Saturday, April 30, 2011

The OC Game.

It was proposed by one of our newest crewmember, hopefully it will be fun for all.

Create an original character to be featured as a cameo in The Pirate Balthasar.

In short someone that would say a line, do something, say hello to mama... that kind of stuff. A new crewmember o someone the crew would meet when they land next time around.
It could be anything: male, female, adult, child, animal... if you come up with a good line it will be used as well.

Be creative and have fun.

I ask of you to follow just two simple rules:

1) Pick a realistic and not anachronistic look and name for your character (I have to research quite a bit for this comic XDDD);

2) Please stay in line with the story (meaning: if you pick a dragon I cannot really introduce a dragon in the story unless we are talking about Fickle dreaming of being a bigger lizard... XDDDD) I mean I can work with a lot of things, so you can make it pretty challenging, but let's not push it towards aliens or mythological beings, hahahaha.

We'll work on this for two months (until the end of June) that's more or less when we'll reach the second island in our story.

Have fuuuun!


Things not allowed:
1) Copyrighted materials that do not belong to you. (I don't want to go to prison ;_;)
2) Cross over with characters from other comics unless the author gives permission to use them. (I don't want to go to prison ;_;)


Things allowed:
1) Designing a character mentioned in the comic but never seen clearly before (somebody from the past, for example)
2) Description in writing form (if you don't know how to draw you can enter a description and a character bio).

The winner will have to undergo some minor changes, my apologies when this will happen, but you have to consider one thing: because I will have to draw them in the story... you know, ah, that's how I draw so I might not be good at keeping it the way you draw it and stay in style with your style, sorry! ^^"

Friday, April 29, 2011

Castalia - Fan Art

Alright, we have a new fan art today, by kamisaurus.

Here's the link to her Deviant Art page. Check her out and leave her some nice messages! ( she just started her own comic too - Obeah - on Smack Jeeves as well.)

I am also planning a new game about creating OC to be inserted in the comic as a cameo... before I make up my mind about rules you better come up with suggestions hahahaha otherwise I might go crazy over this and create some random monstruosity!





Thursday, April 28, 2011

Chapter 12 B - curiosities.

We have very little curiosities this week.
The first concerns lice on board, which were not so uncommon and quite a big threat to deal with.
Some of the oldest remedy saw, as a base for the cure, brimstone - none other than sulphur.
Everything else made with lard or other remedies came after the 1700.



Now a few things we need to know about head lice:
1) there are different kinds of lice: body, head and pubic lice.
2) they are specie specific: animals cannot spread lice to humans and vice versa.

Human lice, to survive, need human blood. Therefore, for those of you who were worried about Rose, do not fear! Rose is save!


What the doctor is talking about here is the concept of afterlife.
The concept of afterlife was very different for Jews than for Christians.
Christians would have very distinctive places called Heaven and Hell (then Purgatory was introduced and I think that it was recently removed again).

But because even Judaism is not all the same (just as there are many types of Christians in the wolrd) some of them would tell you that they don't know what happens to your soul after you die. Judaism concentrate more on the importance of the Earthly world... but in classical judaism there was this concept called "the world to come". In the Hebrew Bible this concept does not show though.

So what's after life? Maybe a big waiting room... but maybe they just don't know. The important is Here and Now. (Sorry if I simplify this too much, if you are interested in religion studies, please contact a University close to you that provides lectures on this kind of topic.)

As simple as that: Halvah is a Jewish dessert... but it's very common to the Middle East and there is a Greek version of it.

Even though the name is similar, they can be actually pretty different from Country to Country.

So maybe Kes is referring to her hope to get Pifo to make some Halvah for her... but maybe she is saying she will have a jewish delicacy after dinner!

Who knows? We'll see what happens next.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

The Pirate Balthasar - Chapter 12 B

Click on the title of the post to read it on Smack Jeeves or enjoy the flash version here.
14 new pages for the second part of chapter 12!
I hope you enjoy it and see you tomorrow with the curiosities :D

Il Pirata Baldassarre - Capitolo 12 B

Eccoci qui con la seconda parte del capitolo 12, prima di addentrarci in arcani riti di passaggio XDDD
14 paginette tutte per voi, buona lettura!

Ci sentiamo domani per le curiosities ^__^/!

