Chapter Four, Complete... Finally!

Whew, that was a long chapter... but yes, indeed, Chapter 4 of Strawberry Syrup is finally complete! At... 54 pages... yeesh.

If I'm being completely honest here, the chapter should have ended about twenty pages back, when Hunter was first turned into a chipmunk. However, at the time, I hadn't thumbnailed ahead and thought there would only be a few more pages after that.

... I don't remember WHY, exactly, I thought that, but I do remember that I did.

All this boils down to, basically, is that thumbnailing chapters in their entirety before even starting the final pages is a good thing, while just winging it is not exactly ideal.

Now, normally I'd be taking a break after the chapter end, but due to the hiatus, there's no way I'm taking any time off now. And fortunately, I don't have to! I'll admit, I haven't planned out all of Chapter 5 yet, but I have got a good chunk of it down, and I'll be working on the thumbnails long before I finish what I've currently got done.

Way better than winging it. ^_^;;

(And for those of you wondering what the heck I'm talking about, a "thumbnail" is a small, usually quick sketch of the comic page. They're generally much smaller than the finished page, and may consist entirely of stick figures. They're just meant to give the artist a good idea of layout and story flow. Personally, I prefer slightly more detailed thumbnails so I can make sure everything works well before I'm left stumped by a sudden issue on Tuesday night.)

One Full Month of Strawberry Syrup

Woot! Today marks one full month of Strawberry Syrup. While that may not seem like a big deal for a webcomic that's been running since 2007, 2011 has not been Strawberry Syrup-friendly. Between computer issues, health issues, and all sorts of other things, my poor webcomic spent months on hiatus. Therefore, I'm counting a full month of updates a victory.

Although we did learn something about the beloved Arcadia Sanguis High School today...



Their janitor's closet is huge. It is, as co-creator Koni put it, the TARDIS of janitorial closets.

They should probably look into that...

And Back Again!

So, 2011? So far, not a great year for my poor little blog. Or my comic, for that matter... but I'm back again!

Here's what I've been up to lately:

• Getting Strawberry Syrup back up and running. My readers had to sit through one heck of a long hiatus this year, but I finally buckled down and took my own advice to build up a buffer of pages before I ended the hiatus, so with any luck, they won't have to put up with another gap for quite some time.
• Working on a few new items for my Etsy shop. A few new boxes, a few new sketch journals... One out of four is currently listed, so those are slowly going up.
• Learning how to sew. My sister-in-law has been kind enough to show me how to use her spare machine, because we all know if I tried it on my own with no direction, it would end up imploding or catching on fire. In true Kit tradition, I'm not terribly interested in, oh, clothes. Nope, my thing is bags, pouches, and other items you can put things in. The fabric equivalent of boxes, if you will. Once I master the sewing machine (or, ya know, am reasonably capable of sewing a straight line), I plan on making little pouches with embroidery worth of hanging off any Renaissance Festival-goer's belt.
• Watching Blue Exorcist on Hulu. GREAT series. Right up my alley... especially considering I don't usually watch subbed. I was also watching Tiger and Bunny, but I need to catch up on that one. As for dubbed, it's all Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood on Cartoon Network. It's wrapping up, but it makes waiting a week between episodes sheer torture.

And that would be what I've been up to this summer. Hope your summers went well. ^^

How to Develop a Twitch

Step 1: Run an older version of Photoshop on Windows 7.

Step 2: Compulsively save your work after every action for fear of the dreaded "Illegal action/Not enough RAM/You just lost half an hour's work!" pop-up.

*headdesk*

It's not a big enough problem that I'm going to shell out hundreds of dollars for a newer version of Photoshop. For one thing, I actually really like the version I have. But it's random spazzing at inopportune moments? Yeah, that I could do without, especially when I have to restart my computer every time it happens.

Needless to say, there's a reason this week's page is going slower than I'd hoped. However, it WILL get done! *strikes a pose of DETERMINATION!*

Now, back to your regularly scheduled programming.

Behind Again

Man. Take a creature of habit out of its habitat for a few days, and watch its little life spiiiiiiral out of control. It doesn't help that Wimbledon's currently going on - whenever one of the tennis majors hit the screen, Kit's productivity takes a dive. The worst one is by far the Australian Open, when anyone in the States who wants to watch live tennis needs to stay up to greet the morning light. With Wimbledon, I just end up staying up late, watching Wimbledon Primetime on The Tennis Channel (yes, I am that much of a dork, and yes, I did watch the epic Isner/Mahut match).

