hoodie gypsy

Closing the Blog

2010-04-04T12:13:00.001-07:00

Hello! I'm not going to be using this blog anymore and hope to have one set up directly on my site. So thanks for checking this one out, but it's done now! Spambots have fun!

BACK TO HOODIEGYPSY.COM

New graphics for the ST site

2010-02-04T23:06:00.000-08:00

I started installing some of the new graphics I made for the Skipping Tomorrows site. I have the profile page and gallery images ready to go too, I'm just too tired (it's past 2am right now) to toy with any more code tonight.

Here's a quick sketch I did earlier today. I drew my breakfast. Why? Because it was delicious.

ST - page 160

2010-02-01T14:47:00.000-08:00

Page 160

Hey, all - sorry for the silence this past week - lots of real life stuff going on!

I was spending time with a visiting friend (whom I haven't seen in close to 3 years), hanging out with friends in the cafe I help out in, and currently ...

Sitting in a delivery room waiting for my friend to have her baby! Yes, yes, I will be a psudo-auntie probably by tomorrow morning. ~~There is one draw-back, though and that's that I cannot upload the new ST page because the firewall here at the hospital is pretty strict.~~ And finally the newest ST page is up, and it's probably one of my favorite pages to date.

So the confession is that I've had this page finished for a couple days now, I've just been either out-and-about or crashed. ~~When I get back to my place tonight to sleep (if the baby decides to sleep "inside" tonight, that is) I'll upload the new page.~~ Which the baby did, and so did I.

Thanks for your patience and I hope you're all doing well!

hardcover sketchbooks

2010-01-21T18:26:00.000-08:00

You know those canvas, hard covered sketchbooks that Borders is always selling two for ten? They're actually pretty handy things to have. They paper grain is tolerable, the pages are sewn in, and you don't have to worry about losing the random keeper sketch you'll churn out from time to time.

I wouldn't use them for the longest time. I owned them but I never dared to use them for the longest time. They were too permanent. In a regular sketchbook you can scratch out a terrible mess, rip it out and have the pleasure of balling it up and making a 3 pointer from across the room into the trash can. Not so with the hardcover ones. You draw something poopy, it's there. For good.

There's also the small matter of leaving sketches for what they were meant to be - sketches. Sometimes I want to take every little blip that I draw and turn it into a full blown digital painting that has a ten paragraph backstory. It's hard for me to not make a big, finished project out of everything. It's probably just me chasing some sense of accomplishment.

To make a long story short, I'm getting better at just leaving things alone as the meaningless blips they were meant to be. And I keep them in bound sketchbooks. And sometimes I can go back into those books and find some mildly helpful stuff. Like this fast study I did on different anime-style eyes. You can play name-that-anime if you want. Sorry if this isn't making any sense at all. I'm watching TV while rambling.

Another boring art day

2010-01-19T12:57:00.000-08:00

Yep, more thumbnails and rough sketches. I hate layouts with a passion, by the way. It's got to be my absolute least favorite part of making a webcomic - sitting down and doing a rough design of the page.

So instead of including any of that messy stuff, here's a painting I did about a month ago on my ipod touch with the Brushes app. I really like that program and I'm thinking of joining the flickr group for Brushes users.

In other news, I've been deliberating on a question for Skipping Tomorrows. I ended up liking the story a lot more than I thought I would - initially I started it so I could learn by trial and error about webcomics. I never intended for it to take me this long to finish. I really, really hate the old art and for the last couple of years I've wanted very badly to take the whole thing down and redraw the comic from scratch.

Well, I've decided not to.

I seriously have been agonizing over this question for a while now. I even wrote to a very well known and successful webcomic artist about my deliberation. She was kind enough to write back and equally kind enough to give it to me straight. I just need to push through this and finish and move on. I have other projects that are just bursting at the seams at this point and I'm very excited about sharing them with my readers. But ST will be finished before I upload anything else.

As always, thanks for reading! When I have a spare weekend I'm going to try to move the blog part of things over to my site so you guys won't have to click 15 different things to find this.

I did boring art today but ... LOOK! KITTENS!!

