Friday, November 30, 2012

Chapter 1 of Zheph Skyre is Finished & Hypnotist Show

Here is page 42 of the Zheph Skyre web comic, the last page of Chapter 1. I decided to end this chapter with showing that Zheph could turn somethings as negative as getting hit in the face with a rotten tomato and using it for something beneficial. Also, I wanted to show a certain way of how Zheph can manage to survive when everyone in the city hates him.

I recall seeing experiments of using balloons to float fruit and vegetable gardens at high altitudes where they could possibly grow better than on the ground. I thought it would make sense for Zheph to do this in a city with a limited market of food. Of coarse he would have to do this in a place with high altitude that no one would be able to get to. I realized I could easily put these devises on top of a huge building that is abandoned. I wanted to show that Zheph is a great scavenger.

I want people to remember this lesson that I am trying to teach. Most people, if not all people, are forced to go through life with many difficulties and negative criticisms thrown at them. But life is what you make of it. Through hard work, determination, and a positive attitude, you can make it through life. Don't give up. It might seem cliche, but be all that you can be.


This was a picture I took at Holy Name High School tonight where I watched a hypnotist show. I have seen a funnier hypnotist show at my college where the hypnotist managed to get the people to say really funny things, but it was not age appropriate and there were younger people here. The hypnotist however did tell everyone to try their hardest at the end of the show.

Thursday, November 29, 2012

Anime Boston's Yōkai Art Contest Results


I forgot to mention that the results for Anime Boston's Yōkai Art Contest results have been posted on their website with all of the other submissions in a gallery. I suggest everyone to check it out. The winners' work look awesome, but there are a lot of good ones in the gallery including mine.

I have filled out an Artists' Alley application, but I have not heard back if I have a space. I'm hoping to get informed as soon as possible because I want to go to PAX East if I don't get this Artists' Alley table. Unfortunately there is a time limit on reservations for PAX East.

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Zheph Skyre Web Comic Page Finished


I had finished coloring page 41 of Zheph Skyre and got it uploaded. Zheph has gone to an abandoned library and is now about to scale it, but why? What do you think Zheph is up to now? What might he do with a rotten tomatoes?

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Page 41 of Zheph Skyre in Black and White & Futurama


I have uploaded the next page of Zheph Skyre though it isn't finished yet. I still have to color it in completely. I could have uploaded the image with some of the colors, but it doesn't look good yet.

(This image is from getvideoartwork.com)

I finally watched the Futurama movie "Into the Wild Green Yonder" on Netflix. I found it to be hilarious. Out of the four Futurama movies, it was not nearly as good as "Bender's Game," but it was better than "Beast with a Billion Backs."

I love this cartoon.series. The whole series is hilarious, and unlike Family Guy when it returned to television, this series managed to remain hilarious. Also, this series is funnier than it's predeceasing series "The Simpsons", or at least for a majority of the newest seasons of "The Simpsons."

Monday, November 26, 2012

Previous Two Pages Updated


I finished page 40 of Zheph Skyre this past Saturday. Mostly there were just a few places that needed to be colored in.

I wanted to show that the townspeople in the city also hate Zheph, along with the knights and the gang. After all, Zheph set off a sleeping gas grenade in the town and nearly burnt someone's home down. But these are only a few small things Zheph has done that the people hate him for. More on that will be revealed. One of the major concerns as the story writer is how I portray Zheph's reaction to this. I wanted him to be angry, but I didn't want him to want revenge because that is not his character. He tries to retain a calm mind, and he tries to get whatever positive he can out of this situation.


I also updated page 39. There is the sound effect of the motor and the text has been changed a little. I accidentally saved over the file with the speech bubbles and I had to reenter the text. I thought certain things could be improved.


Friday, November 23, 2012

Page 40 Unfinished


Here is page 40 of Zheph Skyre, but unfortunately due to the family holiday I couldn't finish it. I will tomorrow.

Thursday, November 22, 2012

Happy Thanksgiving


Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Hope you all enjoy the time you spend with your loved ones and all of the delicious food you get to eat. I sure am!

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

"Power Up Replay 2012: The Future is in the Past Electric Boogaloo" The Aftermath


The Gaming Society of the University Massachusetts at Dartmouth held it's annual Power Up last Saturday November 17th. It's full name was "Power Up Replay 2012: The Future is in the Past Electric Boogaloo". It was really awesome! I went into Cedar Dell, payed $15, was given an achievement checklist, and had a great time. It was very gratifying seeing familiar faces.

For a good majority of the time I was there, I spent it in the Magic Tournament area. They held a Draft Tournament, a Standard Tournament, Legacy I think, and free play. I didn't do so well overall, but I still had a lot of fun. I have a better idea of what should be in my Standard deck.


There was also some free pizza, soda, and eventually at the end the baked goods were free. Sure the pizza was the cheap version provided by Sudexo through the school, but that was a minor flaw.

In the main area, there were plenty of old school games. I got to play some Duck Hunt, and the original Super Mario. I saw also Tetris, old school Sonic,and many other games some of which I never even heard of. There were even score listings of top ranks for certain games in a certain amount of time.