Monday, April 25, 2011

Chapter 12 - Special

Ehi guys!
Did you overdose on chocolate eggs? Alright, I hope you enjoyed the Easter egg I prepared for you... now another little surprise for you... as Special surprise!

I don't know about you but I felt a little sorry for the aunties when they did not manage to "good boy" Kane. So let's see what happened behind the scenes:


Italiano:



English:



Don't forget to vote for the outfits! :D

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter everyone! Here is Artbook n.1 (I am preparing a n. 2 alredy) I hope you like it. These are illustrations you already, some of that come with a blabber and others don't.

I am going to put a copy for download in the right column on the blog right now.

Thank you all for reading The Pirate Balthasar, this is something I do for fun but if other people enjoys it too... hey, the more the merrier! :D

Italiani non mangiate troppo! hahahaahahha. Buona Pasqua.

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Happy Saturday.

Sometimes they drag me to weird meetings... and I don't understand what's going on (until the very end, when they summarize everything and finally seems to be speaking English again).

So I bring my sketchbook and my 4 copic markers, yes, that's why I work with limited palette lols... (I will buy more after I learn how to use them properly).

So here, out of the boredom of my heart (XD)
Castalia going meow meow to Kane.

In the meantime...

Thank you all for responding so quickly to the polls! :D

I'll see you tomorrow with the big Easter Egg.

Friday, April 22, 2011

Da Fashion game end and polls.

Alright people, it's time to end Da Fashion Game today.

Now, some of our games are always open and ongoing... but see these clothes here need to show in chapter 13, which is the first chapter of volume 4. I am only 10 pages away from the ones where I need to show the new clothes in colors... so it's about time we start voting!

I'll close the poll on the day where I actually sit down to color the splash one the actual comic page... I'd say in about 20 days. So you need to spread the word really fast to your friends and fellow readers so that we can have plenty of votes!

The important thing here is NOT picking a rendering... but a color scheme! Now some of these a colored in pencil so you need to think of a softer nuance of the same color, work a bit with your imagination.

Also because the drawings were left loose on purpose, the participants were able to modify the clothes a bit and be creative with their ideas.

And last, but not least, I will leave an option "other" open because sometimes we like the color of one set of clothes but then this person had this wonderful ideas about the shoes or the sleeves or the pants. So you can vote a combination of ideas.

So I hope we are clear, we are voting on: colors, creative ideas and/or a combination of them.

Here we go, have fun!

P.s. All the images are clickable and can be enlarged! :D

Another little painting

Hello mates.
Get ready the Artbook will be my Easter Egg for you.

I have also decided to prepare another special since I have a 3 days break and, although I have to work still, I would still have some time to prepare one.

This is another mini painting I did the other day. Again watercolor on canvas and pencil. I think they are lik 3x5 cm very small. So much fun to paint. Takes about 20 minutes or so (and that's because the watercolor needs to dry or it will bleed).

Have a Happy Easter and remember to vote for us! clicking on the icons to the right of the blog.

I am still accepting proposal for the illustrations... I received a few fun ones so far!

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Little painting and updates

This is a miniature canvas of a few centimeters in height and width.
The medium is watercolor (which is not the best one for canvas but it had an interesting reaction) and graphite pencil.

What you see is an actual photo... mhhh maybe I should take a picture in my office, where I have this thing now, because it's so cute and small.

Anyways, while I show you silly experiment and stuff... I might as well update you on other little things.



Games:
Both 25 expression challenge and Fashion Games are still open (not for long though as I plan to have the new clothes in chapter 13 so we'll open polls soon).

Real Beauty Contest:

175 votes for Westley (the first guy leading the competition)
173 for Foxy (the first guy leading the competition)
171 for the girls (there's a tie between the first and the second girl)
169 for Cat (the first guy leading the competition)
167 for Quoque (the first guy leading the competition)
166 for Kane (the first guy leading the competition)
122 for Martin (the first guy leading the competition)

Since the fashion game is ending I'll come up with a new poll soon... related to the new fan fiction/cross dressing theme.

About the fan fiction/cross dressing theme since we are almost done after Little Women...
You can propose any theme you like.
So far I had: the Count of Montecristo, Dante's Inferno, Contemporary clothing (everyday life), the Odylliad, Robin Hood, Shakespeare...
please feel free to propose more.

