http://louistrations.co.uk/ en-uk http://louistrations.co.uk/fan+art/267/ Sorry, I forgot to post this earlier. Soul Eater and related characters are property of Atsushi Ookubo [大久保篤], Bones, Square Enix. No copyright infringement intended. http://louistrations.co.uk/holly/266/ http://louistrations.co.uk/naut-cotic/265/ 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! http://louistrations.co.uk/chipper/264/ The next page in the seemingly random Chipper's Tea Room series. You'll notice a pattern emerging though! This is the first appearance of the support character Brandyn, he'll be appearing in all of the following comics from this point. He gets formally introduced next time. I didn't realise how cute these two would be together! If these weren't pre-written, maybe they could have become an item later on... C'est la vie! 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/naut-cotic/263/ 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. http://louistrations.co.uk/fan+art/262/ Maka Alban from Soul Eater. M² from Kemeko Deluxe. Details are written on the DeviantArt pages. Characters are property of their respective owners, no copyright infringement intended. http://louistrations.co.uk/naut-cotic/261/ 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! http://louistrations.co.uk/miscellaneous/260/ There's something that I've always wanted, but never really known the name of. A couple of members on the deviantArt forums kindly identified what I was looking for - and that's a lightbox! A lightbox appears to be the name given to several products, but basically what I was looking for was a backlit drawing board. There were several that I found, but this is the one that I settled on. An inexpensive A4 lightbox by Eyebright. Aside from the obvious uses such as being able to work in the dark, the lightbox allows me to see through ordinary paper as if it were tracing paper. Which is great! Tracing paper is horrible!! Normally I would ink over pencil lines, which can become a little messy and ultimately means losing the original pencil drawing. This allows me to ink directly onto a separate piece of paper. http://louistrations.co.uk/charcoal/259/ 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/ 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/ 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/ 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/ http://louistrations.co.uk/chipper/254/ 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/ 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.