All in all, I still say other clubs and organizations in colleges should definably have charity events like this one if they don't already.

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Page 39 is Uploaded & Wreck It Ralph


I finally got page 39 of my Zheph Skyre web comic uploaded. I'm sorry for the delay, but I was working as fast as I could. I had a much more busy weekend than I thought I would have. Perhaps I should change the schedule to Tuesdays and Fridays instead. It appears I'd have more time to spend on Monday and Tuesday than I would for Saturdays and Sundays, so I would get the pages done on time with color.

On this page, Zheph is now driving away (I forgot to put the sound effect of the engine, I'll have to go back into it), and Jahovac is left standing defeated. Jacques goes up to Jahovac to try to convince him to go along with a different plan. Will this plan actually work?

(This image is from imdb.com.)

I went to see Wreck it Ralph last Friday since I was in the Dartmouth area, and the Power Up main events didn't start until the next day. I didn't read everything on the Facebook event page too clearly it seems. So I went to see this movie in 3D since that was the earliest time and I did not want to wait another two hours to see it. It was an enjoyable movie.

There are quite a few famous guest appearances by some famous video game characters, but they were all very small since the movie had to focus on the story. I thought the movie was actually going to be funnier, but maybe my sense of humor has developed since I was a child and the humor here is just more appealing to a younger audience. The visual gags and the animation were really good though. A lot of thought and effort went into this movie and it shows. There were a few small problems here and there like the pop music choices they had, and how much time was spent in one specific video game world. I still enjoyed it though.

Tomorrow I will discuss Power Up.

Friday, November 16, 2012

Page 38 of Zheph Skyre Incomplete & Other Things


I have uploaded the next page of Zheph Skyre, but it is not yet complete. Hopefully I will have this image complete and page 39 before Monday. I am so happy this chapter is almost finished...

I have tried to apply to Soup2Nuts again, but I have had no response from them via email or phone. I was hoping that they would send me another animation test, but they have not. I hope to hear from them soon.

I am also thinking about submitting artwork to Wizards of the Coast. They created the "Magic the Gathering Game" and "Dungeons and Dragons." I am truly hoping to find an opportunity somewhere.

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Zheph Skyre Page 37 Finished


Here is page 37 of my Zheph Skyre web comic. There maybe some minor spots that I should touch up here and there, but for now I consider this finished. Again, I had to stay up late past midnight to finish this. I had work until later than usual today. I believe the flames are very time consuming to draw. I decided to change what Jahovac says at the end of this panel because I think this is funnier.

As a warrior, Jahovac believes Zheph should finish him off as he has won the fight. Zheph however does not want to. Why does this bother Jahovac this much? And what is Zheph going to do about that fire?

I added a number counter to my web comic in order to keep track of how many people visit it. Please pass the word out about my web comic. The more people find out about it, the better chance I might actually get to actually make money from this. I could really use the money right now!

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Page 37 Unfinished




Sorry, I tired to finish my latest web comic page of Zheph Skyre yesterday, but I couldn't quite do it. I am trying to get the next two pages done before this Friday, and I want to get the next three pages after that done next week. I will try to post on Monday, Wednesday and Friday next week because of Thanksgiving on Thursday.

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Power Up Replay 2012: The Future is in the Past Electric Boogaloo


This Friday November 16th, I am going to the UMass Dartmouth Gaming Society's annual Power Up charity event. They collect toy and money donations for the Boys and Girls' Club as a fee. Students and Alumni get to play video games, Magic the Gathering, and other games at certain stations. It will be held from 6:00 that Friday night to 11:45 the next morning. I won't be able to stay for the entire event because I have work, but I will stay as long as possibly can. I will have pictures and will write up a post about this event.

I have been to this event in the past and I have had an awesome time. I suggest if you are in a club of some sort, you should suggest something like this event to help out others.

Monday, November 12, 2012

Veteran's Day Break


Here is a spoof comic I made for Veteran's Day on my web comic site. It features characters in the style of Cyanide and Happiness with a guest appearance from Zheph. I respect and enjoy Cynide and Happiness, so I am just spoofing their work. I am not trying to steal their style for my own. Hopefully this will be the only time I will need to spoof their work.

Honestly, I am running a little bit behind with finishing my page, so I had to come up with something to post on my web comic for today. I decided to go with this because it was quick and easy. I know from Connecticon that the creators of Cyanide and Happiness don't really care about small things like this. They are really cool.

Friday, November 9, 2012

Politics

 
(These images are from http://en.wikipedia.org)
 
 
I'm going to be honest, I truly hate politics. We have not had a decent presidential canidate for over twelves years for our country. It is hard to get motivated to vote for either a Republican or a Democrat when neither of them appear trustworthy or capable. I ended up voting for one of the third party canidates this past election because I don't trust either of the main canidates and it seemed like the perfect time for true change within this country. Unfortunately, Oboma won again.
 
Oboma has made little progress as president for the past four years, and he has botched medicare as well as given illegal immigrants the option to vote along with other benefits that hard working Americans should have. That is probably one of the only reasons he won the election in the end.
 