Only a few things I will not do: vampires (they scare me sh*tless) and elves and fairies because I had to draw them for way too long at work, please understand, it's worse than staring at the color pink 8 hours a day for 6 weeks hahahaha. My reoccurring dream was to pan fry Tinker Bell even though there was aviary going around... I've reach that kind of saturation XDDD.

Fairy Tales are ok.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Castalia Cutie Cubee

Okaaay! I am pretty sure I did not post this up yet.
So here we have Castalia in cubee form... we are reaching the end of this too.

Somebody proposed to have new paper dolls with the new outfit. What do you say? After I am done with the cubees! I have to say these come out pretty cute, once you put them together hahahaha.

So she has a spare piece in the fringe, remember to fold it down :D

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Pinocchio Kes

And that's the other fan art... Cassandra as Pinocchio with the Cat and the Fox. Okay they don't look too much like a cat and a fox just purple and green something with ears XDDD

Anyways I was just trying to play with some watercolor again. I think I like the way she turned out!

Definitely colors... real colors, with pigment and stuff... are sooo rich and bright! *_* I'll try again soon.

Monday, April 18, 2011

Water


Water by ~Dedasaur on deviantART

This is what Water looks like... it feels like... so amniotic, so silent.
I purposely decided to make it look very still, no bubble no water moving. XDDD
LOL

Anyway I hope you are not too lost with the new changes in the blog.
See you soon (I did some watercolor yesterday... even though I am not very good with watercolor).

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Fixing the keel

Alright mates, I am fixing the keel today, which means (and you might have noticed) that the blog is undergoing some changes.

Please don't be discouraged by the new looks... everything is still here! It's just that I cannot keep it all on one page, it can be pretty confusing.

1) I am adding new navigation buttons.
Hopefully this will help navigating through the site and things can be found in an easier way. The buttons are right at the top of the page, very visible.

2) A lot of stuff will move under the "treasure" section.
Now if you are a real pirate you can understand what I am talking about. Your fan fictions will go under the treasure section as well because they are my joy and my jewel. I will also add your fan arts because I think they are amazing! (I want to give you guys a better visibility).

3) The blog will look more like a blog and the comic will move in the "comic" section of the site.
Blogs usually have a type of content that moves fast and disappears in a couple of days.
I think by putting everything in a proper section I will reach my goal of keeping a safe and visible archive so that people doesn't have to look for things: games, fan arts, fan fictions, polls, avatars, banners.

Some things will be nested. I can be frustrating, but this always happens when the content of a website becomes truly huge. And this family is getting bigger and bigger by the day! :D Which is awesome... and I think it deserves a better treatment.
I have been scolded by superior beings for being so messy in my content and layout (and for duplicating contents).

I am adding more freebies here and am updating the galleries as well.

The Artbook will be available for download and browsing on the blog very soon.

Pride and Prejudice fan art.

Fuvpvife!!!

Due to the increasing popularity of Mr. Hunk and Pea I've decided to tackle the Pride and Prejudice fan art.

Why double the size? There are some differences... (but maybe it's too little and I would need to touch up the picture).

This is sooo much antique pink! LOL



Now what's left in our collection? Pinocchio and Little Women, right?

Isn't it about time we start picking new themes for this collection too? :D

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Air - final

Ah the tragedy... apparently the complexity or simplicity of a drawing is given by its size.
This one looks small and very thin... so Facebook does not like to upload it and cannot upload it and it has not been any luckier elsewhere too.

I wonder why people never clicks on the small images to make them larger either. XDDD

Anyways this is my final take on Air... I think that without frame it really looks more arioso and free and also there's nothing competing with them.


The following one will keep the same concept... frameless and irregular with pattern of the element in the background. I hope I'll be consistent. Ah... and what do you know.... Blogger does not read PNG with transparencies.... so check out the deviant art version.





Air final by ~Dedasaur on deviantART

Friday, April 15, 2011

Linearts in color

I am always happy to see some of you pick up some of my linearts and color them.... because I suck at coloring, honestly, things always come out blurry and soft.
I guess that's what you get for being one eyed (I'm a true pirate, should get an eyepacth for my blind eye XDD).

This masterpiece (some of you already saw on Facebook) is by Kanako91.
Please follow the link and go leave a nice message under her drawing on deviant art because she did a fantastic job coloring Balthasar and Andromeda.



