Wednesday, November 30, 2011

What if...?

Stories usually come from simple ideas, from a simple question that goes like this: "What if....?"

- What if everybody in the World decides to stomp the foot on the ground at the same time?

- What if sharks learned how to fly and started flying around cities?

- What if zombies decided to turn a leaf, became vegetarians and that improved their intelligence to the point they became politicians and stuff?


So before you even think of a character and a story there are a few things you want to think about: thesis, theme and what ifs.

Let's talk about What ifs now.

Storytelling starts from observation and understanding. Life is a story in itself and it is very very interesting, you just have to stop and listen to it.
You have to be: aware of your surroundings, curious and you have to question stuff all the time. Be observant and detached.

A lot of people will tell you that injecting yourselves and your personal experience in your story is wrong, that you shouldn't do that. That depends on how you do it. 
This is something I've heard only in recent times because back in the days, if you were to take a creative writing class, the first thing they taught you was: write about the things you know.


So I have a feeling that these DONTS are just noobs' trend that sprouted around the internet, more of an opinion rather than a fact. I often read and giggle about sentences like: this is good idea and this is a bad idea... coming from people with no authority in the fields. So be careful who you ask your opinion to.

There are no such things as good or bad ideas. Ideas are ideas. It's how you develop them that makes them good or bad.


You cannot talk about yourselves turning your character into a "heroic you without defects" and letting him win all the time... that is wishful thinking. If you think that in that situation you would kick ass, you are not being honest about it and clearly you have never been in that situation.


I remember Osamu Tezuka talking about this point in one of the chapter of Boku no Songoku. He was making fan of his character, Sanzou, for always acting like a coward saying: what a whiner. Then the character turned against him, drop him in the comic, forced him to take his place and, as it turned out, Osamu Tezuka was even more of a coward than Sanzou and ended up apologizing to him.

You have to know yourselves and be honest about it, your faults are far more interesting than your talents. Maybe those are the things you want to inject in your stories.

Quite frankly I think that people always have interesting things to say, and so even when they talk about themselves, their ordinary, everyday, normal little selves... masterpieces are born: Blankets, Portugal, Mom's Cancer, Mauss... LMDV. I could go on for ever. They are gorgeous!

Your what ifs are always born from the things you observe and how your curiosity reacts to them. If you are standing in a white room and you think it's a boring room a what if about color might kick in: what if walls that change colors according to people's mood were invented? What kind of complications might that arise?

They also sprout from your fears. The flying shark idea... that's where it comes from: I am might afraid of sharks. If they were to fly... leaving the house would become quite troublesome... or funny.

So go in the World, observe, ask yourselves question and put down a list of what ifs... you can use more than one in your story. You can use one per character and you can even solve a what if and move onto a second one (that works if you have a serialization going).

But do start from simple questions and write them all down. Ideas are ideas, cannot be copyrighted and a lot of people think about the same ideas simply because we are groomed and molded in the same society.

It's how you develop your ideas that will make you different from others. This is when theme and thesis kick in. I'll talk about them in the next posts.








Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Christmas greetings on their way

Just so you know, together with the calendar, I am also working on the Christmas greetings.

I am trying to see if I can do like last year, that every day, until Christmas, for the month of december... I give you one present.

I will also make the paper dolls requested, not all of them for Christmas. I was thinking about creating a Pea dolls with joints and give her little set of Christmas Princess-like clothes. What do you think?
You can use her as a decoration.

Monday, November 28, 2011

Know your story.


What's a story?
A Story is something with a Beginning, a Middle and an End. As simple as that.
Your story has to start, go somewhere and then find its way towards the ending. It might seem logic but try and ask this very same question to anybody you know and almost nobody will come up with this answer.
Because it's simple, it's straightforward and it's a bit obvious.

But clearly that is also what a story need: it needs to be simple, linear and obvious.... but don't take this words literally.

Simple is best, linear means you need structure and obvious simply means that everything must be clear enough for everybody to understand, without a reasonable doubt, without interpretations of sort, without way outs.