In any case, I have yet to reign in my wildly fluctuating sense of the temporal, so that doesn't help. I suspect I'm in the middle of another CBP, which always puts a dent in my personal timetable. However, I am determined to have a comic page done this week. At the moment, it looks like it'll go up sometime tomorrow evening at the earliest, but at least it's started!

*listens to the slow, sarcastic clapping of a single person*

... Yeah. I'll just get back to work now. :D;;

Things That Make Me Go "Hee... ^_^"

It happens every now and then - say, slightly more often than once in a blue moon: I'll be surfing along through deviantArt, just checking out whatever catches my interest, and all of a sudden I'll come across something Strawberry Syrup-related. An icon, maybe - not TOO terribly surprising, since I've got a pre-made selection of SS Icons over in the Fun Stuff section of the site (although that reminds me... I need to get some of those up for the Dwayne fans out there). Always makes my day.

Well, yesterday, I came across two. And not just icon users. They've also got Strawberry Syrup plugs in their sigs. One's even got a link.

... Yeah. I'm still downright giddy. :D

Maybe it's different for webcomickers with bigger audiences and it's more commonplace to stumble across things. I don't know. But at last report, Strawberry Syrup's got about 90 steady visitors, so when I come across something related to the comic, it definitely still gets an "omgSQUEEEE!" reaction out of me.

Personally, I hope I never lose that reaction. I do, however, have to work not to exhibit my total dorkness by doing something like glomping them through their comment pages. ^^;; Yeah, cuz that wouldn't completely shatter any illusion of cool I've got going.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got to hunt down Koni, show her, and resume my Happy Dance of Squee.

Creative Collaborator? Wha?

Some people have wondered what, exactly, my partner for Strawberry Syrup does, considering I do the writing, the drawing, and the shading... Well, I assure you, she has a very important job: she's my creative collaborator.

Sounds like one of those fancy made-up terms, right? I suppose I could also call her my muse, but I've already got one of those, and it can get huffy about other people treading on its territory, so "creative collaborator" it is! When I get stuck on something, I turn to my dear creative collaborator and talk it through. We bounce ideas back and forth, expand on some and discard others, until not only do I know how to get past the current snag, but what is going to happen for the next two chapters.

That's what happened last week. After a convo with my CC, not only did I get through a minor snag, but the next few pages are thumbnailed and I am really looking forward to something coming up in the future (trust me, after three years of working on something, occasionally you need someone to rekindle that joy of creation and all).

Besides, that's the way the entire story of Strawberry Syrup started: a series of late night conversations between the two of us about why there are no half-vampires on the VAMPIRES' side. Ferdy just done raised his son right, y'all!

Granted, who knows what would have happened if Josie had done the raising... I shudder to think of it. Oo;

Ps238: The School for Metaprodigy

It's been awhile since I've really gotten into a webcomic (someone else's, anyway), but yesterday, I was cruising around that void in space-time known as TV Tropes, and I came across the trope page for lame superpowers. Hilarious stuff, there. Superheros with the power to change the color of things, summon pigeons, and even one poor soul saddled with the ability to remove his own arm and beat people with it.

In any case, there was a link there that led me to Aaron William's comic, Ps238, a fantastic webcomic about a secret public school (yeah, you read that right) devoted to the education of the children of superheros, magical beings, and kids who can tap into the cosmos. You can recognize who most of the superheros are based off of, but don't be fooled: this isn't just a spoof comic. Sure, there are plenty of inside jokes for the comic-savvy readers out there, but once it gets going, you've got a great cast of characters in a well-written storyline and some truly fantastic elements. I read through something like three years worth of comic in the past two days.

Fair warning: the first several pages are a series of "Public Service Announcements" and advertisements for the school. They may seem random, but they're used to introduce a few of the characters. The story picks up right after them. Had they gone on a few more, I probably would have stopped reading... and missed out on a great comic.

Rough Week

Oi. Last week was a rough one. One dental appointment for fillings, one doctor appointment to send me to a specialist, one specialist appointment to tell me I need minor surgery. Lots of fun... -_-;;

I'm not sure if I'll be doing the comic this week. My brother has suggested that I see if anyone's interested in doing guest comics, which while it's kinda short notice for THIS week, I think I may ask for them for when I go on hiatus at the end of the chapter. It could be fun! (ya know, assuming anyone's interested in doing it)

Anyways, that's pretty much the update on why there weren't any posts last week. Wheeee...

