Building my bolg, pain, headache, and lack of information

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This is my blog, this is my journey. I started this blog site to showcase my Webcomic. To help build the blog I purchased “The Webcomic Handbook” by Brad Guigar. Brad does the Evil Inc. webcomic at evil-inc.com. The handbook recommends using WordPress and the Comic Easel theme. Unfortunately the Comic Easel theme has been replaced by the ComicPress theme. The good news is ComicPress is set up so that you don’t have to use Child Themes. Child themes are an attempt (that doesn’t always work) to save from having to re-enter information into a theme when WordPress updates or the theme updates and both WordPress and ComicPress have updated several times in the last couple of months. The bad news is I can’t find decent instructions on how to use ComicPress. I don’t have time to do what I have to do during the day and write stories and work with an artist to get page drawn (I’m not a good artist) at night. Over and over again I’ve found that by the time I learn enough about some piece of software they change the program or language and you have lean a whole bunch of new programming methods. So far I have pushed buttons and got the blog to work somewhat and I haven’t locked up the server yet. I still can not figure out things or find a place where it explains what to do. If you haven’t noticed when you go to this site you go to a web page that redirects you to this site on Wordpress. If WordPress goes down, gets hacked, or I hose the theme beyond recognition I have HTML and CSS code I could drop into the web site page to have something up, it will be crude but there will be something on the web page. It would mean hand entering changes to images and text (a lot of work) till WordPress gets back on line but the site would still work. Still looking for help with ComicPress without spending days, weeks, months or even years learning programming.

Write on.

Hot and Sweaty Wacom drawing tablet

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It’s been so cold for so long you can forget what it’s like to work up a sweat and have your hand stick to your tablet. Many digital artist use a two finger glove that covers the bottom of the hand (where it rest on the tablet) and the bottom two fingers on their drawing hand. See Jazza (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVo5IcY9Mbo) on Youtube. He’s left handed and in the insert window you can see him wearing a two finger glove when he holds up his left hand.      I think it looks dorky. I use a plain piece of copy paper and place it over the Wacom drawing pad. The pen/stylist works like the paper is not there. The paper gives the stylist (drawing pen) the feel of drawing on paper in place of the slick plastic surface. Replace the paper often to keep it clean and the paper will reduce the wear on the drawing pad surface. The paper will most likely wear the tip (nib) of the drawing stylist out a little faster but the nibs last for years and can be replaced. Wacom drawing pads comes with extra nibs.    Draw on.

April 1 proves the economy is getting better

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April first I received several e-mails that were April fools gags and the gags weren’t gallows humor. This proves the economy is getting better. People are happier, the beam counters are not strangling everyone (it cost money to send out a gag e-mail, those electrons aren’t cheap and were in business to make money not get sued).  Spring is coming, the snow is going to melt and there’s a light at the end of the tunnel (it’s not a train it’s congress coming to muck things up).            Professor Hy Voltage.

What’s the difference between an artist and an engineer?

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At the ConDor convention in San Diego I noticed a number of people complaining about how early the panels started. The panels started at 10:00. They must have been artists. An engineer knows that time and science wait for no man. Even when not working I get up at 6:15 to 6:30 every morning. I know fellow engineers that are up at 5:00 a.m. By 10:00 the days half over with. The difference between an engineer and an artist, about five and a half hours.

Or 80 dollars an hour and over time if your lucky.

Write on, draw on.  Professor Hyram Voltage

19th century meets 21st century

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Coming from the pool area into the convention area of the ConDor con you cross by the pool area then through a short hallway to the con area. Along one side of the hallway are brand new soda machines and on the other side are full length mirrors. Early Sunday morning one of the attendees was checking the fit the bustle of her steampunk costume in the hallway mirrors. A great juxtaposition of the 19th and 21st century.

Write on,draw on.  Professor Hyram Voltage

Convention weekend San Diego ConDor Con

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On March 21 through 23, 2014 I attended the ConDor con in San Diego. Great little con, I had fun. In the smaller cons you can meet and talk to the authors. The lines to get a book signed are much shorter than at World Con. Very heavy Steampunk influence at the con. Many people were in costume. A large number of vendors selling Steampunk clothing and accessories. A couple of the panels were really fun with lots of laughter.

Write on, draw on.  Professor Hyram Voltage

Drawing on the screen the same size as on paper

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Needed to have the image on the screen the same size as the image on the paper (so I could hold the paper up to the screen and compare the two images). Zoom settings are arbitrary, zoom to 100% does not mean one to one.

In Manga Studio 5 here’s what I did.

Open an 11 by 17 page. Turn on grid (click view in tool bar at top of page, then click grid in drop down menu to put check mark next to it). Count number of horizontal, light blue, grid lines as you go down the page vertically. Divide number of grid lines by 17 to get lines per inch. Count the number of vertical grid lines across the page. Divide that number of lines by the size of the page in inches (11). You will get a different number of lines per inch, blame the programmers. I got 4.9 lines per inch (most likely grid lines are in metric spacing) vertically for my small monitor. Zoom out while holding a ruler to the screen, when you get 4.9 (OK 5) light blue grid lines per one inch note the zoom factor. Use that zoom to check how an image will look in real size (when printed on 11 by 17 inch paper). Zoom to 30% gets the screen image close to 11 by 17 paper size on my monitor.

The numbers will be different for different monitors/screens.

e-mail me from the contact page if you have questions or would like to talk about how to use Manga Studio 5.

Write on, draw on.  Professor Hyram Voltage

Likeable Monsters

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Professor Hyram “Hy” Voltage here.

This comic is based on a movie script I wrote. Of all the scripts I’ve written I like this story the best.

The one comment I kept getting back from the writing group, rewrite after rewrite, was “Where do the monster come from?”.

Where the monsters come from doesn’t have anything to do with the story. The monsters were created years before the story starts and I’m not big fan of flash backs.

After a long pain racked analysis period I came to realize that what everyone was saying is that my monsters were more interesting than my villains, protagonist, and anyone else in the script. My monsters were the good guys/gals (yes, this is an equal employment comic).

So I wrote, an origin for the monsters. Then rewrote, rewrote, rewrote, rinse and repeat. The result is a adventure/rom-com with a very bloody opening. You can’t make a good monster without spilling a little blood.

But it gave me a chance to show the personalities of the monsters before they were monsters. And showing is the best way to do it.

Mad scientists, Monsters, and Mayhem.  This comic got it all.

Write on, draw on.  Professor Hyram Voltage

 

Teething Pains

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If there are mistakes to be made I will make them faster than anyone else. This is progress. So pardon my mistakes while I build this blog.

Write on, draw on.  Professor Hyram Voltage