Lovarian Adventures

Clearing the cobwebs

2008-01-21T20:27:00.000+11:00

Hello, good readers of Lovarian Adventures. I'm not sure if anybody is actually still around given the lack of updates in over a year. I came in and there were all these cobwebs that I had to clear up before I posted this.

I have now removed the broken ads at the bottom of the page as well as the middle section part that points to my stuff at DeviantArt which no longer really shows the thumbnails to my old stuff correctly.

No, I'm not updating the comic with new pages anytime soon. I have some plans to continue the story along, though. However, that won't be anytime soon either. For that, my deepest apologies. I've always said that I wanted this story to be finished eventually but I always had to prioritize my real life over the comic. Anyway, hopefully, the idea I had in mind for Lovaria means that I can continue the story so that at the very least, the old readers will get some closure.

For now, I don't have a lot of stuff but I have been drawing a lot recently which you can see in my DeviantArt gallery.

But allow me to make this a bit Lovaria-related. Here are a couple of sketches I did. One is of Nadine and another of Helix. Well, it's been a while since I drew any Lovaria characters so I hope you'll forgive me if I drew them quite differently from before.

Nadine color test by ~ultorgabrihel on deviant ART

Helix sketch by ~ultorgabrihel on deviant ART

On Hiatus Again?

2006-11-19T18:38:00.000+11:00

Well, yes, I'm putting Lovarian Adventures on a long hiatus for the nth time. I'm sure this is no longer a surprise to my old readers (thanks for sticking around despite the past hiatuses, by the way). With everything that's happening in real life at the moment, I don't think I'll be able to update this comic with any new pages until early next year.

I have free time, sure, but I just don't have the energy to script, layout, draw and add dialogue to comic pages at the end of the day from last week to the end of the year. I've been bombarded with work in the office and I'm still a bit burnt out with the two comics-related projects I had to rush some weeks ago.

My wife and I also have to prepare for our three-week vacation back home in the Philippines. That involves buying the traditional "balikbayan pasalubong" (homecoming gifts) for family and friends. So, at the moment, our weekends are spent going to markets and the mall looking for things to buy for people at home.

Anyway, enough with the excuses. The short of it is that there wouldn't be updates until we get back from our vacation in January next year. Of course, if I did feel like drawing a page, I'd draw one in before then but I don't want to promise anything.

I guess the best way for you to find out when I'm updating again is to just subscribe to my mailing list. You'll receive an email once a new page gets uploaded. Or, if you really keep track of your favourite comics on OnlineComics.net or DrunkDuck, then you can just add this comic to your faves in either service.

So, see you all next year.

7:17

2006-11-07T00:13:00.000+11:00

Yes, it's another update, at last. I still haven't fully rested from the other comic project I was doing but I thought I've delayed this webcomic long enough. And so I sort of forced myself to finish this current page.

I feel it could've been better but I just wanted it done. There were things I couldn't quite do that I was able to do in the previous pages mainly because it involved the settings I had in Painter. And since I had to reinstall my PC along with Painter and not having saved the settings, I had to fiddle around with the settings again just to get to what I was using before. The frustrating part is, I couldn't duplicate the old settings. So, I had to make do with the settings I've come up with now.

Down the road, I may have to tweak the settings a bit more. Hopefully, I'll accidentally rediscover the old settings I was using in the previous pages.

Also, the style I've used in this page is slightly different from the style I've used a few pages ago. The style is something I sort of picked up while doing the Prey short comic. I think doing the earlier style I had was easier and faster to do so I'll switch back to that in the next page.

Anyway, hope you guys enjoy the new page.

Prey Got Accepted

2006-11-01T23:18:00.000+11:00

Remember the short comics titled Prey that I drew last month? The eight page comics that I had to submit to a publisher for a possible inclusion in a literary magazine titled Going Down Swinging? Well, the editor of GDS finally got back to me. Here is a condensed version of the letter I received from him just the other day.

Thank you so much for submitting to Going Down Swinging. We were lucky to receive over 950 prose and poetry submissions for issue #24, as well as over 120 pages of comic art. This made for some interesting reading and, as you could imagine, a longer-than-expected selection process.

After all that reading, looking and deciding, it’s with delight that I can let you know that we’ve accepted the following piece of yours for publication:

PREY

This next issue will be our first in a while to be a book only (our last six issues have included a CD of spoken word), but in the place of the spoken word CD we are featuring the best in Australian comic art. So stay tuned!

We plan to launch the next issue in Melbourne, Sydney, Frankston, Geelong and Daylesford … and hopefully a few more places outside Victoria & NSW if we get the chance.

Many regards, thanks and congratulations.

I'm stoked! This will be my second published work in Australia and the first where I'll get paid. It wouldn't pay much, mind you, but paid nonetheless. That's still better than doing comics for free which is what I mostly do for the time being.

I can't wait for the book to get published and distributed.

Another Non-update excuse

2006-10-23T00:15:00.000+10:00

I know it's starting to become a bad habit lately but I'll have to skip update this week (even though I'm about 60% done with the page) and next week. I believe I've announced that I am working on a comic for the Ponju Anthology book (no this isn't the "Prey" one I did recently) titled "The Busker".

Well, the deadline for the layouts of all the pages including the dialogue and one complete page is on the end of October. And, to date, I have only finished two layout/thumbnail pages out of a possible ten pages and I haven't drawn one complete page yet. With only a week to go, I'll need all the free time I can spare to work on this project as it has the potential to give me bigger exposure and possibly monetary compensation.

So, after the deadline has passed (at the end of this month), I'll be free to continue with updating this comic again. But, keep a watch out on this site anyway because if I feel like I'm not stuck with the anthology project, I might just finish the current Lovarian page anyway as a sort of diversion from doing the project.

Again, sorry for this. I know it looks bad but I hope you can all understand the reason for the delays in updates recently.

No update this week

2006-10-16T00:01:00.000+10:00

Sorry about this. The thing is, my computer got infected by a very persistent and malicious virus early this week. Well, actually, it was one of the more clever trojans out there, so it was my fault for falling for it. Specially since I used to work for an computer antivirus company.

Anyway, I've spent every spare time I had trying to get rid of the stupid trojan using every means at my disposal including using trial versions of the more popular antivirus software out there. After all that trying, the virus still managed to keep a foot hold on my system.

Yesterday, I just decided to throw in the towel and reformated my PC. I realised that it would be easier and faster to just reinstall everything on my PC than trying to root out the stupid virus. And so, that's what I did.

And as of this writing, I'm still installing software on my PC. So again, sorry but I don't think I can update this week.

7:16 Uploaded

2006-10-08T20:16:00.000+10:00

I'm back to updating again after three weeks of doing another comic story. Here, Lili takes flight in a bid to catch up with the Sylosians who had taken Fr Sephriel and Sir Mendoran a few pages back. Not much to say about this page really other than that.

I did employ some of the newer techniques I've picked up while doing the other comic which was good. You learn something new everyday.

Hope you guys like the new page.

Lovarian Adventures News and Prey

2006-09-29T12:06:00.000+10:00

First, the cool news. I've only recently discovered that Lovarian Adventures was picked as a Featured Comic in the newly designed Drunk Duck home page. What a great honour. I so appreciate it, Drunk Duck admins!

Too bad though that the comic has now been bumped off the last 5 list. However, you can still see it listed in the Featured Comic archives. So, it's all good.

Meanwhile, I've just finished drawing the 8-page comics short, Prey, last night at around 2 AM. I just came back from the Post Office and had it mailed express post to the magazine editors so that it would reach them for sure on Monday (the deadline).

I was told that it was okay for me to post the comic online just as long as I don't have it published elsewhere so soon. So, if you are curious to see the actual finished comic, I've created a new comic space on Drunk Duck to host the 8-pager. Click Here to read it.

And here is a smaller version of the actual first page of the story:

Now, although I'm officially done with the 8-pager, I still won't be updating Lovarian Adventures this weekend. I'm just so tired from all the rushed drawing and CG-shading that my eyes, hand and neck hurt. I'll need a bit of rest from it, I think. I should be able to have a new page ready by next weekend though.

Prey (a short comic submission)

2006-09-25T13:53:00.000+10:00

As some of you know, I haven't updated Lovarian Adventures for the past 2 weeks and possibly for one more week. And the reason being I'm currently doing a rush job at finishing an 8-page short comic for submission to an Australian literary magazine that accepts comics.

With the deadline officially on October 2 (Monday), I still have to finish it way before then because I have to give it time for my mailed submission to get to their office (maybe 2 days). So, I have to finish by Wednesday to be able to mail the thing on Thursday. I can maybe still finish it on Thursday instead and mail it on Friday but I have to pay more to get it delivered to the publisher by Monday.

Anyway, I've started cranking out pages Friday night and I've posted the first four pages of it in the forum. Note that there are no dialogue balloons or the Painter shading that will be added later. My priority right now is to finish the pencilled pages (I won't ink any of it). When there's time, I'll add the Painter shading. And again, if there's still time, I'll add dialogue balloons.

The original intent was that there wouldn't be any dialogue. But while drawing the pages, I was thinking of adding a few in there. So, if there's still time and I feel like doing it, yeah, I'd add some dialogue.

So, without the dialogue, is it obvious what's going on in these pages?

3 Weeks Off

2006-09-18T09:49:00.000+10:00

Okay, I'm going to make this official. I'll not be drawing any new pages for three weeks (that includes yesterday's supposed page update). That means there'd be no new pages this coming Sunday and the Sunday after that, too.

I mentioned last time that I'm working on a short 10-pager comics, right? Well, the deadline of it is October 2 which is just 2 weeks away from now. Actually, I should finish by September 27 so that there'd be time for me to pass my submission via post and get to the magazine's editor. That's like 10 days left and I have yet to draw a single page of it! I already have a written script for the comic but I'm still currently at the stage where I'm designing what the lead characters would look like. Drawing a cute pre-teen girl was more tricky than I first thought.

Anyway, the one-shot comics I'm doing is for an annual Melbourne-based literary magazine anthology that features Australian comic art. Submissions should have a maximum of ten pages and in black & white. The best part of this is that there is a possiblity of getting paid at AU$100 per comic piece (regardless of the number of pages). I say "possibility" though because it is also possibe not to make the cut if there are a lot of other submissions better than the one I'm submitting.

And so, I really have to work on this one. The story I'm going to do actually only takes 9 pages. But you already know that I draw Lovarian Adventures at the rate of one page per week. Now, I have to draw a page a day for me to finish this thing in time.

Would I make it? I hope so. Although the opportunity to get paid for drawing comics has always been a dream of mine, a $100 one-off payment isn't really my primary motivation here. It's the opportunity to get something published in Australia again. Just to get my name out there, you know?

So, Lovarian Adventures should have a new page on October 7. Sorry about that. In the meantime, read my brother's new webcomic Life Again. It's a part of our new "Palabok Comics" group. I have yet to fully set that thing up. Ah well.

Also, wish me luck.

7:15 Uploaded

2006-09-12T23:13:00.000+10:00

Delayed again, I know! I have a different excuse this time and it's not because I'm getting tired of drawing comics. So, no need to fear... yet. Apart from working on another short comic (around 10 pages) that I need to finish before October, the delays were caused by me caring so much about the final result of the page. Panel 1, it took me a while to work out how to show that they are in the mouth of a cave being blocked by a waterfall. Panel 2, I tried different poses of Lili jumping for it but I ended up with the one you see here. In the end, I just said to myself, "screw it!" I just drew those two panels to the best of my ability last weekend even though I wasn't completely satisfied with them. I figured I could doctor it up a bit when the time comes to add in the shading bits in Painter. Meanwhile, in Panel 3, research on how the waterfall exterior should look like and figuring out how to render the waterfall also slowed me down. And like in the first two panels, I decided to just go and draw it and be done with it.

I hope you guys still like it.

Other ways of leaving feedback

2006-09-01T11:26:00.000+10:00

Hi folks. I just noticed that DrunkDuck no longer allows non-DrunkDuck members to comment on the official comment box. So, for those of you who are lazy to sign up with DrunkDuck, you can still leave your feedback in two ways.

