EmuArt

Onwards

2009-05-26T09:50:00.002-04:00

So I figured out the code issue that was preventing most of the art from showing up, and things largely seem to be fixed. This is good, as I will have a new piece or two to upload when finals are over and summer begins.

Aside from being excited about the prospect of seeing my family and getting to cook in a real kitchen, I'm looking forward to working on some art stuff over the next few months: going to Hipbone Studio as much as I can for life drawing, painting portraits of a few friends, and animating the characters from Dovecote Crest. I want to work ahead on Dovecote, too, so I don't get slammed in the fall when animation classes begin.

For now, I just can't wait for Friday and the plane home.

Hi there, news, etc.

2009-05-25T12:46:00.002-04:00

So, brand new website! And five minutes in, replete with problems! For some totally unknown reason the majority of the art I've uploaded just won't show itself to the world. While I try to figure this out, please do check out what does work, or follow some links to other portfolios or my webcomic. Enjoy!

New site!

2009-05-24T17:21:00.000-04:00

Hello hello new portfolio webpage!

test 2

2009-05-24T17:20:00.001-04:00

tessssssttttttt

test

2009-05-24T17:12:00.001-04:00

test

Debugging and The Move

2009-04-05T14:20:00.002-04:00

I finally managed to get in touch with the Comicdish admins, and they've kindly debugged the site. Hooray, safe to browse here again!

However, because of the general virus dangers on the Comicdish system, I still can't upload new comics here. Once I can, I'll put up a final notice page - no new comics will appear on this website. So, although the new website is still under construction, as of this week it will be the official site for Dovecote Crest.

So head on over to http://dovecotecrest.com! We're independent now, baby!

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REALLY REALLY OH NOES AUGH

2009-04-03T13:37:00.002-04:00

As stated in a comment by Volker K on my last post, there is indeed some bad code that's been hacked onto this website. I am EXTREMELY unhappy and frustrated that this has happened and can only hope that no one has been harmed by this. I'll reprint part of Volker's post here to inform you better:

"At the end of the HTML source of the page some clandestine script appears after the closing html tag of your actual page, intentionally obscured and thus highly suspicious, which writes an invisible script tag into the bottom of your page when it finishes loading (thus the scrolling to the end), and that script loads a "stats.js" script from a mysterious server 95.129.144.229 that's not even registered in DNS, and this stats.js script then proceeds to load a large number of URLs from google.com, including maps, docs, calendar, igoogle, gmail, analytics, talkgadget etc., plus from csi,gstatic.com -- so this is either some Google Analytics script doing quite a bit of privacy invasion or a major identity theft."

Spurred on by this potential danger, I've gone ahead and done it: purchased web space for Dovecote Crest. You can visit the new site (which is very, very, very much under construction) at http://dovecotecrest.com.

This is a really unexpectedly horrible time for Dovecote Crest, and I can't thank all of you who have replied with advice enough for your support. If you make it over to the new website, please leave me a comment there or here to let me know that it is properly accessible.

I apologize profusely for all of this, and really hope we can pull through okay.

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OH NOES

2009-04-01T14:48:00.004-04:00

EDIT: Hooray, comic successfully uploaded! On the downside, it seems as though Comicdish's recent issues have done something wonky to the site (popping you down to the bottom of the page... which I hate to think might be a symptom of something eeeevil). I need to trawl through some of the code to see if I can fix it - but if it isn't on our end, we'll just have to wait.
[end edit]

Blargh. Okay- so apparently Comicdish, our free host, has been flagged a few times as a site for possible malware/virus transfer. I haven't any bad experiences with Comicdish at all, and I'm guessing it was probably an improprietous use of one of the subdomains, but it's still frustrating to have Dovecote Crest flagged as a risky page by relation. I've been thinking for some time about getting this comic its own hosting and domain, not only for the sake of autonomy but to avoid things like this. I think it might be worth the expense and coding challenges in the end.

This is hardly going to happen overnight. I want to seriously weigh the options and think about things like including ads to offset the cost of hosting (I'd rather not, but might have to). It would be a real commitment for the long term to sink money into a site, but frankly, I'm in for it. As long as Hailey keeps writing, I'll keep drawing, and I don't want to stop anytime soon.

On that note: if any of you have experience with buying your own hosting and maintaining your own site (particularly a comic) and have words of wisdom, I'd love to hear :)

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oops

2009-03-31T09:54:00.002-04:00

Wanted to briefly apologize to anyone who viewed today's comic before 10am and encountered a ridiculously huge image. Sometimes I forget to scale them down from working size before posting. Fixed now!

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YES

2009-03-29T01:26:00.002-04:00

So this one time I was watching Harry Potter, because there was a tornado warning in Savannah and the weather was stormily perfect for Pottery goodness, and I was like, "Hm. Centaurs." And proceeded to waste a few hours on that thought.

Check out the newest image on the extras page to see what resulted.

Yes, this is what I do instead of drawing the actual comic. Or homework. Augh.