2010-01-16T19:33:00.000-08:00

Yep, I got to hang out with these 3 little guys today. I don't have a washer and dryer of my own so I drive to my parents house. Gretchen - my cat that lives with them, had kittens on Christmas day. They're pretty stinking cute.

Like I said in the title, all the artwork I did today was dull thumbnails and outlines. And rather than just have no post today, you guys get a very dark and low res cell phone video. Aren't you lucky?

Busy, here's some old stuff I did

2010-01-15T18:00:00.001-08:00

No time to actually sit down and do a breather sketch today. But a late post is better than no post.

There's a fairly large, Plexiglas window at my place of work (my work that pays my bills, not the work of my soul :P) and my (awesome) boss wanted to have some festive stuff on them this year. I've never painted backwards before, so the autumn one is as hideous as it is simple. It was really weird painting details first, then working backwards.

None of these pictures will line up correctly, by the way. They were all taken in a huge rush on my crappy little phone camera and then slapped together in photoshop. But this will give you guys an idea of some of the actual painting stuff that I do from time to time. Painting without photoshop, who would have thought.

This is the winter scene that's currently still up. This one actually took me a long time - over 12 hours from concept sketches to cleaning up my brushes at the end. Don't mind my reflection(s).

ST page 158

2010-01-14T19:48:00.000-08:00

I've been keeping track of my "warm up" sketches lately and I'd like to make a sort of sketch book off to the side. They won't be ST related very often, so I'm thinking of putting them up on DA. Kind of a sketch journal I guess. I'm too tired to put a gallery together tonight, but here's the one I did yesterday. Yay for colored pencils!

And this one is today's. It's my pally from WoW. You know ... the game I can't play right now. *sniff*

Oh yeah , one more thing ...

The next Skipping Tomorrows page is up. :P

http://www.hoodiegypsy.com/skippingtomorrows/manga/chapter12/158.html

Not Dead

2010-01-12T13:36:00.001-08:00

Not dead, not fibbing about updating soon. Gotta go this second, though, late to class!

158

2009-08-31T13:17:00.000-07:00

Bleh, yep another update for those who follow this blog. Sorry for the delay, . As always, thanks for reading, I think my annoying creative block has lifted at last.

Quick update

2009-07-12T15:45:00.000-07:00

I know there's a few people that check this blog first for updated content of skipping tomorrows - that'll hopefully change soon (see the news section on hoodiegypsy.com).

But just to let you guys know there was a small update to Skipping Tomorrows - not a page, but it's still a pic! And after cleaning off about an inch of e-dust, I'm pleased to annouce that there's actually a new sketch o' the week!

quick update

2009-06-26T09:39:00.000-07:00

Due to a wedding in the family (that I'm in ... the wedding that is. The family too. I'm in the wedding that is in my family! O.o) there is no new page for this week - very sorry!

ST - 157

2009-06-14T12:30:00.000-07:00

No words - haha! (Next page will have words :P) I'm sorry that the page is very low quality - I'll upload it again when I get back to my place.

ST - 156

2009-06-02T20:37:00.000-07:00

Updated!!

It's a chapter cover but it still counts ... right?

still no good news about the computer situation

2009-03-24T16:08:00.000-07:00

But if you need a webcomic fix, be sure to check out kidjutsu!

dead mac mini

2009-03-15T09:21:00.001-07:00

My work computer died this past week. For more details please go to my main site news. I know some of you just check this blog for updates, so I thought I'd let you know.

ST - 155

2009-02-01T16:04:00.000-08:00

- 155 -

Sorry that I was too lazy to draw backgrounds again. I'm going to try harder for the next few pages, but I'm also trying to work on a couple commissions at the moment too.

Thanks for reading, hope everything is going well for you all!

ST - 154

2009-01-21T16:41:00.000-08:00

154

The most terrible thing happened ... someone stole ALL my backgrounds! Gone! But I care about you guys so much I put the pages up *without* backgrounds. That'll show that thief ...

ST - 153

2009-01-13T08:32:00.001-08:00

- 153 -

A timely update! See, I have been working hard for once. ;)

ST - 152

2009-01-04T17:09:00.001-08:00

- 152 -

Sorry for the lack of updates in December! Holidays, other projects,and a new kitten (pictures later) have kept me really busy. Updates should be speeding up - 2009 resolution you know. Everyone always keeps their new year's resolutions.