1. I have reinstated the old Shout Box. You can now just leave your comments in there. You can even just chat amongst yourselves there, if you wish.

2. If you are an old reader of this webcomic, then you are probably alread a member of the Ponju Piggy Farm forum. You can also post your feedback there. I will now also include a link to the actual topic where you can leave your feedback on the forum at the bottom of the description for the current page.

I guess this is also a nice time to ask for some feedback from you guys. If you read this comic and you like it, please let me know. So that at least I know that the effort I put into drawing this comic again isn't all for nothing. And to those of you who are consistently giving me feedback, my many thanks.

7:14 Uploaded

2006-08-30T23:50:00.000+10:00

Apologies for the delayed page. This would count both as last Sunday's and this coming Sunday's update.

As for the page, it's back to the three heroes inside the cave. I should think of an even faster way to shade things. Shading the cave, though not so difficult, was a bit time consuming. I'm pretty happy with the outcome of the first panel at least.

Delays

2006-08-27T22:36:00.000+10:00

Uh-oh. It's starting again. The delays, I mean. Don't worry though. The only reason it is delayed this week was that I had to devote more time in writing a story for a contest I wanted to join which has the deadline this week.

Depending on whether I have enough free time during this week's evenings, the next page will either be delayed by a day or two or an entire week. So, I apologise for this delay coming so soon since I started updating again.

Anyway, I'm still all fired up about drawing comics so future pages should be updating at a more regular basis. Barring special occassions though.

LA 7:13 Uploaded

2006-08-20T00:58:00.000+10:00

The original plan was to leave Sephriel's speech balloons empty to show that sound doesn't get out of the carriage. It's an enchantment, in case you're wondering. But, to avoid explaining it in the future, my wife told me to put in words in there anyway. As a compromise, I made it into mumbling sounded words and faded it to imply that the words are barely heard.

7:12 uploaded

2006-08-14T10:17:00.000+10:00

Oh boy has this page been delayed. Partly because of the time I'm devoting to another comic project and partly because of the Drunk Duck server move. Anyway, it's now up again. Here is a new character, a bard. His name will be revealed in later pages and is not important at this time.

There are a couple of things that slowed me down in finishing this page. The first is the vihuela de mano variant (as in the medieval guitar) used by the bard in this page. I had to research which guitar-type instrument would be appropriate for the setting. I was about to settle for the Lute but I don't like the 90 degree angled pegbox on it.

The second problem was the horses pulling the carriage. I'm not sure how two horses are actually tied to a carriage and how their reins are tied to the horses. I had to look at different reference photos. I hope I got them right. I also had to again draw horses and what their correct leg placements should be, etc.

Well, I'm just glad it's done.

Another delay

2006-08-13T00:59:00.000+10:00

Hello loyal readers. Just letting you know that this page will be delayed yet again, like the latest one. No need worry though. I'm already working on it and I just need one more day to finish it.

The reason for the delay is that I have been spending a lot of time in research for the short comic I'm planning to do for the Ponju Anthology. Today, for example, I've spent the whole day at the State Libaray of Victoria in the city looking at books with photos of Melbourne in the 1800s and Victorian-era costumes.

I also spent some time in the newspaper section. It's the first time I used the microfilm reading machine, too. I love it! I looked at the 1890 issues of the Herald and The Age. It's fun to look at what people in those days consider a newspaper. I want to go back there and browse some more.

Anyway, I should finish the page by tomorrow. I think the thing that will slow me down is the fact that I have to draw stupid horses again. Ugh.

7:11 - We're Leaving

2006-08-06T00:04:00.000+10:00

I had a little trouble panelling this page. In my script, there was just too many things said in this page as is evident with the large globs of text on the actual page. I also had to explain the "Bag of Holding" that Lili has for the readers who aren't familiar with this popular Dungeons and Dragons magical item.

At Doujicon 2006

2006-08-01T12:36:00.000+10:00

If you guys are wondering what happened to me at the Doujicon (comics creators convention) here in Melbourne last Saturday, the scoop is at our Palabok.com blog: At Doujicon 2006.

7:10 - Meanwhile, back in the cave...

2006-08-01T07:59:00.000+10:00

I apologize for the delay of this latest comic page but things came up over the week. I usually try to get the comic page started in the middle of the week and get around to finishing it by Saturday evening at the latest. However, this week, I worked fast on a story idea I want to submit for entry in a comic anthology being organised by the Ponju online community. And so, I wasn't able to get any comic drawing done at all until I got that sorted out.

I could've drawn and finished it all last Saturday but I was at Doujicon 2006 held at Monash University (Caulfield Campus) all day. I'll talk about my day at the con in another post. I only got started with the comic last Sunday. And even then, I couldn't do it for the whole day because of house chores that needed to get done.

Last night, I absolutely rushed the last few panels of the page, scanned it in, shaded everything in painter, added the dialog and upload it by 1 am. I think it looks okay considering the way I rushed this page. Thank goodness I now shade things in Painter. Even something done half-assed gets to look cool.

There was something I discovered while rushing the shading in Painter though. It reminded me of the time I was learning to draw with charcoal. At first I was treating the shading like I was coloring my comics in the past except with a grayscale palette. But since I was in a rush last night, I just opted to use one of the darker shades of gray and just adjusted the pressure of the stylus to manipulate the degree of darkness I get (much like when I use charcoal). Cool. The things I learn by accident.

Anyway, I hope you found Nadine a bit funny here. This is actually the page in the script that pushed me to start drawing this comic again. I thought then that I must draw this page and have Nadine say that line. And so, here we are. Hope you guys like the new page.

I'm Going to Doujicon

2006-07-28T00:07:00.000+10:00

I just recently discovered from another DeviantArt artist that there's going to be a comic convention right here in Melbourne this coming Saturday! It's called Doujicon. For the longest time, I've been wishing I was in the US so I could go to comic conventions and I almost missed going to this one.

If I had known about it earlier, I could've prepared some stuff to sell there. I could've maybe even got myself a table or something. The best I could do is print some bookmarks that I can give away at the convention while walking around. I made a 6x4 image that I can print at the local digital photos machine. Each 6x4 "photo" costs 29c. After printing, I cut it in two. So that's like $2.90 for 20 bookmarks.

Anyway, I should really keep tabs on the happenings in the Australian comics scene. I certainly don't want to miss out.

On another note, I'm currently working on a story I'll be submitting to a comic anthology being organised by the Ponju online community for its artists and members. And on top of that, I'll be at Doujicon all day Saturday. So, there's a slight chance that the next page will be delayed somewhat. Maybe by a day or so. Sorry in advance. But I'll try to get it done by Saturday anyway.

7:9 - There's the camp

2006-07-22T23:09:00.000+10:00

Not a lot to say about this page. It could've been better, I think. But, I promised myself not to mess around with any given page for too long.

LA 7:8 - Featuring Captain Roel

2006-07-15T19:18:00.000+10:00

hate drawing horses! I apologise for the slight delay in this page. It should've been finished earlier if I hadn't spent a lot of time researching how to draw the stupid horses. I planned to draw more of them and at a slightly more dramatic angle but I settled for what you see on the page because I don't want to spend too much time on this.

Again, I'm just reminding those of you who enjoy my comic to vote for me. Also, for those of you who are still not DrunkDuck members, please sign-up so you can add this comic to your favourites and rate the comic pages (favourably, I hope).

Add to Favorites

2006-07-07T12:20:00.000+10:00

Hello everybody. I'd like to enlist everybody's help in giving Lovarian Adventures a better exposure in Drunk Duck. I know there are a few of you who are long time readers who aren't Drunk Duck users. I'm just asking that those of you who are not DD users to sign-up on Drunk Duck just so you can add the Lovarian Adventures to your favorites list.

If there is a high enough number of people who has Lovarian Adventures saved as a favorite, this comic can get listed in the Top 25 DrunkDuck Favorites list on the Drunk Duck home page. When that happens, anybody who goes to the DD home page can potentially click on the link to Lovarian Adventures.

Sign up with Drunk Duck. DD also allows all its users to create their own webcomics if you are so inclined to do so. You don't have to though.

And you don't have to actually keep on logging back in to your DD account if you really don't want to. I just ask that you sign-in and add LA to your favourites. At the moment, there are 9 people who has LA saved in their favorite list. I'm not sure how many I need just to get in the Top 25 but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Thanks in advance.

Page 7:7 - Nadine strikes!

2006-07-06T22:59:00.000+10:00

Nadine is back in action. I just realised that drawing cool sword-swinging action is more difficult than cool lightning-bolt shooting or dextrous dagger stabbing actions. I wish I was able to draw the last panel better but I promised myself never to think too much about the panels in the page.

I used to care too much in making each and every panel pretty that I get stuck in a panel for days trying to come up with the perfect panel. In the end, I still didn't come up with the perfect panel and I've wasted a lot of time. So, I hope you still like the whole page in general.

I've designated Saturday as the update day for this comics but I decided to just upload a new page whenever I've finished one. Even if it is not yet Saturday. Now, could I possibly get another page in before Saturday? We'll see.

Retouched

2006-06-30T00:14:00.000+10:00

I was really unimpressed with myself for page 7:5 so I went back and retouched it. I cleaned up some of the lines where I could. Then I applied the same Painter-shading technique I first used on the next page (7:6).

It wasn't too big an improvement from the earlier version but at least it looks less embarassing now.

Page 7:6 Uploaded

2006-06-28T21:45:00.000+10:00

I'm sure the old readers are surprised to see another update this soon.

Anyway, about this page... I tried to do the page a different way this time. Instead of applying the shading on the paper with pencils, I used Painter to do the shadings.

It's not necesarilly faster or easier to do it this way. But I'm hoping that it looks prettier at least. More professional looking. I also wanted to brush up my Painter skills.

I would like to eventually become better at "painting" in Painter and every practice I get should help.

Anyway, enjoy the new page. I hope to update real soon again.

My Current Art Setup

2006-06-28T01:07:00.000+10:00

I've started drawing the comic again. I haven't really drawn much since I moved to Melbourne from Canberra. In Canberra, I had a desk with all my art implements within hand's reach and my reference books on a shelf nearby.

When I moved to Melbourne, all my art stuff went into boxes and it was only now that I've really unpacked them again. Although I still have the old desk I used in Canberra, I no longer wanted to restrict myself to one room where I can do my art work.

So, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the laptop table I bought from Freedom Furniture could actually be used as a small-sized drawing table, too. Meanwhile, my laptop and tablet are sitting on the old foldable table I used in the past as my portable drawing table.

On the picture, you'll see my Dell laptop and wacom tablet. On the PC screen is Painter where I worked on the Lili Unleashed drawing. On the "drawing table" is my A5 sketch book with all the sketches and designs for page 6 of chapter 7. Also on the table is the unfinished sixth page along with my mechanical pencils and rulers.

I'm quite happy with this current set up.

Chapter 7 Cover Finished

2006-06-25T21:46:00.000+10:00

Like I said in a previous post, I'll let you know once I've finished drawing the chapter 7 cover. Well, it's done. You can check it out at:
[LINK]

I also uploaded the drawing separately on my DeviantArt account without the cover text. You can check it out at:
[LINK]

Page 7:5 Out Now

2006-06-23T16:34:00.000+10:00

The last time I actually came out with a comic page update was back in April 20 last year, just in time for Lovarian Adventures fourth year of existence on the Web. And before that, the last update was in October 14 two years ago! Well, there's a new page out.

I want to apologise for the quality of the two latest pages. Like I said, it's been a while since I've drawn comics and I've grown rusty at it. I hope that I would be able to get back into my old groove given time.

The next thing that's going to come out would either be the finished version of the Chapter 7 cover page or 7:6. It will depend on my mood. When will the comic be updated? I don't want to give a definite schedule so I'll just say that I'll post it when I'm done. I know that to many of you old-time readers, it's a bit scary when I don't give a definite schedule. After all, given my embarassing update history of late, the next update might be next year! But do not worry. I'm still pretty much in the mood to draw more comic pages. I just don't want to give a commitment now because I might just jinx myself.

