Not Simeon-related, but I'm still thinking of and working on Simeon. Gotta expect some side-tracking from the ADD, though!

I really hope to actually get a lot done this week. As the title suggests, Spring Break starts tomorrow (or depending how you look at it, it started Friday afternoon), and I'm using it as an excuse to advance some of my personal projects.

Unless I end up spending all my time playing Wii. Which is a very real danger. Damn you, Nintendo, keeping me entertained and distracted!

Okay, Ballad progress has hit a major snag.

I've had trouble finishing a particular scene in the script, and after reading through the archives of Jane Espenson's excellent blog about writing....which while aimed specifically at television, applies to a lot of different media.

Anyway, I've decided that I basically have to throw out most of what I've got now and start over from the beginning. The fact of the matter is, I wasn't sufficiently prepared before starting this thing, so this was probably inevitable. Now from my perspective, this isn't a postponement (since my workload isn't really going to change), but to anyone who would be reading it (all three of you who read my blog!), it'll probably be at least late February before the first issue is up.

And that's the state of Ballad. There are a few other things that have been on my mind lately relating to my creative projects, and I'll run through them really quickly now. Very few of you will care about the following bits, so I don't recommend reading unless you really care about my projects.

 

Firstly, I'm thinking of scrapping my veteren setting for stories, New Haven, in favor of the Kaguya setting I've used in my last few projects. At this point, there's really only one story still set on New Haven, and it could easily be adapted to Kaguya. New Haven has been my go-to setting since middle school, but the problem is that in a lot of ways, it shows. Taken as a whole, it looks like something a teenaged fan of fantasy would've come up with. Kaguya, at least, feels more like something a twenty-something would've come up with, and hopefully it's slightly more....actualized. This would not affect the Annwyn, alternate Earth, or Quantum Web settings.

I'm thinking of modernizing the Kaguya setting, at least a bit. "Vaguely medieval" fantasy is....I won't say that it's tapped out, but it is heavily saturated. Urban Fantasy is at least a little less so.

I've been thinking a bit about Taret Blade's story lately, and the nature of the Teyah. They're evolving into something between gypsies, Irish Travellers, and American colonial-period Native American cultures. I think I'm going to explore that path a little more. I introduced the Teyah as a subgroup of masterful craftsmen and users of rune magic, and that will continue to be one of their defining traits, though they will no longer be genetically gifted at it so much as practicing traditions that lend themselves well to the life of an artisan.

I'm afraid this blog post sounds way too wordy, maybe even more than I usually do. Sorry for that. Anyway, brain dumped: SAVE AND COMPILE.

I set out today, and said "Shadowtext, you're going to do some more character study thingies for Wanderlust, so you can launch it!" And I opened up Photoshop and laid Pen to Tablet....and it just didn't happen.

Today's picture is a little sketch of Dow, from Zero Run and Taret Blade. I don't think I've had any other sketches of him up yet on Shining Beam, and there's not really a lot to go into right now.

It's been a pretty good day. I got in bed early last night, so had plenty of sleep. This afternoon, I had lunch with my grandmother and cousins and played with my cousins' babies for a bit, and tomorrow I'm set to go to the Festival on the Green at UWF, so the weekend ahead looks pretty good. I would describe how good the food was, but that would make this a sandwich blog, and I still feel like that would be unforgivable. I realize this is pretty close to sandwich-blog stuff already, but I'm in a good mood, so whatever.

Also, I've added a "tags" feature to the blog. They appear above the blog posts and in the image view pages, and if you click them you can view all posts that include that subject. Note that "sketchbook" includes pretty much any entry with a sketch associated with it.

No Avatar review today because they didn't run the new episode today. T_T And I so looked forward to seeing King Bumi again.

I coulda sworn I updated Wednesday, but apparently not. Anyway, here's tonight's entry. Practically the same as yesterday's, and using the patented "Sketch Notes" system again.

I think today I'm going to let the sketch speak for itself, with my patented "Sketch Notes" system. So remember, if you ever use a similar system, you owe me royalties.

Today's is an attempt at designing the look of one of the classes for Taret Blade. The Umbrious people are a race or tribe of mages from the Dark Side of the world, who control shadows as living, amorphous things. The class I tried to get today was their "spellcaster" class, as opposed to their fighter class.

I'm not that pleased with the design, to be honest. The little symbols work, I think (they're sewn in with a glowing silk that a worm on the Dark Side spins), but the outfit itself just doesn't look magey. The cane, I think, is a nice touch--the Dark Side is a realm of perpetual night, and therefore the ones who live there are likely to contract rickets. And the sunglasses make sense because when they go to Light Side, they are likely to be dazzled by the sunlight.

Looks like stormy weather ahead. Anyway, today brings back an old character, Belegriath the necromancer. I've actually recently revised the Taret Blade storyline, and I'm actually quite proud of how it's working out at the moment. With Release Something Else coming up, I might have to do something more with Taret Blade, and that made me want to redesign the characters.