ST - 150 & 151

2008-12-09T19:16:00.001-08:00

- 150 & 151 -

Very sorry for the lack of updates in the past weeks. Holidays, commissions, and internet problems ...

Anyway, thanks as always for reading! Stay tuned, I might have an interesting piece of news to go with my next update. :)

ST - 149

2008-11-07T17:35:00.001-08:00

Sorry, no pic for this one! Btw, Sherri is just .3 seconds away from turning huge and green and ripping off Emma's arms. No, seriously.

ST - 148

2008-10-24T19:08:00.000-07:00

- 148 -

Again, not much to say, really. Thanks for reading!

ST - 147

2008-10-18T21:28:00.000-07:00

- 147 -

Too tired to say much, I need to go sleep. Thanks for reading. :)

ST - 146

2008-10-10T15:02:00.000-07:00

- 146 -

Sorry if it's boring - this page is just sort of overflow from 145. I feel like I should apologize for depressing everyone. o.O

Also, if you're voting for me on TWC, thank you so much! There's a new incentive up!

ST - 145

2008-10-07T06:09:00.000-07:00

- 145 -

Not much to say for this one, thanks for voting on TWC (Top Web Comics) if you did - I appreciate it! I'll try to get a new vote incentive up soon!

ST - 144

2008-09-30T18:41:00.000-07:00

- 144 -

Aww, family pictures. :P

As per request, the comic now opens in a new window - no more fighting with the nav image.

Skipping Tomorrows - 143

2008-09-23T07:28:00.000-07:00

- 143 -

Well, both sites have been redesigned slightly, I hope this makes navigation better until I get a better handle on website stuff. The only really new content is the "about me" page on the main site and I added more links. I've also applied to Tomgeeks, *nervous butterflies* and if that works out, I might even try one of the "big comic" lists. Really wish I didn't get so nerved up about this sort of thing. -_-

As for Skipping Tomorrows, sorry it took so long between updates again.

Things are winding down as far as the story goes. If you think you know where this is all going, chances are that you're right. ;) I think I blew more than one fuse trying to get this page done. I chose the layout poorly and instead of just starting over, I fought it for way longer than I should have. Lesson learned: sometimes it's better to start over from scratch than spend hours on a page you're going to end up hating.

- 141 & 142

2008-09-11T17:42:00.001-07:00

- 141 & 142 -

Sorry for the space between updates. My work schedule changed and I couldn't get online for a bit. Hope the double update makes up for it a little. :)

- 140 -

2008-08-31T08:11:00.000-07:00

- 140 -

New art at last. I'm going to try to update *at least* once a week from now on. Thanks for reading!

- 139 -

2008-08-27T19:59:00.001-07:00

- 139 -

It's new art ... but you can't hardly see it. -_-;;

- 138 -

2008-08-25T08:52:00.001-07:00

- 138 -

The cover image for chapter 11 (last chapter). Don't you hate it when you see there's an "update" and it's only a chapter cover? Those mean webcomic artists.

- 137-

2008-08-21T12:03:00.001-07:00

- 137 -

Well, I'm back from camping and even found a hole in the time/space continuum where my internet was up and working. I'm trying to get some more fan art uploaded before the connection completely dies. If the internet goes down again hopefully I'll buckle down and sketch out a new page ... although chances are that I'll just play Odin Sphere until I have to go to work. Heck, I may even get crazy and post a couple camping pics.

Anyway, there's an art preview on the "about" page of the Skipping Tomorrows site.

*Disclaimer: the following is going to be just me rambling about boring digital art stuff, you may just want to click away while you can, don't feel obligated to skim-read if you don't want to - it has nothing to do with the Skipping Tomorrows story.