The pessimistic among you may be wondering, how long before I start posting on the blog about quiting being an artist again. I honestly don't know the answer. All I know is that I want to at least draw all the remaining pages for chapter 7 and hoping that my art improves again with every page. By the end of it, I'm still not sure if I'll go on drawing chapter 8 or just proceed to do the picture-book summaries I mentioned before.

I also realised that maybe the thing that killed my enthusiasm for my own comic was my initial mindset that I could eventually earn something from doing it. I no longer believe that at all, now. All I want to do with the comic now is to tell the story and draw it for fun. If people ignore it, that's fine. If people read and like it, great!

I admit that the story I'm weaving isn't for everybody. The setting itself is pretty typical D&D fantasy stuff with some minor changes and some high-brow fantasy afficionados might be turned off by this. All I want is to tell the story of these five main characters and the setting is only somewhat secondary. So, if you don't mind the setting and you've enjoyed what you've read so far, I hope you'd stick around a while longer.

A New Lease on Life

2006-06-21T17:31:00.000+10:00

I know I just posted a few days ago saying that this graphic story is essentially dead. And that I'll be posting children's picturebook type pages in the future basically just outlining how the story would have progressed and ended after Chapter 6 if I had decided to continue doing this comic.

Well, I had to re-read my chapter 7 script in order to summarise the events that would've occurred right after chapter 6. But after reading it, I now wanted to just draw the whole of chapter 7 as an entire graphical comic chapter. That is, I want to continue drawing the comic pages of chapter 7 rather than just giving it the picture book treatment.

In fact, I've already finished drawing page 5. I just need to add the dialog on my PC later tonight. But, I won't post it immediately.

I just created a Drunk Duck account:
http://drunkduck.com/Lovarian_Adventures/

I've uploaded the archived pages for chapters 1 to 3 in Drunk Duck and will upload the remaining ones some time later. Once I've done that, the new page will appear on Drunk Duck. I'll probably change the forwarding URLs for http://lovaria.com and http://lovaria.palabok.com to point to the new Drunk Duck URL.

And so, I hope my loyal readers whom I have abused so much will be glad to hear of this news of new pages to come. After chapter 7 though, it's likely I'll still go the picture book route. But in some areas of the story, I might go back to comic book mode. Time will tell.

No More Comics... For Real, This Time

2006-06-19T14:56:00.000+10:00

First, thanks you for all the loyal readers of Lovarian Adventures. I know I have been promising you a new comic page to come after the very old latest one. And I have yet to deliver on that promise. The thing is, after a lot of soul-searching, I have decided that I really no longer have the required enthusiasm to finish this would-be comic book epic.

However, I feel real bad for all of you who have stuck with me through all these years only to find out that the story will not reach a proper conclusion. So, even though I'm no longer interested in drawing any more comic pages for the Lovarian Adventures story, I still want to at least tell you how the story was supposed to progress and ultimately end.

I intended on writing just a plain textual summary of the events to follow up to the climax of the story. Kind of like something you'd read in an encylopedia entry for a certain story. But I thought that maybe I can still give you some last time treats while doing so.

The plan is, I'll make still poster-type images of important aspects of the supposed story along with the text summary. The idea was inspired of the "Previously..." portions on TV shows which shows quick clips of past events along with some minimum narration. But instead of past events, how about future events. But of course this isn't TV so I can't very well do TV clips so I'll have to resort to still images that go along with narration (in the form of the text summary).

So, again, I'm sorry for discontinuing this comic once and for all. But if you wait a while longer, I'll be posting some "flash-forward" graphics and narration. Thanks for your support. Come back in a month (I'm feeling pessimistic) to see if I've already posted the so-called flash-forward stuff.

Now Powered By Comic Gallery

2006-02-01T18:24:00.000+11:00

Good news, everyone. I have just fixed up the site a bit so that the comic pages could now be read one page at a time through navigation controls rather than just clicking on the page number and loading the actual graphic file. The comic pages are now powered by Stuart Robertson's Comic Gallery 1.2 PHP script. Hopefully, this script won't be a problem for my host (which forced me to remove the old scripts in place for the Lovaria site).

I also fixed up the voting page if you are still interested in that kind of thing. :)

URLs

2006-01-23T12:21:00.000+11:00

Just letting everybody know that the URL http://lovaria.palabok.com/ is now working again. However, it's possible that soon, http://lovaria.com/ wouldn't be working anymore. I'm still working this out.

Server and Hosting Problems

2006-01-17T09:38:00.000+11:00

Due to server problems, I'm scaling back the Lovarian Adventures site. As you can see, except for the actual comic pages themselves, the other pages in the site has become inactive for the time being. And you will notice that the usual URLs won't work such as http://lovaria.palabok.com/.

To continue to see the site, go instead to http://palabok.com/lovaria/index.html.

Climbing Nadine Done

2005-08-26T10:16:00.000+10:00

Whew. Finally finished with this thing! It'll be a while before I digitally "paint" something like this again. It just takes too long to do. Even now, I know I could've made it better but I settled for "presentable" just so I could call this piece "done." And so this is now the final version of this piece.

Done entirely on Photoshop 7 and with my Wacom tablet.

Still Working on Climbing Nadine Pic

2005-08-24T13:30:00.000+10:00

Yep. I'm still working on the "Climbing Nadine" pic. I decided to go for a pseudo-painted look and it's taking me much longer to finish than I originally hoped.

I probabaly won't go for this style for a while as it takes just too much time. And free time is what I don't have. Next time, it'll just be a straight up sketch and digitally coloured. I could even digitally ink it first before colouring. But not a painted style.

Anyway, I hope to finish this tonight. We'll see.

Climbing Nadine - Rough Version

2005-08-21T11:16:00.000+10:00

Nadine. Climbing. Rough version. I still haven't decided whether to finish this with a more comic-book/animation look or a more painted look. I'll probably go with the former as that is much much easier and faster to do. Yeah, I'm lazy like that.

Also, notice the new costume for Nadine. This time, she will be wearing chainmail armor unlike before if for no other reason than to increase her Armor Class (just kidding... just a little D&D reference there). Anyway, watch out later on for another version of this same pic.

Helix and Nadine

2005-08-19T14:00:00.000+10:00

I wanted to post this yesterday but I only finished it just before going to bed. It's another drawing I quickly sketched up just to meet my goal of drawing something worth posting everyday for practice. As you can see, it's not the most polished work I've drawn to date but I figured it's good enough to upload.

For those of you who haven't read my Lovarian Adventures comic, these are two of five main characters of the series: Helix (rogue character) and Nadine (suspected mentally unstable warrior). Before I start drawing the comic again, I want to create new character designs for the lead characters. So here, I deviated from their de facto costumes.

I'll try to have a more polished drawing for next time though.

New Drawing

2005-08-17T23:33:00.000+10:00

I'm back into drawing again. It's been a while since I last updated my webcomic Lovarian Adventures and now I'm seriously thinking of taking it up again. But before I do so, I will want to make some character design changes including their equipment.

With that, I've posted a page from my drawing book where I have different designs for Helix's dagger/knife. I hope you enjoy this pic while I'm preparing to draw the comic again.

Lovarian Adventures Moved

2005-08-10T20:33:00.000+10:00

Just letting you know that I'm still in the process of moving the Lovarian Adventures site to its new home at http://lovaria.palabok.com/. But don't worry about the URL because http://lovaria.com/ should still work. The comics themselves are not all there yet but I'm working on it.

Afterwards, who knows, I may even have a new comic uploaded after a very long hiatus?

Lovarian Adventures Fourth Anniversary

2005-04-20T11:18:00.000+10:00

Yes. Lovarian Adventures is four years old since yesterday (the actual anniversary date is April 19). With that, there is a brand new comic page (Chapter 7, Page 4).

I was hoping that Graphic Smash would've announced my departure before I post a new page but I also wanted to post a new page on the anniversary date, too. So, there's a new page.

So when will the next comic update be? I'm not sure. It could be next week. I'll try to get one in then.

Left Graphic Smash

2005-04-13T23:30:00.000+10:00

I guess this is sort of official now. Lovarian Adventures is no longer a part of Graphic Smash. Recently, I asked Joey Manley (Modern Tales chief) and T Campbell (Graphic Smash chief) if I could leave Graphic Smash. I believe that I won't be able to update the comic on a consistent and reliable basis and so I feared that my webcomic will just weigh the Graphic Smash group down. After some email exchange, they reluctantly accepted my request to leave for which I'm very embarassed and thankful.

Now, does this mean that it's actually the end for the Lovarian Adventures webcomic? Well, not really. I have a whole chapter of script for it (Chapter 7) and one unpublished new page (7:4). I expect that I will be drawing the rest of the chapter and will go on from there. However, I will probably only update the comic when I feel like it rather than putting it in a fixed update schedule.

The archived pages will be available for free again in the Lovarian Adventures archive page after Joey or T makes an announcement somewhere on their site that Lovarian Adventures has indeed left Graphic Smash.

I thank T Campbell for the compliments he gave me regarding my work and for inviting me to be a part of the Graphic Smash and Modern Tales family. I just feel real bad for not living up to their expectations.

I wish T, Joey and the Graphic Smash creators continued success.

Meanwhile...

2005-04-07T11:28:00.000+10:00

So far, the Graphicsmash version of Lovarian Adventures is still down. I've received some instructions from T regarding how I go about fixing this but because I'm busy, I haven't really read the instructions all through out and implemented them.

But, during my spare time away from home, I was able to draw something at least on my trusty drawing pad. It's another webcomic I'm working on. It's all just conceptualisation for now so nothing is concrete yet.

So while you're waiting for the Lovarian Adventures to come back, you can meanwhile take a look at the pic by clicking the thumbnail.

Rethinking the Comic

2005-03-31T17:35:00.000+10:00

Okay. You must know by now that I've decided to just continue doing the webcomic (art, writing, the works) all by myself. I think I'm starting to get enthused about doing it again. I dunno why, really.

Right now, I'm drawing lots of the Lovarian Adventures' main characters on my sketch pad. I did notice something though. I feel that my art style has changed somewhat again. This usually happens to me whenever I stop drawing for a long period of time. You, the reader, may not notice the difference but I certainly do. I'm going to try and streamline the way the characters are drawn. Minimilise it a bit but not too much. We'll see how that goes in May.

That got me thinking about another aspect of the comic. The obscenely long story line I had in mind for the title. And I think this is also one of the culprits for my losing of interest in the comic. Thinking of the comic pages needed to be drawn just to finish the story makes the task even more daunting.

So now, I'm thinking of altering the storyline somewhat. I'm going to make it less epic so that I can draw the end within my lifetime (and yours). I'll probably cut out a lot of the other stuff that may make it more interesting but hopefully not too much to make the rest of it uninteresting.

Ending the current story line will not necessarily mean the end of the comic itself though. I just want to close off the "current" story line and introduce new ones that I would've otherwise inserted while the main story line is still running.

Of course, even with the extraneous stuff cut out, I think it will still take a lot of pages to get to the end I wanted. So that means that the main story line will not end real soon. It will only end sooner.

Modern Tales Server is Down

2005-03-31T13:27:00.000+10:00

And in turn, Graphic Smash is down. Here is the message you'll see if you try to view this webcomic's Graphic Smash page as of this writing:

Since the MT servers are down, you also won't be seeing the current page on the lovaria.com home page. Don't worry though. I'm sure Joey and the MT guys are doing everything in their power to bring the servers back up and running as soon as possible.

Artist Hunt Over

2005-03-30T10:05:00.000+10:00

Yes. The past few days got me thinking that I'm not really too comfortable handing over the art chores to anybody but my own brother. Anyway, I'll just continue drawing the webcomic myself.

The art quality may dip a bit while I find my groove. But at least the comic should continue beyond May without incident.

Sorry to those interested in the art job. Thanks for everybody's patience.