As I was mentioning yesterday, some releases have shifted earlier and the blog will undergo a make over soon because the column are getting way too long and google does not like duplicate contents (even if it's on the same website and from the same author).

I am currently on page 26 of chapter 12 and drawing the next issue....

Tha panic ensues... I still have no idea of how I want the cover of volume four, with Lio, to look like. It should not be anything classic... any contemporary illustrator tickles your imagination?

Thursday, April 14, 2011

calendar updates shifting

Alright,
some updates have been moved around a bit, not after their original release date, but before.
I am restructuring the chapter and dividing it better... and this will shift some updates up in the month.
Originally there was only one update in April, now I have two releases. Happy? :D

Also the blog will undergo a little make-over.
Duplicate content is not appreciated by google so some link will have to turn into buttons soon.

The super gift!

I received a wonderful gift from my friend Noppakao, the other day.
She designed these little pirates for me (as you can see she is totally Disney material, not to mention she taught at Cal Arts!).

I was so blown away by these that I had to sit down with her and ask her for a little tutorials.

She can paint and draw with any kind of material (except for digital)... the difference to me, between digital and hands on coloring is always impressive. Being one eyed only, even the most beautifully rendered, the most tridimensional and sleek looking digital painting... will always look flat to me.

For some reason these pop out of the paper. Her values are super good! *_*

So she did this portrait of me, to show me how she does it... in 10 minutes. I've decided I want to make a t-shirt with this drawing.
So when I wear this clothes I will have a t-shirt of me wearing this clothes and it will be like an Inception... or better yet a meta-sculpture, on of those living pop art one! *_*

This looks like me more than any picture of me ever did! Hahahahahahah!





In the end I tried a little bit too and we ended up drawing cows.


So this is Holy Cow Rose Moo on top of a Noppacow, with umbrella.
I think the just the name of the piece deserves to see it displayed in a museum of contemporary art.
The name is a masterpiece in itself hahahahaha.


Anyway this only shows how I need to get better because I picked colors that were too dark to begin with and could not add too much light and shadows after that.

But she made me want to do things with my hands again. So I will be sitting in two classes next semester, with my students, as a student: Visual Development and Intro to Comic.
The semester starts on monday. I can't wait! :D

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Chapter 12 A - Curiosities

Cassandra and her mixed up language introduces the curiosities today.

When talking to the doctor she says that she needs to make clarity in her feelings. Usually clarity is used for ideas, not feelings. In the Italian version of the comic she uses a similar word which is "schiarisco" also used for ideas, not feelings.

Did you know? A lot of the concepts that are linked to emotions, passions, feelings and stuff that is heart related - in short "romantic" stuff - belongs to Romanticism and developed a lot from that era through the XIX century and the XX century. Very recent stuff.


Wait, Deda, are you saying that before that people did not fall in love? They did but starting from the fact that each culture and historical period lived love in a different way... love was not related to intimacy or emotions in a relationship for veeeery long time.
It was: spiritual, philosophical, religious... just look how complicated this wikipedia page is and how many external links it comes with.
A lot of things were born in contemporary societies... terms of endearment? XIX century mostly. Before that it was standard poetry, literary convention, words. Real life experience attached to it? Very little.

The other thing to take into consideration is that love was to be sought outside of marriage, especially for higher classes people.

At this point Cassandra is very confused. Emotions and Ideas are not different for her; her heart and her brain are the same thing: in fact everything resides just in one place.
Her dilemma is atrocious: she likes her husband a lot.

The wedding thingy was not there to get society approval (society approval is what she will seek for with her aunties and uncles while defending her choice for a husband)... the wedding was there so she could get in his pants (XD - because Wes is very traditional and likes to do things the traditional way, it's the XVII century guys, let's not question that! You'd be surprised to know how strict and traditional some pirates could be)... but they also had a private/personal rite, just for themselves and exchanged an everlasting promise.
That is something you want to clear your ideas about.

Getting an "I love you" from your husband, in public it's a big deal. By the way... somebody noticed that the kiss looked like Hayez'... mh, although the hand might be misleading I was actually trying to echo V-J Day! XDDD

Here this lady is forgetting her manners and showing skin.

It's the pirates' fault, clearly, she was more bashful at the beginning of the story, if you remember... or maybe she is just too passionate about her plea.

Skin is something you didn't get to see everyday. I'm afraid the poor Swiss Spearmen didn't see much of it either!