The Comic Process, Part II: The Lines

After the Thumbnail, it's time to put the actual page together. For you familiar with the Western comics way, it's the pencils and inks. Because there really isn't much of a difference in appearance between the two, I'm just going to show you the inked version:



As you can see, nice clean lines, dialogue bubbles in place, black shadows added... Basically, this is how the page looks before I export it into Photoshop for the shading. If this were a print comic, I'd do screen tones in Manga Studio, but since Strawberry Syrup is a webcomic, I prefer to work in solid grays, and I tend to find it easier to do in Photoshop.

That, and I resize and crop the pages a bit - much easier in Photoshop.

Anyways, pay special attention to the panel where Hunter's about to grab the shiny glowing doorknob. In the thumbnail, you'll notice that there were originally two panels there. I decided that I really only needed one. The emphasis is now on his hand, rather than the hand shot just being glossed over by the eye.

Next time: the finishing touches!

Insomnia

So every now and then, I go through periods where it takes me really long to fall asleep. It can last anywhere from a day or two to a week or two. I can be drop-dead tired... and I still don't fall asleep, which means still being awake at, oh, eight in the morning. Yeah, it doesn't exactly top my list of pleasant things. Tends to turn me into walking zombie. Depending on just how little sleep I've gotten, a cheerful bubbly yet none-too-bright zombie. Also have a tendency to ramble.

So I'm really kinda proud of myself for actually focusing long enough to get this week's page done, even if it was about as late as it could have been without being posted Thursday. Add to that, all the itty bitty issues that popped up with a new version of Manga Studio. Oh, nothing major, but everything from setting panel margin widths to exporting differences... definite test for someone with an insomnia-spurred attention deficiency. So definite feeling of victory there... even if I did completely forget to add the text to Dwayne's shirt.

Anyways. As far as the whole insomnia problem, we'll try the whole "little mental stimulation before bed" thing. Now, on to finishing this week's episode of Supernatural.

Manga Studio EX 4.0

Well, it finally arrived, and one thing is for sure: it's going to take quite a bit of poking around to figure everything out! Oh, sure, the basic set-up's the same, and all the regular tools seem to be in place, if not under the same icons, but there are a few key differences, like in how the stories are set up and a few of the finer points of the tools.

And there are quite a few new features for me to play with. I'm particularly excited about the color feature. Not that I'm expecting anything to rival Photoshop, but who knows? I might be pleasantly surprised. It should be interesting, at the very least.

The next page of Strawberry Syrup may still be done on the old laptop, though, if not the rest of Chapter 4. It depends on if MS 4 has problems with the story set-up of MS 3. We'll see how the poking around goes.

The Comic Process, Part I: The Thumbnail

Alright, so by now you're well aware that I have a weekly (heh, supposedly) webcomic, Strawberry Syrup. Here's how I come up with each page.

First up: the Thumbnail.

A thumbnail is basically a very quick sketch meant to help me figure out what elements I want on the page and where to put them. By 'very quick,' I mean no time spent on detail. Here's the thumbnail for Page 20 of Chapter 4:

As you can see, very quick, very sketchy, and not exactly an architectural blueprint here. There are three key things I need out of my thumbnails. 1) Where are the panels going? 2) Who's in each panel and what position are they in? 3) Where are the speech bubbles going? It doesn't take a whole lot of detail for me to tell any of those things, especially when most characters have some identifying characteristic. Dwayne's got his big ol' wizard's hat, Sammy's got glasses, Ferdy's got his cape... Not real hard to tell them apart.

Now, here's the important part: the thumbnail can change. They're not set in stone, and I'm allowed to change them, as you will see in Part II. By sketching it out nice and fast, I can see how it does or doesn't work, how another panel arrangement might work better, and what content might work better in each panel. If I weren't lazy or on a weekly schedule, I'd probably sketch out those variations, too, and pick which one looks best.

As it is, I thumbnail once, then wing it. Do not follow Kit's example there, kids. Ideally, you'll have each chapter thumbnailed well in advance. Trust me, it's easier that way.

Hello, March!

Well, the Olympics are over, snow is still on the ground, and it is officially the start of a new month. Time for this month's To Do List! In no particular order, here are my goals for March:

• Finish 2009's NaNo.


• Get Strawberry Syrup back on track.


• Get my hands on a copy of Rachel Caine's Midnight Alley. *shakes a fist at the local bookstores*


• Sit my butt down and actually update my Squidoo lenses.