Replacement Artist Wanted

2005-03-21T14:46:00.000+11:00

Richard aka ToonerFish called me Saturday night after he found that I'm having some dilemmas with the comic. He suggested that maybe what I need is to get an artist to take over for me.

I've actually thought about this in the past, too, with my brother Ringjo taking over from me. However, I know he is busy so if he does take on the art chores, I don't know how reliable he could be in following update schedules. So maybe I should just make the artist role available her on my blog to anybody who may be interested.

Here are some details regarding the "vacant position" for those who are interested. The artist will have to make the comic pages based on a prose-like "script" I write rather than the expected professional comic script.

Here is a sample prose for one comic page:

Nadine strikes a gargoyle with Blade effectively. Nadine says, "One down, five left. You two can go find some place to hide while Blade and I take care of these flying stone monstrosities!"

Helix is amazed for a second or two. Then he recovers, "Uh… No way I'm going to leave you to fight these gargoyles by yourself."

Lili tries to stop Helix. "But Helix, like you said, gargoyles can only be harmed by enchanted weapons."

"Who said I didn't have an enchanted weapon?" Helix winked.

As you can see, I do not specify how many panels there should be nor what should be in each panel. The artist will have a bit of leeway in terms of comic page layout and design. The artist is expected to figure in the dialog balloons and the dialog text in the font I'm prescribing. I would have the right in the end to modify the text and/or dialog balloons for the final version of the pages.

The artist will be expected to complete at least two pages per week but if he can work faster, then that will be better as I'm also really keen on increasing the update frequency to three pages per week.

The artist does not need to have the same art style as I do. The artist can make the pages at the minimum be all pencils. The artist has the option to make the pages inked and/or coloured if he/she feels he/she can keep up the quality and quantity of pages.

Now, here is the main thing to watch out for: you will not get paid for doing this. You will be credited as the artist of the comic but that is it. However, since Lovarian Adventures is now under Graphic Smash, I'm supposed to get some share of the profits from Graphic Smash. So far, I haven't received anything yet but when I do, the artist may get 40% of what I receive from Graphic Smash.

Last, I need the artist to be able to commit to this project for a year at the very least. So, if you don't think you cannot fulfill any of my requirements and expectations, don't bother volunteering for this position.

For any of you who are still interested, you can use the sample page "script" I have provided above and draw a page out of that. Then, redesign and redraw the current page. The two pages should be shrunk down to 500 pixels wide and 751 pixels high and should not be bigger than 11okb.

Send your submissions to gabefua@gmail.com. I'll have my friends take a look at them and let them decide who the new artist will be.

Anybody interested?

Not Into It Anymore

2005-03-17T11:13:00.000+11:00

I guess, to be honest, I was never into it for a long time. By "it" I mean drawing and writing my webcomic Lovarian Adventures. I've posted in the past about my lack of willingness to continue this comic and I thought having been offered a spot on the respectable Graphic Smash roster would revitalise my ebbing enthusiasm for the project.

At first, it really did. I was very excited to put together my little homepage and archives on the Graphic Smash site. I edited the older pages to make them more presentable. I wrote a more polished script for the upcoming Chapter 7 of the story. But when it came to actually drawing the comic, I procrastinated a lot. The excitement wasn't there. I'm actually half-way through page 4 of Chapter 7 but my heart wasn't into it.

I had a hard thought about it and these are what I thought may be the reasons for my lack of enthusiasm for my own comic nowadays:

I started this comic back in 2001 only to test and hone my art skills in preparation for a totally different comic book story I really wanted to make. Since it was to be a test comic, I just made a comic I know I'd be very comfortable in making: a comic based on a fantasy world I know by heart (because it was a setting I used for my old Dungeons and Dragons campaign) with characters I'm familiar with (having drawn a lot of Tolkienesque fantasy characters before I started the project). It being a test comic, I never expected it to do well during its first year in the web.
The story and premise is not unique. I did not design it to be unique right fromt he start. Anybody who drops by will know that it's just another Tolkien rip-off or D&D inspired story. Although I haven't received a lot of feedback from readers explicitely complaining about this, I know this for a fact. And to me, that makes me unoriginal. Although nobody is saying it to my face, I know a lot of passers-by would be thinking so.
I created a story that will not end any time soon. Two years into doing this comic and I was still at the very beginning of the story. It was then I realised that in order to finish this story, I'd have to update more often but even then, it'd take me several years to end this story. In hindsight, I wish I started with a simpler story. Something I can end in less than a year so that if my feelings about the comic change, I can conceivably endure drawing the comic until I finish it then move on to a different story.
I'm not receiving a lot of feedback about the comic lately. I cannot fault the old time readers for not giving feedback though as they've already read the pages that are being shown as current at this moment. Also, based on the stats I have on the comic, it's not doing as good as it did like two years ago. So, no feedback and low readership would additionally (and probably) equate to my having a small share of the divvy come payday at Modern Tales (though I don't think money would make a difference anymore). That makes me think, "why am I continuing to do this comic again?"

So, would I continue unwillingly or should I simply resign now and give my slot to some other webcomic artist who will be more willing to draw comics and in turn would be more worthy of the Graphic Smash spot I'm currently occupying?

I don't know what I'll do but I should decide soon. The earlier I decide on a course of action, the better it will be for everybody (readers, the people at Graphic Smash and me).

Not Stuffed

2005-03-15T17:34:00.000+11:00

Yep. I was fortunately able to save a copy of the finished chapter 7 script in my office PC. Whew. I couldn't really bear the thought of having to rewrite most of it from memory when I thought I lost the final script. Well, I'm breathing easier now.

Stuffed

2005-03-13T00:54:00.000+11:00

Yep. I'm stuffed. I recently upgraded my PDA from a Sony Clie to an iPAQ hx2110. The thing is, I wrote the entire chapter 7 script on the Clie. And when I started using the iPAQ, I moved most of the documents I had on the Clie. Thought, Clie files aren't exactly 100% compatible with iPAQ so it wasn't a simple matter of copying files over. So, I missed some important ones. One being the Chapter 7 script!

Since I don't really need the Clie anymore, I decided to sell it on eBay. So I prepared it and its accessories for selling. Included in my preparation was that did a hard-reset on the Clie (equivalent of reformatting the PC).

I only realised that I do not have the current version of the Chapter 7 script when I wanted to start drawing the pages early today. Darn it.

Chapter 7 Script Finished

2005-02-16T11:50:00.000+11:00

Well met, folks. I'm just informing everybody that I've finished scripting the rest of Chapter 7 (the chapter that comes after the one currently running). I originally slated the start of Chapter 7 around May. Now, depending on how fast I draw up the Chapter 7 pages, I may change the update frequency of the comic.

So, if I'm doing well in drawing the Chapter 7 pages, I'll probably change the update frequency from Tuesdays and Thrusdays (twice a week) to Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays (thrice a week). Doing so will move the start of Chapter 7 to an earlier date.

This isn't 100% sure yet but I just want to give you guys a heads up that there is a possibility of an update schedule change.

So that you won't miss any announcements, I recommend you sign up for the Lovarian Adventures Mailing List. That's all for now, folks.

Edited

2005-02-15T14:06:00.000+11:00

Last night, T Campbell, my editor at Graphic Smash just sent me an email enumerating the corrections I need to apply on all the dialogue and text on my comics which was running since April 2001.

It was a pretty long list of corrections. After reading the problems, I went, "D'oh!" I couldn't believe some of the mistakes I made:

Missing periods and commas.

Redundant words like using "also" and "too" in the same sentence.

Adding spaces where there shouldn't be, like "black smith" instead of just "blacksmith." (I know this one! D'oh!)

Removing spaces where there should be, like "bestfriend" instead of "best friend."

Mixed tenses. This gets me everytime.

Applying emphasis on the wrong word like "SURE is hot" instead of "Sure is HOT."

For a moment, I felt offended when I received the email regarding the necessary corrections. Just for a moment, though. I felt the same way back in university whenever I submitted an article for the school paper and the editor corrected my work. I just couldn't help it.

But I understood that that's what editors do. And that the corrections they asked for were, well, correct. In the end, I'd rather they catch the mistakes early so that I will have the time to fix them even before the reader gets to see the pages. Also, I get to learn stuff that I never knew before. An example is that I didn't know it's supposed to be "sic 'em" and not "sick 'em."

I guess I'm saying that I do appreciate the head's up by the editor on the mistakes I've made.

Anyway, last night, I applied the corrections for Chapters one and two already. It took me some time to do because I made some minor changes to the pages I was correcting, too, such as changing the font and applying little cosmetic touch-ups on the old drawings. I'll be working on the rest of the chapters tonight when I get home.

Graphic Smash Enabled

2005-02-04T17:32:00.000+11:00

I have now uploaded my archives over in Graphic Smash. And thus, the Lovarian Adventures archives on the home site has now been removed. The new archives can now only be accessed through Graphic Smash by being a paid subscriber.

However, even if you aren't a paid subscriber, you'll still be able to see the latest page for free. The downside there is that you must always check to make sure you aren't missing out on an update.

The update schedule I've chosen right now is twice a week updates on Tuesdays and Thursdays. So this coming Tuesday, February 8, the first page of Chapter 6 will appear on the Graphic Smash Lovarian Adventures page. Then page 2 on February 10 and so forth.

And yes that's right. I said Chapter 6 and not Chapter 7. I'll be drawing the rest of Chapter 7 while the Chapter 6 pages are published one page at a time in the 2x weekly update schedule. So for those of you who've been reading my comic in the past, 7:1 will be available on the 3rd of May. And a totally brand new page (7:4) should be available on the 12th of May, Thursday.

If I was able to successfully build up my buffer pages, the twice a week schedule will remain the update schedule even after the 12th of May.

Thanks everybody.

Welcomed to Graphic Smash

2005-02-02T16:49:00.000+11:00

Today, Graphic Smash editor T Campbell and Joey Manley, founder of Graphic Smash and Modern Tales officially welcomed me along with Zack Giallongo of Tenth Life of Pishio the Cat fame and Steve Hogan of Acid Keg fame to the Graphic Smash family of adventure and action webcomics.

That's right. It's official now. In a week's time (maybe less), the Lovarian Adventures comic archives will be removed from the Lovaria site and will be made available on Graphic Smash for subscribers. I'd most likely do the migration during the weekend.

So if you want to continue reading the archives next week, you better subscribe to Graphic Smash. Also if you are asked which comic tempted you to join, choose Lovarian Adventures.

Some of you may not want to become Graphic Smash subscribers because you either don't want to or can't pay. As long as you regularly visit the Lovarian Adventures home page, you'll still be able to follow the story with no problems because the latest page is always free.

I've already partially worked out what will go to what pages for the rest of Chapter 7. I still have to draw it though. At least, there's finally progress again with the Lovarian Adventures comic, right?

It's Not a Japanese Nadine

2005-01-23T01:16:00.000+11:00

I've posted a while back that I may have found somebody who drew a character that looked like Nadine. But then Xellos informed me that the character that looked like Nadine in that shot is actually a character called Saber in an H-Game called Fate/Stay Night (see the character on the left). Here is an unofficial Fate/Stay Night Game Homepage. Unfortunately I cannot link the official site (in Japanese) because it contains rude pictures that may cause me to violate some rules on my host.

Click on the character to see more pics from the Fate/Stay Night game. And also click here for a fanart of the same character.

Wow. Seems like I made a fool of myself in the older post as this character seems to be popular among Japanese or people who follow Japanese trends. It's just uncanny how the character designs are similar.

I wonder when this character was created because I fear that people will think that it was I who copied this character's design when in fact I've never heard of this Saber character till now. I wonder.

Nadine Slays Gargoyle Print for Sale

2005-01-19T09:51:00.000+11:00

If you are interested, a 4x6 print of the Nadine Slays Gargoyle image is available for $2.49 at my DeviantArt Store.

Japanese Nadine?

