Life: My Friend, Ming, Catches Things

This is a little bit more random, but my friend, Ming, put up this picture on Facebook this morning.

So, someone said they wish they had photoshop skills to put something in Ming's hands. Said person with photoshop skills being me, I made this after the suggestion that Ming be catching a goose.

 Of course, being the overboard person that I am, a simple goose catching wasn't enough for me, so I decided to get a little festive:

Then I got a list from Ming saying what he would like to be catching.

"Items I would love to catch:
1. A tardis
2. Selma Hayek
3. A Pokemon
4. A furby
5. An ewok"

I went with the two items that were easiest to find a usable picture for. I had found a reasonable picture of Selma Hayek, but her feet were not show so it would have been a bit more work for realism. Also, I loved the amazed looks on the two women's faces for whatever it is that Ming is catching.

So that is all the things that Ming has caught so far...Might still see if I can make the Selma Hayek picture work later on. It would be very amusing.

Life: Full Time Everything

I would like to apologize for the delays in the comic. This is mainly because of scheduling issues. Right now I am a full time employee and student. I am also a full time wife. I cannot possibly do so many things at once. Right now I am in two classes with three papers to write along with the usual class assignments. At work, the Annual Enrollment Period has gotten geared up so I am constantly on the phone and coming home exhausted. Of course, my husband and I are trying to enjoy time together. (And he was in an car accident.)  We have decided that for now that we will not be stressing over an update schedule right now. Pages will be going up when they get done until things start to calm down. It is just one thing I cannot keep up with while trying to live life. So. As a bonus, here is the uncolored version of page 1. I am further along than this. Do not worry. Page one is ready for coloring and page two is half way inked.

Life: A Note About the Cover Page

I thought I would mention it now since the entire first chapter is now on The Duck. This was also supposed to be a single panel page that ends the fight scene *SPOILER* We went with a different ending. *SPOILER* However, I kept Danny's opponent looking as close to the poor guy on the cover as much as possible. The icing effect was real difficult so we decided to delay that and go in a different direction. I also made a different version of Danny for this cover. He looked like this:

As you can see, Danny's hair and shirt used to be different colors than they are now. I also didn't give his eyes color for these because I want to emphasis the injuries. Going back, the injuries really are not shown in the fight scene. The pages that I put up may be changed at any time. The changes will usually be reflected more on The Duck because it contains the main archive. But, I will put up notice if I make any changes to page posted here. These changes will not affect the reader experience (except for the possibility of added realism).

The Awards Are Done But...

Alright, I have had some scheduling issues arise.  I am finished with the presentation of the Awards. Now all that I have to do is make a credit page. I have a class that keeps changing the due dates on the paper. So I am trying to get it done now before the professor changes her mind again. It is a relatively easy paper, considering, but it does take time to write these things and get them done right. The good news is, if my math is correct, I would have to fail the paper to get less than an A in the class. There is a 1% chance that I am wrong with this math, so I am not concerned. I just have to do the paper and do it to the best of my ability and do it right. As long as I don’t flub up my spelling and grammar, the paper should be adequate. I will be done with the paper by Wednesday.

But I know you are reading this blog and want to hear more about “Ice Pick” and less about “Life.” Good news there. The cover for chapter 2 is already done. In fact, it is already on the comic as the background. It was provided by Call Me Tom during the Summer Art Exchange.  Jamie did his own version of the cover, and it will be shown, but we will be moving it to chapter 3. Page 1 of chapter 2 is already inked and just needs its color. So, I am aiming to start releasing the chapter in a week. Simultaneously with this event, I will start mirroring the comic on the blog. There will be no difference between the pages, so if you are a Duck, don’t worry about it. This is just to make the comic more available to non-Ducks.

Until then, enjoy this picture of our cat taunting the dog by choosing her crate as his napping spot. 

How To Lose A Day: Frustration

This Sunday I spent most of the day working on page 16. I spent Friday through Sunday on the endeavour. I finally finished with the page around 10 pm on Sunday night and was hitting save when my computer shut itself down. I could have sworn that I was saving consistently, but when I loaded the page again, I had lost half a day's worth of work. Thankfully, I save after most of the tricky stuff so I don't have to repeat all of that. The only problem is, I did all this work so I wouldn't have to worry about it during the work week (today is my first day of my new job). Luckily, I am just going through training and school won't be starting again for another week.  I am hoping to to get Chapter 1 done before the start of school. With page 16, there are only two pages left, so this should be obtainable. Afterward, I just have to wait from more pages from Jamie before continuing on to Chapter 2.

In the mean time, I will be undertaking two projects. First, of course, is the Drunk Duck Awards. Almost everything is complete fr this. I just have to get everything in order. The awards will start being announced on September 10th. My other project is going back and revamping some Chapter 1 pages. I will be attempting to make the style more consistent with the later pages. I will also be going back and making the typeface more consistent. The final revamp I am doing for Chapter 1 will be behind the scenes unless changes to the archive are necessary. I will be making all pages a consistent file dimension and type. This will definitely come into play later as we have a goal to get this project published. So yeah. That is how things are running now. Please tell your friends/followers about our little comic.

Whew.

Sorry. I really don't have much news for Ice Pick. All I can do is promise that it will come back soon. I started my first full time job last week and haven't had any time to work on the comic. We should be back somewhere next to normal in August. My summer break will take place during this month. Even though I will still be working, I won't have any homework to do when I get home. This should make things go a little easier. I hope to get back on a buffer again, but life makes fools of us all.

As for the 2012 Drunk Duck Awards, the judging has started. We could still use a couple more judges or presenters to tie up some loose ends. It isn't as bad as it was last year, but there are still some gaps that need filling and I can't do them all. I probably took on more judging and presenting assignments than could be considered sane. I might foist some off on Ryan. He has about the same schedule as I do, though.

My goal is for Ice Pick to be nominated for several categories next year, so I hope you continue baring with us and be forgiving on how life changes within a second.

The next page has all the inking done and one and a half panels flatted. There are about 5 or 6 panels in this page though. I'm quite glad that the fight scene is almost over though. I had to get really creative with the coloring and effects to be able to show the movement exactly right. We will soon be heading back inside the bar to introduce a new character to the cast. We have already seen the character before, but now it is time for the introduction. There aren't that many pages left in chapter 1 and Jamie has already submitted all of the pencil drafts to us. I can't promise a regular update schedule, but I will release pages as soon as they get done or within one week of each other whichever comes second.

I was originally going to take a month off between chapters 1 and 2, but it doesn't look like it is going to happen. As long as I have drafts I will continue to work on the comic. The comic will most definately go on a scheduled hiatus between chapters 2 and 3. This will make sure that there will be penty of buffer so that this doesn't happen again.

I can't wait to continue to release the comic and show you what we have in store.

The Drunk Duck Awards 2012

Hello everyone! I hope I haven't gotten you sick of the Drunk Duck Awards yet, but this must be said... Right now, voting is well  under way, but it does not end there! Throughout the month of August, volunteers will be judging the nominated comics and others will be making the presentations that are the backbone of the awards comic. There is still a lot of room left for volunteers, and I will never say no to anyone even if I get too many (unlikely). So, if you have some free time in August, places contact me to volunteer. Get your friends involved too. We will make this the best awards ever!

Don't forget to vote for Ice Pick.