Louistrations

If you follow me on Twitter then you may already be aware that I've been working on an app for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Yesterday Apple approved my app and today it should be widely available on the App Store.

The app is a simple little viewer for my comic "naut-cotic"; nothing too exciting and I'm sure that you'll have come across the comic countless times already! I am working on the next chapter though, so please look forward to that!

You can purchase the app for free by clicking here.

However, what is exciting is the small victory getting my first app on to the platform. I can now progress on to more ambitious projects, such as games!

Maerla from naut-cotic. Her design hasn't changed much, the only noticeable change is that her shirt is now tied around her chest. It's really just a drawing convenience to stop it getting in the way; but I can still have it free flowing if I'd like.

Note to self; Trick photography in a cartoon totally doesn't have the same effect, LOL! XD

This is Narc, lead character of my comic naut-cotic. Although at the time of writing this, only the prologue is available in that he only appears in a single frame cameo.

The new character design for Poppy; shown with her hair down, so to speak.

Many thanks to everybody that helped test the new web site. I've received some really positive and constructive feedback. It's very much appreciated!

The first release of the new naut-cotic web site is ready. It's a lot later than expected, namely due to an unprecedented number of issues I encountered with a particular web browser.

The website is still work in progress. I hate having to use the terminology of a Beta test for a web site, but it really is unavoidable these days. The simplicity of the web site is misleading, this was by far the most complex site I've made. I'd appreciate anybody that is willing to test the website for problems and give me feedback or suggestions!

Things are still rough around the edges and some site features are missing for the time being. The ability to change the web site theme is still there, but I want to make sure that I'm happy with the default theme before making any others.

I should have a little more free time to work on things more interesting now! Thank you for waiting.

Just a small notice that the naut-cotic website has been closed in preparation for the upcoming update.

This update will not feature any new comic pages, sorry. The update includes a new web site and a revision of the existing 53 pages. New pages are coming, but those will be appearing at a later date!

The comic was originally made at a small scale. For the revision I've remade the pages as large scale master copies, so you'll see larger page sizes than before. I've not altered any line work at all, but I've cleaned up a few areas and colour matched pages to make them flow a little smoother.

However, the main part of the revision is that I've rewritten and extended the dialogue. Hopefully things will make a little more sense! Characters are a little less bland and have picked up a few mannerisms for themselves.

I've been working on this update for what seems like forever. It has been sheer tedium, I'm such a terrible writer! I seriously can't see why George Lucas likes re-mastering his old movies so much - aside from the obvious mountain of cash.

Seriously, I'm never going to go back and re-master my previous work ever again! Unless said mountain of cash is involved.

The new website should be going live shortly. I can't say when exactly, but it's definitely going to be a matter of weeks rather than months. I've put a lot of thought into the new website, particularly the usability. I hope that it will be well received!

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.

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.

Continue Reading...

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.

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.

Now here's something completely unexpected. A new comic page has been uploaded to naut-cotic. This is the first new page in, what? 16 months?

naut-cotic obviously hasn't been the centre of my attention for the past few months, although I have occasionally worked on it. Most of my time has been spent rewriting the dialogue in its entirety. Something that really needed to be done.

I also built a new website that was a mere lick away from being finished. Unfortunately, I lost the site when a hard drive died on me last month. So unless I find a DVD-R with a backup of the site on it, all I'm left with is a backup from last year; which isn't much use.

Anyway its left me with the opportunity to begin a new wave, there are a lot of changes to character designs and the overall style that I've been wanting to make. My plan is to finish off the chapter on the existing website as it stands. There's only 4 pages to the end of the chapter and these were already drawn some time ago. I'll be uploading these over a non-defined timescale, but I'll go out on a limb and say that it'll probably be less than 16 months.