2005-01-18T09:40:00.000+11:00

To those who've been following my webcomic long, you'd know that I favour the use of OpenCanvas 3 when I draw digital art. So, yesterday, I wanted to check OpenCanvas's website for updates and entered their Japanese site instead at http://www.portalgraphics.net/.

While there, I found out that in Japan, OpenCanvas 4 is already out. Not only that. There is also a totally new software from them called FrameToon which creates animation and saves it in shockwave/flash format. There are two short sample animations created using this tool on their site here by clicking on the first big pink button (for animation 1) and the first big green button (for animation 2).

I thought the sample animations were cool so I went and browsed through the amateur FrameToon user submissions. Then, I came upon this one:

Click here to see the actual page.

The image of the female this person drew looks suspiciously like Nadine, a female warrior character on my Lovarian Adventures webcomic. Here is an image I drew before that shows Nadine (the left most character) and the rest of the cast of the comic.

Notice that both characters have blonde pulled back hair with bangs (though not exactly the same blonde colour but blonde still), blue shirt with yellow lining and metallic shoulder armour. Interesting.

I guess I don't really mind if it is intended as a future piece of fanart but if the person is going to claim the design as his/her own, then I would probably take offence. The other possibility of course is that it is merely coincidental that the person created a female blonde character with a blue and yellow shirt with a metallic shoulder armour. I think that highly unlikely though.

I'm just surprised to encounter Nadine's visage somewhere out in the web.

Nadine Slays Gargoyle!

2005-01-17T10:50:00.000+11:00

It's finally finished! I've been working on this image of Nadine fighting off a gargoyle based on the what's currently. Note that this is not actually page 7:4 but only a poster-type image depicting Nadine slaying one of the gargoyles attacking them.

I was working on this image as a sort of practice piece to get myself to drawing something again in preparation of Lovarian Adventures's move to Graphic Smash. I need to draw lots of buffer pages before I start on March so that I won't ever be late in delivering new pages.

I thought, might as well do something that the old readers will like. Which was a sort of continuation to where I left off several months ago. And also to answer one of those nagging questions: is Blade really an enchanted weapon? What do you think now, huh, Helix?

Anyway, it took some time to complete but I finally did. A lot of the delays involved having to relearn how to do a poster type image like this. It's been a while since I've really done any digital art work. Although I think it could be better, I'm already satisfied with how it worked out.

I've placed the shrunk 500 x 750 version on the front page of the site but if you'd like the full 600 x 900 version, click here to see it in my DeviantArt gallery.

Palabok.com Officially Ready

2005-01-10T16:42:00.000+11:00

Just wanted everybody to know that if you are interested in what I'm doing outside of the Lovarian Adventures webcomic, I now share a personal blog with my wife Raquel at http://palabok.com/.

Not related to this post is the news that I have sent Graphic Smash a signed contract that should have Lovarian Adventures run in their service from March to September this year. I'm not sure if that means I'm as good as in but so far I haven't received any details as to what to do next.

In the meantime, I'm currently practicing drawing again as I seem to have lost my mojo (in terms of drawing) and everything I draw seems like crap to me. I'm also working on the story as a whole.

I'll keep you guys posted.

Our Palabok.com Blog Almost Ready

2005-01-07T14:18:00.000+11:00

Palabok.com is a joint-blog and home site for me and Raquel and it's ready for viewing. It's not currently perfect yet but we're getting there. It should at least be presentable enough to show to people.

I posted earlier on my current blog, The Geejay Journal that I'll be posting my blogs in English there and in Tagalog at Palabok but I just realised that doing it that way will just be too much trouble. I also discovered that I'm having an unpleasant time trying to write a blog in Tagalog.

So I'll probably just discontinue updating my current blog and post all of my personal blogs at Palabok in English and Lovarian-related stuff here. I'll probably write Tagalog posts there, too, if I deem the topic I want to discuss is too sensetive (like talking about a non-Filipino here in Australia) that I cannot risk that person finding out what I had to say about him/her or his/her activities.

I also mentioned in a previous post that I'll probably make the Geejay Journal blog as the official blog for the Lovarian Adventures webcomic page but I think I'll just continue using this one and just retire that blog completely.

There'd probably be double posts still though between this blog and the Palabok blog as I may want to inform my non-comic reading friends about something important that is related to the webcomic. I'm not sure though if I still need to post personal stuff on this blog when everybody here knows I have a personal blog they can read elsewhere.

Happy New Year

2005-01-02T21:24:00.000+11:00

Happy New Year everybody. I'm not sure how many of you still come back here hoping for any changes but to those who does, you're perseverance paid off as I'm announcing something.

Mind you, this is not yet a sure thing but I've just been asked by Graphic Smash (a Modern Tales sister site) if I was interested in having Lovarian Adventures included in their service. That means that if I agree to this, and if I get accepted (there is a screening process apparently), I would get some sort of income from drawing this comic. And it'll also open up other doors of opportunity for me, I hope.

However, if this happens, that means the my archived pages will no longer be available then. But don't worry. I'll give you a warning when I'm about to pull out the archives so you'll have time to re-read it one last time.

Also, if this does happen, it will mean that I'll be continuing the Lovarian Adventures comic after all. Ringjo may still end up drawing it but I'm kinda thinking of continuing drawing it myself. We'll see.

Geejay, Webcomic Artist No More

2004-11-12T15:12:00.000+11:00

I've been thinking hard about this. I've been thinking about this for a long time now. Maybe like two years now. It's time I admit to myself that I'm not really that intersted in drawing comics for the long term. So you heard it right. I'm throwing in the towel.

That does not mean though that I would abandon drawing completely. I just don't think I want to continue drawing a sequential art every week for what would probably be the rest of my life. However, I do still want to continue telling the Lovarian Adventures story.

I'll be taking up the offer of my brother to take over the drawing chores of the webcomic while I assume the role of writer. Unfortunately, my brother told me that until he has a new PC at home, it is unlikely he'll be able to help me out (he has no decent scanner and his current PC is too slow and at the throes of digital death).

So unless there is one of you willing to draw the comic for me in my specifications and is willing to accept a non-professional looking script to work with, Lovarian Adventures is now returning to hiatus mode. It's no longer because I don't have the free time to continue the webcomic. It's more because I no longer have the enthusiasm to draw another page.

Thanks to everybody who has stuck with me for this long. And big apologies to everybody.

It is Done

2004-11-02T14:48:00.000+11:00

I have finished moving the site to it's new home at Raquel's and my website at Palabok.com. So please, change your bookmarks to point to the new URL:

http://palabok.com/lovaria/

The old URL of http://lovaria.com/ will continue to work as I have set it to redirect any page requests to the new site. At the moment though, it's still pointing to the original site. It'll take 24 to 48 hours for the change to take effect.

The old URL is guaranteed to work until March 2005 only. After that, I will seriously rethink on whether to keep the domain name or not. It's an additional cost for me that I don't really need. So better if you just change your bookmarks to the new URL.

Almost Done

2004-10-31T22:52:00.000+11:00

I've just finished the most basic of services for the new Lovarian home site. Sections where I used third-part PHP-based applications won't be making the move to the new site but shouldn't impact the main purpose of the site: provide a home for the Lovarian Adventures webcomic.

Now, http://palabok.com/lovaria/ is still not ready because at this time, my host is doing some special server maintenance work. Once they're done, I can upload the files to the new URL. After that, we'll pull the plug from the http://lovaria.com/ site.

Meanwhile, here is a snapshot of the Sims 2 game I'm playing. Nadine and Helix are getting along well without my controlling them.

Moving Out This Weekend

2004-10-29T15:46:00.000+10:00

We went through our finances just the other day and realised that we are spending too much on a lot of miscellaneous stuff that we need to cut down. One of the things that we decided that needed to be cut down is the Lovarian site.

At the moment, we are paying for two webhostings (the current Lovarian site and the our new personal Palabok.com site). Although the newer one is still pretty bare, we are probably going to find that hosting much more useful in the long term than the PHP-only powered Lovarian site.

So what will happen is that tomorrow, I'll be moving any moveable files from the old Lovaria site into the new web host. Although I originally wanted to redevelop the whole website into ASP.Net, I'm just going to reprogram the PHP stuff from the old webpages into Classic ASP for now. The sooner I move the stuff the to new site, the sooner we can shut down the old one and stop paying the monthly fees for it.

Sadly, not everything can easily be ported to the new ASP/ASP.Net host. The current gallery will no longer be available in the new site. I'm going to probably get an ASP/ASP.Net driven gallery software for the new site or develop my own from scratch. But at the moment, I'll just make sure that the webcomic pages will be accessible in the new site.

I'm still thinking of keeping the lovaria.com domain name since it really doesn't cost that much and it's like 10 dollars per year. I'll just have to redirect it to the new site once the old site goes offline for good.

So, I'm not sure if there is going to be a new comic page next week. But if I'm up for it, there might just be. But as it is, it is unlikely.

While I'm writing this blog, I might as well thank those of you who still support this webcomic even if it isn't updating that often lately. I'm actually embarassed that you are actively voting for it when I haven't been updating really. Thanks.

Lovarian Sims

2004-10-28T01:56:00.000+10:00

Just to keep you guys occupied for the time being, here is a snapshot of a Sims 2 family I made based on the heroes of Lovarian Adventures:

Just to be sure, from left to right are Helix, Nadine, Sephriel, Lili and Mendoran. Yeah, I know Mendoran looks frail here but I don't have much of a choice. Limited selections and all that. The same goes for their "costumes" here. I had to choose the nearest thing. Hope you guys like it.

7:3 Uploaded

2004-10-14T22:12:00.000+10:00

Yep. It's a new page and it's exactly one week later from my previous update. However, I'm not totally happy with the last few panels of this page. Ah well. Hope you all enjoy it anyway.

My Webcomic Page Making Process

2004-10-14T10:54:00.000+10:00

There are some people who have always been wanting me to tell them the steps behind making Lovarian Adventures webcomic pages. I've told them some people some of the steps but I don't believe I've written anything that lists all the steps involved. Since I'm in the mood to write today, I've decided to outline the process I use to create webcomic pages.

The Story
Before I even start drawing a page, I must have a story for that page. I do not have an actual script though. Instead of writing a script, I write a short-story-like prose about what's going to take place. These short stories are not meant to be read by others. I meant to only be used by myself as guides into drawing the comic pages.

Example Excerpt (used for last part of 7:1, whole of 7:2 and start of 7:3):

Meanwhile, inside one of the wagons passing in front of the steps, Mendoran and Sephriel finally snapped out of the Cursor's spell.

"Where are they taking us?" asked Sephriel.

"I haven't a clue," replied Mendoran.

"We have to get out of here. We have to save the others."

"It's no use. I've seen Sylosian prison carriages before and I know it's enchanted with a type of magic that makes the walls indestructible and us inside inaudible to those outside."

"Well, maybe this is different from the one you saw before."

Sephriel tried kicking the door open but he was only pushed hard by a strong unseen force away from the door. He flew across the small space and hit his head on the opposite carriage wall, knocking him out.

"Uhurm. Kids," mumbled Mendoran while he positioned Sephriel into a more comfortable sitting position. "They always think they know everything.

Meanwhile, back inside the cave, Helix, Nadine and Lili faced a group of summoned gargoyles.

As you can see, the dialog for the comic pages are derived from this short story. The language I use in the description isn't too exciting or elaborate but it should be enough for me to remember what I had intended to happen for that page.

Also, you'd notice that I did not put any indicators as to where a page should start and finish. I decide what goes into a page on the day I draw the page.

The Template
I made Photoshop PSD-file page template based on a much older page I've finished using my old process of making pages. This page does not have any drawings but I have preserved the borders and panel outlines. I have also preserved the captions below the page that tells you what chapter number and page number the current page is as well as the copyright information.

I have also preserved one line of dialog so that I do not have to remember the font settings I use for the characters' dialog balloons. I can just copy and paste that then replace the text with the new dialog.

Also in place are Photoshop guides (light blue coloured snap-in lines) that tell me where the panel borders could be drawn. I can use these guides to easily draw the panel borders later on.

