Goodbye February

Again if you aren't following the twitter or fb page you are missin out!
So welcome to page 3. As you see there is a return slave daul there and I have decided his name is Boomer. This is based on a very dedicated fan who uses him as his avatar and never once gave up on the comic and always posts in the forum!
Now about this page. There is a ton of old stuff here. Interior shot of the foyer of the castle-only de-Contessa'd. An iguacha. A cart...If I could just draw boxes of people with no background all day I would. But I was nice and gave you a background to look at. With light and everything.
For those who don't recall the two dauls talking to Whisp are Sollas and Esalia. Two merchant dauls, one of which owned Poppett. They helped them sneak back into the palace before. Sollas was always Poppett's friend and never saw him as property. Esalia never took on a slave, she sells clothes, but is not what is called a seamstress. On Avernyght a seamstress or tailor is a doctor. She would be called a dressmaker or something along those lines, since she mainly makes clothes for females she's probably known in Nox as a dressmaker.
On the note of clothes the article Esalia gave to Whisp is more of a cloak than a dress or so because the slaves are made of rags they do not wear clothes, their clothes are part of their "design". So Whisp does not have legs, she is her skirt. Just thought it was neat trivia.

In defense of the "Under our noses"  I think I will expand on something mentioned in the catalog-btw the catalog needs some new edits, I might get to that this week- The dauls have certain bits of knowledge that is collective. It was mentioned in the Brief History of Avernyght that humans have visited Avernyght before.  The humans that came through on expedition were German and it was roughly during the 1890's.  When the dauls learn a language there is a chance that will spread to the collective.  Whether or not a daul can access the collective is up to the individual daul.  Yes the dauls clearly have their own language, the easiest example is their names for night and day are Ranu and Kanu.  These mark the difference between when Tersana(the eclipsed sun) and Norsana(the three moons) are in the sky.  The daul's own language is based on the Aminosh language because the dauls were born of the Sisters, who were animinosh.  The language they use at whatever time is present in the story is based solely on what they like using at the time.  Because of the connection to the Sisters they know English, why is for a future story.  The languages the dauls know are Aminosh, German, English, and Merish.  They currently speak English because it is the favorite of Arista, one of the Four Sisters who has been missing for a long time.

This also leads to the question of Uber's speech.  The dauls from the region Uber is from have a different connection to the collective.  They are largely visual individuals.  Uber is a painter, one of the things he used to do is paint rooms of the palace to resemble Earth's seasons and sunlight.  He can visualize Earth because of the collective, but his ability to translate his thoughts into words is disjointed.  Dauls from the same region are largely visual, they work as artists, seamstresses/tailors, architects, mapmakers and so on.
 Oh mapmakers...know what that makes me think of?
You know who is gonna be on the next page?

Raaweh. yay.
Point of fact, Raaweh is not from the same region as Uber, not ALL dauls in visual professions are, just as not all dauls from this region become these things, it's just sort of a general thing.

Workin' for a livin'

All of these news posts are being preserved on the blog fyi. And if you aren't following the twitter or fb page you are missin out!
Have I updated the site yet? HECK NO! I had a really busy week of work so while I DID work on the comic, extra things like site niceness did not get done. But. hey! Comic! That is good, really good considering my track record ;P
Page 3 is hurting my face because I am having to draw old architecture from the old pages. Old stuff is old. BAH! But the plus side is that I am remembering not only do I need to add more citizens and what not I can reuse dauls I drew before, dauls that fans seemed to like. I will talk about that more in page 3's blog though...
As far as this page goes I rewrote the end of it conisderably at the last minute and you know I'm still not sure I'm pleased. I like the content but I want Uber's interruptions to show more that he is on the same page as Verite and doesn't want Verite to have to go into a painful topic so much.
If I ever redid any of Ragtime I would elongate the end. I can't even go into all the problems with the rushed nature of the end of Poppette's Story. Maybe someday I will.
This is another page that the layout has changed alot from the original.  These pages were to all be done outside on the steps but it seemed too static to me and the conversations taking place seemed too long to be taking place right before Whisp took off for her journey. At first I tried to change the dialogue but it didn't work, in the end a simple change of venue fixed it. They have the ceremony for Whip announcing her plans to leave, then in the privacy of the castle they go to hammer out the details. Whisp lives near the castle on the grounds so it's very plausible she's either packing or in the castle saying goodbyes while Verite and Uber discuss things in Verite's study. There are things going on the in the last panel that aren't significant here but hopefully people will pick up on. I thought about explaining it but that's no fun. They may not be important here but in a future story they will be, but that could be said for a number of things I throw in here and there.
Also RAAWEH IS COMING IN SOON! I <3 Raaweh. More on that on the page 4 blog ;)

Relaunch

For any new readers please take note that this story is a continuation of Poppett's story, which can be found in the Archives.
You may notice that this is a lot different from the old page 1 that was never actually finished.  Well that's because it is.  I threw out the old page and actually started working full digital on pages, more about that below.
After a very refreshing year off of comics I have had a lot of changes. I DID graduate! I am the proud holder of TWO Bachelors Degrees, one in Studio Art and the other in Art Education. In addition to that I graduated successfully with honors as a Magna Cum Laude. I spent quite a few months being a bit distraught(understatement) but just before Christmas (right after my birthday even) I landed a teaching job at a local elementary school. It's only until May as of right now but I could find something more permanent later, for now I am enjoying doing something for a living that never feels like work, and gives me a lot of joy.
Another change is I have become quite enthralled with an MMO. I fully acknowledge the irony of this as I have long spoken against them and their life eating ways, but it didn't eat my life, it actually ended up keeping me active artistically, is the reason I broadcast daily, and gives me relief on frustrating days. The MMO is City of Heroes. It is painfully enjoyable. Yes I know there was just a fresh new MMO (DCUO) but I like this and have no real desire to play anything else. I've tried other MMOs before but this one I have stayed with the longest. Anyway it's fun, I play it, I do commissions for it. Fun times for Mv.
I have started broadcasting on Livestream while I work on things. I usually do it every night at 8 pm central, sometimes I don't, I usually put it on the twitter when I do. So...probably should watch the twitter...Just sayin...Tuesday and Thursday are only ever for an hour, other days are till ?? Weekends fluctuate.
The BIGGEST change is that I am now working 100% digital.  I still draw on paper when I want to but for the comic and my commissions I've been working full tablet. So much so that I shelled out and got a Cintiq (thank you new job $$). I LOVE IT. It fixes the disjointed problem I was having with a regular tablet, let my poor old breaking Graphire 3 retire and well c'mon it is just made of love. I am convinced that it is so fantastic that they must rub it down with baby kittens before shipping and that is why they cost so much-paying off anti rubbing things with baby kitten people. I've also bought Painttool SAI for inking. Both of these upgrades are...oh my just SO helpful. Currently the first two pages are completely done in photoshop but the rest will have inks from SAI, not like it will be a big change, but just in case you're curious.
It may take me a few days to get the site all caught up, I have some art to add and links to update.
We're back baby! Whooo!