2008-08-29T19:05:54Z Louis Lloyd-Judson http://louistrations.co.uk/ http://louistrations.co.uk/charcoal/259/ 2008-08-2412:26:06T00:00:00Z

This is the first picture of Charcoal I've shown publicly in, what? Three years? ...and you can't even see her face!

http://louistrations.co.uk/naut-cotic/258/ 2008-08-1421:51:46T00:00:00Z

Oh hey! It's naut-cotic, and the first sighting of wave 3 no less. I've mentioned previously that nothing has changed too drastically. Things are just a little more stylised. With that being said, this isn't really the best image for showing the design changes that I've made. Poppy usually wears a jacket and Narc usually wears, well, something. I like Narc as a character, but due to his nature he has poses that feel very undignified for me to draw. I suppose it's retribution for drawing so many pretty girls, hah! I enjoy drawing in different styles as I do with Chipper. I learn a lot by doing so, but it does feel as if I'm borrowing the styles of other people. This is my own style that I've drawn since I was very little. It's grown and changed along with me; it's uniquely me. Sure I still have a long way to go with it, but I'll always be happiest drawing this way. naut-cotic will be returning soon, once I've sorted out all of the bothersome written work.

http://louistrations.co.uk/chipper/257/ 2008-08-0415:25:01T00:00:00Z

A slightly different take on a Summer scene. I wanted to focus more on the warm Summer breeze rather than beaches, bikinis and barbecues. More of a realistic British Summer you might say. Chipper's outline was created as a vector image using the pen tool, whilst the background is basic pencil on paper. Some finer details were added directly using Photoshop, so there's a bit of everything really. I drew the background whilst watching Wimbledon on television, which is probably why I spent so long drawing it. The background consists of several layers, a lot of what I drew isn't even visible in the final composition. There's an entire hillside - but you can only see the tiniest portion between Chipper's legs. You don't want to know how long it took to complete; I was worried I wouldn't even get in finished for Summer!

http://louistrations.co.uk/charcoal/256/ 2008-07-1321:59:35T00:00:00Z

As you may already know, I'm working on a comic book story about my original character 'Charcoal'. I've been putting a lot of effort into the project, and one day it will make the light of day! I'm hoping to hit the first milestone later this year, when I begin working on the first draft. The majority of the events that take place in the story are situated in a city named Lancaster, which -in a massive coincidence- is also where I live. I'll admit that it's very handy for first hand reference when drawing locations; yet Lancaster is a particularly interesting little city in it's own right. The city's history goes back centuries and the streets are full of quirky little alleyways and cobbled roads. It suits the story well and I even play off a few historical aspects of the region. So I guess you could say that Lancaster is an integral part of the comic. The opening scene of the prologue takes place here: It's know as the Crook O' Lune and it's just a few miles outside of Lancaster. I've been wanting to take photographs and draw some sketches of the scenery for ages now; But despite my best efforts, it has decided to rain everyday that I have planned to go. Until today that is. In fact, today marks the first day in two months that it has actually remained dry on my day off! The Crook O' Lune has been depicted in artwork and literature in the past. The most notable being a painting by JMW Turner, as well as being described by the poets Thomas Gray and William Wordsworth.

http://louistrations.co.uk/holly/255/ 2008-06-2307:30:05T00:00:00Z

http://louistrations.co.uk/chipper/254/ 2008-06-0421:20:24T00:00:00Z

Wow, that's a lot of dialogue! I hope that it all makes sense, I've been looking at the page for so long that it's lost any meaning for me! After experimenting using only pencil, I ended up using ink after all. The page was made in a very similar fashion to the previous two pages. I made a really bad job with the inking and had to redraw a lot of it using my graphics tablet; Something that I don't like doing and that I'm not particularly good at. I wanted to scrap this piece on numerous occasions. For the next page you get Chipper in kindergarten, it's also the first appearance of the support character. Although I'm currently working on a stand alone picture, so that will probably be posted beforehand. Once again, I've posted snapshots of the piece at various stages below. If you're inclined to see my many mistakes and edits, please feel free to take a look.

