This Week...

1) I shall announce the winner of the 3rd year anniversary contest.

2) I shall reply to many questions with small mini special before I tackle the next big one (which I am still storyboarding)

3) I shall fix the blog again because the latest update from blogger disconnected my shoutbox and zazzle.

4) After a long struggle I managed to have my Mediafire account unlocked so that I could go in and cancel it!
This is the end of my Unfortunate Adventure with mediafire, after they treated me like a criminal for more than a year. Only one person replied and apologized but not about the way I was treated but about the fact that nobody replied to my many many tickets.
She was nice though.
The person who unlocked the account did not apologize either and did not bother to ask why I was leaving. I shifted all my files - that are perfectly legal - on a cloud server now. As far as I am concerned mediafire will never see my money, my face nor hear kinds words from me ever again.

5) Scribd compression problems cannot be fixed... therefore the Balthasar's log will be moved to dropr little by little.

I'm back!

I am back, comics will start again very soon!


 I hope the illustrations were enough to keep you company (I worked my ass off to get them ready before I left hahahaha)


Between conferences and festivals and meeting I had a one hour break to go and draw at the temple behind my hotel.

3 years old little girls, started showing up wearing kimonos for

their Shichigosan!

Rushed but wonderful experience, Digicon6 was amazing too!

So many talented animators out there, but not properly recognized I'm afraid (the one I liked did not win and the one who won ... well, was something I have seen many times on youtube before - therefore take advantage of the generational gap with the judges, ppl, they don't live on the internet hahaha)


The most interesting meeting was with Tomioka Satoshi, creator of Usavich, he is a bit blur and that's quite unlucky if you want to work in a money making industry...

I say that because I feel they take advantage of his talent and he is not making a single penny out of his own ideas. His new project is quite delightful Yan Yan Machiko ... but he is basically broke! Sigh!

Recap of the Recap

This was posted before the comics ended. Let's see how far we got into our list.

 
Bloopers:

These one will be about the scene I had to delete because they could not fit. 

One of this stories is called The Storm it's about how the ship deals with the storm when there are 5 girls on board. (storyboarded already)

The Pirate Balthasar - Before!

Content planned:

1) How Kane met Foxy

2) How Kane met Cat

3) How Kane met Westley

4) A series of adventures in Bologna, one of which will be investigating a murder.

If you have any ideas for this let me know. 



Will follow another series which I plan to call: The Pirate Balthasar - Adventure!

Possible content:

1) A visit to Badia (sicily) Balthasar vs. the Mafia.

2) Balthasar vs. Circes (a witch)

3) and the one story I hinted about in the promo (the one with Kane kissing Castalia's leg): Castalia's great adventure!

4) How durians arrived in Italy: Balthasar in Malaysia. 

If you have any ideas for this let me know.

Will follow another series probably called: The Pirate Balthasar - Next!

Possible contents:

1) Every time we say goodbye. I might call this series "The pirate's wife" (Kes and Wes and lots of baby Itzak). So far I have 3 stories in mind for this serie: Froggy (about wes and itzak - storyboarded already), the Turks (this one is a bit sad) and How to be a Pirate wife (the girls).

2) Balthasar and Andromeda (The next generation)

3) (and this one I am still trying to gather my thoughts about but it's like a 10 years after).

And why not? I will also attempt: The Pirate Balthasar XXI!

Since you seemed to enjoy the illustrations so much.

God knows what the style will be for these specials... and let's hope I'll be granted health, wealth and time to achieve such a scheme.

-----------

So far it seems like we are doing okay.
Then I posted an announcement for the story Olympics
and all your ideas became:

 THE PROJECT BALTHASAR.

The Ninja idea I kinda used it for the Cat Special!
(we shall use it again and it could become our meme hahaha)

- Pifo Beauty Corner 
- The librarian

Were the first to be "completed". Since Pifo Beauty Corner had a script a started with that one.

So what shall we do next? I was thinking.... how about I let you choose?

I sense you miss the girls

 Hi guys,
it's been quite some times since we had a conversation...

I no longer post about curiosities and there have been quite a few,
my being sick also let this blog suffer a lot too and I can tell by
the ratings that you miss the girls, in the current specials, that you enjoy the boys but the absence of the girls is particularly felt.

Am I right?


I am sorry, I thought you might like a variety in stories and styles but  I understand that a World like the one of The Pirate Balthasar needs a lot of things: illustrations, games, polls... and I know you all got busy with school, work, life in general too and I have not been active myself.

