Beth Wagner's Work Log (Isaac & Lee, Space Trucking, Sam Hawke, A Grotto of Poppies)

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  • I'm 3/10ths of the way done my revisions. I've got the website set to post each beta chapter twice a week, once on Monday and once on Friday. I'm hoping to have this all done by next Sunday, but I may even take until the Sunday after that, but it's going much more quickly than I thought it was going to be.
  • edited June 2018
    I drew a birthday sketch for my partner. That was the extent of my comic work this week. This weekend, I'm going to be going to two comic events on Sunday (it's a goal anyway). I am trying to be way more out there in the local community and meet with other artists.

    The last Cloudscape meeting was pretty quiet for me because I was there but I was working on novel editing.

    Yeah....I can't wait to get back to work on comics. It won't be long now though. I'm almost done editing and then I can go back to comic work.
  • Okay I finished the revisions on the novel. Now I'm working on the cover, then it's back to comics. I'll likely begin working on them later on this week. :smile:
    For the next two weeks I'm going to be getting back to work on comics but will be lax about it.
    Then when July hits, I want to be hitting it hard and getting the colouring done on two books, thumbnails for both Sam Hawke and Isaac & Lee and think about the next story arch Isaac's Run. Meanwhile I'll be taking part in Camp Nanowrimo.
  • This weekend I worked on colouring Grotto of Poppies. It's taking me way too long. It always does. To be fair though, one page layout needed some tweaking so I redid part of it and with the other page I'm trying to put in textures based on photos that I've taken as an overlay. Overcomplicated, I know. But I really want to experiment here until I get it exactly the way I want it. This will not be a book that's being produced quickly.
  • I feel like I've forgotten how to draw. My brain wants to work on comics but I need to get this other thing done first.
    However, even though I'm having this creative struggle, there is a positive outcome. I am getting a vague idea of how I can work in the production of comics and the production of books over the course of a year. That part is very exciting. It's a bit sad because it will mean spending a chunk of time away from comics (although I can likely sneak in some time on weekends)
  • This month I am practising writing, editing and working on comics all at the same time. I would like to be able to do this all at the same time. I recognise that I may fail at it right now, but if I don't practise, I'll never be able to develop those creative muscles. :smile:
  • I didn't get comic work done last night. :(
    Tonight is CloudScape night. I *will* get some work done tonight. :smile:
  • edited July 2018
    image

    Well at least it looks impressive and people did come to see my work so not a bad day. :smile:
  • Thanks @JasonFranks ! It's one of the more quiet shows but it was nice to get out and see people. The table was next to nothing so it was really a no-brainer.
  • I'm hitting burnout levels and I still have three more events to attend this year.

    One I'm only going to be speaking at and not showing anything (yet), another will be me just trying to clear out as much of my end of the year merchandise as possible, but the one coming up next week, I'll actually have to prep for. I have prints that I'll need to get ready and what not.

    When I get back from next week's convention I'll get back to working on comics and trying to get as many pages complete on the two stories that I am working on as possible. I'd like to finish the first issue of both stories by the end of November at the absolute latest. However, because of how I am feeling I will allow until the end of December as I know that I am going to have to take my time due to how I am feeling, and also because of lessons that I've learned recently.

    Basically, my most recent lesson has been on art and time. Specifically, taking my time to make sure that what I'm putting out is actually my best work. Even if I feel like I'm taking forever, I need to do that in order to make sure that I'm doing things well. I've had that drilled into my head forever, but I think I'm actually starting to take that to heart.
  • image
    So, not a comic, but something that I'd been working on for the past while now. That's the novel. I haven't raised a big fanfare about it because I am trying to publish a few of the novels before I actually start advertising everything.

    Tonight I have a meeting with my VA. Yes, I have a virtual assistant now. We are starting small as I get everything organized, with one meeting a month. As things get rolling, I will be using her to help develop distribution lists for retailers and help to organize signings for novels and such.