What are the main elements you need in a story?
You need a character, his environment, you need his dream, a conflict and rising action and then a resolution and then...

No, let me summarize this better. A story needs these elements: D + D + D.

Or to say it better: a Dude with a Dilemma and how he Deals with it.

A Dude is a Character.
The Dilemma is a Conflict.
And how he Deals with it is all the series of Rising Complications that would lead him to the Final Resolution.


A story can be moved by two things: plot and character.
Plot drive stories can be quite tricky and may lead inexperienced writers to character betrayal.
Character driven stories, if not dealt with properly, can lie flat and never go anywhere.

Plot is the series of events that move the story forwards, carrying the character along for a crazy ride.
It needs a good amount of cause and effects.

There can be stories with very little plot but there can never be a story without characters. 

It is one of the reason why a character driven story is to be preferred to the plot driven one. You can have a cool plot and mess up the character, then nobody will believe you... but you can have a cool character keeping together chaotic elements and people will follow you in the ride (let's not forget that most movies have very simple, linear plots and are held together by the charisma of the protagonist).

If you really want to know your story you have to know your character.
Know your character and he/she will move the story forward for you.

Know your character and you shall also know your story. 

Index

Volume 4 and chapter 16 for download

Volume 4 and Chapter 16 are ready for download in the blog.
Chapter 16 is in the download section (the one called plunder) and Volume 4 is in the home of the blog, right column.

As you can see calendar 2011 has also been removed to make room for the new one, coming up soon.

From now on I will make a series of posts that are more technical... about how I approach storytelling and why I am pacing things as they are and other things about the construction of a story.
Of course if I were to receive more Voice entry I would post them.

After being so busy I am entering a talkative phase and feel the need to share a bit of behind the scene now that the story enters its final arc.

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Why ♥ your Sketchbook!




Today you get the very uninteresting post.
But sometimes I still get questions about how I do this and that.

My answer always start with: first of all you need space, a messy one!
The only thing this picture is missing is my green mug with coffee in it.

It is very important to keep sketchbook. Having scraps of papers and drawing flying around always results in two things: loss/damage of the piece; inability to place them in time and space (that is determine when you drew that and put your art in chronological order).

Proper storage of ideas is the other most fundamental reason to keep a proper sketchbook.
So let's say for example it's 1989 and you come up  with a story about pirates... you write different versions then you store them away and move onto different things, you end up working abroad, in big studios... then one day you find the original story and thing: I do now have a thesis and themes I want to talk about that could apply to this story.

A stored idea is never thrown away, it is simply store. If your idea does not work now that doesn't mean you have to throw it away... it means you will be able to tell the story in the future. But for now, if simply isn't going anywhere, you have to put it in the attic and move onto a different topic. 20 years of professional experience will do the rest.

I have... 25 sketchbooks, more or less that span from 1999 to today. Before that I had flying pieces of paper and it's hard to find them.


I keep sketchbooks of different sizes because I like to carry them around with me.
For instance, currently, I have two small sizes sketchbooks: one has good paper in it, for watercolor, the other one is for sketching.

Yesterday I went out to do some Christmas shopping and I stop at the Toast Box for an afternoon break. That's where I sat down and drew the final 3 drawings for the 2012 calendar.

Now about the calendar drawings... you can see that I sketch them first in blue or green non-photo blue pencil. Then go over it with 2b graphite.

That's because after that I would photocopy the drawing and the constructions green/blue pencil line disappear (that's why they are called non photo pencils).


After that I go over the photocopy with a ball point pen to darken and thicken the outlines.
Creating a variation of thick and thin that makes the whole thing more appealing.


Then I make a second photocopy (putting more than one drawing in the same page) and I color that one with copic markers and ciao markers (I like the brush like tip, it allows me to do gradation and and give a painterly quality to some of my surfaces).




After that I use Derwent colorusoft to render on top of the markers.
Unfortunately the scanned drawings don't look anything like the originals. That's because scanners are reflective and they tend to bend the colors.

