(April 11, 2010) Surprise, surprise! It's all different! First of all, I owe an apology to anyone who waited for me to fix this stuff. Anybody who popped by, regulary or on occasion, to see whether or not something had finally changed- I owe you not only a "Sorry about that", but also a bunch of gratitude. So, thanks, too.^.^ I'm not gonna give an explanation of what's gone on. I write about people who don't exist. I don't write about myself. You guys have come here to be entertained, not to hear my whiny sob stories. So, on with the good news!
As you can see, the site has changed. There are still both of the old stories (located in the "Novels" section), and a new one starts today. "The Light", the first half of the story "The Light and the Mirror", updates on Sundays. You can read the prologue here. For information on the project, click the "Novel" button and then the banner for TLTM. There's an "About" section. I've already finished writing "The Light", and as characters are intorduced, they'll show up on the "Characters" page.
Other things have changed. Finally, after years of dicking around, I've settled on an art style and process that I feel comfortable with. The work that you see in the "Gallery" section will probably only be up temporarily. Pieces that I like for one reason or another are all being redone. Those that I don't care as much for will be discarded. Eventually, the Gallery will fill up with more up-to-date work. If by some strange chance you actually *like* something that's up now (really?), it most likely won't be there forever. At the moment, the Gallery serves as a visual guide to the process I went through to get where I'm at.
So, when will you start to see new work? On Wednesday, "Encircle the Sun" (the graphic novel) will restart. At that time, I'll give a more detailed description of what's going on with that particular project. Next Sunday, our first character from "The Light" will make her appearance in the "Characters" section. Her portrait will give you an idea about what later pages of Encircle will come to look like, as they're done in the style I'm using now.
I know it probably doesn't make anyone who's disgrutled about the long blackout on the site feel better, but I've been using the time I haven't been updating trying to improve, as both an artist and an author. This site represents for me my "other life", the person that I'm not but would like to be, a vacation from all the mundanities of what life actually is. Even when I wasn't updating, I never forgot about it, and tried to set aside some time every day to better myself in what I do here. What ended up happening was a revolution, both visually and in words. I know what I want to say. And I finally know how to say it. I've studied. I've probably spent more time studying in the past year than I did during 4 years of University. I studied anatomy. I studied history and religion. With some help (wink wink), I studied archeology and anthropology. Anything I wanted to write about, I studied. Anything I wanted to paint, I stared at until my eyes crossed and I was no longer sure what I was looking at. I think these things helped me... but you'll be the final judge of that in the months to come.
In closing, Welcome Back! It's been a bit of a wild ride, but I did manage to get enough work stored up to keep this site running for quite a while, no matter what's going on in "real life". I hope you enjoy the things I've done, and if you're a returnee to the site, you have my immense appreciation.
PS: Since this site was designed using a new program (for me), there might be some trouble. If you notice anything amiss, feel free to contact me (click the "Contact" button). Also, your opinion does count, so if you want to comment on the site, you can contact me for that, too.
PPS: Happy Birthday, Dad! ^.^