    In other news, next year I am severely cutting back on conventions. I am only doing one big convention, if that. Then I'll be doing a few local conventions and a couple of conferences as well. But that's about it. I need to focus on getting work done and building up product. This includes both novels and comics as well as artwork.
  • Last night I was in a meeting for an hour-ish which broke up my night but helped me sort out what I need to get done. Including making sure that I'm writing this stuff down while we are talking.
    For now I'm just going to continue working on pinups for the convention next week. Edmonton Expo.
  • Edmonton Expo was good. It was busy and I came home with a list of people who want commissions. I also finally got a chance to briefly see @Richard_Pace (we couldn't really hang out though because we were both busy with commissions).
    I got to go to the Happy Harbour Comics party for a bit and it was really good to see everyone again. It was basically a get together for comic creators which was put on in a large comic book store.
    I was able to talk to a comics group called Panel One (that I am a member of). It's been my brainchild to get them talking with the Vancouver comics resource centre, Cloudscape for over a year now. It's going to be slow going, but once everything has been established, it's going to be huge!
    Imagine being a creator who can't necessarily get to all of the conventions, being able to go to one of the local groups, giving them books and having them sell them for you at conventions.
    Things like that are what I'm trying to get going with these groups, as well as having them share information about comics events.
    Oh yes, I was also visiting with family too. Did I mention that it was a very busy weekend?
  • Getting back to working on comics again while editing novels in the background. With Inktober beginning this ought to help, along with commissions for art work beginning to come in.
    Then, next month (November=Nanowrimo) I want to buckle down and work on writing, but just the writing while I continue working on comics.
    December will be both and working with comics and finishing up editing one of the novels so that it's ready to go either by the end of December or the beginning of January.
  • This week was a waste as I was sick. But this weekend is Canadian Thanksgiving, which for most means spending time with family and eating turkey, but for me, it means a chance to get myself mentally organized for work to get done.
    I'm going to find the outline for a story so that I can get ready for Nanowrimo next month.
    I am going to go over which stories I have to have read in the next...yikes! Four days or so! (I also have to double check when my appointment is with my VA)
    I'm going to finish off those commissions that I said I was going to do, they are just sketches so I should be able to finish them off quickly.
    I really want to get as many rough pencils done for Tedieval this weekend as possible.
    I want to review both Tedieval and Grotto of Poppies to see where I am production-wise with each of them and formulate a schedule to get both of the first issues done ASAP.
    Basically a nice relaxing weekend. :smiley:
  • So I have begun thinking about what I'm going to be working on next year.
    I've decided that I want to get the Meggido script done and professionally edited. Then in 2020 I will start looking for an artist.
    Yeah, I'm not going to draw this one. I want a completely different art style on the book. I'm also going to take two years to save up for an artist, and I have a few in mind (hence the saving up as I'm not going to fool around with page rates).
    Am I crazy? Maybe. Once I get the script done and edited I'll begin the begging/bribing. :smile:
  • I am madly penciling comic pages. If I can keep up this pace, I will be ready for colours by the end of the month.
    November will be a novel focussing month so I'll be spending December colouring comic pages for both Tedieval and Grotto of Poppies.
    Because of my use of photo-textures, Grotto will take so much longer to finish than Tedieval which is both exciting (in that it's challenging) and frustrating (because I am impatient, this is why I rarely do oil paintings)
    I can't wait for my meeting with my VA tonight, wherein I tell her all of the things that I was planning on having completed for tonight kind of fell to the way-side. Well not quite, but I'm going in a different direction than I was planning on. I know the next five novels that I'm going to be working on from my dad's collection.
    Pardon me as I am thinking in point form at the moment.
  • Yeah, that pace slowed to a crawl so I am trying to finish up the last of the pages this weekend. We'll see if I can pull that off.
  • I'm trying desperately to get back into working on the comics. I've just been so sluggish this week. It's a bit disappointing after I got so much work done on the weekend. But I guess little bits is better than nothing at all.
  • Always. For me, it goes by in phases... until I can get to the point where I make myself sit down.
  • Thanks @Jimmie_Robinson !
    I just finished a comic page tonight. They are super slow and the file sizes are enormous. It's likely because I'm working in photo texturing and in CMYK.
  • edited December 2018
    So here is the first page (hopefully I remember the code to post images) Pardon the squashed image:
    image
  • edited December 2018
  • I have to try to guess the alignment to resize it. I'm going to try it without any size formatting.
  • Fixed it! I need to do some shading on the second page
  • Seems the lettering could be stacked / centered in some of the word balloons.
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