Welcome? This is a new web storybook project that I’m calling Cold Bill. The website’s layout is based on ComicPress, a very useful plugin and set of themes for WordPress. I’ve spent the last couple of days modifying a theme to look and work the way I want, and I am hopeful that nothing really terrible happens now that it’s up and running.

I already have the content ready to be posted this first week. The first couple of weeks or so will be format experimentation as I try to get into the habit of making images and figure out what works and what doesn’t. I’m still teaching myself this ‘cut paper’ style, so quality might go up and down for a bit.

It is the intent of having a new image and story piece posted 3-5 times a week. I will have to see how long it takes to put one together at the end of each day, though ideally there will be a new one either every weekday or every two days. This first week there will be one posted each day Tuesday-Thursday(since the first one is up now), with a possible Friday and Saturday post. The week after that I should have a better idea of how many I can reliably pull off in a week. Consistency is my priority right now.

I haven’t really seen many “web storybooks”(for lack of a better term), so I don’t know if many people will find it especially interesting. If not, it will still be a good regular creative exercise for me. I’ll just have to see how it goes.

Everything seemed to work out with the auto-updating comics this week, and the archive pages look and work properly as well. I already have a few pages ready for next week. Postings will resume on Monday and I think that I’m comfortable with posting one a day Monday-Friday.

The first four pages were originally made with the caption contained within the image itself. Separating the words from the image allowed me to use larger versions of the images and write much more. I didn’t add much wording to those first four, but the next few pages will probably be a lot more wordy. These first images also have a lot of empty space reserved for captions, a quality which should go away over time.

The pages for Monday and Tuesday are ready. I really enjoyed making the image for Monday’s page. I’m trying to stay a few days ahead so I don’t have to throw something together at the last minute. I also have habit of re-writing and re-writing things, so being able to go over a block of text several times before it goes public is very helpful.

Be back Monday!

There are some minor changes being made to the website right now. I’m still not completely satisfied with how everything fits together and I’ve been trying to make some considerations for new visitors who need a place to get started.

The written part of the pages is getting longer and longer. I am going to try not to exceed the length in page 8, as that’s not too much longer than the image itself. I have been limiting the description of the scene due to redundancies it would cause with having an image right there, so most of the pages consist of conversations thus far.

Is it working out so far? I don’t know! I don’t know how many people have been following it thus far, but I’d like to hear comments from viewers.

And now some of the larger plot points are beginning to emerge. It shouldn’t be too long before I have enough characters to really fill out the Cast section. Starting next week I’ll have more time available to work on pages, so I might be able to squeeze in more detailed backgrounds. They tend to be my lowest priority, considering everything else that goes into making a typical post, but they should begin to make more regular appearances once I streamline the whole process and free up more time.

I’ve installed the wp-spamfree plugin, a very useful anti-spam measure. As a result, I usually have to approve comments before they appear on the website. If you make a comment and it doesn’t show up immediately, that’s why. This project is brand new so there aren’t more than a handful of regular visitors, but if the plugin becomes a problem for discussions I’ll consider other options.

Be back Monday!

I’ve had trouble in the past properly rendering backgrounds. I have been trying new things out with each image that I create, and sometimes things just don’t work out right and get cut from the final image. Backgrounds get cut a lot, typically filed in a “try it out later” bin. For the background on Page 14 I’ve tried blending the original hand drawn background with the paper layer.

My process for each image starts with a few rough sketches of how I want to lay out the frame, followed by a final drawing in a 4″ x 4″ square. I draw everything that’s going to be in a scene, then scan it into Photoshop and cut out the shapes that become the color layers. Simplifying characters hasn’t been too difficult, as I tend to know what the color shapes are going to be. Simplifying backgrounds is something entirely different, and I’m still slowly learning how to best translate a detailed drawn background into a series of colored shapes.

Page 14 is something in the middle. I still use the colored paper texture, but the pencil lines remain intact and give it a bit more spice. I’m not sure if this is something that I’m going to stick with, but I’ll try it out for a while to see if they’re successful images.

I apologize for how generic Page 13 ended up looking. One part was the background just refusing to work with me, and another was time. I spent most of yesterday and today poring through illustration books and character designs from different games and fantasy series trying to get the right inspiration for Mim’s outfit. Simple-but-unique is tricky, especially since this cut paper style doesn’t lend itself to fine details.

Speaking of Mim: Cold Bill finally got his name! It took a while to finally get to that part of the story, but there it is. Time to update the Cast section!