That's why I think I'll use the photostudio in school to take photos of the finished illustration to use them in the calendar.


Eventually all the processes are cut out and glued into my sketchbook. Now this current sketchbook is made of very expensive paper.
I don't just glue on white pages, I glue on the ones that have unsuccessful drawings on them or are stained by the markers.

It is useless to keep unsuccessful drawings, beside one should never completely fall in love with a drawing, otherwise where does the room for improvement go?

At times I also glue other things in my sketchbook, like tickets and stuff. They help me place the sketchbook in time, tell me how long it spans, visually (even though I write a date at the beginning to remember when I started... my relationship with number is not good. I do have more of an eidetic memory, rather than a photographic memory, but I need a trigger to help me recollect things faster:  let's say that colored pieces of paper do the trick for me much faster... so that, not only I remember things, but I remember flavors and smells in a split second).

Artists must never underestimate the importance of the use of all the 5 senses. If you only draw for the eyes you are loosing an important slice of your audience and you are transmitting less.

When you draw you must see, feel, smell, hear, taste all in one piece. You have to find a way, through color and poses, to convey all the five sense. Only then would your art come to life.

Here are some more example of my sketchbook pages. The ice-cream spoon is grom Grom, september 24th, Piazza di Spagna, Rome. Salty caramel flavor. Mhhhh... so good!


Saturday, November 26, 2011

Aar the somali pirate

Since we are entering the final stages of our regular stories I am already beginning to plan what comes up next.

In one of her adventures Castalia will find a new friend, a Somali man named Aar (whom she calls Hey). He will be taller and bigger than Kane and the first African pirate in the crew - with all the left handed compliments that might come with his arrival, making fun of Cat who is the longer the tanner pirate on board.

This was my initial idea but I have been evolving a bit from this. I do not want the typical, stereotypical, bulky "black servant" you see in old comics (like Man Drake's servant for example). He still has to be close enough to the Arabian world to reach our environment.
He shall be wearing something like a saarong which will also trigger many jokes and fun accidents.

Friday, November 25, 2011

Happy Turkey Doomsday.

While turkeys all over U.s. tell us: we have nothing to thankful for.
Us pirate say: happy turkey doomsday, folk!

I do so miss pumpkin pie.

---------

Unfortunately here, today, there is nothing to thank for, it was a tough week and it couldn't have ended in a worse way.
As if the weather knew, the sky is dark and rain falls down like tears.
I will leave the blog silent and empty, today.

I just want to tell you guys that even when times seem rough there are always things worth living for - I've been through that, I've survived it and I can honestly tell you: it does get better, you do get stronger... and that if you need to talk there are people ready to listen to you. People who care. So talk, don't decide all by yourselves. Talk.

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Calendar polls closed

This is another Noppakao, or should I say Noppacow! A fan art of Rose by my mentor Noppy.










The polls for the calendar are closed, results:

(landscape) horizontal for the desk
15 (51%)
(portrait) vertical for the wall
12 (41%)
with the illustration on the calendar
16 (55%)
illustration and calendar should be separated
6 (20%)


Only 29 people voted I guess that's how many I a working for! XDD Anyways the calendar is into its 7th month and will be a desk calendar with the illustration on the calendar.
Just for the heck of it I will make a posterlike one with the calendar in the middle and the illustrations to the side... because some people wanted to hang stuff on the walls.

So I've asked if you wanted anything for Christmas... and it seems like you have everything... gosh, so hard to give presents to people who already have everything...

so here is my proposal:

- maybe I could design for you Christmas decorations.
- maybe I could design for you a paper Christmas stocking to hang on the wall so that pirate Santa can bring you pirate presents.

Talk now or for ever hold you peace and I shall draw whatever comes to my pirate mind!


Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Cat's voice: second entry.

We have another entry for Cat's voice:



Fraxinus says: "I think Cat would sound like the guy in this video. (the character Ari Haswari from NCIS) Kind of deep and dark."

