Thread "Heads up on upcoming plans" in forum "So I've been working on this little story..."

Posted at 1:02PM, Feb. 6, 2011

In the upcoming weeks, there is a strong possibility I will be going to once a week updates, possibly for a limited time, but potentially as a long-term thing.

These once a week updates will be of the longer "legal paper" format I use on my largest pages, rather than the "letter paper" format I have been using on most of my pages. Combined with the new tricks I've picked up to make my lettering smaller but still legible, this means that the one of the new format pages will be, panel wise, the equivalent of one and a half of my current format pages. So while ya'll will be getting fewer updates, they will be longer and have more content but also (hopefully) feel less crammed into the page.

There are several reasons for this change in schedule, and I thought it would be polite to explain why I'm changing a routine that seems to be working.

The first is that as I get farther into my comic I'm getting more and more ambitious in my artwork, and having more time to work on the pages will mean that I can get closer to the concepts I see in my head, and that I can have more time to make each page a more coheisive image. My current method is essentially self-imposed speedpainting. While I have been enjoying the fact that I am forced to work more intuitively than I do in my artwork without deadlines, which makes my art more expressive and me less prone to obsessing over details, I am on occasion forced to post a page that I am less than completely satisfied with.

Given the lack of comments on my comic, I can only assume that others agree that the art and story aren't always up to par, and so hopefully the slower schedule will allow me to give my pages more polish before posting.

The second reason is that in spending so much time working on my comic pages, I have been left with little time for other things, such as my non-Greening-Wars-related artwork. Given that this is my primary source of income, at least until The Greening Wars series becomes an international bestseller and I'm negotiating the buyout of Marvel Comics and DC and accepting the nobel prize for literature(I can dream if I want ^^; ), I can't really keep ignoring it as I have been. Also, I'm beginning to feel the beginnings of burnout from so much time working on single pages and panels, and I need time to collect my thoughts and reconnect to the story as a whole before going on to the next one each time. I've really been putting a lot of heart and soul into this comic, and it can wear on a person if you're not careful.

The final reason is a bit less Emo, and more of a huge chance thats kind of fallen into my lap out of nowhere. I have a serious opportunity to get the commission for a major art project, and I have to jump on it or risk losing the chance. I'm kind of trying to keep the details to myself to avoid the risk of having someone steal the opportunity out from under me, but suffice to say this is a chance for me to do a major mural (as in the side of a highly visible building) and that's the type of thing that can be a young artist's "big break", not to mention the money that I stand to make on a project of this magnitude is not insignificant. Rest assured that I will continue posting the Greening Wars should I manage to secure this commission, but if I do get it, it will necessitate spending less time on the computer and more time on scaffolding for a couple of weeks at minimum. So the way that this whole opportunity for me plays out will be a major factor on when this change of schedule happens, and how long it lasts.

For now though, The Greening Wars will continue to post twice a week on Tuesdays and Fridays, and I'll let ya'll know when the time comes to change things up. If you've got a preference on the day to keep posting on, or if you'd prefer me to change to a different day, or just want to say hi, (Which I would really appreciate, I'm still wondering who's reading this bizarre little story), drop me a line here or on deviantArt any time.

Posted at 7:05PM, May. 4, 2011

Hey Scorp! Finally decided to take another look at your forum. Working my way up from your first post. (Working the evening shift tonight and it's been slow .)

As for your posting schedule. Once a week works okay once we're used to it. Your story is going to support it I think. Also, with only posting once-per-week you might have some time to start building up a little bit of a buffer. I've seen a few comic artists comment about having a buffer of several pages ready to go. That way, if something comes up, you can keep posting on schedule without having to scramble as much.

Just a thought … though this may have occurred to you already and I just haven't gotten to that forum post yet.