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Testing LightBox and picture viewer.

This is Lillyanna. A beautiful Avien who will appear in my June novel.

~Silvermist

EDIT: Yes! Now you can click on a picture and it gets larger. *Victory*

Script Frenzy Validated Winner!

I am now, as part of a joint team, a validated Script Frenzy Challenge scriptwriter. LE and I started at the beginning of the month and shortly afterward reached page 103 of our totally goofy and awesome co-script 'Crazy As a Coconut'. It's epic, a bit silly, but overall the best thing to come out of Script Frenzy this year since... well, I joined, I think.

At any rate! Check it out!

WOOHOO!

~Silvermist

Art

I don't have much art for this post.

I'm just posting under the title 'art' merely to inform you that as a writer (and artist), I understandably want to draw my characters, scenes, and stories. It's an urge I can't squash (like a lot of urges I get when it comes to stories) and every so often I'll crack out my sketchbook, sharpen my pencils, and set out the ink pens.

It's time to draw manga style!

I have Mark Crilley to thank for my skills in drawing manga-style so far, and you can check him out on YouTube under the highly creative username 'markcrilley' (I LINKED THAT THERE). Ahem. He's awesome, funny, and most importantly of all, informative (somebody remind me to purchase the 3rd Brody's Ghost!!!)

Second of all, I'd like to point out that I didn't start out like I am now. It took me about two years, loads of practice, and I'm still nowhere NEAR as good as Kubo Tite (y'know, the artist for Bleach?) To any aspiring but discouraged artists out there - You're not supposed to st

art out perfect! Nobody does! It takes practice!

Anyhoo. That said, here's a little comparison:

February 2011

April 2012

As you can see, there's definitely a certain amount of difference between the two pictures The first is unfinished, sketchy, the people are skinny, it's- I could go on. The second one... well, speaks for itself. (and yes, that IS Rozar Altair kissing a mystery girl.... who I didn't draw wings for DRAT. Anyhoo).

It takes practice, practice, practice! And after that, much more practice!

Of course, I didn't just rely on my skills. To have a beautifully crafted, clear, fine, easy-to-see picture, you have to invest in good materials. I got my sketchbook(s) as gifts, but I am satsified with the quality of the paper because it's thick enough not to see through, but thin enough to be flexible. You'll want to make sure the grain is smooth, for pencil drawings, and rougher for paintings or pastels (fine grain for chalk pastels).

Also, although I don't generally use expensive pencils, I do tend to stick with the mechanical pencils because they don't need to be sharpened. Since I almost always go back over my sketches with an ink pen, I like having thin, light lines that are easy to erase once the ink dries.

The pens themselves I did splurge a little on. I have a pack of Sakura Pigma pens, which have nearly run out now (*sad* those are the best pens ever for manga drawing because they're thick and felt-y), a pack of Micron pens which were surprisingly cheap but leave thick lines that tend to blot (but I love anyway) and a pack of scarily expensive PrismaColor black ink pens, which are the haven of this world and I can't replace for a while. I think I have a nice array to last me a while.

Also, I happen to have the fortune of a loving grandma (who is a professional artist), who bought me an awesome pack of PrismaColor colored pencils (like whoa), and I'm being very careful with how much I use and how I keep them. They make for very nice coloring tools, although I could probably do better with them, and I keep them in the same place every day so I don't lose them.

Artistic tip of the day: TAKE CARE OF YOUR SUPPLIES

Anyway, that's probably enough from me. I have to go write a bunch more today if I want to finish this novel by the end of April. So, with all this done, you can probably expect more artwork in the near future, because I'm now in the artistic mood! Hope you all benefited from this post. (Anybody up for a drawing tutorial?)

~Silvermist

Halfway Done!

I am now officially halfway through my April novel.... 25,000+ words and still going strong. The main characters have totally taken the plot away from me by now... gar, my big plans are getting warped... but I'm sure they can take it away on their own well. Either way IT IS EXCITING.

Anyway, that was just a note.

~Silvermist

20,000 words, and 75 pages.

Here is a link to my Screnzy page

http://www.scriptfrenzy.org/eng/user/610428

You can see that I am collaborating this time around, and more importantly, we've got 75 pages (probably more by the time you read this post) [if you read this post], and we're not planning to stop until we're done done!

In regards to the novel, I just hit 20,000 words and feel like a turtle. I dunno if it's because I've spent most of the days on the play or because the characters are too spread out, but it's going a little slow. I miss the team-ness of the original Flight. *sad* Still, I get two characters out of the mix- the siblings Sky and Demeter - and they're epic.

Anyway - MY JUNE NOVEL WILL ROCK THE SOCKS OFF... WHOEVER IS IN RANGE! I am SO excited...

~Silvermist

Quickest Blog Post of All Time

13,000+ words of my novel!

~'Mist

Thanks for readin'.