Chapter 2: Splinter
Like the last chapter, this Comic Strip reads left to right.
Hope you’ve enjoyed chapter 2 of Cold, Lost and Left with Sal. Drawing this comic strip digitally definitely seems like the way to go. I’m so much happier with how chapter 2 turned out. Still not sure whether I want to make this a regular thing, though.
Anyway, Thanks for reading and hope you enjoy the next chapter.
(Apologies for the lateness of this post, I was experiencing some technical difficulties, impairing my ability to post).
I’ve decided to take the plunge and try out the first of my ideas for this blog.
That’s right, I’ve created a little comic strip. It’s called Cold, Lost and Left with Sal, but I don’t want to ramble on, so I’ll explain how the comic strip is read, set the scene and leave you to enjoy it.
It reads left to right (Sorry if that’s disappointing, my brain would have exploded, if I tried to write/draw it like a manga). To make it easier to read, I’ve used block capital but in case you can’t read my rubbish handwriting, I’ve also put the dialogue below each page. Hope you enjoy.
Cold, Lost and Left with Sal
After a mysterious event, nearly all humans disappeared from the face of the earth. Now seemingly the only two people left on earth. Our main characters, the sensitive Luke and the peculiar Sal, must roam the earth trying to survive.
Chapter-1: All that’s left
Page 1:
Sal (the character wearing the crown): Thanks for waiting Luke,
Sal: I…
Sal: Here…. You’re going to catch a cold.
Sal: We don’t know what exactly happened, that day.
Page 2:
Sal: There’s still hope of finding them.
Sal: Come on. We better get moving.
I have good news
Sal: The town’s only about 2 miles away. If we make it before night fall, we can sleep inside for once.
Luke (the spiky haired character): Sweet.
Hmm… wait. Sal, won’t you get cold without your blanket?
Sal: It’s okay, I’ll find another. If I get cold before then, I’ll just cuddle a stray dog or something.
Luke: Hehe… Gross
Sal: If I get ticks, I promise to share.
Luke: You could always cuddle me!
Sal: No chance. I’d rather take me chances with the dog.
So, that was my first attempt at creating a comic strip. Hope you could read everything okay. Being dyslexic and having dyspraxia, spelling, grammar and handwriting are my weak points. So, apologies if you couldn’t read the comic strip for any of those reasons. The good news is, I’ve drawn the next chapter digitally and it looks hell of a lot better.
This has been one of those posts I’ve been uncertain about (so far out of my comfort zone and the technical difficulties didn’t help). But it was really fun to make, so I plan on making at least a few more chapters and we’ll decide from there, whether to keep this as a regular thing or not.
Thanks for reading. I’m off now to attempt to bring you the second chapter of this comic strip.
Since I’ve finally updated my header image, to this drawing of a cute little vampire (inspired by my niece’s “I see you” face), I thought it would be a good idea to do a little update post. Before I try out a few new things and cause confusion.
But before anyone gets too excited, don’t worry I’ll still be doing reviews, creating art and finishing the Fullmetal alchemist series (when I eventually get time to finish part 3. It’s been tough, finding time for anime 😥 ).
Updates
Due to a few recent changes that’s left me with less time for blogging, I haven’t been able to post as regularly as I use to. This has been bugging the fudge out of me, so I’ve come up with a few little solutions to try out, that are listed below.
Possible solutions:
– A Comic Strip
Something I’ve always wanted to do but lacked the confidence to do so. I could do with a little more self-belief, so I’m going to try my best and create something worth reading.
-If the comic strip idea plops, then I might try illustrated Storytelling posts.
Similar to the comic strip. However, each post would be a different story, rather than a continuous story.
-Challenge posts
Not like blog tags, more like those fun art and 30 days challenges people do.
– An Art series
Basically, a series of fun themed art posts. For example, transforming horror movie monsters into something cute and cuddly or drawing a line from a song.
I’m planning on trying out at least 3 of these ideas and whichever one people seem to enjoy most, I will keep as a regular thing on this blog.
Thanks for reading and let me know what you think of these solutions in the comments below.
Something to motivate me, to do the Comic Strip
I am a woman in a mission this week. That mission being: “inspire some of the beautiful people on WordPress to mess about with paint.” (that’s an awfully long title, so we’ll shorten it to “Mission Paint with Me”.)
So, what does this mission entail you ask? Well, it’s simple. I create a montage, where I climb a really tall mountain with a bunch of art supplies, tied to my back. When I get to the top, I jump and punch the air and everyone is so inspired by this act of art enthusiasm, that they immediately run off and start painting on the first paintable surface they find.
Okay, I’ll stop my messing and tell you what I’m really going to do. I’m going to make a tutorial using my rabbit drawing, to show everyone a nice and simple way to use acrylic paint.
But before we get started, I should warn you that acrylic paint can stain tables or other surfaces, so it’s best to put an old table mat or paper down before you start (I learnt the hard way and now my table mat has blue stripes). Right, now that that’s out of the way, let’s get started:
Step 1: Draw yourself a rabbit and a flower.