So I've decided to go back to the old times, whereby this blog will be full of interesting articles and stuff and not just a place holder for the comic itself. It should be a receptacle for all this, don't you agree?

My health has not improved one bit, if any it has gotten worse. I am trying my best to figure out why I'm always sick, I hope to come out of this ordeal triumphant.

Let's go back with a journey to the past, shall we?
I think you will enjoy these: they are the first drawings of the characters how we know them today.

The one you see above in full color is a scene I removed, where Castalia and her sisters unmask Kane to figure out who he really is.

I am almost tempted to do a paralel universe to write how things could have gone if they hadn't gone the way they did. 

Okay so guess who?
Yes, this is one of the first drawings of Cat and Callista.
This is the scene where he gives her his shoes, it has stayed the same throught the years.

And guess who is the next couple?

Yes, Wes and Kes... at one point Kes was faking a fever and playing the little sickling girl to avoid the chores hahaha.
Should I write a story about it?

These two are Lio and Foxy, clearly.

Initially Lio would only speak one sentence: are you feeling well?
I mean those were the only lines she would speak in the entire story, with some variations like: are you alright?
But nothing different would come out of her mouth.

And here she is checking Foxy to see if he is wearing enough layers, else he might catch a cold.

And after Lio and Foxy here's Cassiopea with Martin.
Initially, Martin had one peculiar trait: he would always get kidnapped and held prisoner by somebody, due to his beauty... and in more than one occasion Pea had to go to his rescue.

Of course being very pretty she would get away with crime many times.
This was quite a funny storyline and it would be interesting to explore.

And here are Pifo and Fickle.

So yeah, Fickle was a chamaeleon from the start, way before Rapunzel made chamaeleons popular pets.
I am actually glad someone else decided to use a reptile as a sidekick (a positive one). :D

I have a thing for lizards in general ^^" I know I am weird but I like weird animals: frill neck lizards, ostriches and bees are amongst my favorites... and then I like hornbill birds.

I am not into wild felines, wolves and mystical creatures at all... I like dogs and cats and all animals in general but, most of my life I've owned turtels and birs and when it comes to pet companions... I'd personally like to have a Camel or a llama, anything with funny features, long eyelashes and funny personality, like "the serious fox" over a regular kitsune. XDDD

So... seems like Westley will be collecting a lot of weird animals in the future, are you in for the ride?

I miscalculated.

Sorry guys I miscalculated the release date... the countdown says it's only 2 days away from update but I did not calculate the Intermission pages in there so... I just released page 9 of the epilogue and it will end at 14.

Would you prefer if I uploaded a release with just the Intermission pages or wait 4 more days and have both the intermission and epilogue?

This is it.

This is the end.

One more intermezzo page, sure and then wrapping things up in the Epilogue and after this what will it happen?

We have 15 days more or less to think about it.

First will come all scenes that were cut from the comic: The Balthasar that never was.

Then it's time to start the new series.
They'll be all done in different styles and they will be in color.

I will post the banners soon then I will ask the question: which one should go first?

Less than 20 pages left.

There are no curiosities this week as I did not receive any particular question concerning anything.

I apologize to those who disliked my mocker of a fanservice/yaoi.

I don't know if they disliked it because they thought I was serious or because they are hard core fujoshi and don't like for certain things to made fun of.

I wonder if it's just the Italian sense of humor that does not sit will with everybody.

Personally... I just wanted to make Pifo happy.

I hope you guys enjoyed "May the 4th be with you" - aka International Star Wars Day.

I spent 4 hours baking Stormtroopers' cookies and then yesterday I spent 3 hours drawings on t-shirt.

I made 6 and sold 4.

The Yoda eating light saber icicles was the most requested :D

I hope I get pictures of them soon as I ask the buyers to send me photo of them wearing the shirt!

I made plenty of cross over drawings too with Shalalas and evil Cassandra's eyes (I forgot to draw the pinky up one I had in mind LOL).

I managed to watch about 20 minutes of Empire Strikes back.
Han Solo is made of awesome!

When I wanted to draw this t-shirt here I asked my students if they had any photo of him... they had all the ugly monsters from the new series and barely any picture of Luke, Leia and Han.

So I tragically stated: whyyyyyy????? Han Solo is made of awesome!

Then, all of a sudden, people started requesting picture of Han Solo like crazy... and that's when I went: seeeee? Told you!

LOL anyway it was fun and all the money went to charity!

NOW since we are less than 20 pages away from Balthasar's ending.... I better sit down and draw all day long!