I talked about this topic once before... in this post about love and marriage in the XVII century.

Now it was about time we at least touched the topic in the comic itself.
Cassandra spills the beans: Wes was right the first time he spoke to her and called her a spinster (then rescued her from spinsterhood, how ironic could life be!).
I made up the name of the religious order... but of course it goes so well with the aunties' names! XD

I was actually a bit surprised to see people asking me: when did he say he was a Jew? (I guess Ivanhoe is not a popular read anymore. They should make a movie out of it, dang, it's a cool story! Go Sir Walter Scott!)

Probably the word used by Westley is only very common in Latin rooted languages (and yes, English is not Latin rooted but 75% of its lexicon comes from Latin languages <--- I am not making this up, you study it when you take "history of the English language" in college! XDDD) and I mistakenly took for granted that most people would know it.

Also, gentile is a tricky word and can be read as gentle if you read very fast. So sorry ^^"!

Gentile: means not Jew. (apparently it can also be applied to not Mormons, nowadays, but Joseph Smith came way after our storyline... so I applied it traditionally to Christians). I used this word once already as joke that was also a play on word, I don't know if you remember but it happened when Kes had fallen in the laundry tank.

Here, in short, he is saying that Jews are not allowed to marry Christian girls, and shouldn't even look at them! So she is not the one who scored big (by marrying a doctor) he's the one who got lucky!

Ain't that sweet! :D

P.s.
I would like to remind everybody that this woman is still part of the gossip society.

Sliding in to fill the aunties with bits of info about Kane is part of her evil (LOL) nature.


No, love doesn't change people it makes them happy (or sad) but their true colors will always shine through.
Remember my words when your best friend will be stolen away by a new love relationship... they were never your best friend to begin with! Muahaha ah sob sob sigh.
(even near death experience will only change your view on things but not your nature. The only thing that could change your nature is becoming a parent - and it usually works mostly on women because of the way pregnancy changes your chemical balance too).

Does this man take things personally or what?

Apply what he says to him, to his past and his life... his speech takes a whole new meaning.

Nothing can really save him from how trapped he is, I'm afraid, but a few things could ease his pain.


Wilson Kane is definitely not a happy person.


Martin. Do not underestimate the man.
He is very honest and straightforward but there might be a streak of sarcasm in what he says.
He is not a malicious person but let's get real... can you really become a captain of a ship if you are a complete idiot?

Judgmental, he is not. But he fights back in his own personal way.

At this point the display of generosity, falling on a girl who treated him like crap up until that moment... is a lesson of humility.
Pea must be feeling the weigh of the unfairness she inflicted... pretty heavily and it burns.

This blond man, who never thinks before he acts (that's what she says) is putting this lady like, devilish minded, Papadopulos to a test: if you are accomplished, you can fix them.
If she fixes them she will show that she is used to hard work (we are talking about sewing leather here) and that will surely not make her lady like at all. Pretty tricky, eh!
What will Pea do?

The Papadopulos looked back, all of them but Lio.
But first of all, the line quoted in the last caption is by Claude Debussy (translated and adapted like poop by yours truly ^^").



Lio is looking at the future: she is the kind of girl who's afraid of nothing because she knows she'll always find a way around things.
Castalia is waving bye bye: well, she couldn't wait to get out of her past, we know that!
Callista and Pifo have unresolved situations and feelings: acceptance is something they won't get from the past but it's still sad to leave for a future of acceptance thinking "why couldn't it work for the ones I loved?"
Kes and Pea are looking back at a past that could have led them to an unwanted future: they could have been like the aunties. You know out of all the girls these two are the ones who followed rules in order to get married and a "regular" life. Even if they are escaping toward a better chance they do feel sorry for the aunties. They never had any chance at all.

At this point Pea still does not spare a single thought for Martin and their relationship is still on a platonic level, actual she is indifferent and he is curious, but that's mostly it. But do look forward to their next meeting :D some things will be changed by then.

Some of you have noticed that aunt Defrauded was looking at somebody with pretty eyes at the end of this Independence War... look better, she did look at somebody once already in the earlier pages. Remember what I said about Independence Wars? (I said many things so I'll leave you to speculate on this emblematic sentence, now).
We'll see the aunties again... do look forward to the next encounter as well! ;D

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Il pirata Baldassarre - Capitolo 12 A

Evviva per l'inizio del nuovo capitolo!
Questo capitolo 12 è molto importante... segna il giro di boa per la nostra storia.