• Add more stuff to my Zazzle shop.


• Get stuff sent out.


• Keep up with my writing routine.

I'm keeping it simple. Got a few minor goals to round out the major ones, and then a few "if Kit works really hard and the stars align" goals to aim for. I've already made a good start on that first one today. Why yes, there is a reason I spent a good chunk of the afternoon researching common town names, last names meanings, the native tree life of Michigan, and topics for high school essays on Hamlet.

More seriously, I have finally, finally cleared out the debris from that roadblock and moved into the actual writing phase again. Kinda sucks that I'm going to have to quit sometime tonight to get that next page of Strawberry Syrup started... I don't even want to think about how much my drawing skills have deteriorated after not using them for a month.

In an Editorial Mood

Followers of my webcomic, Strawberry Syrup, were disappointed this week: no page. There is a very good reason for this, of course; sometimes, real life steps in and demands my attention. (It's for reasons like that that a webmangaka needs to have a buffer built up, but, of course, easier said than done.)

Anyways, this particular slice of real life involves a short story I'm attempting to revise, rewrite, and polish up into something I can actually send out, and what I want to send it out for has a deadline of March 1st. Right now, I am focused on making the story flow, tightening up the prose, and getting it down to 25 pages without losing all personality. The story itself is one that I wrote five or six years ago, back when I was still an undergrad and had the writing prompt of, "Someone has a secret."

Me being me, I churned out a YA fantasy about a girl who finds a new reason to be afraid of the dark. While it was received well by the class, looking back at it I cringe at certain parts: the purple prose, the plot holes, the craft failures. But I liked the basic story, so I considered that original work a first draft and started rewriting it for my own enjoyment last summer. Not having an actual reason to really finish a YA story of that length, I ended up setting it aside before finishing the rewrite.

Well, now I have a reason, and Draft #2 has been finished. I'm now working on Draft #3, which will be the last draft before I send it out to my little circle of critiquers. Basically, the idea is to make it the best I can possibly make it, and then see how people say I can make it better.

If I don't run into any major snags or muse blockages, it should be done by this time next week. Here's hoping!

EPIC FAIL

Yeah, starting off the New Year was an epic fail in regards to Strawberry Syrup. This would be the first time I've missed an update due to something other than illness, uncooperative muse, or hiatus. Those of you who read Monday's post probably saw this coming: I missed this update because my hands and wrists protested the Soul Caliber IV marathon. Painfully.

Yeah, I'll be resisting the urge to draw anything until this weekend at the earliest.

So, since drawing is out of the question for the moment, I've been sifting through the internet's selection of children/YA magazines, looking for something I might be interested in submitting to. Most of the stories I write fall into the middle reader or young adult range. I'm not much of a short story writer and the only one I've found so far that accepts novellas is currently backlogged with accepted material, but we'll see if I can't come up with something.

Continuing with the whole writing idea, I'm going to set my NaNo 2009 aside for a bit. It's just dragging, and working on something shorter might actually help. Give the ideas a chance to percolate, return with a fresh eye, all that fun stuff so I don't feel like I'm slogging in circles through knee-high snow. Sometimes, taking a break is actually a good thing!

It's Official...

I'm sick. Got the antibiotics today to prove it. Hopefully, they'll help. As a note for future reference: no matter how much they say it'll help your sore throat, DO NOT gargle salt water if your lips are at all chapped. Ow. ><;;

On the bright side, I did manage to get a Christmas pic up for Strawberry Syrup before getting hit with Strep or whatever it is. It's not the best pic I've ever done, but hopefully it's kinda cute. Last year, I did Little Sammy's Christmas memories... this year, it's Hunter's turn!

Meanwhile, I'm contenting myself with the Ghost Hunters marathon and Facebook quizzes. Addictive little suckers... although it was a personal blow to my pride to only get a 75% on the "Can You Tell Anime Guys From Girls?" *sighs* I used to be so much better at that.

As for the "Which Mythical Beast Are You?", I'm chalking that little result up to my current circumstances, particularly the "tormented existence, part of you wants to die" bit... but that'll pass as soon as the antibiotics do their job. On a side note, I happen to prefer the werewolves who AREN'T consumed by torment and woe-is-me attitudes, which is probably why I like the Mercy Thompson series so much. No, being a werewolf isn't all furry romps through the woods, but they deal with it and move on with their lives. Minimal "I AM A MONSTER!" angst.