Happy Labour Day

So today I enjoy my labour day by doing two things: shopping for Lego and baking.

My coming out: my trilogy is not Pirate of the Caribbean... it's Star Wars. So in my school (Nanyang Poly, Ang Mo Kio, Ave. 5 - next to Yo Chu Kang MRT station) we have decided to organize a big May the 4th be with you day... this coming Friday.

If you are in Singapore feel free to join the dark side of the force. 

That's where you'll find me, my stall is called: the dark side! - reason being... we have cookies. XDD
Yes, so... I cannot bake and I will be making cookies.

So, sorry, no labour day drawing since on labour day there is no work! Muahr ahr ahr....
(but truth be told I am drawing like crazy since I took my parents on vacation - seen that my dad is still able to walk - and both the Bali and the Thailand trip deprived me of precious drawing time! So, honestly, I'm a bit behind ;_;).

Greetings from Thailand

So nice to be able to finally draw Kane's face freely.

Okay, I'm in Thailand this week end, I might have some sketch crawling to do and the usual crappy drawings to show you.

This is the final vacation with my parents before they return to Italy.

I will have to work ever so hard starting next week hahahaah.

The next layout

Koorihimesama has volunteered her design for the layout of the next series. This one would be used for Adventures of The Pirate Balthasar. If you go on her Deviantart account you can see her designs (she has more than one ready). You can also visit her blog where she is testing the files. Any feedback, comment, would be much appreciated and of great help. For now I can only thank her for lending me a hand since I am very very bad at these kinds of stuff.

One more day... and vacation.

It's interesting, school was on break for 6 weeks and but I wasn't able to plan any vacation.
Now that lectures have started I can finally take a week-end off.

I will be going Schetck Crawling in Bali this weekend. I will program to blog to post anyways, since update falls while I'm away.... there shall be update.

I had again a dream with a red tree in it... I wonder why I keep on having images of red trees in my dreams. So that's what came out this time around. This is very small.

I call it: into the woods (like the musical I like so much).

I hope I can paint a bigger version of it soon.

One more day and Kane's mask will come off.


Right now I have to run, my students will be taking Visual Development test this morning and I have to show The Princess Bride for the Contemporary Film Making class! hahahahaha

Balthasar's Log

Hello guys,
So I have started planning for a big Balthasar portal... at the moment it's called: Balthasar's Log.

I plan to host the comics here so when the new series start you can come and read them directly here.
This will be a portal to all the series and as you can see I am currently uploading the entire volumes of the Pirate Balthasar to be read online.

Any suggestions as to what you would like to see there?
This blog I will keep for all the general curiosities, as usual :D

And of course come back later for the update.

Download chapter 19 and countdown to mask falling!

The download for chapter 19 is ready in the download section of this blog.


And YES the mask is falling on page 12, are you ready?

Logo 2

Questo post è anche in Italiano!

Every time I upload something without giving proper explanation then I find myself explaining twice as much later. It was so silly of me to just post a picture like that. I must apologize for confusing you all.

If you don't mind I will also make this post bilingual...

After The Pirate Balthasar ends the new series will begin. This means I will have to create a new logo/banner for them.

Now I initually called the series as: before, after or next and adventures.

I was coming up with titles and images.

One series I call: Young Pirate Balthasar, or Adventure of Young Pirate Balthasar.


For this set where we see how Kane meets with Foxy, Westley, Martin and Cat, I am torn between the first and the fifth logo.

Another series will be focusing on the girls and the next generation: The Pirate's Wife.


Here I am torn between 2 and 4.

For The Pirate Balthasar Adventure so far I only developed the concept with Circes to the left and Kane and Castalia to the right.
Same goes for Projects which will be the ones made with all the stories we write together.

So do you have ideas for titles, banners, logos? Please suggest! :D

--------
ITALIANO


Chiedo scusa per aver messo su le immagini senza aver specificato cosa succedeva, devo aver creato un bel poì' di confusione.

Alla fine del Pirata Baldassarre inizieranno le nuove serie. Questo significa che devo disegnare i nuovi banner e logo. 

All'inizio avevo chiamato le nuove serie: before, after oppure next e avventura.

Poi mi sono messa a pensare a titoli e immagini.

Una serie la chiamerò: Il giovane Baldassarre, o Avventure del giovane Baldassarre. O del giovane Pirata Baldassarre (luuuungo)

Questa è la serie in cui Kane incontra Wes, Foxy, Cat e Martin. Sono combattuta tra il primo e il quinto logo.