LINE ART:
So I'm stepping away from thick line-art for at least the remainder of Skipping Tomorrows. This is for a couple different reasons, 1 (and the biggest reason) I have no way to clean up my line art and put it into vector format. I was using an ancient PC version of Adobe Streamline on my elderly PC, but during one of my moves this past year "ye olde PC" was mistaken for a dead computer. To a geek, dead computer means one thing - donor machine! Yeah ... when I finally found my senile Hewlit Packard, he was nothing but an empty husk - just a case and a cracked motherboard. Upon some inquiries, I discoverd that my RAM, disc drives, and hard drives all went to deserving, young machines with their whole lives ahead of them. -_-

I've been playing with alternative options - testing out various other programs that have tight raster converters. Illustrator was so incredibly fun to work with, but my time trial ran out and I wanted to try other programs before throwing money at my problem. I'm currently (and by currently, I mean running in the background) messing with Inkscape. There are other free options (even one browser based converter) but I'm limited to mac programs and I'm picky. So (at least vectorized) thick, bold line art for me is not an option for me right now. As much as I enjoy digital painting, I would rather chew on a handful of thumbtacks than utilize digital inking.

Reason #2 for no bold line art is simply that I kind of like the soft, sketchy look. I think it feels more like "mine" if my scanned page looks like it will still smudge if I drag my thumb across it. Maybe this is my inner organic artist fighting my digital side. It's much, much harder and tedious to paint with wispy lines, but I prefer the overall look of it.

PAINTING STYLE:
No more cell shading! This is actually kind of a bummer to me because I prefer cell shading in a colored manga. I guess it helps keep the "anime" feel to it. Monochrome needs to be screentoned and color needs to be cell shaded. So why am I breaking my own preference based rule? Because cell shading is bold and strong with defined edges - my line art is not. For those of you with slower connections, you will notice a considerable loading time difference when the new pages start going up - they're almost triple the file size. Because I will be doing more shading, blending and shadowing, there's so many more color varations. While they don't show up on web-crunched images, I'm also using some textures for fabric and what-not. Heck, I've even begun to care about light source continuity. o.O

DETAIL:
I've always been a very detail oriented person. If I ever had to rush-finish something, it was probably because I was obsessing over miniscule details that no one but me would ever care about. Because my line art is so much thinner now, I've been able to go nuts on details. Things like double seams, button holes, earrings, and wood grains will now be visible. While this might take a little bit of extra time, it seems to even out with the amount of time I would take to ink over a sketch.

BACKGROUNDS:
They will be there. Gone are the days of me using a gradient fill behind EVERYTHING. While I know what Shawn's apartment looks like, I have failed in a huge way to communicate the location to you guys. I'm also done using the five-year-old-coloring-on-a-resteraunt-menu approach to outdoor scenes. If this sounds like me beating myself up, I'm not - I'm apologizing. If I so badly wanted people to read my story, then I should have taken the time to at least tell it completely. Backgrounds aren't part of the script, but they give important information. You may not even conciously look at them but they're used a foundation piece to most panels. So I'm sorry that I was lazy with the character enviornments and I'm making a big effort to not let that happen again.

Wow ... I think that was an official rant. Bravo to you if you read it all - you're probably an artist too if you made it to the end. Hopefully it all made sense. I'd also love input if you feel so inclined. Maybe when I post the first new page I could ask those of you who care for your opinion of the new style. Thanks so much for reading this and the comic!

- 136 -

2008-08-14T05:44:00.001-07:00

I updated, sorry I have no time to link it or anything, almost literally running out the door and I'll be gone until next week. Sorry, see you all next week!

134 & 135

2008-08-04T11:40:00.000-07:00

134 & 135

I had to hijack another connection so I did another double update. Sorry for the inconsistency! Chapter 11 is creeping right up and that means brand new art!

132 & 133

2008-07-29T23:07:00.000-07:00

My connection keeps cutting out every couple seconds and I'm getting too tired to fight with it (it's 2 am). The new pages are up, and I'll try to fix this post some time tomorrow. Thanks for checking in and sorry for the delay (see the news section of main site).

- 130 & 131 -

2008-07-23T21:55:00.001-07:00

- 130 & 131 -

Sorry for the late update, see the previous post for details.

Trying very hard to update

2008-07-23T18:12:00.000-07:00

My internet has been crazy slow since Sunday, and I'm sorry I missed an update. I'm going to try updating late tonight when the network isn't so busy. I'll be nice and post 2 pages to make up for the late-ness.