Alright, crawling back into my lozenge and Tylenol-lined cave now...

The Fugue Had A Purpose

And apparently, that purpose was fighting off a cold.

This week, the old immune system is making a valiant effort to stave off the onslaught of Cold and Flu Season. Fortunately, it's doing a good enough job that I'm just feeling off rather than downright miserable, but off is enough to make doing a decent comic page the equivalent of running a marathon barefoot. I'm not much for running barefoot on asphalt, so no comic page again this week.

I do feel bad when I skip weeks. I really do. I know I have readers, and that they actually enjoy the comic. But the fact that I DO have readers makes me really not want to scribble out some piece of crap that should never see the light of cyberspace and make them suffer through that.

Some people would say any page is better than no page. I disagree.

This is why I need a buffer. I sense a New Year's resolution in the making, there.

Oh Where, Oh Where Has My Brain Gone...

Eesh. I swear, this week, my brain hopped a flight to Tahiti and hasn't so much as sent a post card back.

It happens, from time to time. The old creative muse completely rebels, riles up the rest of the gray matter, and suddenly I've got a mutiny on my hands - or in my head, as the case may be. No matter how much I try to concentrate on what I need to do, Ye Olde Muse is bound and determined to fully immerse itself in frivolous fluff - sketches, doodles, writing that will never see the light of day...

It's a little like existing in a void where "out of sight, out of mind" is the going rule and if you don't keep a train of thought, it may well be gone forever. But for those things the Muse is interested in at the moment... well, when the Muse gets interested, it gets interested, and there's no room for negotiation. It's either draw or write it right now and get it out of my head, or suffer the consequences.

I like to call this a creative brain purge. Giving it a fancy name makes me feel like it actually serves a purpose... which it does. I guess it's the waking equivalent of dreaming for me. Dreaming, as my high school psych teacher fondly put it, is the same thing as flossing your brain. It gets out all the stuff wedged in the crevices, occasionally hurts a little, and leaves your brain better able to function when it's all said and done. These CBPs of mine seem to do the same thing, only since I don't do it every single night, they tend to show up out of the blue and dominate my life for a good week at a time. Forget continuing the story, doing a full finished picture, or turning out a post-worthy comic page: it's time for a CBP!

Which is why there is no comic page this week. No matter how hard I tried, the concentration just wasn't there. It's like trying to read a book while someone's pulling on your sleeve, going, "Hey! Hey! Hey! Look at that! Look over there! Hey!"

Yeah, not happening.

But, when it's over, I'll be able to concentrate again, and I might even have something to show for it. So, I am just going to ride it out and hope it's done by next week. Because really, I would like my brain back sometime before Christmas, thanks.

Two Out of Three Ain't Bad, Right?

Right now, I've got three things I'm working on simultaneously: my comic, my shop, and my NaNo. That's three different schedules to keep, and so far, I think I'm doing pretty good.

Schedule #1: NaNo. This one's pretty clear - write at least 1,667 words a day. For me, it's easier to keep track of pages, so I figure if I hit around six pages a day, I'll be good. More, and I'm doing great. This is definitely my most driving schedule - no days off, if I can help it. I've got 10,000 more words to go until I hit the goal for NaNo, but I'm hoping to keep it going until the book is actually finished.

Schedule #2: Strawberry Syrup. Doing a weekly webcomic takes a helluva lot of commitment. I really have no idea how people who do 2-3 updates a week manage it. For me, the ideal schedule goes something like thumbnail on Sunday, sketch and ink on Monday, finish it up on Tuesday, and post it promptly at midnight.

Okay, so this week, I was fifteen minutes late, but still, it's up, and I'm actually pretty pleased with this week's page. Yay, dark closet scenes!

Schedule #3: The shop. This schedule is a little more fluid. Since I'm still in the process of moving from CafePress, I'm trying to get one or two designs moved each week. After that, I'm hoping to add at least one new design a month. And then, there's the seasonal and holiday designs to keep in mind...

And that would be the one I'm a little behind on. Yep, still haven't got those holiday designs up. If everything goes well, I'll have the first of them up by this weekend, so I'm not too far off schedule there. All things considered, if one of my three has to be off, I'd rather it be the shop. Yes, yes, I know, they say the more you have up, the more you sell, but since I'm not exactly living off the income (and a good thing, too, since otherwise we'd have one dead Kit), it won't hurt to take my time.

Might as well enjoy it, right?