What do you think? Are we getting closer?

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

What would you like for Christmas

This is the last one I have done so far for the parchment sketches.

I had a few more in mind but I have to slow down a bit because of the calendar (of which I only have 4 months ready).

I wanted to show you the colored version of the drawing in use for the calendar but then I told myself: what about the surprise?

At this moment though, since I always believe that Christmas presents should always be one surprise and one thing you always wanted, are there any other things you would like to receive?

I don't think you want to build more of those bouncy calendars, do you?
Shall we go with Christmas illustrations again? *_*

Monday, November 21, 2011

Super duper fan art

Monday is an infernal day, but particularly today (and the whole week) was very busy since I am conducting also elective classes for secondary school students (who might be interested in coming to my school).

Luckily my mentor, Noppy, send me the super duper fan art she had started on last week. It's a mix of markers, acrylics and colored pencil. It's quite big too.

So this is Cassandra according to Nopp (if you click on the title of the post you can see more of her doodles in her personal blog - I was recently teaching her illustrator so that she could do flash animation).

You know... whenever we sit down to draw together... it feels like being back in the Studios. It was a tough life but it feels so nice to be inspired by your peers! So we always try to push each other in such a way that we never stop producing! :D

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Volume 5 Front Cover

So as you know volume 4 has ended, with Foxy on the back cover and now it's time to post the cover for volume 5.

I have 4 different alternatives and I currently torn between the last two.
One breathes more but the other one helps the figure stand out better.

Maybe I should have "variant" edition! ha haha













I've had this Klimt inspired cover in mind for Pea since the very beginning.
The pose kinda stuck with me (I used a similar one for "air").
It's one of those images you see and can't quite get rid of until you materialize them.
So here it is.


Second Drunk Duck Awards!

The news of this award came on release date and even though it's the coolest news ever I am not the type to disrupt a routine!


So Release and curiosities come first. Nevertheless I have the whole weekend now to properly announce it and link to bravo1102 who is the creator of the presentation and give proper thanks to those who proposed and voted for Wes and Kes.





The Drunk Duck Awards are now over. We come back home taking 2 with us, which is precious loot considering that The Pirate Balthasar is a very young series and I am not that active in that community either. (plus I update at very odd hours which does not help the visibility of the comic either).





So thank you Drunk Duck! Thank you everybody, it was a wonderful year 2011!

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Chapter 16 end curiosities

Quite the silly curiosities today.

Castalia is reading without glasses? Remember, she uses a reading stone. The drawing is quite small but she is holding something on the page, in fact we only see one hand holding the book and the other one is not holding the page on top but it's inside the book instead.
To see how she holds the stone you would have to go back to the scene where she overhears Kes and Wes talking.

In the next panel the hand holding onto the book is not stretched but curved. That's because the stone is between her hand and a book cover.

So she is reading a book about herbs, then wants to switch to Shakespeare. As I previously stated, Kane has some of the bad quartos and probably many more pirated versions of Shakespeare's books.

Remember how previously Castalia had surpassed Fickle in the list of Kane's favorite things? This is when she surpasses books.
In the course of our lives we always underestimate how important the network of love and affection around us impact on our decisions and on so many other things.
People who have nothing and no one ends up living an existence that makes them invisible at the eyes of others and sometimes they lose their minds too.

This man has 2 brothers, 3 friends, a crew of twenty and nothing more. It's a very small network that he tries to enlarge and keep dearly close to him. Even so, being a guy, he thinks they respect him and are loyal to him... mostly. This kitty here loves him and she told him so.

There are times, in the life of a man, where everything comes down crumbling like a castle made of cards... sometimes in a bad way, other times it's a very good thing. This is the case.
This is a more important gesture than it looks like.

Oh yeah, you got the reference, it's not the first time I use it... I am a sucker for Snowhite! XDDD

There is something primordial about the scene where the witch tempts Snowhite with a red juicy apple and she takes it... Eve made the same mistake and look where we are now, LOL.