Oh, and while you're waiting for an update, watch this video.

- 129 -

2008-07-19T11:40:00.000-07:00

- 129 -

For those of you who have been waiting for the "small amount of violence" at the end, it starts here. Sickos. :P

- 128 -

2008-07-17T20:47:00.000-07:00

- 128 -

Confession: drawing an angry, evil Shawn was fun.

- 127 -

2008-07-15T14:32:00.001-07:00

- 127 -

A friend of mine likened this exchange to a certain event that happened in Metal Gear Solid. Now both Shawns are going to take off their shirts, climb on top of a large mechanical weapon and duke it out with their fists. :P

The REAL 124

2008-07-12T21:22:00.001-07:00

- 124 -

Wow, I can't believe I forgot to put this page in. I'm sorry if the page flow going into chapter 10 confused anyone and I hope this helps it make more sense. I think I fixed all the navigation issues too. /-_-

- 125 -

2008-07-11T11:22:00.001-07:00

- 125 -

The next chapter backgrounds are supposed to be surreal - I'm not just being lazy. :P

- 124 -

2008-07-05T22:22:00.001-07:00

- 124 -

Nothing crazy special, just a chapter cover.

- 123 -

2008-07-03T21:11:00.000-07:00

- 123 -

Well ... it was bound to happen sometime. :P I'll be totally honest, back when I was actually doing the line art for this page I was pretty excited. Kissing scenes are totally fun to draw!!!

Since this is kind of a land mark of sorts in the story of Skipping Tomorrows, I'd like to thank everyone again for reading.

And ... uh, not to be all weird and self conscious, but no one has posted forever. Is anyone actually still reading the comic?

- 122 -

2008-07-02T12:33:00.001-07:00

- 122 -

Hmm. Anyone guess what's next?

-121-

2008-06-30T07:35:00.000-07:00

-121-

This chapter is winding down, only a few more pages to go.

- 120 -

2008-06-26T21:01:00.000-07:00

- 120 -

They're under the waterfall. Other than the fact that the location isn't clear, I remember having fun coloring this page.

- 119 -

2008-06-24T22:04:00.001-07:00

- 119 -

Not a lot to say about this page either.

117 & 118

2008-06-23T13:27:00.000-07:00

-117 & 118-

I promise you that I updated the 21st, but the second I uploaded the next comic and linked it to the last page and then *bloop!* no more internet!
So they're both up.

Please squint really hard or lick your glasses lenses before viewing these pages. I'm not a lazy person but you'd think I was because of my backgrounds. I'm so sorry! (The next chapter won't be much better). It's wicked hard to tell, but they're climbing into the lit fountain in the middle of the park they walked through earlier in the story. There's also a waterfall/cliff thing in the middle. Sorry sorry sorry. -_-

-116-

2008-06-19T11:38:00.000-07:00

116

Not much to say about this page.

114 & 115

2008-06-16T13:28:00.000-07:00

114 & 115

I missed the last update because of my wonky connection issues, so there's 2 new pages today.

As for these pages, sorry that I rushed the background. Initially I meant to draw all the backgrounds by hand and scan them in, but that would have taken forever, so I just did very fast digital paintings of them. Sorry they're so sloppy, but I had a fun time doing the lighting and rain effects for these upcoming pages.

2008-06-12T13:11:00.000-07:00

- 112 -

K, the ball is officially rolling and this is the first new page of ST that's shown up for a while. Once again, I'm sorry the art (and even coloring at this point) is so old. As much as I enjoy ST, I want very much to start a new project and use all the things I've learned from this one. Part of me hates to see these old images posted as "new" but I don't think it's fair to the readers for me to not finish up ST.

As for an update schedule, let's go with every other day for now, starting today. I've worked ahead on the pages, but I'm not ready to promise a definite page schedule quite yet.

As for the upcoming chapter 9, I see now that I was a tad too ambitious as far as setting and mood goes. Some things you cannot easily convey to paper, and I've fallen terribly short of my original vision of these next few scenes. Please keep that in mind as you (as I'm sure you will :P) continue to check back for new ST pages.

Lend a hand?