Oltre a chiudere il terzo volume conclude la guerra d'indipendenza iniziata nello scorso capitolo e porterĂ  a un po' di rivelazioni e a qualche rito di passaggio.
Buona lettura!

The Pirate Balthasar - Chapter 12 A

New chapter begins!
Hurray!

This chapter kind of marks the mid point for our story.
In fact we'll see an independence war, some rites of passages and a few... revelations!

Let's start with the end of the independence war.

As usual if you click on the title of the post it will take you to smackjeeves.
Enjoy!!!

Almost there...

The release is ready and almost ready to go up.

I see that some of you are having fun with the new linearts I'm uploading on Deviant Art (I'm asking permission to post them around because you are better than I am at coloring).

I am almost done with the artbook so expect it to pop up this week and will start a second one almost right away!

Stay tuned for more...


Updates on the games/contests!

The fashion game is still on! We have had a few submission but hope for more to come.
The 25 expression challenge is still open as a puzzle game of sort... and two people played the game.

Real Beauties updates:

168 votes for Westley (the first guy leading the competition)
166 for Foxy (the first guy leading the competition)
162 for Quoque (the first guy leading the competition)
162 for the girls (the first girl lead by one vote)
162 for Cat (the first guy leading the competition)
159 for Kane (the first guy leading the competition)
118 for Martin (the first guy leading the competition)

Monday, April 11, 2011

Elements : Air

Hello
I have decided to tackle the elements!

And I've decided to start with air...
Apparently a lot of webhosting and social network uploaders have a problem with tall and skinny drawing.
For example... this one, that I would like to be my final (once I fix the frame)... looks smaller than the older one at the bottom of this post but... it's only taller, the base it's the same.

Facebook refuses to upload it! It's too skinnyyyyy.... (what's this discrimination with skinny stuff?)

My first attempts were more or less like this.
I think they are too dark and hazy.













What do you think?

Sunday, April 10, 2011

new friends

Alright this is spam (but I am trying to see if the internet is finally back too) so: we have 701 friends now on smackjeeves! :D

Some release dates might shift.

It's very hard to do anything with internet today because my wifi is acting funky... it comes and goes and when it connects is super slow.
So I cannot manage to upload any picture.

Sorry, you'll have to do with written post today.


Last night while I was watching a thunderstorm in the distance I was struck by sudden enlightenment. No, I was not hit by it but it gave me such a scare that the sense of surprise and loss of security did not leave me for a while.

Then I thought: for the past two weeks I have been wondering by the final part of the Pirate Balthasar.
In structure I know exactly what it needs to happen but, even though I built toward the accident and storyboarded it... the plot is still forceful on the characters.
I don't like the plot to drive the characters, I like when stories work the other way around.

I thought and thought about it for so long... to the point that I decided to remove that part completely and come up with something different.

For some reason this morning I was browsing through my old portfolio... maybe to see if I could find a new idea in the old ones and I kept thinking about the thunderstorm: I had seen the light and was prepared for the thunder... still, when it came, it had an impact on me.

So bear with me. I found this drawing with one of the original endings, for some reason removed, of the original story and thought that it had that emotion.

The ending of the comic, now, will be different. I will reboard it soon so that I can fix the release dates... or maybe I can just fix them as I go, one week before for the next one...

If all goes well the ending will be like that scary thunder, let's hope I can pull it through.

Saturday, April 09, 2011

Another Quoque Fan Art

Remember this one?
Well, elianthos has produced a second version of it and this is the link to her Deviant Art page (as usual, please go visit her and leave her a niiiice comment).

Quoque has such a sweet expression in this drawing, by the way, we'll be seeing him and Pifo again very soon. I missed those kids!

Chapter 12, after the initial part, will close the volume mirroring chapter 8 (the beginning of the volume, if you remember, focused on almost everybody).

We'll see a little bit of everyone and something very important will happen to all of them now that they have finally declared their independence!

Friday, April 08, 2011

Fan art again!

As promised here's another of elianthos' most recent creations: kamasutra!
Hahahaha I know what you're thinking... no... this is actually a drawing that depict one of the scenes in her fan fiction (check out the fanfiction page to read it, it's super funny)... so if you want to know what's going on... you have to read the ficcy! Muahahahahahah!