http://louistrations.co.uk/holly/253/ 2008-04-2722:31:39T00:00:00Z

So, we got Wii Fit on Friday. In case you've managed to miss the mass advertising; Wii Fit is an exercise suite for Wii. It has various activities including aerobics, yoga and other balance-related games. I mainly got it for my sisters to use. They're both dancers and have incredibly good balance to begin with, so my chances of topping the score boards are pretty slim. (Sorry, that was bad.) The balance board is a lot larger and heavier than I expected. Cycling for two miles with that thing on your back is no fun at all. Holly was actually drawn wearing a dress, which was coloured with the same colour as skin. Just so you know.

http://louistrations.co.uk/naut-cotic/252/ 2008-04-2010:44:48T00:00:00Z

Well, that's it! Page 53 has been added to naut-cotic, this is the end of the chapter and also the final page of wave 2. I still have some work to do on the revised and upscaled version, but the next time you see the characters they should be sporting their new designs. Except Daffodil and Ixora of course, they're not going to be back.

http://louistrations.co.uk/miscellaneous/251/ 2008-04-1418:58:02T00:00:00Z

This was drawn back in 2002, it was part of the background used on a comic. Mark Speight was a personal hero of mine, which is noticeable from how I gave my comic character Charcoal a schoolgirl crush on him. I used to watch every episode of SMart, it's a real shock to learn that he's gone. I won't be posting any details of his last few months here, but you shouldn't have any trouble finding them on news websites.

http://louistrations.co.uk/chipper/250/ 2008-04-1418:32:47T00:00:00Z

This picture was made for my deviantART front page. It's a relatively simple picture of Chipper drinking from a mug. In fact, you could even go so far as calling it a mug shot of Chipper. Da-dum-dum-tish! I realised that I didn't actually have any pictures of Chipper other than those on the comics. The image currently used in the top-right of the website along with it's earlier incarnations (including when she had bright pink hair) was lost when I inadvertently forgot to back-up my websites folder.

http://louistrations.co.uk/naut-cotic/249/ 2008-04-0320:06:16T00:00:00Z

Page 52 has been added to naut-cotic. Adding pages on unspecified days is far more fun than scheduled weekly updates, don't you think? Will there or won't there be an update? Nobody knows! It's almost like a game! Admittedly it's not a very good game, but neither is Russian Roulette.

http://louistrations.co.uk/holly/248/ 2008-03-2318:54:38T00:00:00Z

I think I made this one a little obscure, please read it carefully.

http://louistrations.co.uk/naut-cotic/247/ 2008-03-1321:21:24T00:00:00Z

Page 51 of naut-cotic has now been uploaded. The wait for the next page shouldn't be quite as long as this one. Hehe! Work is well under way for wave 3 of naut-cotic (A wave is the name I give to a mass revision, I'm not sure where I picked that up from!). I don't have anything to show you just yet, but I'm really pushing to get back to regular updates in the near future.

http://louistrations.co.uk/chipper/246/ 2008-03-0216:44:54T00:00:00Z

You'd be right in thinking that this seems a little familiar, it's the same basic comic as the previous one but in an entirely different setting. It also took longer to complete than the last one. I started working on it a little over three months ago, admittedly it's not been everyday; but it still feels like I've spent forever working on it. It's hard to justify putting so much time into a single six panel comic strip. Regardless, I'm happy to say it's finally finished and move on to something else. If you're interested, I've posted below snapshots of the piece taken at various stages of it's creation. All the way from the initial scribbles to the final composition.

http://louistrations.co.uk/tea+chart/245/ 2008-01-1107:33:05T00:00:00Z

Finally, after weeks of rampant speculation, scandals and supposed 'leaked' charts; The fourth annual chart of Louis' favourite teas has been made public. I would like to thank the many companies that have supplied me with tea over the past year, as well as the throngs of website visitors that have stayed up all night especially to see the results. 1. Sencha, Ujinotsuyu Co. Ltd. (New Entry) 2. Make Mine a Builders (New Entry) 3. Ceylon, J. Atkinson and Co. (-2) 4. Ringtons (-1) 5. Yorkshire Tea (-3) 6. White Tea, Clipper (New Entry) 7. Darjeeling, Whittard 8. PG Tips (-4)