Apples are symbol of temptation and corruption... maybe.
Beware of apples! They look innocent but they are evil! Muahr ahr ahr!


Pea is a bit funny in this portion of chapter but she never lacked a sense of humor, even though she is a proper lady. Let's not forget the "everybody vs. the doctor" card game and also that she played the part of the little devil when teasing Westley with Calli as the little angel.

The "good boy, good boy" bit we saw in the aunties... was something she used to do with Cassandra (poor Foxy always the victim). In short she is part of the devilish duo so a bit of mischief is to be expected from her.

Now here the gossip concerns Kane so she is very curious about it. Let's not forget she already stated she doesn't like blond men and if he were to act like a Duke, instead of a pirate, she would probably crash land on him. But he is a pirate and that's enough to make her say - twice already - "what a waste" and keep her with her feet on the ground, attached to reality. Nevertheless she is still curious.

Okay, while Lio and Calli perform a reprise of the little comical bit we saw in chapter 8... Kane states and extremely Italian concept.

A lot of proverbs and sayings, in Italian, are related to theatrical performances of sort: street performance, marionettes, commedia dell'arte and so forth.

We use these sentences, particularly in Sicilian, to refer to several actions like: unpack (to close the show and collect the marionettes), be noisy and feisty (performing the opera dei pupi) to the most typical don't open a show by yourself, don't be theatrical and so on.

There are two possible explanations as to why one should never perform in front of the comedians (in this case a company of actors, and when referring to Calli and Lio Kane always thinks of them as a company of actors not a comical duo or comediennes in the modern acception of the term.)... can you think of any?

Friday, November 18, 2011

Il Pirata Baldassarre - capitolo 16 FINE

Questo capitolo segna anche la fine del volume.
Ci stiamo addentrando nell'ultimo volume della storia (anche se il finale vero e proprio sarĂ  nel sesto volume, con gli speciali).
Buona lettura.

Ho dovuto anticipare l'uscita perché oggi sarà un giorno terrrriiiiibilmente lungo per me, ha ha ha, ma a voi non dispiace, vero?

The Pirate Balthasar - Chapter 16 END

Because today shall be a very long day for me... I must anticipate the release by a lot!

I hope you enjoy it. This chapter marks the end of the volume as well. Which means we are finally entering the final volume of the story. (as usual click on the title of the post to go and read on Smack Jeeves).

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Westley's voice: first entry. (I think)

Alright another little parchment drawing (I have one more and for now I stop because I have to seriously start with the calendar) with the Balthasars.

There's a bit of white gouache in this one.







Now we go to voice game entry for Westley. (LOL the music in the video is soooo cheesy). Again don't look at the video, just listen to the voice. This is Claudio Capone, he is known for giving the voices to many cool actors in the past (he died 2 years ago) and is our sir Richard Attenborough when it comes to documentaries.





Here is what elianthos has to say:

"Whenever I try to hear Wes talking the voice I hear is... Claudio Capone's . A voice that has both charisma and charm and can be very very pleasant and seductive (he also dubbed Ridge Forrester from the Bold & The Beautiful soap opera, aka the resident hot piece of a** and in-series Casanova ). I'd listen to Capone for hours in utter delight XD. Unfortunately - and quite surprisingly provided his long career in the dubbing business in our country - the numbers of videos featuring him online are very few. This features his serious&persuading voice mode: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJGirgdixI8&feature=results_video&playnext=1&list=PLDEB02544DE0531A4 while this other one shows his more frivolous ads voice mode XD (*insert joking!Wes here* ) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKveGblBSUI&feature=related"

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Kane's voice: Submission 2

Alright, I leave you with another quick parchment drawing and a new submission for a voice.