I'm an evil pirate, I know...

anyways... only 4 more days to release, are you happy?

I feel so blessed, you guys always make such beautiful drawings *_*

Thursday, April 07, 2011

per i lettori italiani...

Non so se avete notato un nuovo bottoncino qui sulla destra --->
ci siamo iscritti a questo sito di webcomic italiano che funziona praticamente come
gli altri due internazionli, sono che in questo siamo giĂ  messi bene, in cinquantaseiesima posizione.

Questo qui, peraltro, dĂ  la possibilitĂ  di lasciare anche un piccolo commento! :D

Anzi dovrei dire *_* sbrill... faccio gli occhietti da cerbiatto implorante! hahahaha.

Release anticipated!

Yes I miscalculated my page (or better yet, I fixed the layout) so it's 12 not 13 pages... hence... the release will be out one day in advance.

My shallalas are happy, aren't they? XDDD

Before I update you on her other fan art (related to her fan fiction, "crackpot groupies" - by the way if you haven't read it... it's in the fan fiction page... truly hilarious!)... we need to give elianthos what rightfully belongs to elianthos', which is her primacy on drawing the shallalas ^^".

This was a DA Muro... attached to I cannot remember what message, nor can I remember the reason why I earned such a Muro XDDD and seriously... it scared me!

Look at those lips oooooh, O_O my auntie has those lips with the same exact lipstick... she would plant a kiss on my cheek and there would stay, lipstick and kiss, for years to come, like a tattoo of shame!
I don't know if her kissing with unforgiving bright pink lipstick was worse than her pinching... but my cheeks planned to run away and packed a suitcase every time they saw her. Her name is Rose, by the way.

Did you find some familiar images in this childhood memory of mine? LOL
I thought so!

Wednesday, April 06, 2011

Wallpaper chapter 12

Surpriiiise! LOL okay, some of you already saw this image... it's the cover of chapter 12.

I also have another surprise for you... check out the countdown up on the page... yes... update is anticipated by one day!

Of course this is the wallpaper from the cover... I will soon update the wallpaper page with the 2 new wallpapers (5 senses too).

I hope you like it.


Tuesday, April 05, 2011

Balthasar brothers... fan arts

okay, as promised here are elianthos' latests creations...
She is getting into the Balthasar brothers and has therefore produced: Josh and Quoque.


Here's the link to her deviant art page for Josh... please go visit and leaver he a nice message, she'll be happy.





This one, instead, is the link for Quoque.

I know that in the thumb he looks like he has green eyes (it's an after image effect thrown on the gray by the red of the pencil)... so you really need to go and click on the image to enlarge it and fully enjoy it!

Thank you again for sending me fan arts and fan fiction and playing to the games and most of all reading the comic! ^_X/

(send me moooore...)

Monday, April 04, 2011

Castalia Fan Art


Castalia by ~shylalee on deviantART

We have a nice new fan art, today... I wanted to keep it for the beginning of the week.
(I also have two more from elianthos in store and she sad she has more on their way too).

This is Castalia according to shylalee, who recently joined our group on Deviant Art.
Please visit her page and leave her nice comments.

Sunday, April 03, 2011

Hooking up

5th Fan Fictional concept - putting the cast of TPB in other stories.
Some of you already saw this on Deviant Art.

Kane as Peter Pan and Castalia as Wendy 11 (13%) was changed into Castalia as the Pan hooking up with hook!
(although the book is from the early 1900 I used the timeframe of the Pirate Balthasar, so he is wearing XVII century clothes... also she is wearing a dress made of leaves and spiderwebs - closer to the original description of the original Peter Pan)

I always rooted for Hook! ^^"... all my love shows here.

I got the starry sky here

The pixie dust... that's original Disney standard according to styleguide (old school though, right now, pixie dust rains down)! ^__^

tha Fashion Game: fifth entry with alternative.

SlipshodTiming has submitted today two entries!
Actually one of the she considers to be a scrap because Pea came out too pink.

I still want to show it to you because I actually don't mind how bright and pink she looks, since her color is cherry red.

So this one above it the official entry and the one below is the scrap.

Anyways, please click on her name at the top of the post and that link will take you to her Deviant Art page... leave her lots of messages, alright! :D

I am so very glad you guys are enjoying this game!