Un'altra serie si ferma con le ragazze e i loro bambini: La moglie del pirata.

Qua sono combattuta tra la 2 e la 4.

Per la serie: Il Pirata Baldassarre - Avventura per ora ho solo abozzato questo logo con Circe da un lato e Kane e Castalia sulla destra. 

Project Balthasar quello che c'ha l'x factor XDDDD è invece il progetto che conterrà le storie che scriveremo assieme.

Per cui vi chiedo... avete suggerimenti e idee per titoli, loghi e banner? Sono tutta orecchi!

Whimsy

We all need a bit of whimsy in life...

Here is mine. My new pirate table cloth.
It had to be very piratey so it had to be in patches.

To relax my hands I am also sewing something on my pouch....

In case you were wondering the green thing next to him... will be me (in lizard form of course) and will be licking him so.... the googly eyes will sometimes stare at the lizard and sometimes stare at people....

as if... you know... looking for help. Googly eyes are fun. I have a box full of them I was thinking about decorating my next sketchbook with them hahahahaha.


So anyways this is not a serious post and does not constitute the post for today - it's just a bit of whimsy - so expect a serious one later on.

Let's recap!

I think it's only fair, since I propose for you to share ideas, to tell you in advance what will be coming up next. Otherwise you'll find out that a lot of my answer will be: yes, I was planning that.

So here's the good news: my contract has been renewed for 3 more years, so we'll definitely have 3 more years of Balthasar.

The current storyline will end in 2012 though. 

After that will have a few extras and spin offs. 

Bloopers:

These one will be about the scene I had to delete because they could not fit. 

One of this stories is called The Storm it's about how the ship deals with the storm when there are 5 girls on board. (storyboarded already)

The Pirate Balthasar - Before!

Content planned:

1) How Kane met Foxy

2) How Kane met Cat

3) How Kane met Westley

4) A series of adventures in Bologna, one of which will be investigating a murder.

If you have any ideas for this let me know.
Will follow another series which I plan to call: The Pirate Balthasar - Adventure!

Possible content:

1) A visit to Badia (sicily) Balthasar vs. the Mafia.

2) Balthasar vs. Circes (a witch)

3) and the one story I hinted about in the promo (the one with Kane kissing Castalia's leg): Castalia's great adventure!

4) How durians arrived in Italy: Balthasar in Malaysia. 

If you have any ideas for this let me know.

Will follow another series probably called: The Pirate Balthasar - Next!

Possible contents:

1) Every time we say goodbye. I might call this series "The pirate's wife" (Kes and Wes and lots of baby Itzak). So far I have 3 stories in mind for this serie: Froggy (about wes and itzak - storyboarded already), the Turks (this one is a bit sad) and How to be a Pirate wife (the girls).

2) Balthasar and Andromeda (The next generation)

3) (and this one I am still trying to gather my thoughts about but it's like a 10 years after).

And why not? I will also attempt: The Pirate Balthasar XXI!

Since you seemed to enjoy the illustrations so much.

God knows what the style will be for these specials... and let's hope I'll be granted health, wealth and time to achieve such a scheme.

Truth be told... I have too much fun writing stories and if you find them to your liking I would be honored to go on this adventure with you.

Two blond men

There are two blond men now, on the Alidivento and even though, technically, the comic would be considered in color (by publishers and printers) it's... still monochromatic.

So this is how you tell the difference between Martin and Westley, because they are not basically  identical (particularly now that Wes' hair is growing back) but they are very similar in tone.

In case you still have problem you might start by a simple question: how tall is the girl while standing next to him? Well, if she reaches his shoulder then the guy is Westley. If all she sees are nipples (XD) then the guy is Martin.

Physically

I usually don't quantify my work, until I have to move out or make room for more stuff.

A lot of times I have to throw things away. This time around I am not moving out, hopefully not, and I definitely don't need room. I just noticed that all the paper I used for the comic was scattered in 3 different drawers and I had a closet completely empty.

So I stacked the paper at the very back of my closet and here it is. I have been here almost 21 months and this is the comic, almost 4 volumes of rough and clean up!

Lots of paper, eh! I was a bit surprised... :D
I also went through 3 sketchbooks already.

Sharks infested waters?

Who's going to take a swim.... in shark infested waters?

And most of all... why???

After all...

You know Oc contestants I think all of your characters should go into the comic after all.

So here they are: Allegra, Clyde and the old lady, Julian, Katharina and Dahlia.

All in one megashot! XDDD