Pg 82 - Conned for a Con -

There was another missing frame in this one that just didn't fit in the layout. Sometimes it gets a little frustrating to draw and color something, only to have to scrap it in the end. Oh well. This is just a fun filler page, I guess. (I didn't have to change Emma's hair color either time :P) In case you don't know, the first cosplay (costumes) is of the Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time (really shows the line art age, doesn't it?). The second is of Saint Tail. I doubt that Emma would have been comfortable in the Saint Tail costume, so she's dressed as Meimei at school instead. The pic below is the one that didn't make it. It doesn't make any sense without the dialogue, but I dunno ... thought maybe someone would be curious to see it.

Pg 81 - The Second Time -

Oh look ... Jen's hair changed color yet again. Kinda like that horse on the Wizard of Oz. Not much to say other than I looked forward to coloring this page for a while and I'm glad it's finally posted. Those sketchy characters are fun to draw. ^_^

Oh, and the text got shrunk past legibility - the book that Emma and Jen are looking at is The Complete Works of Jane Austen. Originally, the layout called for a text bubble over Emma's head saying, "Look, here is the character I was named after." However, I thought that was a little redundant since it's no big secret I'm an Austen fan, and that tidbit would only matter to other Austen fans. So yeah ... Emma is named after Austen's Emma.

I was listening to "La Corda d Oro Primo Passo" Brand New Breeze from Kanon. (If you've never heard of Kanon and don't care, don't bother with the link. That link is for people who saw that I was listening to music from Kanon and panicked. ^^;) I just love the lyrics for this song - it fits ST very well, I think. Very pretty melody too.

Pg 80 - An Artist? -

I depise backgrounds, can you tell? However, as much as I hate to draw attention to it, I hope everyone notes the fountain. To quote the artist notes from Kaoru Mori in his *Emma series "That's important!" Also, the painting girl has a name and is actually a cameo ... I'm just not at liberty to tell what series she's from!

There was another picture that was supposed to be in the layout for this page, but I messed with the text and then it didn't fit. So then I had to go back and rearrange the layout. It was great fun. -_- Anyway, that's the missing pic, up there.

I kinda like drawing Shawn's hair loose, but I think this is the only time it makes it in-comic outside of him sleeping/special art.

The music I was listening to when I put this page together was Jade's "1000 Words" from FFX-2.

* Kaoru Mori's Emma also wears glasses and seems to have a similar personality to my Emma. At first I was all bummed - I didn't want people to think that I copied the character. Emma is a very common (and pretty!) classic name, and the glasses thing is just an interesting coicidence. That being said, "Emma" is a wonderful series so far and if you like Victorian dramas, check it out!! At least read it in the bookstore ... I mean ... buy it! The dancing girls rule! (Holy cow, CMX manga is a branch of DC ... DC actually puts out stuff worth reading! ... Sorry, I'm a Marvel fangirl ...)

Pg 79 - Still Here -

The old script is really making me wince through these next few pages, but there's only so much I can do as far as making text fit into the layout that I drew the line art to. I know the collage/medley thing is a little tedious as far as hoping for an update with more story, but I hope you bear with it. Initially, this medley thing that is comprised of chapter 7 was all supposed to be the bulk of the story. Chapter after chapter logging Shawn and Emma's daily life ... I dunno, it seemed like very draining filler content after I went over the script (draining to me as the artist and you as the reader). So, I scrapped the layouts and scripts and just chose the highlights to squish all into one chapter. Call it streamlining or call it lazy, your choice. ^_^

As for comments on the page ... there's not much to say. I'm not happy with it - it was a page I was dreading. There was supposed to be a Princess Nine cameo (Izumi in the batting cages) but she got lost behind the balloons and it drew attention to the crappy chain-linked fence - so that layer got canned.

So about the old art

As you may have seen me whining in announcement posts, all of the line art for ST (Skipping Tomorrows) is anywhere from 2-5 years old. Some of it makes my cringe - bad enough to start to try to redraw everything. However, after deciding that ST was going on an extended hiatus (another one *cough cough*) for me to redraw, I got a couple emails from people who asked me not to bother (thanks for the feedback, btw, much appreciated ^_^). I guess the old art didn't bother them, and that was good enough for me. I have all the line art up to chapter 10 drawn (and have had for 2 years now), and that will mark the last of the old art.

So this post is a sort of disclaimer/apology for the current state of things. I'm tweaking the line art a little as I color it (all coloring has been done as the pages are posted, coloring work matches the dates at the bottom of each page) but most of it has been left alone. I'm pretty excited about working on the last 2 chapters (yeah, there's gonna be 12 total, so we're already past the halfway point!) with new everything (updated script, new art, new layout) and I hope to really boost the quality for the final steps of ST. Now ... let's just get through these next 3.5 chapters ...

Well, it's not a forum, but ...

I've had more than one reader request a forum to discuss Skipping Tomorrows, but I'm still pretty web stupid when it comes to web languages things (you can tell that just by looking at my simple hand-written code for hoodiegypsy.com) and I'm really not interested in maintaining a forum at this point. Besides, I move slow enough on the pages as it is -_-. So, after toying around with my DA account (inactive, don't even bother looking it up, there's nothing there), myspace, and LJ, I decided that I liked Blogger the best. It's clean, stable, and there's not a lot of ad junk floating around to make it look cheap.

Someday there may be a forum but for now, I hope blogger works out for everyone. It's going to take me a few weeks to get a beat down with how I'll set things up, title headers and so forth. So readers (all 5 of you) let me know what you think.