2008-06-08T16:54:00.000-07:00

If you come across a dead or broken link, could you please let me know? I'd appreciate it. :)

almost there

2008-05-16T22:52:00.000-07:00

I have most of the work done for the site and I'm just trying to get all the pages linked back up in a webcomic viewing format. Thank you, soul-alive for what you've done. It is really encouraging to me that people are still thinking of Skipping Tomorrows from time to time. I'll be back soon (with my site). I promise. :)

Still Working ...

2008-01-02T14:17:00.000-08:00

Holidays are officially over and everyone is getting back to the "norm." That includes me. :) Hopefully by the end of this month hoodiegypsy will be back up and functional and skipping tomorrows will be underway. Because of my funny internet situation, I've had more chance to work on the art of the upcoming pages - even going so far as making steps towards my next project.

Anyway, I wish you all a happy new year - have fun turning over those new leaves and keeping up the resolutions. :)

Project: Rebuild hoodiegypsy.com --- Status: Underway

2007-11-14T14:10:00.000-08:00

Hey, everyone! Thanks for checking into things here! Also, thank you much for the emails - HUGE encouragement. ^__^

So I just wanted to update you guys and let you know that I'm still working on the site rebuild AS WELL AS continuing work on the newest pages. That means that when hoodiegypsy.com goes back up, there will be new Skipping Tomorrows stuff up.

Once again, thanks so much for checking in on things, and in case you haven't been following it, http://christianmanga.com/gameplan/ is a great read - check it out!

hoodiegypsy's host is DEAD

2007-09-09T19:51:00.000-07:00

I have no idea what's up with my site host, and I'm really sorry for the downtime. As soon as I can contact them, I'll try to get to the bottom of things. Actually, if this was going to happen, it happened at a good time since I'm still scanning in the next chapter's line art.

My brother just got married and I've been really busy helping out with that, so ST had to take back burner for the last week. I have NOT relapsed into non-posting oblivion again. ^__^

Since there won't be a new page up for at least a week, here's some appeasement art. This may not interest any of you, I don't know, but I personally love it when artists include concept sketches in with their projects/publications. I'll have to track down the very first sketches of Shawn and Emma, but for now, here's some of the clothing notes I made.

Page 103 - Your Painting -

2007-08-30T15:39:00.000-07:00

Pg 103

Oh yeah. That painting. *wink*

THANK YOU for sticking with me all this time! Every one of you readers mean so much to me! You're the *reason* I'm doing this whole webmanga thing! Two more chapters to go of old art - then the last chapter will be CURRENT ART! I'm pretty excited if you can't already tell. If you're curious what my current art looks like, the "100 Page Thank You" is a kind of example. That was actually one of the many sketches I have of Shawn and Emma in my travel sketchbook. I just scanned and colored it as a thanks. Couple questions for those of you who would be willing to give feedback:

-Think I should re-open my Deviant Art account?
-If I put up a gallery of sketches (ST and non-ST stuff) and finished art, would you look at it?
-When I start my next project (immediately after ST is done) do you want a say in which one I start, or should I just pick a project and go with it?
-Is anyone having problems with the current layout? Any way I could make viewing the comic easier? How's the loading time for slower connections?

Think that's it. Again, thanks so much!

Page 102 - I'm Starving! -

2007-08-30T15:33:00.000-07:00

Pg 102

Please don't mind my lack of background. Not much to say about this one other than I'm sorry for the pic of Emma the bottom. I didn't redraw, but I wanted to. The page just went up that much quicker. -_-

Pg 100 - gulp -

2007-08-26T18:50:00.000-07:00

Pg 100

Totally falling asleep ... I'll revamp this post later. ;)

Pg 100 - No One's Perfect -

2007-08-26T18:47:00.000-07:00

Pg 100

Page 100! Thanks for sticking with it, everyone!

I'm back from vacation and hope to maintain a semi-normal updating schedule.

099 - Dense as Guys in Manga -

2007-07-19T17:28:00.000-07:00

Pg 099

GASP! The "L" word!!

