I may never be on Livejournal these days, but.....

...I can at least pop in to wish happy festive joys to those of you celebrating, and a wonderful and succesful new year to all!

Sorry I'm so rarely about here these days, but do please use this link to view my website feed through your Livejournal if you want to keep up with what I'm doing ^_^
http://www.livejournal.com/friends/add.bml?user=emma_vieceli
Not that I've had a whole lot of chance to update that too regularly either, hahah, but it's slightly better serviced than LJ....oh dear, I fail XD

I'm also on twitter of course, @Emmavieceli - and that's where you'll find me the most on the net these days; blabbing away like a nutter.

So - With that I wish you all a wonderful festive season. May your plates be overloaded, your port be flowing and your puddings be flaming. Surround yourself with people you love and have a wonderful time.
I'll see you all next year!

*hug*
Ems ^_^

Dragons, vampires, Leeds and haircare!

hey, all! this weekend coming is the fabulous Thought Bubble comic convention, always a show I look forward to! I'll be there with a table, pimping my shiny Dragon Heir books, some Sweatdrop anthies and the Sweatdrop calender (perfect Christmas gift, eh?) and also sitting in on a couple of panels. I hope to see you there ^_^

I can taste the end on Avalon book one, woot! Loving the story SO much. And Vampire Academy continues to be a delight to draw. I had no idea I'd love drawing Christian so much, he's really fun to draw because his expressions are just wonderful. ^_^

In random, other art-related news: A few months ago I did a commission for Lee Stafford's hairdressing company, where I got to draw comic-styled artwork for a line of special boxsets. Well, these boxsets are now available in Boots everywhere, and they're SHINY! If you're in a Boots and see the Christmas gifts section, why not take a look? And I can vouch for the product too. OMG I never thought I'd get addicted to shampoo! haha ;) You can see all three sets by following the link.


Hope everyone's doing well! Sorry I'm so unsociable at the mo....it's gonna be a tough couple of years, but I am enjoying the work! ^_^

The final cover.

Oh yeah ...!



This was the cover that ended up being used in the final book design! The image is cropped a little bit on the cover, and it's a veerrrry slightly different colour (more yellow in the shadows, I seem to remember), but this is basically the picture ^_^

Oh my god, I drew this about ... three or four months ago now? I cain't remember. I do remember it was a couple of pages [of comic] before I started on the section with Bottom with his animal head, so I wasn't used to drawing the donkey ... as such, this image took about two hours to edit together so that the problems I had with the head were sorted into a more or less convincing ... er, image. Originally, Titania was leaning on him, but now she's ... er, not. Um!

I learned during this comic why, in most illustrations of Donkey-Bottom, he is really rather well-built ... and it's because trying to fit a huge head onto a skinny body really doesn't work. Of course, MY Bottom is quite thin (never thought I'd be able to say that in context, hahaha). So I had a lot of problems!

.............. p194

... finished.

p177

I've .... I've just drawn an amphitheatre. *cough-hack-die*

To those who don't know - which I'm guessing will be about 100% of you - my absolute pet hates in drawing are (in order of lowest to highest Hate): feet-and-toes, chairs, curving scenery/things that involve circles, and stairs. So obviously, a ROUNDISH theatre COMPOSED OF STAIRS is not high on my list of likes. Oh god. Oh god. I haven't pencilled the lines yet, it's still at rough stage. IT COULD ALL GO VERY WRONG.

I had a count-down to the day I had to draw Bottom with his animal head (it was called D-Day, hur hur hurrrr), but THIS one sneaked up on me. I only realised today was Amphitheatre Day when I sat down to draw.

At any rate, all I can hope for is something that resembles an amphitheatre to some degree ... whine, moan, etc.

I have HOWEVER thumbnailed the entirity of the sequentials now. I finshed the buggers off (I hate thumbnailing too) the other week and now feel much better for it.

I'M NEARLY DONE I'VE NEARLY DONE THE WHOLE THING OMG.

The Book is Here!!

The Tempest has been printed! :D I received a copy in the post a few days ago, and it's looking great! It's amazing to actually see and hold a book that's filled with your own illustrations, I'm pretty excited!
It's also good to be able to read it through in its intended format. I'm quite pleased with the pace of the read, although I can't really comment objectively, since I know the story inside out now. Well, next step, release date! The launch event is later this month :)

It's in the trees! It's coming!

I'm out of the woods! I'm out of the woods!! I DON'T HAVE TO DRAW ANY MORE TREES OMG so happy. *headdesk*

Fnurgle.

OOOooooh. Coffee and F-Zero X for breakfast does not a steady hand make. Urrrgh.

... page 138 ....

Off To Print!

Proofing on The Tempest is now finished! Hopefully every last spelling mistake and image-based error has been found and sorted out. It should be a few weeks at the printer, and then I get to see the finished thing :D I can't wait! It's going to be my first complete book!
I'll check back when the finished thing is ready.

Proofing

I guess it's common opinion that once you've finished working on all the pages that's it! You're done, the comic is finished and the printer just needs to print it (or at least that's what I naively thought XD).

But no!

Proofing turns out to be quite an extensive and intense process! So far about 6 or 7 people (including me - many times) have read The Tempest through, making notes and suggestions that will help the final product to be at 110% quality.
In this process, all sorts of things are picked up on, such as inconsistency in images or characters, page order and page numbers, confusion about speech bubbles and who they belong to, page flow, legibility of text etc etc.

So far, more than 20 pages have been tweaked and edited. It's amazing how many mistakes a fine-tooth comb can pick out! However, this process has gone quite smoothly, and is now almost over... the day that the book goes to print is truly growing near, and I'm really looking forward to seeing it printed and bound!