So when I'm ready to start on a new page, I start up Photoshop, open the page template, change the chapter and page number text to reflect the chapter:page I'll be working on and save it as another file that follows this naming convention: "CC-PP.psd" where CC is the chapter number and PP is the page number. As an example, Chapter 7, page 2 would be saved as 07-02.psd.

Borders and Dialog
After the creation of the new page, I will now add the panel borders and dialog. This is the part that requires a bit of imagination though as I will not draw anything yet at this stage. I take the short-story/script I have written and decide how much of the paragraphs would go into one panel and the next and so forth.

I look at the blank page and start typing up the dialog I have on the story then imagine what would be drawn in the panels to accompany the dialog based on the actual dialog and on the description written in the story if available.

It is also at this time I decide how big a panel is going to be and where on the page it is going to be placed. Once I've decided, I create a new Photoshop layers called "Temporary Borders" and I draw the border of the first panel using black thick lines only. Next I type up the dialog for panel two and draw the borders for it.

I'll keep on doing this until I run out of panels to fit in the page. By the end of this stage, I have a page that has plain black lined panel borders and dialog text (without the dialog balloons themselves) on the drawing-less page.

Tablet Sketching
I zoom out the blank page to 25% so I can see the "big picture" and using my tablet, I sketch out the under-drawings of what should be in the individual panels.

The advantage of drawing at a zoomed out page is that it gives me an idea of how all the drawings would look like together.

It's also easier to draw characters in proportion. My problem with drawing big is that by the time I start drawing the legs of a character, the rest of the body may be too small for the feet I've drawn for him/her. It's always been easier for me to draw small. So with the page "shrunk", it's easier for me to maintain body proportions.

The sketches I'll have after drawing in zoomed out mode comes out very messy. I'll have to zoom in to clean up the sketches and fine-tune some of the details. The cleaner the final drawings are, the better, as I'll be using these sketches as under-drawings for when I actually draw the page later.

While working on a panel, I also add in the dialog balloons. This way, I do not have to draw anything that will just be covered by the dialog balloons anyway. Also, it helps me reposition the characters and objects for that panel.

I could probably finish the page right there. But as I've discovered when I tried that with Chapter 7 Page 1, I cannot make the page look as good as when I draw the page with an actual pencil. And by the time I finish the page, my hand is in terrible pain. So I do not even attempt to draw finished panels at this stage. Sure I clean up the panels but only to the point where I can use them as under-drawings. When the drawings are good enough for that purpose, I stop.

Printing
At this stage, I already have a "finished" page. I have the panels and the dialog balloons drawn out. It's an ugly page but I can upload it like that and people should be able to read and understand it. But as much as possible, I do not wish to upload a page that isn't on a certain level of quality. I've decided some time ago that I'll no longer ink the comic pages but I'll make sure the pencils will look good enough to stand alone. But before I can add the traditional pencils on to this purely digital work, I will have to print the page.

I flatten the layers of the current page then flip the whole page horizontally, giving me a mirror image of the page. I will then print the page on my Canon bubble-jet printer.

Finish Drawing the Page
I will now have a mirror-image version of the page on paper. I then flip the page and I start drawing on the blank side of the page. The printed under-drawings, borders and dialog balloons would still be faintly visible from the blank side of the page. I use them as guide when I draw with the pencils.

Sometimes I just trace the under-drawings if I find the drawings to be pretty enough. Sometimes though, I just use it to guide me in positioning the characters and objects when I redraw them.

When I'm done with the pencilling, I scan the pencilled page back to my PC.

Finishing Touches
I copy and paste the scanned pencilled page into the template as a layer behind the dialog balloons. Then, I draw the actual panel borders on top of it in another layer.

When that's done, I flatten the layers then resize the page down with the width equal to 500 pixels. I save that as a JPEG file and upload it to the site. And I'm done.

There you have it. That's my relatively new process for creating a webcomic page. I think I'll be sticking with this process for a while as it relatively easy for me to do. In the past I've incurred delays in finishing a page because I cannot decide what to draw in a panel or how to draw what should be in a panel. But now that I do all of that part digitally, I can easily resize, reposition and alter any under-drawings I have already drawn. No need to redraw anything.

Anyway, I'm not sure if this will help you in creating your own webcomic (which wasn't my intent in writing this) but at the very least, I hope you found this article interesting.

7:3 In The Works

2004-10-12T01:16:00.000+10:00

That's right. I'm currently working on the next page. I'm in the layout process at the moment where I sketch the layout for the whole page on Photoshop. When I'm happy with it, I mirror-image the whole thing, print it then draw on the blank side of the paper using the barely-visible printed flipside as guide and underdrawing.

I think that doing pages this way is a lot easier on me. Somehow, I get to invision the whole page before actually drawing one line. Although it is an easier process for me now, I'm not sure it will be any quicker to do it this way.

Time will tell.

Also, I'd like to honour the memory of a great man. A Superman. Christopher Reeve died Sunday at age 52. Thanks for making us believe a man can fly!

Working on Things

2004-10-10T23:57:00.000+10:00

Work is currently underway on our new website Palabok.com. Specifically, the section of the site that will be the new home for my Lovarian Adventures webcomics.

My plan is to develop my very own comics engine and shoutbox clone for the new Lovarian site. I'll probably leave the forum off site where it currently is. I will also probably make the Lovarian pages more automated and modularised and place all the actual content on database tables.

Grand plans. But it may take a while to see it all through.

The new host at Brinkster.com is a Microsoft-shop host which supports ASP and ASP.NET technologies (and supposedly our account can handle PHP pages, too, but I haven't really tested that feature yet). Now, although Raquel and I are both quite skilled in developing web applications using classic ASP, we are still fairly new to ASP.NET and C#.

For us, one of the factors for getting a web host that supports ASP.NET technologies is so that we can create a web site and learn and practice using ASP.NET at the same time. It'll help us be more familiarised with a new language that we use at work.

Even though I can probably create all the necessary modules and automation I wanted for the website easily and quickly using classic ASP, I've decided to make this a learning experience by using C# anyway. And since I'll be using a language I'm not totally at ease with, building the new website has been slow.

I've spent my Saturday just trying to figure out the best way to show a pop-up window that shows all the smilies/emoticons you can use on the shoutbox clone I'm planning to make. Ah well.

I'll get there eventually. Once I get past all these hurdles at the start, I'm hoping things will get easier later on.

So, this weekend, I've spent my free time doing some C# web application coding. I'm sorry to say to my readers that I haven't done any work at all on another page update. But they shouldn't worry. I'm no longer thinking of giving up on the webcomic... for the time being. :P

Now, I was going to draw the design page (read my previous blog regarding my new web comic creation process) on Photoshop tonight but this afternoon I caught a bad cold while out to buy groceries.

So the rest of the afternoon and tonight was spent sneezing and coughing. I'm thinking of just getting a sickie (sick leave) tomorrow but I'm not sure if they'll be requiring me to get a GP (General Practitioner aka family doctor) to sign a medical certificate. Since I'm new here in Melbourne, I still don't have a GP so that may be more hassle than just going to work anyway. I just hope I feel better tomorrow.

Anyway, just saying that a lot is happening. If it weren't for this blasted cold, I would've done more tonight. But as it is, I just want to go to bed and sleep it off. With that, I bid you all good night.

LA 7:2 Uploaded

2004-10-07T21:03:00.000+10:00

Hey guys. I hope you all like the new page. At the very least, I hope you like the fact that there is a new page. :) Thanks for all of you who have been loyal to the webcomic even though it was inactive for quite a while.

I don't know when I'll be able to draw another page. At this point, I do not want to promise anything. But at least I feel like drawing again. So hopefully, there'll be another update soon. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the new page.

Almost Done

2004-10-07T09:18:00.000+10:00

Can you believe it? I've finished reinstalling my PC. Well, almost. I still need to reinstall my games. But I guess I can always do that later and in the meantime I can concentrate on my programming and drawing.

And speaking of drawing, I'm also almost done with the new comic page! Just need to finish the last panel with Mendoran in it. =)

I should be able to upload a new page tonight. Barring any more technical difficulties, that is.

Bloody Hell!

2004-10-05T10:08:00.000+10:00

I had the intention of drawing a new page for my Lovarian Adventures webcomic this past weekend but it seems that fate conspired against me updating the webcomic.

Friday, I was all revved up to draw the page after I got home from the company night bowling. But like I said in my previous post, my thumb and wrist hurt and that hindered me from drawing.

So I thought of coming up with a new way of drawing the page. That is, designing the whole page in Photoshop, add the dialog and dialog balloons, flip the whole page horizontally (making it a mirror image of itself), print it then draw on the other side of the paper using the print out on the reverse side as a guide.

Anyway, that's what I was doing that Friday so come Saturday I can just finish the design then print it then draw draw draw. I was able to finish off the design/sketch for panel 1 and 2 that night despite my aching hand. I think it was that day I first noticed this odd thing.

I usually use Alt-Tab to switch between the multiple applications I have running simultaneously on my PC. And sometimes, I hold on to the Alt-Tab keys and wait for that pop-up window that shows all the active applications' icons and select the one I wanted to use. The odd thing I saw was that there is this one empty slot where an icon should be in that window. I tabbed to it and according to Windows, a program called SP.EXE is running and that empty icon slot belongs to it.

SP.EXE? I don't recall running that application. In fact, I don't remember installing it at all. Since the program doesn't really have a window of its own, there is no easy way of closing down the application. Good thing I use my keyboard more than my mouse to navigate through my PC so I know the shortcut key to close an application: Ctrl-F4. That closed it.

I thought it was a one-off thing so I forgot about it. Until I encountered the same thing last Saturday when I was about to start working on the new page. When I found that it was running on my PC again, I promptly closed it using the Ctrl-F4 technique. But this time, my curiousity was piqued. I want to find out what that was about! Again, it's a job for Google!

Using Google, I was able to find out that the SP.exe program was indeed some form of spyware or trojan software. Supposedly it alters the Internet Explorer so that it creates links to ntsearch.com search site. Others say that it also captures keystrokes so that it could've sent any of the passwords I have entered while it was on to somebody on the Internet! Bloody Hell!

I was furious with myself for not updating my Windows XP with those security patches Microsoft dishes out. I should've known that my system would be vulnerable to hacks like that from the web since I'm a Windows user.

Anyway, instead of drawing the new page, I spent that Saturday trying to remove the blasted SP.exe file. I also installed the new Windows XP service pack 2, installed Ad-Aware from LavaSoft to remove all adware and spyware from my PC and updated my old antivirus signature files.

While doing that, I tried to continue sketching the page on the PC anyway. I thought, "there's always tomorrow anyway." I thought wrong.

So Sunday, I fully expected finish this new page but as it happens, it seems like fate is against me finishing this new page. I turned on my PC and it was no longer the same reliable PC it once was.

Something was wrong with the tablet. Yahoo Messenger (YM) cannot connect to the Internet when the Windows XP starts up (it does connect on the second go though). Not all of the expected icons are appearing on my system tray (like the Palm HotSync icon, the YM icon, the PowerVCR icon, and Audio control icon. When I open up the Windows Explorer, it cannot find my C: and D: drives. And then there's also the bloody Gozilla window that keeps on popping up when I'm using Internet Explorer. What's infuriating about that bit was that I just uninstalled Gozilla! How can I uninstall something that is already uninstalled!?

Simply, my PC is messed up, stuffed and buggered! It's at the end of its rope. I fear that it was time for what we like to call (or hate to call actually), a reinstall. I tried to salvage the system. I even tried to finish the page at the very least. And I was actually able to finish the page design. It was ready for printing but then my printer driver was on the blitz too! It won't let me print the damned thing! I tried working the scanner so that I may still be able to draw the page from absolute scratch and then scan it in the end but it's no use. The scanner driver is stuffed too!

My Sunday was spent trying to fix the system and then in the end, formatting my C drive and reinstalling Windows 2000 Professional on top of it. I decided to install Win2k this time because I feel it is more stable and hopefully more secure than WinXP. The other reason is so that I can finally connect with Raquel's PC which also runs Win2k (couldn't get WinXP to connect with Win2k in the past).