And I don't know about you, but a bit of comedic relief is like ... a fan blowing cool air into a stuffy room. ;)

098 - Something Unspoken -

2007-07-19T17:15:00.000-07:00

Page 098

So while it's kind of a tease for two characters to completely miss signs of one being attracted to the other, sometimes ... they really do know deep down inside how the other person feels. And yeah - that's what Jen looks like with no hair dye. It was actually very hard for me to color her that way. o.O

Speaking of Jen, she made a cameo in my submission to this year's Comix 35 contest called "The Greatest Witness." In case you didn't know, I am a Christian. ^_^ And just so there's no confusion, Skipping Tomorrows is not a Christian Webmanga (although, if you're looking for some, I got a list of links for ya!) and "The Greatest Witness" is not part of the Skipping Tomorrows storyline. I drew Jen to look older on purpose to fit the role of host and yes - that is new art. Hopefully it looks a bit different from the Skipping Tomorrows line art. ^^;

097 - Felt Safe

2007-07-19T17:07:00.000-07:00

Page 097

Not a whole lot to say other than sorry for the angst - I'm pretty anti-angst, I frown upon emo, and do my best to keep even my most serious subjects lighthearted. However, here we are at the root of Shawn and Emma's feelings, so I kind of had to be serious for a couple pages. Oh, and this is kind of not humble at all, but I really like the pic of him grabbing her. Sometimes when you draw something and then you hold it up to look at it, you feel like giving out a bit "WOOT!!!" That was way back when, and I still like that particular part of this page. :P

096 - Not With Me -

2007-06-22T17:15:00.000-07:00

Page 096

Well, this might be my favorite scene in the entire story right here. Not so much as the actual artwork, but the event itself. ^_^

I really don't have much to comment on this page other than the second to last panel is a good example of the contrast of Shawn and Emma's skin color. Shawn has always had a slightly pale tone to his skin, while everyone else around him has a healthy, normal color. It was supposed to be a subconsicous reminder of his sickness ... but not now that I mentioned it ... heh heh. ^^;

095 - The Weight of Memories -

2007-06-20T08:55:00.000-07:00

095

T_T Poor Shawn, first I make him moody, now he's crying. Kinda emo-ish if you ask me. :D

If this looks like a breaking point in the story, it is. If you've been kind of snoozing along, I hope the rest of the story wakes you up a little, because it's "all downhill goin' from here."

094 - A History Lesson -

2007-06-20T08:37:00.000-07:00

Page 094

MAJOR PLOT REVELATION! WOO!!

Ok, in case Jennifer and Jen looking exactly alike and having the *same* name didn't tip you off, maybe you caught the bright blue eye color hint. I hope everyone can read the aged article text. It's been a while, but if you refer to page 10, Jennifer mentioned that Minnie had a weird sickness. I'm still learning a lot about storytelling, but one thing I LOVE is details - eye color, vague mentioning. I think the greatest compliment that a webcomic artist can get is if people actually remember something from page pages, RE-READ your comic, and then notice the fact that you had the entire story in mind and organized from the very beginning. I never want to "trick" my readers so much that I have to draw flashbacks to justify an event. I have plans for an upcoming comic with a lot of big twists, but I will always leave breadcrumbs on the trail. :) Um yeah ... how's that for rambling?

093 - Sinking In -

2007-06-20T08:26:00.000-07:00

Page 093

In case anyone ever wondered what my opinion on the subject is: Cloud and Tifa forever. If you don't have a clue as to what I'm talking about, and you didn't see a cameo in page 93, don't worry about it. :)

Anyway, the writing for this page was kind of tough because Emma's thoughts are kind of all over the place - her feelings, her problems, his feelings, his problems. Oh, and that first panel is what I think a moderately throbbing headache looks like. ^^;

Oh, and there's actually another cameo in this page - the super helpful librarian is actually Robyn from Offsides.