Mitt Romney has been trying to convince the American people that he can relate to middle class people and lower when in truth he is actually extremely wealthy. He also appeared to be promoting himself with his family members, and I don't beleive their opinions are that helpful.
 
Besides those negative facts about both canidates, the numerous commercials that have been on TV gave many more reasons not to vote for either one. Both canidates appeared to only be capable of making bad proplicity of the other canidate. The past four elections have only been a contest between the lesser of two evils.
 
There were at least a few other important canidates and questions to vote on the ballod. Hopefully people made the right choices there.

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Zheph Skyre Page 36


Here is page 36 of Zheph Skyre. I consider this page to be very crucial in the series so far. Not only do we see what Zheph's weapon can do, but Zheph finally says his name. I can't believe I dragged out this many pages before I had the protagonist say his own name.

This is still only a little bit before where I left off in the web comic when I originally made it. I like this image this time around much more than last time. It is a defining look of him holding his double spear. And I didn't have the blades on fire in the previous version, which looks so much better this time around.


As you can see here, it does not look nearly as good as it does now. I have to mention that Zheph's hair looks better, his body proportions look better, how it looks when Zheph cuts through Jahovac's sword looks better, and even Jahovac looks better in my new version of this web comic. There were so many things I was struggling with before and now it seems like so much easier now.

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Zheph Skyre Page 35 in Color & Jill Slosburg-Ackerman - In Rome: The Pine Grove. And. Natura naturans; natura naturata



Here is page 35 of Zheph Skyre in color. I am now showing just how terrifying Zheph can really be when he wants to be. Jahovac doesn't seem to comprehend what just happened.


There's a new gallery that just opened last week at the Worcester Art Museum. It is called "Jill Slosburg-Ackerman - In Rome: The Pine Grove. And. Natura naturans; natura naturata.It is a small exhibit with only one description describing the entire collection as a whole. It is pretty much a study of pine cones and certain aspects of the Vatican City.

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Drizzt Do'Urden

(This image is from fantasyfaceoff.proboards.com)

I love R.A. Salvatore's Drizzt Do'Urden book series. I have read nearly all of the 13 main books of the series, and the Sell Sword Saga which is after the series along with two other trilogies. It is part of the Forgotten Realms universe which is branched off from Dungeons and Dragons.

I really enjoy the numerous characters with such vivid personalities. I like the dark elf ranger who abandons his people's beliefs, Drizzt. There is the dwarf king he befriends, Bruenor Battlehammer. I like Bruenor's two adopted human children, Wulfgar the barbarian and Catti-brie the red headed, free thinking girl. I like Drizzt's trusted pet panther, Guenhwyvar. I even like the halfling Regis, who usually doesn't seem to be useful in most fights. There are even great villains likethe ruthless assassin Entreri, the dark elf Jarlaxle who leads the band of mercenaries Bregan D'aerthe, Crenshinibon the sentient crystal shard that desires control over everything, and Errtu the demon lord.

There are excellent battles described in these books against fierce-some foes. There are such complexities that occur between characters that continue to shape them.

This is a fantasy book series I highly recommend.

Monday, November 5, 2012

Page 35 of Zheph Skyre in Black and White & That's E Monster Mash Double Feature


Here is page 35 of Zheph Skyre in black and white. I know Mondays have been getting a lot of black and white pages, but I am really trying to get these pages finished as soon as possible. The new size may help with the final results, but it makes it more time consuming. I am not able to easily transport such large pages.


Here is a photograph of the inside of the Elm Draught House Cinema during the Halloween Monster Double Feature sponsored by That's Entertainment.I had a fun time. I dressed up as Dilbert, got free candy, participated in a free raffle and enjoyed a large screen viewing of two classic movies. It had been a long time since I had seen "Beetlejuice" and "Ghostbusters."

Friday, November 2, 2012

Page 34 of Zheph Skyre & That's Entertainment Halloween Monster Mash

Here is page 34 of my Zheph Skyre web comic. There maybe some things I want to change in this, but that can wait until I print out this webcomic into books to sell.


Jahovac is not fazed at all by having his cloak burned. So why would Zheph set it on fire, and what is glowing in his staff?

That's Entertainment was supposed to have a Halloween party last Monday, but due to Hurricane Sandy it was postponed for this Monday November 5th at 6:00. It will be at Elm Draught House in Millbury, MA. There will be a free theatrical showing of Ghostbusters and Beetlejuice, raffles, candy, and more. Tickets are availible at the Park Ave. Worcester store, and are limited. I am going, and I bet it will be a good time like the Godzilla Double Feature.

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Page 33 of Zheph Skyre Complete and Futakuchi-onna Picture Finished






I have finished both the 33rd page of my Zheph Skyre web comic and the image of a Futakuchi-onna for the Anime Boston
Yōkai Art Contest. I am very please with the results of both of these images.

I found Zheph's weapon and the fire on this page to be the trickiest things to draw.

I have submitted a picture of the Futakuchi-onna for the contest. If I win, I get a free table in the Artist's Alley!

I'm sorry, but I thought I submitted this blog yesterday!