity errors this time around! :P