Anyway, so ends what could've been a very productive weekend. The frustrating thing is that I'm still reinstalling my PC. I have lots of applications I need to reinstall in it like Photoshop, Microsoft Office, OpenCanvas, Visual Studio .Net, etc, etc, etc.

So yeah. The short of it is that the new page will be delayed. Heck of an excuse isn't it? Bloody Hell!

Bowling Night Effect

2004-10-02T01:22:00.000+10:00

It's my second week of working with Ocean Software and so far, I'm still enjoying it very much. It is a very relaxed environment but the work is still challenging and exciting. The problem with being relatively new-comer in a new company is that I still do not know everybody that well and everybody else knows everybody else quite well.

From experience, I find it difficult to join in on on-going conversations because people would tend to talk about shared experiences past and present. So when the company decided to have a bowling night tonight, I signed up hoping to bond with my new co-workers.

Apart from the thick smoke-filled air of the bowling centre (smoking is allowed there), I'd say it was a very regret-free night. I enjoyed myself and got to know my co-workers a little better.

Now here is the thing... It's been a while since I last played ten-pin bowling. Although I enjoyed the game, I'm now in pain. My right thumb and right wrist is aching at the moment and so is my left thigh (I know it shouldn't be affected but it is).

And tonight, I was feeling enthusiastic in continuing the Lovarian Adventures webcomic at long last. I printed my blank comic page templates and started sketching. To my surprise, I found it painful in the wrist to hold a pencil! So, this is the case of "the mind is willing but the flesh is weak." Ugh.

Hopefully the aches will pass before the weekend ends so that I will still have time to draw a new comic page update (in over four months). In the meantime, I will try to work on the new site at Palabok.com.

We're Moving...

2004-09-30T11:35:00.000+10:00

In the next few days, I'll be moving the Lovarian Adventures website at http://lovaria.com/ from our current PHP webhost PHPWebhosting to the ASP.Net webhost Brinkster.

The reason behind the move is two-fold. First reason I suppose is because Brinkster has this 50% discount offering for their professional account with 1GB webspace, 30GB traffic, ASP.Net and PHP support (supposedly), and a free domain name all for under $10/month ($7.95/month if you pay yearly). So that's like $4/month for the first year because of the discount.

The second reason is that I've always wanted to move to an ASP/ASP.Net host. I'm an ASP/ASP.Net developer by trade so it just makes sense that the site I'm maintaining use the same technologies I regularly use at work. It's just easier for me that way.

The domain name Raquel and I chose for the new site is Palabok.com. It's a delicious type of pansit (noodle) dish that's very popular in the Philippines. But the term palabok (as in "mapalabok") is sometimes used to mean that a thing (may that be a dish, an event, a document) has a lot of added (but not often necessary) ingredients/additions/stuff in it. Well, that wasn't really accurate but that meaning should be close enough. We had the second meaning in mind when we chose the word.

As you can deduce, the new site will not be a Lovaria-centric site. It will be more of a site that both Raquel and I will use for whatever purpose we decide. Lovarian Adventures will thus be moved to a folder in the new domain. I'll most likely create a sub-domain for it the first chance I get. So the new Lovaria website will probably be located in http://palabok.com/lovaria/ or http://lovaria.palabok.com/ or both.

That's all for now. I'll keep you guys posted.

Tablets and Drawing

2004-09-29T01:44:00.000+10:00

Let me first qualify that the tablet I'm referring to is an electronic device that allows a computer user to use a pen-like gadget called a stylus to write or draw on a tablet and have the writing or drawing be reflected on the computer. Marvelous piece of technology, isn't it? Now, that's all clear, let me get on with the actual rant.

I have a Wacom Graphire3 Tablet and I admittedly love it. It's very responsive and relatively inexpensive. I have been using it for some time now but mostly for colouring and "painting" (and by this I mean using the tablet to paint in conjunction with a painter program such as OpenCanvas or the ever-popular Corel Painter). And sometimes, I use it to draw the actual under drawing and/or virtually ink the art.

At the moment, I'm working on a Nadine (a main character in my webcomic Lovarian Adventures) image and I drew it from scratch. It's still a work in progress but you can look at the unfinished version by clicking this link here. I just finished inking the piece and I sure am relieved that bit's over. My right hand hurt like you wouldn't believe it while I was trying to finish it and I cannot for the life of me draw a straight line or a perfect curve with that hand while doing so.

It reminded me of my attempt to draw an entire page of my webcomic entirely on a tablet and it was painful to draw as well.

I guess what I'm really saying is that I've learned my lesson. I will never draw from scratch using a tablet. I'll still use it for touch ups and for colouring, sure. But never drawing or even just inking. It's just not worth the time and effort for me. It would've been a lot easier if I drew with a standard pencil and paper.

I'm also writing this down here so that I have a reminder for myself of this lesson learned. I know there are people out there that do amazing work with just tablets like my friend Ju (see here webcomic ROMB). Good on them. As for me, I'll just be sticking with pencils.

The Other Good Thing...

2004-09-28T23:34:00.000+10:00

...about using blogger now is that I can type up a new post via email and it will automatically publish my blog in here. Also, I get an email whenever somebody puts in a comment to my blogs which is good because I used to miss that all the time.

As for the comic itself, although I have stopped drawing the comic-strip thingy, I've decided to just draw an actual one pager instead. But when will this be? I cannot say. But I do feel my enthusiasm for drawing slowly returning. We'll see.

Refurbished Old Blog

2004-09-28T23:16:00.000+10:00

Ok. Don't panic people. I know the post before this was in year 2002. The thing is, before I started using my very own blog mechanism in Lovaria, I used to employ blogger.com's services. So based on this historic blog, my last postage before this one was back in March 29, 2002.

Anyway, I'm back to using blogger now that their services is much much improved. :) So I'll be posting future stuff using the blogger service and any new post should reflect in here.

2002-03-29T01:23:00.000+11:00

Sorry. No new Lovarian Tales strip for today. I'm currently working on moving the site from the Keenspace servers on to my new host. And in the process, I'm redesigning it a bit. So hopefully, you guys don't mind if I skip one strip today. Thanks.

2002-03-27T00:35:00.000+11:00

Hey people. First of all I've been monitoring the Keenspace Top 99 list and I have to say that the numbers are good. LA is almost at 9th place. :) Thanks.

On other things, I want to discuss the Lovarian Tales minicomic a bit. I am just realizing how difficult it is to squeeze in good dialogue in 3 panels to make the story pace faster. Also there is the problem of what 3 panels should I draw for every strip to convey the story I want to tell for that particular strip. However, the advantage of doing it in 3 panels remains that I don't have to think about page layouts and number of panels per page, etc. Ah well. Everything has its ups and downs (and that endeth the lesson).

Currently, I'm tremendously satisfied with my new forum host at Piggy Farm which is the message board Henry setup for his webcomic site Ponju. Now, I invite you to go to my forum there and participate in the discussions. Or post new ones if you don't find a thread you want to join in. I'm always thrilled to get to know my readers. :D

That's all for now. Later guys. :)

2002-03-26T02:18:00.000+11:00

I have received word from my brother that page 12 is in fact going to be late. And from what I can gather from his message, I think he is going to draw it the Holy Week long weekend. So you know what that means? For two pages now, LA has been updating every fortnight only. O_O It is unfortunate that we haven't built up any buffer pages yet to cover crises that arise. Hopefully, during the long weekend, my brother will be able to build the mythical buffer pages at last.

Anyway, the LT strips are being updated regularly (except for one strip that I missed last week, sorry). I hope that is enough reason to come back here even if the main comic didn't update the past weekend.^_^;;;

I'd also like to personally thank Tommy Heinig for requesting to have the Lovarian Adevntures webcomic be translated into German and included in the role-playing fanzine, Anduin starting with issue 70. :D So if you can read German and is into RPGs, you may want to pick up a copy.

Here is nicely drawn fantasy webcomic you might want to check out: Thelandria by Jien. I love the details she puts in the comic. I wish I had that talent with details. It is still pretty raw as she is just starting with the webcomic.

So far I have finished 2 fanart pieces yesterday but haven't been able to draw new ones yet. Watched to Oscars on TV tonight so my free time was pretty much wasted on that show. ;) That's all I have for now. Later people. :)

2002-03-24T02:27:00.000+11:00

Hi people. I still haven't received any sign of page 12 from Ringjo so I predict that there is a chance page 12 will be late again. But that could all still change if he is able to give me page 12 (suddenly) by tomorrow. :)

On other developments, I was planning to draw the next batch of Lovarian Tales strips in advance (wow, huh?) but changed my mind at the last moment. I had only a few minutes left before me and my fiancee chat on the Internet (she's still in the Philippines) and I don't want to lose momentum while drawing comics. So I decided to draw giftart pieces instead.

I've felt like I owe some of the other webcomic artists (and one non-webcomic person -- you know who you are ;) ) at least one giftart for being my friend or at least for being good to me. So I list down these people and started drawing. So below are a thumbnails of brand new giftart pieces (click on the thumbnails):

Please leave comments in the gallery if you are in the mood. You don't have to register, okay? Thanks in advance.

As for the Keenspace Top 99, good job guys. We beat Meekerz for a day or two I think. But now Meekerz is ahead again by 3 votes. ;) O well. Just keep on voting if you feel like it (I hope you always feel like it). :D That's all for now. Later guys!

2002-03-21T14:06:00.000+11:00

Hello again guys and gals. Lovarian Tales is still doing well and I'm quite comfortable in making them. I've also used Adobe PageMaker to make myself the 3-panel templates that I now use for LT. I print the templates then draw inside the panels. That means I can draw 4 3-panel strips on one A4 paper and I don't have cut it up and use a ruler. ;) I know, I know. I'm lazy.

Also, I have also helped my brother, Ringjo (current artist of the LA comic itself), in setting up his own gallery in my gallery section. You can see more of his art by clicking on the thumbnail below:

http://lovaria.phpwebhosting.com/gallery/ringjo

Ooh ooh! Lastly, LA is gaining votes on the Keenspace Top 99. A few more votes (like 5 votes actually) and we'll have overtaken Meekerz (which is a cute comic btw ;P so go see it anyway) for 10th position on the top99 list. And a few more votes again and LA would have overtaken Life On Forbez (darnit! another cute comic :D ). So keep on voting guys. Thanks.

That's all for now. Later guys. :D

2002-03-19T13:16:00.000+11:00

Heya people. Yes, I know I forgot about the new episode for LT due yesterday. I'll just do two today to make up for it, ok? Anyway, I was also preoccupied. My friend Emily (creator of There Be Elves) celebrated her birthday last week and I promised her something. I was originally going to draw her a picture with some of her characters but changed my mind midway and drew something else instead.

Click on the thumbnail below to see it in full size:

On the matter of gift arts, I have just added the gift art images to my gallery system. I have also adjusted the site menus to point to that place now instead of the old giftart.html page. ;) The URL is http://lovaria.phpwebhosting.com/gallery/giftart.

Another thing I'd like to mention today is the Keenspace Top 99. Lovarian Adventures had slipped to 13th place last week but I'm glad to report that LA has risen to 11th place since yesterday! Thanks for voting guys. I hope you vote some more (like everyday you visit this site). Thanks and thanks in advance. :D

2002-03-17T23:22:00.000+11:00

Howdy people. At last, page 11 of chapter 3 is now up. As it happens, we were not able to put up a new Lovarian Adventure page last week due to personal reasons. Episode 8 of Lovarian Tales is also up since yesterday. I made a slip in schedule of Lovarian Tales last week actually. All episodes for last week were delayed by a day. That is 5 LT strips per week however so I guess it is still okay, right?