It doesn’t have to be perfect or a masterpiece. But if you’re having trouble, find something round to draw around and try making a little cartoon round-head rabbit, instead.
Also, don’t worry about erasing guidelines, if you’re sketching. The paint will cover them and you won’t be able to see them.
Step 2: Line your drawing and give everything a pale under coat of paint.
At this point, I would recommend going over the outlines of your drawing with paint, because it’s very easy to lose the outline under layers of paint, which can be so frustrating.
As for the under coat. It’ll help you plan the colours of painting, help build colour and make it easier to control the paint in the next layer.
After this step its best to let the paint completely dry.
Step 3: Paint the background.
It might seem strange starting with the background, but this allows you to paint closer to edges of your drawing and makes painting the background a lot easier.
If like me, you get distracted and get green paint on the rabbit, don’t panic. It can easily be corrected by waiting for it to dry, then painting over the area with a little bit of white paint.
Tip: If you’re using more than one colour on the background, keep in mind how the colours mix together. For example, I used 2 shades of green, lemon yellow and Pink. So, I had to keep in mind that if the pink mixed with the greens it would turn a brown colour.
Step 4: Paint the Flower.
If you want to try to capture light and shadow, you can lighten the pink with white and darken it with red. On the leaves and stem try using the yellow with the greens, to capture light.
If you find that too difficult, don’t worry. Instead, try painting the leaves and flower petals in a way that shows their shape (meaning, paint them so you can see the leaves and the flower from the background).
Let everything dry completely before moving on to the next step.
Step 5: Paint the rabbit.
Again, you can try capturing light and shadow. But if you find it too difficult, try looking at a picture of a rabbit and painting the lighter and darker parts of it’s fur.
At this point, don’t worry about making the paint look like fur, that happens in the next step. This step is more about building colour and capturing light and dark.
Tip: If you accidentally got green on the rabbit back in step 3, pay a little extra attention to those areas. To make sure they blend in with the rest of the rabbit.
Let the paint dry.
Step 6: Attempt to paint the rabbit’s fur.
This is probably the hardest step of this painting. I find this step difficult too, so don’t feel bad if you can’t do it. It can be kind of tricky to get right.
YouTube and books recommend using little brush strokes, to paint clumps of hair rather than individual hairs and use references pictures of rabbits.
That mightn’t be much help to you. So, the additional tips I would give you are, look at fur first hand (I took a trip to the pet shop to look at rabbits’ fur. They were so cute), try capturing the direction the fur grows in and try capturing the light changes in the fur. Hopefully that will be of more help to you.
So, that was my painting tutorial of The Peony Rose Rabbit. Hopefully you’ve enjoyed it and if you were following along, hopefully now you’ve got your very own lovely painting of a rabbit and flower.
If you have thing questions, feel free to ask them in the comments below. I’d be happy to answer them as best I can and as always, Thanks for reading.
As Disney films go, The Jungle Book has always been one of my favourites. Out of all the Disney movies I watched as a child (which was a lot. I was a 90’s kid), The Jungle Book had the best soundtrack (followed closely by Mulan) and would really get you up and singing along. It’s pretty hard to believe that anyone could resist singing along to The Bare Necessities.
Watching the live-action version of a childhood favourite has put me in very sentimental mood. So, I thought since I’m sitting here reminiscing about the days of The Rugrats and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, I might as well make this movie, this week’s review.
The storyline to the live-action film, is pretty similar to The Jungle Book (1967), I watched as a child. A baby boy (Mowgli) is left alone in the jungle and is raised by wolves. An old bigoted tiger (Shere Khan) shows up one day, notices Mowgli the man-cub and decides he doesn’t want any man-cubs in his jungle. So, demands the man-cub be given to him, so that he can kill him (Glob, that’s actually rather dark and twisted). Mowgli doesn’t want to endanger his wolf family, so sets out to return to the man village, escorted by his panther friend Bagheera. However, things do not go to plan and Mowgli ends up going on an exciting adventure through the jungle, meeting a range of eccentric animals on his journey.
This film is very CGI, with only one non-CGI character (Mowgli). The rest of the characters are CGI animals, which in my opinion were done very well. Granted you could tell they were computerised, but they still looked really good and moved like the real animals (not like some films, were the animals move like robots). CGI King Louie, even managed to thoroughly creep me out and will forever haunt my dreams. He was like a terrifying ginger King Kong, that disturbingly wanted people’s red flower.
To be honest, I was surprised by how good this live-action Jungle Book was. It managed to capture the fun of the cartoon 1967 version, without making any of the characters seem too over the top. They even had a few of those great songs from the cartoon version, which was a very nice touch to the film. The Jungle Book without “The Bare Necessities” and “I wan’na be like you”, just wouldn’t have been the same and just wouldn’t have been as enjoyable.
However, one thing I do have to say about this film is, it’s a hell of a lot darker than the 1967 version and has more action scenes. Although, in my opinion this just sets it apart from the other versions of The Jungle Book. The only other small negative, is that Neel Sethi (Mowgli), acting isn’t that great at times. But considering how young he is and the fact all the other characters are CGI, I think this can be over looked.