Thanks to Kate, Charlie & Simon for taking time out to have a look over it :)

Lysander is a meanie

To be honest, Lysander is my least favourite character in Midsummer Night's Dream. It always shocks me how awful he becomes when under the influence of the flower (just say no, kids). Like, ACTUALLY horrible. Look how upset he makes Hermia:




Of course, it's not really Lysander's fault. The dear couldn't have done ANYTHING wrong, really. So with feminine lightning-quick recovery, Hermia beats on her best friend instead:




Haha! Hmm. Well, regardless of his nastiness, I'm not keen on Lysander. There was something about him that left a bad taste in my mouth from the beginning, and although my opinions of each of the characters has changed variously as I've worked with them, he's ... still way at the bottom of my scale of Likeness. Mm.

My most favouritist character is Helena. She's genuinely wonderful :D She's so ... kind of ... flappy! I don't know how to describe her. I think her edit for the Manga Shakespeare version has worked really well, too.

The character interactions are very delicate in general, especially during the long scenes in the wood ... I really appreciate these parts. It's been really cool breaking them down and deciding (as fast as possible, hur hur), what to do and how to place the couples and etc.

I am just about to start thumbnails for 130 - 161! It involves more screaming and shouting and Oberon.

FINIIISHED

Wahey! I've finished The Tempest! That's 193 b/w pages and 9 colour pages, plus a cover illustration and various revisions/tweaks.
It feels great to have completed something so large, and I'm really excited to see it go to the printers. I'll be getting a copy of the proofs in a few days, and after all the checking has been done, it'll be a month or two before the actual shop release date. There's already a provisional page for it up on amazon.

I have to say, having completed the project, I now respect/appreciate Shakespeare in a whole new light. Previously, I'd only studied his plays for educational purposes, and never really enjoyed it properly, but the act of constantly referencing the edited version with the full version, and trying to deconstruct the prose and verse into images and solid meaning is a real eye-opener. If you want to do well on a Shakespeare-based exam, I suggest trying to edit down and illustrate a few famous passages! You won't forget those bloody quotes after you've had to create a character to deliver them! And you'll really appreciate the poetry of the language when you're bashing your head on the table thinking 'how can I create an image meaningful enough to replace this bit of what I previously though was just meaningless embellishment!?'.

Anyways XD I digress... I'm finished! And taking a short break from work, which is a pleasurable relief after 12 hour days 7 days a week for months.

Spring Update 2013

I thought I would bring my livejournal watchers up to date with what's going on with my life and everything at the moment!

ART STUFF!
I've been very busy doing a lot of drawing. Much of it is on how-to-draw books which will be coming out this year:


And some of my favourite pieces done over the past few months that I'm allowed to show (I've done loads more, but they'll be in the books so I'll hold fire on them till the books are available to purchase XD):



Of my personal works, I'm hoping to get my webcomic FujoFujo! up and running again, volume 2 of Love Stuffing partway drawn during this year, a contribution to a new Sweatdrop Studios anthology and a new, fully illustrated fantasy light novel called A Brush With Magic :3 The reason why I think I can do all of these things is because of some major changes happening to my life...

LIFE STUFF!

I'm pregnant! It's a boy and he's due in early June 2013. It's quite exciting for me and my extended family and friends - he will be my first child and I intend to raise him as a fabulous gentleman. As such, I'm pulling back from large publishing contracts, comic events and school visits from about mid-April through to January 2014, so that I can be a full-time mum for a little while, and only do small bits of work, personal art stuff and collaborations with friends.

Of course, I can't possibly just do one life change thing at a time... I've just bought a new house! It was something we were trying to get since last summer, but the sellers took AGES to sort out all the paperwork and now we finally have the keys. It needs a lot of renovation work to the upper floor structure, so it'll be a couple of months at least before that is ready for us to move into. But we're comfy, we still own our current house and we aren't in a rush to sell it so even if the work does take longer, we'll have a roof over our heads!

It is a beautiful project though; it's fully detached, with a back garden around 80 feet long and front driveway large enough to hold 3-4 cars. The house is sloped at the front, creating a vaulted ceiling in the main, open plan living area. The living space has a chimney, so we'll put in a woodburning stove. The kitchen is u-shaped and large. The dining area is in front of the double doors leading into the garden. There are four bedrooms, where I'll use the downstairs ensuite as my studio/library/guestroom. Upstairs will have the main bedroom, a good sized room I will turn into a dressing room, a family bathroom and a large room for the baby (and possible future sibling?).

This of course means I'll have to do A LOT OF SHOPPING!!! ♥♥♥

For the house: Solid wood floors in ash greys or limed oak. Metallic gold painted feature walls. White walls everywhere else. This will set off any artwork I hang around, and work nicely with bold furniture. I have my heart set on a dining suite in black/cream solid marble. Black leather sofas. Dark mahogany or walnut antique or reproduction solid wood furniture to complement my antique piano and other antique pieces around the house. Traditional rugs in heritage or Persian designs.

For the baby: Stokke pram, car seat, baby carrier and high chair. Arlo walnut cot bed, Cosatto changing unit. I want dark woods, whites and brights! Clothes: blacks, whites, greys and brights. I particularly like the quirkiness of the bodysuits and sleepsuits from http://www.alternatots.com so that I can avoid the typical baby boy clothes in blue with cars and football.

If you feel left out of the loop, you can always catch up on more frequent updates from me through Tumblr, Twitter or Facebook ^^