I am also in the middle of modifying the whole website. For example. the Lovarian Adventures archive no longer points to keenspace but to my own personal host at http://lovaria.phpwebhosting.com. It is actually placed right inside my art gallery along with the fanart. The dandy thing about that gallery software is that it allows me to create ''albums'' that can store nested ''albums'' and/or pictures (in our case, drawn images). And the navigation is similar to a comic archive in keenspace anyway that I used it as the archive system for my comics too. :D

And now that that I've essentially moved the most important aspect of this website to my host, I can soon move the other easy stuff there as well quite soon. When that happens, http://lovaria.com will no longer point to keenspace but to that new url. :D

My brother is also working on a poster for Lovarian Adventures. It is still unfinished but here is a teaser thumbnail of it.

Also, while I was surfing the other day, I came across a real cool looking comic called Palestra by Crow and Nainami. Go check it out. :)

Finally, I have just setup a gallery for Ringjo in my gallery system. Check out his other work there:

http://lovaria.phpwebhosting.com/gallery/ringjo

Later guys. :)

2002-03-15T02:20:00.000+11:00

LT 7 is now up and shows the return of Syphal the poisonous blade thrower from 1:11 (Chapter 1, Page 11). You may notice that he looks a bit different now that in the mentioned old page. It is intentional so don't panic. :)

Also, Ringjo (I guess by now you know that this is my brother) was not able to finish coloring the page today due to unavoidable circumstances in his office. But to whet your appettite a bit, below is a thumbnail version of the non-colored page 11 without the dialog put in yet.

If Ringjo still encounters any problems tomorrow, I'll just post the b/w lineart version with the dialog in it. The colored version will just have to come after it. As much as possible though, I do not want to show the incomplete version.

As for my life, I'm waiting for my Australian Computer Society immigration assessment in the mail so that I can finally apply for permanent residency here in Australia. Also, someone just commissioned me to draw vampires for him. I'm still thinking about it though. It's not that I think the money he is offering isn't enough, but the amount of free time I have right now is the limiting factor here. That and I don't usually draw vampires and gore before. :P I may have to discuss this project with him a bit more. I may end up just asking him if I can draw a couple of b/w vampire pics. Depends really on a lot of things.

I guess another reason why I'm a bit reluctant to draw for money is because I don't think much of my own skill sometimes. On the other hand, if I do this, it'll help build up my confidence on my own work. Ah, what will be will be.

Later guys. :)

2002-03-14T10:47:00.000+11:00

LT episode 6 was up since yesterday but I just forgot to update the index.html page on my keenspace server. :P Anyway, I saw that some people located the new episode on my gallery anyway. Good for you.

On other news, my brother has finished the inked page 11 and it looks good so far. He expects to finish coloring it today. And from my discussions with him, I can gather that he does not need the breathing room I was talking about in the forum. So as soon as he finishes it, I can post it here. It will be 5 days late but better late than never. :D

2002-03-12T01:55:00.000+11:00

Hi folks.

LT episode 4 is up. It's going to be every weekdays so stay tuned.

As for page 11 of the main comic, well, my brother was supposed to do it originally. Then, he had to attend the wake of my late cousin. So he told me he couldn't do it. Then I told him that I was going to do it. Then he told me he was going to do it anyway on Sunday. Then he told me he wasn't able to do it because the family (including him) went out. So now, no new comic. And it's Monday night here now, and he still hasn't given me anything to put the letters on. So I think from the way things are going, the main comic will be seen on Wednesday at the earliest. I hope it is earlier but my hands are tied here. X( Sorry guys. I know it is no excuse. Gahhh!

I'm going to sleep now. =_=

2002-03-10T05:50:00.000+11:00

Hello people.

First, my brother told me that he is going to do the next page anyway. I just hope he gives it to me early so I can have time to put the text on it and post it. O_O

On other news, I have a new host but I'm still testing stuff on it for now. In the meantime, I've used a PHP gallery script/application to provide me with a Elfwood-like art gallery. So far, I've only tested it with the fanart stuff I had and it works nicely. Adding new fanart in the gallery is never easier for me. It does the thumbnail automatically so I don't have to resize anything in photoshop. I can update the gallery anywhere too. ^___^

So now, the old fanart page is no more. The fanart link on the above menu has been change to point to the new fanart gallery. You can go there also through this URL:

http://lovaria.phpwebhosting.com/gallery/albums.php

It is still in the prototype stage and I'm still in the process of configuring the look of the gallery but it is currently similarly themed to the current website design so it doesn't stand out too much.

I'm planning to get a domain name for my site. It will either be lovaria.com, lovaria.net or lovaria.org. I'm still not sure which one to pick. I'm not rich so I can only afford one. Do you want to give me your input? See forum topic

Ok. I have to sleep now. =_= Very sleepy. I'll just add in the recent fanart additions to that new fanart gallery I have just setup. See you guys tomorrow. Hopefully, the new main comic is up by then.

2002-03-08T03:59:00.000+11:00

Alrighty! Lovarian Tales (I'll just use the LT acronym next time ok?) episode 3 is now up. ^___^ Doing the minicomic (this word I stole from Maureen ~_^) is really fun and easy for me. The constraints, like 3 squarish panels, actually makes it easier for me. I don't have to think about dynamic panelling in this case. I can also be forgiven if I don't do too many full body shots as well (because the squares are small enough as it is).

I've been able to do LT up to Friday with 3 episodes out. I guess I'm going to continue with it now. You may also notice that the 3 LT episodes are shown right after the other under the main comic. This is just a temporary setup until I create archive html pages for LT.

I'm also going to create a script so that other sites can show the LT minicomic on their sites. Actually, right now, that is already possible but I want to create a sort of menu for it so that people can click on it to go to the archives section here at my site for example.

Thanks again to all those who voted and continue to vote daily for LA in the Keenspace Top 99! LA is now in a safe spot within the top 15 at slot 13 (last time I saw). Of course, it wouldn't hurt to vote some more to put it near the top 10 at least, right? ^___^;;;

Oh and here is a fanart by Emiko of There Be Elves fame in Kern's Oekaki board:

Em wants to marry Sarren, you see?

What else... I guess that's all the LA related news for now. Later guys.

2002-03-07T02:28:00.000+11:00

Episode 2 of Lovarian Tales is up. Hmm.. I might be able to do this every weekday after all. ^____^ Let's wait and see what happens.

2002-03-06T10:48:00.000+11:00

Ok, the ''prototype'' comic is now up and I dubbed it Lovarian Tales. The title format is going to be changed to Lovarian Tales: Substory Title but I'll do that later when I get back home.

Want to comment on it, go to the forum or click here. Also click that link to read my further comments on Lovarian Tales.

See ya.

2002-03-06T02:32:00.000+11:00

Thanks for all of those people who voted Lovarian Adventures back into the top 15 spot of the Keenspace Top 99 list. ^____^ Although, LA is currently at the number 15 slot and could be toppled out of the top 15 very easily. So I hope you don't mind if you vote for LA some more. ^_^;;;

And watch for the ''prototype'' comic I was talking about. Again, I warn that it isn't going to be anything fancy but you may still wanna take a look at it.

On other news, my 7-year old cousin, Paolo Porciuncula, died yesterday. My condolences to my aunt and uncle. And this is also the reason why my brother won't be able to draw the next page. He will be staying at the wake of my late cousin everynight until Saturday. So, it seems that I'll be the one to draw the next page again just so to keep the story of the comic going.

Later guys.

2002-03-05T02:11:00.000+11:00

The new message board is great!!! Thanks so much to Henry ''Ponju'' Chiu for the hositng of the forum. ^___^ We are having a blast. Hope you guys pop in there to say hi at least.

Also, I hope it isn't too much trouble to ask you guys to vote for me on the Keenspace Top99 list? I'm just a few votes shy of the top 15. It's in the top 15 that counts because only those 15 webcomics get to have their banners shown. And the banner I have will hopefully attract more new readers to Lovarian Adventures. Thanks for the help in advance. ^____^

While my brother is doing the art chores for the Lovarian Adventures comic, I'm planning on doing some side comics for Lovarian Adventures in the form of comic strips (probably 3 to 4 panels) and it will be 5x a week if all goes well. It will probably have a pencil-only type of art (much like the Lovarian Adventures comics of old but smaller).

I'll get to work on a ''prototype'' of the comic in the meantime. It won't make any sense, I warn you, but it will just be a sort of preview of the type of comic I'm planning to do on the side. ~_^ I can probably finish something up by tomorrow.

Till then. ^_^

2002-03-02T11:29:00.000+11:00

Ok. The new page is finally up. It was finished 3 days ago actually but I just thought to post it now. ^_^ Yep. This is my brother's art work including colors. I'm in a real rush right now so just come back later when I have more time put more details about this page. ^_^;;;

BTW, we have a new Message Board here! It's still in the testing stage but it should be more stable than the one by Keenspace itself. Unfortunately, you will have to register again for this one. Sorry.

More later.

2002-02-25T23:41:00.000+11:00

My brother has finally got into drawing the new page. ^___^ He is not finished though but here is a small preview of what he has already finished:

It'll hopefully be finished by tomorrow... according to him, that is. ^_^ Also, Maureen recently sent me a fanart of Nadine. Here it is:

Anyway, with the help of my brother (hoping he will be consistent with his art help), this webcomic will be back on track starting next week. ^____^ Thanks for waiting.

Later dudes.

2002-02-21T01:32:00.000+11:00

Ok. I still haven't put up the fanart like I said yesterday. I was doing process-intensive stuff on my PC today making it unavailable for me to modify my fanart pages. ^_^;;; Anyway, I hope that by showcasing them here in the blog anyway would sort of make up for me not fixing the fanart pages yet.

Jestana's Sephriel

Maureen's Chibi Sarren

Maureen's Sarren Portrait

And on the Character sketches, I've just finished the one for Lili. This drawing is a bit of departure from her previous look on the comic. But this is similar to the way I drew her on the banners.

The real reason why I'm doing these character sketches is so that my brother can use them as reference when drawing the main characters as he volunteered to take over the art chores for this comic in the meantime. However, he does not reply to my email so I dunno where he stands. In any case, the character sketches are useful to me too. I should have done these before I started the comic itself. But then, I wasn't that good at drawing back when I started. ^_^;;;

On other news, the Hungarian translated Lovarian Adventures (titled Lovarian Kalandok) is going to proceed as planned. Once Mark has published his fanzine, the hungarian translated pages should be available for online viewing. ^_^ So that's good news for Hungarian readers.

That's all I have for now. Check back tomorrow. I'll probably have new character sketches ready by then.

2002-02-20T01:25:00.000+11:00

Hi again people.

First, I apologize for the people who submitted fanart. I still haven't posted them here. I'll do it tomorrow so I hope you don't mind to wait one more day. ^_^

Now, I'm still on a break. I am in negotiations with my brother to do the art part of the webcomics for the time being. He seems okay with it but hasn't committed to it yet. He was asking me for character sketches for the lead characters (including villains I suppose). So far, I have only come up with Nadine and Helix's.

I'll be doing the others (including Sarren) next and will post them here as I finish them.

On to other news, Mark Balogh has just recently showed my his sample Hungarian translated Lovarian Adventures page. It looks good and I feel excited about it. I'm just proud that people who speak (and read) in another language can get to read my webcomic even if they may not know English.

The old forum page has been taken down by the Keenspace admin and was replaced by a new one. To go to the new forum, Click here. I have also updated the Forums/Message Board links on this website so that it points to the right forum page. Your old accounts should also work on this new forum page.

On unrelated events, I have become a Friends fanatic over the course of 2 weeks. I start to dream about Friends and hum the opening theme in the shower. I know it is pathetic. ^_^;;;

That's all I got now. Come back tomorrow when I post the new fanart and also I probably will be able to finish another Character Sketch for my brother. ^_^

Paalam.

2002-02-13T01:16:00.000+11:00

You guys will hate me for this but I will be going for a short break from drawing this comic. I tried to draw the latest page but found that I can't. I wasn't in the mood to do so. Then I realized, I might burn out and stop drawing completely if I don't take a break from this. Sorry guys. I'll be getting out of the break as soon as I can.

Bye for now. ^_^;;;