Overall, the live-action Jungle Book (2016) is a rather enjoyable film. It has the fun of the 1967 version, while still managing to set itself apart from that version. Granted it was a bit dark and creepy, at times and that King Louie would look at home in any horror movie. However, the film as a whole is good enough over look this, if you dislike the dark and creepy. Personally, I still prefer Disney’s 1967 version of The Jungle Book, but I would say that this live-action version is worth watching, especially it you’re a fan of The Jungle Book.
Rating: 4/5
Its been over a week since the last award post, so I think it about time I made some more head way through my nomination pile up and created another award post.
Combining a smaller award with the Liebster Award, seemed to work well last time. So, I’ll be doing the same again and respond to two nominations this time around as well.
Liebster Award
First things first, showing some gratitude to the lovely Lina for nominating me. Thank you so much for the nomination Lina. I absolutely love your manga collection and reading about your new additions to the collection.
If you would also like to see Lina manga collection or read about manga, anime and other related topics, I would recommend giving Lina blog a visit.
RULES:
Questions and Answers:
Right, time to get this ball rolling and answer some questions.
“Catch Me If You Can” hands down. It’s just mind-bogglingly amazing. I’ve watch it so many times and never bore of it (I hate repetition, so that’s saying something).
The chase between Frank and the FBI agent is incredibly suspenseful. Frank comes very close to being caught so many times, but somehow always manages to escape. Usually, just before the FBI realises he’s the guy they’re looking for.
The fact the movie’s based on an actual guys life, just makes it all the more baffling. Doctor, lawyer, a co-pilot, it really makes you wonder, how on earth he got away with it, for so long.
(Did I forget to mention; the gorgeous Leonardo DiCaprio is in it)
Hehe, there’s quite a few, but I feel like too much of a creep to provide a list. All I’ll say is, Bruno Mars and Hozier are very high up in that list.
Their voices give me Goosebumps, they’re just so beautiful and smooth (getting too creepy? Okay, I’ll stop and move onto the next question).
Manga and comic books aren’t that popular here. You only really get the popular ones, like Death Note, Tokyo Ghoul, Black Butler and Naruto (and the odd BL one, hidden amongst the romance novels). I’m pretty sure most people would have heard of them before, so I’m going to suggest a less known anime, that’s adapted from a manga. Elfen Lied (Elves song), because it’s the only one I can think of at the minute.
With great strength and determination.
Oops, I guess the last question was rhetorical.
I was at karaoke when I was younger and braver/had less sense.
My friends were all singing country, so to not to spoil the mood I sung Dolly Parton – Nine to Five (always a crowd pleaser).
It’s weirdly mesmerising. It’s the kind of thing you don’t know what the fudge is going on, but you want to stick around to see what happens.
Thin crust with Pepperoni and Jalapenos and hot sauce to dip the crusts in. The spicier the better.
Strangest Pizza Eaten: Tuna, canned mandarin oranges and onions. It was a very weird flavour experience.
Strangest Pizza I’ve seen: It’s a toss-up between dessert pizza topped with chocolate sauce, marshmallows and chocolate fudge brownies and the Indian curry pizzas, you get in some of the take-aways here.
Batman, because he doesn’t have superpowers and still manages to kick butts. Also, batman’s villains are so much more interesting and likeable, than other superheroes.
Na na na na batman, of course.
We’d both be Teetotal, drinking Lemonade all night. There’s no way I’m hanging out with batman and not taking the batmobile for a little joyride after. (Batman never drinks and drives.)
The Unique Blogger Award
Thank you very much Strange Girl Gaming, for the nomination. Strange Girl Gaming has a really cool game review blog. If you enjoy gaming and hearing about awesome new games, I would highly recommend checking their blog out.
Rules:
Questions and Answers:
1.If you could swap lives with any fictional character who would it be and why?
The Cheshire cat from Alice in Wonderland. Firstly, I get to live in Wonderland (which would be so awesome), I’d be magical, able to teleport and turn invisible and I’d always have a smile on my face. Also, the life of a cat is pretty sweet. You can go where you please and people feed you just because you’re cute and fluffy.
Oh yeah and the Cheshire cat is very wise.
2.What is your favourite animal?
Dogs. Can’t beat spending time with a big old cuddly dog. They’re just so adorable. It’s almost as good as spending time with a big old cuddly human.
3.What did you dream of being when you were a kid?
Haha, it’s kind of embarrassing, but when I was a child I loved playing house, and I dreamt of being a Mummy and cook the dinner (Glob, I’m so embarrassed. I was like a 50’s housewife). It’s rather funny to think about now, because I really wouldn’t make the best of mothers. If the kid told me there’s a monster in their closet, I’d probably be a little freaked out myself and have to find someone else to go check.
I was so naïve as a child. Thank goodness, I have some sense now.
Nominations:
Since I still have a few awards to respond to, I’m leaving nominations until the last post.
Hope you’ve enjoyed another award post. I’m off now to hide my little embarrassed face in a pillow and cringe at my childhood dream of being a 50’s housewife.
As always Thanks for reading
The Things I've Seen 