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Vote incentive!

2009-03-28T01:45:00.002-04:00

Over spring break Hailey and I had a little time to talk about the comic, and during the discussion Hailey whipped out a script on the spot in the back of my sketchbook. I've posted it as a vote incentive - no spoilers, the comic happened already, but it does have a beautiful stick figure margin doodle by Ms. Bachrach herself.

As Hailey mentioned over there to the left, we're barreling towards the finish of this first storyline. If things work out the way I've predicted, it'll end maybe three weeks before the end of my quarter. I really don't want to leave you guys hanging, but I would like to devote some energy to my finals then, and doing the strip three times a week takes up a lot of time. I think when the arc ends, I'll have a week of filler material so I can work ahead a bit. That should let me get a buffer for finals without the comic being down for more than that one week between arcs. GO TEAM.

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Items of Great Import

2009-03-26T01:19:00.003-04:00

Or, Things About Today's Comic.
1)A bug got stuck on the scanner and the whole time I was inking I kept thinking there was a fly on my computer screen. Should've left it on the final to bother everyone else, too. I'm kind.
2)Mathieu is maybe my favorite character to draw yet.
3)The script for this seemed so short. How did it become GIANT? I'm sorry if the ever-increasing comic size makes it load slower...

P.S.
Thanks to everyone who reassured me that the colors aren't, in fact, a horror to behold. I feel much better knowing things are okay!
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colors

2009-03-24T00:08:00.002-04:00

I've been meaning to mention for a while the color issue. I discovered some time ago that my laptop screen displays color a little bluer than every other screen in the world, apparently. Hence the occasionally glaringly warm colors - they look normal to me, I swear. I may attempt to fix this somehow eventually if it becomes a really hideous problem, but so far things seem to be at least okay. Please just let me know if it's unbearable. I don't want to make your eyes bleed :(

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booooo

2009-03-21T03:06:00.002-04:00

Time to go back to schoooool. At 4 in the lovely morning. Why do no planes leave at normal times? (Is grumpy.)

...Really, I just don't want to leave Portland. Every time I come back it just reminds me how much I miss it :(

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My goodness my guinness

2009-03-17T02:58:00.002-04:00

Happy St. Patrick's Day, you all! I was fortunate enough to spend a few weeks in Ireland last summer, and by far the most memorable bits were the cows, the impossible greenness of the grass, and an abundance of the best mushroom soup I've ever had. There's no mushroom soup quite like the Irish make it.

Being back in Oregon for the week I've been enjoying the rain and gray skies (appropriately Ireland-like, actually). I really should be planning some stuff that's coming up next week in the comic, but instead I've been bumming around and eating a ridiculous amount of good food. I think it might just be worth it :)

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blurgh

2009-03-14T03:30:00.002-04:00

Made it home! Finished the comic! I think I've gotten four hours of sleep in the past three days, so excuse my handwriting if it gets more wobbly than usual in this one. Ahaha. SLEEP NOW.

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go towards the light

2009-03-12T19:54:00.002-04:00

The light at the end of the tunnel is finally visible! At 4am I depart for the airport and for home. Spring break will be wonderful, and I think Hailey and I might even get to see each other in person!

Tangential to the comic: I've been trying to be at least vaguely period with the interior of the Visitor's Center. While Savannah has lots and lots of beautiful historic houses, I haven't had a chance to go inside any that are set up as museums or period homes. The old buildings here are fantastic, though. I pass by a neighborhood particularly thick with them on a regular basis, and the overall feel of the brick streets under curtains of spanish moss never fails to woo me. Sometime this spring I'll take some pictures to share with those of you who haven't been to Savannah.

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Cheatin'

2009-03-09T23:27:00.004-04:00

Today's comic is officially brought to you by Google SketchUp! Seriously, all you art people out there - SketchUp can be an invaluable resource and cheat sheet. It's a 3D modeling program which you can download for free. Google has a huge user-generated library of 3D models which you can snap up and mess with. Things like, you know... a car. Just get the model and twirl it around in space until you have the right viewpoint, and voila, a fantastic perspectival reference. Awesome.

P.S.: A Dovecote spotting! We've been given a little cameo over at Rent-A-Thug, as well as a kind review in a previous blog post on the same site. Thanks Jeff!

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reviews

2009-03-03T00:19:00.003-05:00

A bit of exciting news for the comic: we've received two really lovely reviews! The first is from Ping Teo of Webcomic Finds, who responded to a query I sent out a while ago. You can read her review of Dovecote (and thoughts on plenty of other comics!) here. The other review, from the Art Patient blog by Delos, can be found here. Thanks so much to both of them for their kindness!

