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Work Hell '09 #1 - week 2
Here I am, still alive and kicking. The first list of changes for Naruto 46 arrived late Monday, as expected. The 2nd list came early today. I actually started the conversion before I had them, b/c every hour of time is precious. I have to convert 13 pages a day to make the deadlines, but more on this in a minute. I did very well the first two days, but today I am definitely dragging. --;; I'm going to finish the Naruto minimum, but I think Nana will be skipped today. I can spare it, because...
It's rather satisfying to know that this bout of Work Hell would have been so much worse if I hadn't pushed myself for the past three months. Lettering an extra page each of my shoujo titles every day, tackling all the nasty pages of everything first, wrapping up Clay as quickly as I could (yay for a dialogue-heavy volume!), and definitely being wise enough to turn down One Piece has really saved my neck. I've also figured out a way to make the Naruto conversion a bit easier, which is itself a huge help. I still have to keep on top of things and can't let myself go zombie until the conversion is over, but it's comforting to think of how much worse off I could be right now. This calls for the happy smiley! :D :D :D 13 pages a day and I can still attend my book club meeting next week. No way am I missing that, as I'm starting to finally get to know the other members, and this month's book was awesome and I want to talk about it!!
BTW, it's amazing how much more time I have since I stopped reading my communities. Seriously. I've gained an hour and a half of work time. O.o Wow. And I only regularly visited 4!! They were all rather high-traffic, but still. Whoa! *wonders what they're up to, but not enough to actually go and see*
How can she be one of my fave authors if this book is her first published work?? Because I've been reading her fanfic for three years. XD She wrote for exclusively for Harry Potter, and the first kiss scene in one of her stories is still the flat-out best kiss scene I have ever read ANYWHERE. *swoons* I've been avidly following her LJ for a year and a half, where she was kind enough to actually finish her two fanfic WIPs and share the adventure of trying to publish her original novel--which I now have in my greedy fangirl hands. Sarah left HP fandom with the completion of her two WIPs and won't be writing any more fanfic, but unlike so many other great writers who move on from ficcing, she's giving us original works instead. In book form, with pretty covers and audiobooks and quality printing and everything. :D I'm not complaining. (Besides, I have her fics safe in a lovely pdf, which she kindly made available to her fans on that LJ for a whole month. Along with the pdf, I have some others copypasta-ed into Word Files JIC she didn't include them in the pdf, which did happen. Mwahahahha!) *is a dedicated fangirl*
The Demon's Lexicon is happily waiting for me to crack its cover. I'm thinking it will be my reward for finishing Naruto 46. Can I hold out for three weeks??? I'm certainly going to try!!
Now, my post last week mentioned my epiphany regarding my original manga. Let me see if I can do the realization justice. Hmmmmm.
Setting all the shiny art aside, let's think over manga. I don't mean in the drawing, but in the shading. Manga is limited by two factors: 1. it must be produced FAST--20 pages a week in many cases, and 2. it must be printed cheaply to provide as high a profit margin as possible. Manga is a business, and businesses are supposed to make money. Both of these have led to the widespread use of screen tone. Instant grayscale, instant texture, instant backgrounds. Fast and cheap.
Now, webcomics don't have to be produced fast. Unless you're uber-famous and have contracts to meet, you have no deadlines. And also unless you're also uber-famous, you don't have rabid entitled fans that go crazy and flood your inbox to overflowing by demanding the next page if you're late. Also, webcomics don't have to be printed cheaply. Point of fact, most of them never ARE printed. And if so, then it's a special case and odds are the creator can have them done as cheaply or as expensively as they want/can afford.
This means the two biggest limits on the appearance of manga do NOT apply to webcomics. Ergo....
I don't have to tone mine unless I want to. That's the epiphany. And it really threw me for a loop. Realizing that--OH HAY, you don't have to tone, you know!--opened up the realm of infinite possibilities for my original works. I could go full-out color! I could spot color! I could do strict b/w! I could do the whole thing in shades of green if I wanted!!! What do to what to do OMG I don't know and now there's even more stuff to stress about!!1!1one!
That's where I was four days ago. Then, in the decision to transfer my pre-Naruto stress into something productive instead of blankly watching anime for two hours, I opened up page 5 of the doujinshi for the first time in three weeks. It was time to tone panel 3, so I did. As I worked, I realized something: I LIKE screen tone. It makes my art resemble the art I've admired for so many years. I'm so used to seeing it, so used to dealing with it for work, I'm so very comfortable with it. It's fun for me to lay tone down and know it's going on my artwork instead of someone else's. Ergo...
I want to tone my manga.
That really gives me some peace of mind. Now, I will use screen tone because I WANT to, not because it's expected, not because it's the only option. I really do want to. :D Of course, I also want to have color title pages and the odd color segment for important moments, but the bulk of my stuff?? I'm going to tone it. :3
Time for me to depart and get back to finishing the quota. I'm glad I wrote 3/4ths of this post yesterday, when I was burning with energy, as there's no way I could have belted it all out today. Half-zombiedom sucks. :P~~~ I'm going to be hitting the caffeine tomorrow!
Until next week, minna! *salutes*