Saturday, April 02, 2011

Updates on updates

Remember this update? I am going to update you on that update.

Update on the poll.
The Real Beauty Game is still open... spread the word around to your friends, alright?

Since my last post this is what happened:

162 votes for Westley (the first guy leading the competition)
159 for Foxy (the first guy leading the competition)
159 for Quoque (the first guy leading the competition)
156 for the girls (the first girl lead by one vote)
155 for Cat (the first guy leading the competition)
152 for Kane (the first guy leading the competition)
113 for Martin (the first guy leading the competition)

I see a trend here... the first person leading the competition XDDDD.

Again there are also people who voted "others", who proposed alternatives that will be taken into consideration as soon as this poll closes. (I am going to give you guys some more time to have fun with this).

-------------------

Update on the themes proposed.

I've received a lot of suggestions... *_*

1) 5 senses (already produced)
2) costume party (we could probably used linked to the set of new fan art, as soon as I am done with the old one) sounds like a lot of fun.
3) Placing the characters into movies.
4) Pregnancy.
5) We haven't seen Foxy and Cat's cabin so it was suggested that I might show that.
6) The five elements (this one is quite cool too) btw Chiya if we use the Chinese elements... wood would be the 5th one - that's cool.
7) 7 deadly sins (I was actually contemplating this theme next... we need 7 couples... guess what? We have 7 couples LOL) but this one might be huuuuge. So I need time to plan it.
8) The characters as kids... I wanted to do this for very long time I had started with Kane but the complexity of the thing I had planned was too much for my poor rendering skills and it completely blew in my face. I'll think of something simpler... to do with pencil and little rendering. I'll definitely want to tackle this again (octopus I shall tame you).
9) Favorite food.
10) a big party (this will actually come in the story, you have to see pirates party XDD)
11) Cross over with other pirates (would bring me enemies I'm afraid)
12) Something with fireflies.
13) Durian (ehi, no fair, I wanted to do a fanfic with that)

and I am sure I am missing some suggestions that also came afterwards... but feel free to drop some more.

Too much text already! I stop here.


Tha Fashion Game: fourth entry

We have a fourth entry for the fashion game...
this one belongs to narusasuchan (check her Deviant Art account).

This game is getting more and more fun, isn't it?
Hopefully she'll be putting this on Deviant Art too so that we can all leave comments under her work!
Edit: here's the direct link to the DA page, please leave her a comment.

Send me more.... I love to see how many different takes there are! *_*

Friday, April 01, 2011

Chapter 11 final curiosities.

I am not really going to explain any curiosities this week (except maybe that Lio was skipping and not running and that the chase scene was timed to this piece of music here).

What you are seeing in this release is the first stand before an Independence War.
The first step toward independence is taken when you say "no" instead of "yes" to something that's been told to you (and you don't agree with).
Of course, there are many things to be taken into consideration, including will I be better and did I see this from every possible point of view.... but once you choose it's your choice and you will live with it for the rest of your life.

So apparently for Lio and Calli the choice is pretty simple. Didn't even have to think about it.
Lio has someone who loves her, now...

You can't beat that. Not to mention she can work close to a doctor and is learning so many things she likes.

She is also not being judged for her "frivolous" behavior as Kane refused to find a solution to what he deems not to be a problem... but let the girls talk about it amongst themselves and find a solution to what they deemed to be a problem.

Callista... she has feet she can run with, now... comfy shoes... and she has a voice to express her opinion.
She definitely decides to use them both.

Saying "no" and running away are the same thing to her.

The doctor never had a single doubt about where his heart was and where he should be standing... he never had a single doubt about where he wanted Cassandra to be (on his shoulder, apparently LOL).



All of this is going to explode in Pea's hands unexpectedly and it will have an impact on her life... but because she forced people to do what she said, before, she now has to be put in their shoes to be able to understand what she did wrong, don't you think?
So that's what will happen next, for her.

But one more thing I have to say about Independence Wars: they are a bit long and have to be fought on multiple sides... they also have representative figures and they spread to others fast and easily.

In our case we'll have to deal with Kes and the Aunties an little longer in the next chapter (13 more pages), in order to fight against every single thing we need to fight against: what they think about life, marriage, love and status... in short is a small battle girl vs. society.
Kes would be the reluctant Robespierre of the situation, who could have guessed, and the things she will say will leave an impression... and their echo will last very long.