And on a tangent: you know how when you're watching a film you often unconsciously mimic the facial expressions of the actors? The same thing happens a lot of the time when you're drawing... And man, has this particular run of strips gone far towards the cause of giving me frown lines. D:<

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Like she said

2009-02-28T12:25:00.002-05:00

It's funny that Hailey chose this moment to mention the whole stage/screen dichotomy, because while I was drawing today's strip, I kept on thinking about it in terms of camera angles and how I would film it as a live-action or animation director. Comics are really just detailed storyboards for film, the way I see it. Yes, you can get away with doing "talking heads" and just put two characters side by side in an endless number of frames, but the freedom is there to visualize it as a real movie, replete with all sorts of detail shots, funky angles, camera tilts, panoramas, montages, and whatever else you can think of throwing into the mix. Thinking of comics that way, watching movies can be a great resource artistically: just watch what the director chooses to do with the camera and how the shots are composed.

That said, I'm just beginning to figure these things out myself and am mostly just stumbling around running into things in the dark. But it's fun stumbling, even if there are some bumps on the way.

(Also, note about the muster list: I'm in the midst of finals, so I'll be waiting to assemble that until spring break, two weeks from now. If you're interested in putting your regiment on it, send us an email with the regiment name and a link to your website if you have one. Thanks!)

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At last!

2009-02-26T03:02:00.002-05:00

So, stuff happens! It's so much fun and so challenging to be the "performer" for Hailey's brilliant writing. This whole section coming up I've been anticipating and dreading since the beginning because of the complex and emotional stuff going on. It figures that these strips would coincide with my finals and end-of-quarter projects... But even so I'm trying to give them as much attention as I can in hopes of doing them justice.

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hats

2009-02-24T00:37:00.002-05:00

In today's comic you might notice that Charlie's hat has miraculously gained plus one accuracy - a little modification following my reenactment adventure on Saturday, which I'll write more about eventually. It's basically insignificant, but gives me an opportunity to say a thing or two about webcomics. The thing I love about the medium is that, being as informal and free as it is, it really gives artists and writers a playground for growth. Consistency be damned! A webcomics creator can easily experiment and modify elements of their work, constantly improving and pushing out in new directions within one comic over periods of time. Sometimes even the limits of a project (like having to be able to produce a strip of a given quality x number of times a week) can create a "necessity is the mother of invention" situation as you work to find shortcuts that let you not just maintain but improve the quality of what you're making. It's lots of fun to visit different webcomic sites (often long-running ones) and compare the first strip with the current one. Often they're vastly different, as the creator got better, more adventurous, more confident with their comic. The webcomic world is a world without fear, because no mistake is permanent and every failure can be overcome just by drawing that next strip better than the last.

In conclusion: WIN for the webcomics!

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things and stuff

2009-02-20T22:38:00.002-05:00

Reenactment tomorrow! Much excitement :)

So, forum: For the moment Hailey and I are going to wait on putting up a forum. We'll get one eventually, but we'd rather wait than rush into it without enough interest to really support it. I did have a thought for the interim, though. A lot of you who have written in belong to reenactment companies of your own - it might be fun to have a muster list of all the different regiments our readers are a part of. Let us know if you'd like to be included!

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Reporting for duty

2009-02-16T23:43:00.002-05:00

Coming from Oregon as Hailey and I do, working on a Civil War webcomic has given me a great excuse to learn more about that particular part of U.S. history. However, having lived a few thousand miles away from the sites of said events has meant that I've never actually gotten to directly experience the sort of reenactment Dovecote Crest is based on. It's been awesome to hear from those of you who have written in to say you're part of a regiment yourselves and share some of your knowledge.

Now, finally, I've got the chance to go to a reenactment myself! The Battle of Aiken in South Carolina is just a few hours from where I'm at school in Georgia, and a very kind friend has agreed to help make the trip this weekend. I'll be bringing my sketchbook and a camera to record as much of it as I can. Hopefully I'll have some good stuff to share with you all when I return! In the meantime I'm just really excited to be going - historical reenactment has always held great fascination for me from the little bits and pieces I experienced back home.

Here's a link to the battle's website for those interested in learning more or attending if you live nearby: http://www.battleofaiken.org/index2.htm

I am SO EXCITED :D

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St. Valentine

2009-02-14T00:51:00.000-05:00

Happy Valentine's day, all you lovely people! The new extras page is live, including the fanart and some new desktops... One or both of which could maybe vaguely be construed as Valentine-themed? Ah, holiday spirit.

On a totally random note, it would seem I am being stalked by Jefferson Davis. Yes, that one. FROM THE PAST. I received a package from home the other day, and included among the various normal items was a thick little envelope with a note saying this had arrived for me a few days ago. Not weird to get mail at my Oregon home; but the return address on the envelope was not only nameless but was located in Mississippi. I've never been to Mississippi in my life and don't know anyone who lives there. Curious, I opened the envelope to find only a three-DVD set documenting the life of Jefferson Davis. No note, no explanation. Just Jefferson Davis in all his glory.

I'm not complaining - free historical DVD for the win! But... how? Why? What? Mr. Davis, remember that you are both dead and married. I'm afraid I cannot return your affections.

(Also: news on the possibility of a forum will be forthcoming sometime next week, I think.)

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