Another Kane, wohooo, and this time around it's in Italian. So close your eyes (the voice actor does not match the face of the real actor) and listen to the sound even if you don't understand what's going on. XDDD
This Luca Ward:




Elianthos says: "Luca Ward's voice is 100% audioporn imho XD and he's often cast as a villian. A hell of a sexy villian at that. I think his voice could suit Cosimo's well in some key aspects, as in dark, dangerous, sexy and refined even at his most furious. Yet even at his mellowest it retains a certain edge, that extra something :Q___ . My only doubt concerns his register: when Kane sings he's a baritone. Maybe Ward's voice is a tad too low. But in my head whenever kane speaks I dub him with Ward's molten dark chocolate tones *ç* . On the other hand Ward's everyday non acting voice is quite compatibile with Kane's more lighthearted side XD. ---- Also... hear him reading poetry *_*: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WcyhqkSrU0 = Kane's 'bedroom voice' *ç* . P.S.: in the first video he stars as King Balthasar too ;p . Oh the serendipity. "

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Westley's voice: first entry


Okay a little experiment I did the other day, again I am playing with gold leaf and this time around I used my pattern paper and did a bit of collage :P and also we have a brand new entry for Westley.



Fraxinus says: "And this is how I think of Westley's voice... like a young Dolph Lundgren. Though from what I read about Mr. Lundgren, I'd relate his character more to Kane, I think."

We have two more entries, elianthos has started snooping around, hunting for voices. I will post them tomorrow.
I have a very long day ahead of me today so... I hope I survive ^^"

Monday, November 14, 2011

More parchment drawing

Here's another little drawing I did on parchment paper. This scene is from chapter 17.

Happy monday, I have to talk non stop for 4 hours today. Well, at least we get to watch cartoons.

Now, I do have another voice entry and this is the last one I received for now. I hope to receive more soon.

Otherwise I will start posting mine! XDDD

Sunday, November 13, 2011

It's ourssss!













Sorry, I've had this image in mind ever since we got the SJ award... and then after the DD award came I could not help it anymore.

I had to draw it. Yeah, it's the same image with two different awards... I know. LOL.
But I kept having visions of shallalas running around the house.

Pea's voice: first entry and shallalas: entry 2

Hello everyone,
So today Comicdomination is giving us the spotlight and we suddently crosse the 1000 threshold on Smack Jeeves.



I still have to scan and post the picture of the Shallallas. I had actually draw that thing when we won the SJ award but I keep forgetting.

Where am I now? Well... I have updated the google calendar because I am almost done with chapter 17. Can you believe it? Volume 5!

I am finally starting on the calendar as well. (on that one I'm a bit behind).

Anyways let's get down to business.

We have a proposal for Pea's voice.



So Fraxinus says: " I imagine that Pea's voice sounds bossy like Meg (gal in the pink with the flower) and the shalala's are TOTALLY sounding to me like the "shalalalalala-AH" at the end with the backup singers."

I have to admit I am a total sucker for Susan Egan and... you are spot on - at least to me - it's her voice I hear in my head when Pea talks.

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Martin will be back soon.

Because I am already drawing and lettering that portion of chapter 17 that marks the return of Martin Steeves... I was wondering if you had missed him too.

I was playing around with this parchment paper the other day, a bit of white acrylic and brown/sepia pastels and colored pencil and this is what it came out.

I hope you like it.

Friday, November 11, 2011

Aristotle's voice: first entry



Here we have a suggestion for Aristotle: Groucho Marx.

Emily says: Groucho Marx is pretty pompous in HorseFeathers, besides, I chose him for the line "My boy, you took the words right outta my mouth. I'm ashamed to be your father."

I have to say it's quite true, his line delivery is outstanding (of course) and his voice is very very unique.
Very interesting entry, don't you think?

The Drunk Duck Award is oursssss!

The title of the post is a link to the actual page so.... where do I begin?
I really did not see this coming, I was, once again, up against some tough tough, super tough competition.

But hey... the shallalas are running around the house shouting: it's oursssss!
And I think I'm one of them, at the moment, I still cannot think properly and my acceptance speech might have sucked big time.

I really really love the presentation, it's hilarious and theJimmy truly rocks!
And I am still at loss for words so I'll metabolize the news a little longer before I start doing anything about it, also because, I don't really know what to do now except join the shallalas!