092 - Close -

2007-05-18T23:15:00.000-07:00

Pg 092

Sometimes ideas are really hard to convey with words, and even harder with art. I hope the idea of this page comes across clearly enough. Pretty much, they got a little too close and both of them kind of freaked a little. So, in case you haven't figured it out, there's a little chemistry going on between Mr. Truid and Miss Luthain. And I'm very happy with the bottom panel. He's such a cheery kind of happy-go-lucky guy, but I love drawing a sulking Shawn. I guess it's just easy to make him brood. ^_^

091 - That Worried Look -

2007-05-18T23:12:00.000-07:00

Pg 091

I had a lot of fun with the layout of this page and I actually like most of the frames in it (for once). Waaaay back when I was still toying with the idea of Skipping Tomorrows, I sort of sketched up a rough wardrobe, and Shawn's hoodie that shows up on this page is one of the first items of clothing I designed specifically for the comic. I like to use a lot of blue on Shawn and a lot of green on Emma - so it brings out the eye color. A lot of detail is lost when the pages get shrunk down, but that's life, I guess.

Chapter 8 Cover - Echoes -

2007-05-18T23:11:00.001-07:00

Chapter 8 Cover

The name of the page is "Deep Sleep." It was a sketch of Shawn that's been hiding in my sketchbook forever, so I decided to use it for a cover art. :)

Pg 90 - Cheated -

2007-05-01T15:32:00.000-07:00

Pg 90

Nothing much to say about this one, other than I like this page. Finale pages are always fun to do for some reason, and I like drawing Shawn with his hood up. ^_^

Pg 89 - You Knew -

2007-05-01T15:28:00.000-07:00

Pg 89

Normally I love the pages that have Sherri on them, but I don't like this one. (I feel like I say that about every page ...) My reasons for not liking this page : I dressed Emma as a granola nun and the ugly clinic walls are back.

Pg 88 - No Right -

2007-05-01T15:24:00.000-07:00

Pg 88

This page was inspired by a quick sketch I did of Emma and Shawn (in church of all places >_>) and I liked it so much I decided that a photo set of them would be cute. I have the original sketch somewhere, I'll try to find it and scan it, because I like it better than the final version. I'm honestly pretty sad how this page came out - I'm not happy at all with the photo set. Oh well. -_-

Pg 87 - The Little Things -

2007-05-01T15:19:00.000-07:00

Pg 87

I don't like this page. I don't like the art or the script. Honestly, the only reason it's up and colored is because I like the way the lower left hand frame came out. (Emma is in a bandanna again!) I hope Emma doesn't come off as rude in this page, but I thought it'd be cute for her to call him Mr. Truid when she was annoyed. Notice that Shawn is drinking an orange drink to begin with ...

Pg 86 - Special Guy -

2007-05-01T15:16:00.000-07:00

Pg 86

This was actually one of my favorite scenes when I was piecing Skipping Tomorrows together. Initially, this family had a little bit bigger part, but when I was trimming down the script, I decided that even the names weren't important and they were kind of shifting the focus around too much. So, they are now the nameless blonde family that lives in a shelter!

Also, Emma had lines in this page too, but I ended up just clipping them all. Now I'm not so sure ... she almost NEVER talks in this chapter! o.O

Pg 85 - The Kind of Heart -

2007-05-01T15:13:00.000-07:00

Pg 85

This page was (in the script and layout) combined with the next page. I have no idea what I was thinking trying to cram all of that in on one page, but there was just no way it was going to work. Oh, and that's tinfoil around the hot dogs. It's kinda hard to color tinfoil, I discovered. ^^;

Pg 84 - Best Friends -

2007-05-01T15:10:00.000-07:00

Pg 84

It's hard to tell, but Emma is hitching a ride on the cleaning cart in the first frame. She's also fun to draw in a bandana. :P Oh, and I've done a horrible job bringing it up from time to time, but Emma *is* a clutz, so of course Shawn wouldn't want her near the crystal.

Pg 83 - To Talk or Not to Talk -

2007-05-01T15:07:00.000-07:00

Pg 83

Not a whole lot to say about this one. These next few pages are kinda scrap bookish, which is why I decided to post them all at once. Don't want people dying of boredom between updates. ^^;

Pg 82 - Conned for a Con -

2007-04-11T18:31:00.000-07:00

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 -

2007-04-05T07:32:00.000-07:00

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? -

2007-04-05T07:03:00.001-07:00

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 -

2007-04-05T06:55:00.000-07:00

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

2007-04-05T06:03:00.000-07:00

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 ...

2007-04-05T05:15:00.000-07:00

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.