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Chapter 17 previews teaser

Alright, I had not shown you previews in ages so....
Today I'll post a few of the coming up soon I am already working on.
Some of it is not inked and rendered as you can see.

Anyways you can start the guessing game! :D

Remember never to trust a smiling pirate though... XDDD

Wednesday, November 09, 2011

Chapter 16 C curiosities

There aren't many curiosities this week, except for the fact that Pifo now kinda switched sides (LOL, yes, he is still gay but for some reason he's not in the girls' club anymore).

In fact this is the remark that gets him kicked out and sent directly to boys' night. It's the second strike! He had already commented on Kes being cruel.

Don't you know, Pifo? During girls' night you always take your sisssttaaaas' side! ;P Welcome QT to the club.


Okay, so Kane was still very vague with the flowers and bees, but Castalia is really super dense.
Anyways now she knows... so what's next?

The other detail that doesn't show up very much in the previous page is that Rose gets to have her flashback anyways... but instead of remembering her first time with Jack, not another Unchained Moolody, she finally remembers that Kes had not been very nice between the bushes.

So she's all like, Moooo, I remember you: you got to pee!

Kes can be pretty scary!

Alright, it was a short update. We learned a bit of the differences between the girls and also that Kane is the kind of guy that would boast about everything except intimacy (whether he has a intimate life or not).

The End

So cute!


Last night we were on quail random on DD and today we are on random on Comicrank.
So cute!

I was a bit worried about visibility and activities this days because I am not very present. I love when automated picks help us out a little bit!
Okay, so give me a couple of hours to collect the curiosities together :D

Tuesday, November 08, 2011

The pirate Balthasar - Chapter 16 C

Mistakes and typos fixed and here we go with our freshly squeezed update.
Enjoy.

Il Pirata Baldassarre - capitolo 16 c

Eccoci qua con il nuovo update. Questa volta è arrivato presto, eh?
Buona lettura! ;D

Monday, November 07, 2011

The Shalallas: first entry


This is always from Leanne saying: "The shallalas, you know LOL"

Let's admit this... a lot of you posted the song in the comments the first the Shallalas showed up! Ha ha ha. Me too I sang it all the time while drawing that scene.

We also have to admit that somebody should fire Eric's hairdresser. Ha ha ha.

So anybody else wants to propose voices? Come on, now, don't be shy. I know that some of you don't agree with some of these selection what better answer than to propose a video of your own?
Otherwise I'll post mine too. LOL

Sunday, November 06, 2011

Wallpaper page updated

I've updated the Wallpaper page with the latest 3 wallpapers.
As you may know wallpapers can be found under the section called "treasure" where all the freebies are located.

Under the same section you can find Downloads, fan arts, fan fiction and many other things.
Broken links were also fixed.

















Saturday, November 05, 2011

Foxy's voice: First entry


Once again Leanne proposes: "I feel like Foxy would sound like Simba, simply becasue they have the "poor little guy" thing going on, but also the mischievous rascal thing going on."

A long week-end

I definitely need to give this boy some pants.

He has been walking around the house in underwear for the past week and my friends play with him in very wrong way. Once he'll have his mask on he'll look like a pirate one can take seriously.

But I forgot my acrylic paint in school so I cannot paint his face (right now it's just sketched in).




I will be posting a second entry to the voice game tonight, so today double post :D
I hope more of you will go in search for new voices, especially if you don't quite feel for the ones that have already been submitted.


Then it's about time I start looking for calendar templates :D

Btw if you want to see the work in progress for this boy you can read it on my tumblr. My next doll will have round joints.


3 more days to update.
I have to fix a few links on the blog, update the wallpaper area.

But it's a long weekend. For instance I am going to try and take photos of the golden illustration that my scanner wasn't able to scan properly.

I will fix the typos and recompile the update.
I need to draw a few more pages, and a little extra. I haven't drawn one in ages and the chapter is almost at its end.