I have been working on songwriting for a while, but never had any songs to share. Now I finally do. (I wouldn't say either of these songs are at the point where I would make a music video of them or post them on my youtube channel, but I feel comfortable with sharing them on my blog and BandLab).
This song is somewhat connected to All is Not Lost For All Will Begin Again, because it is about a shapeshifter, but no exact character from the story or world. For this song I was given the prompt of "Fantasy/things are not as they seem" and went ahead to write a song about a shapeshifter. There are still some things I want to change about it here and there (hence why I will post a second version in the future).
This song firstly was inspired by a painting called Adieu by John William Waterhouse,
and when putting it to music was inspired by "Arms of the Ocean" by BlackBriar, and "Jolly Sailor Bold" in particular Ginny Di's and Ashley Serena's covers. I decided I didn't want a background track but wanted something in the background. I included the sound of waves and thunder, so that you felt like you were there at the ocean.
If you got a post that was very short and all caps in your feed, and shortly after was deleted, that was because I was claiming my blog on Bloglovin'. Since it wouldn't allow me to paste the code to claim my blog on a page or somewhere else, I had to make a post in order to claim it. So you didn't miss any important posts, and that's why that happened.
Anyway, onto the actual subject of this post. I have been working on animation, and doing more with Adobe Animate. I also tried some animation on Photoshop since that is a software that can be used for animation. In the end I found that Adobe Animate was the easiest for me to use.
Keeping consistency
One thing I struggled with in animation is keeping consistency. A lot of my older animations did not have consistency, and after a while you couldn't tell who or what the thing I was animating was supposed to be. So, I decided to try it with this animation:
Adobe Animate has the ability to easily copy and paste your drawing, which is something I did in this animation but something I didn't do in the other animation program I used. I animated a flour sack character, which is a kind of stock character, since it is used as a way to practice movement like walking and jumping.
I felt like I figured out how to keep some consistency in this animation. Though one thing I wish I had done was to add more squish and squashing, which is something I find I struggle with in animation, and is something I feel I must improve in the future.
This is another animation I did. I decided to move the circle and then animate the legs and ears later, it made the animation seem a bit more consistent.
Squish and squash
Though this animation was made before the other ones (and in Photoshop, which can do animation), I felt it really helped me figure out squish and squash. Though I still feel like I have a lot to learn. (If the animation doesn't repeat, just refresh the page).
This one has a little less consistency than the other ones. This is partly because I was animating in a different program, and it wasn't allowing me to copy and paste at all.
Overall, I have found that I have difficulty applying squish and squash to characters, but am able to do it with objects like bouncing balls easily. So this is something I am going to keep practicing.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Have you ever done a flour sack animation? If so, what did you animate it doing?
Right now, I can't wear costumes which is really frustrating to me. That is because the three different video projects I was working on before I had my surgery have costumes which are layered, which really wouldn't feel good with my incisions.
While recovering, I got the idea to do a dramatic reading of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven." I decided to record my voice only, and have my voice do the acting instead of my body language and face.
I thought it would be fun to try and capture what I thought the unnamed narrator's room might look like (the area where the fireplace is, and not the chamber door). I also ended up adding in sound effects. I hope you enjoy it (I had a lot of fun making it):
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------What's your favorite poem of Edgar Allan Poe's? What would you do if you met the raven from the poem?
Hello everyone, I have some very important updates to tell you:
Email subscription updates-
Since Feedburner went away, and I don't know how long my feed on that will continue to function, I decided to switch to follow.it. So, if any of you were subscribed via email to my blog before and get a message that says "Please confirm your subscription" know that this from me. The name may be "Advemture1359" or "Adventure Awaits" given that I claimed both feeds for my doll blog and this one. In either case, if you get an email from follow.it, know that it not spam.
This is what the new follow by email widget looks like:
If you're already subscribed or want to subscribe, you can go enter your email into the box on the sidebar
I'm also working on a way to import the emails of people who are subscribed to this blog into the new service, since Follow.it does allow you to do this. However, I may end up waiting to do that until the feed completely stops working. (Just so you don't get two notifications at the same time, because that would be very annoying).
If you, too, are a blogger on Blogspot.com who needs an email subscription service for your blog in place of Feedburner, I recommend checking out this post by Jen Ryland. It helped me find Follow.It, and if you need to decide what service to use, I found the article to be really helpful.
Page updates-
The Meet the Character pages are very outdated, and I don't have a lot of pages for the newer stories or characters. So, I am updating those, and so far I have pages for Phoenix, Oak, Sebastian, Elm, Riona, and Celtiere.
I also now have a FAQ page. So if you have any questions about this blog or my art that I haven't answered, please ask in the comments.
A while ago I mentioned that I finished writing the first draft of this novel. This July, I am focusing on editing it and working on the second draft, along with some world-building along the way.
For this project I started writing the first draft in 2018 and finished it in 2020. I made a lot of posts about this novel in the past, so if you want to check them out, here you can, or if you can to look at posts about the series as a whole here you can.
Synopsis-
Genre: Fantasy | Murder Mystery
Horatio wakes up from being in a coma, but he doesn't remember anything that happened before he fell into unconsciousness. All that he remembers is a name, "Annabelle!" Also... Detective Inspector Time finds himself having to solve a case without Lady Annabelle. Murders have been happening throughout many different kingdoms, and no one knows who exactly is behind it all.
Characters-
Here are the characters. Please note, many things have changed. Phillip, the dwarf guard character from the first draft moved to later book, given that the time-line changed a lot. (The dwarf and elf war happens much later). Also since Phillip is not coming in until later, I replaced him for now with a character named Angela. I had created her character for All is Not Lost For All Will Begin Again, but that setting and story changed, too. Angela didn't fit the story anymore, so I moved her to The Mystery of the Body Thief instead.
There are other characters who appear later in the story, but I won't be including them in this post. In this post, I am including the characters who have the largest impact on the plot:
Horatio
A servant who works in the castle, who lost his memory. He has a connection to Annabelle, but what the connection is, he doesn't know, but he longs to find out.
Ophelia
She is one of Horatio's few friends and one of the healers at the castle. She works with the Earth and Air Gods and learns her magic from them. She is a very sweet (but quiet) person.
Lady Annabelle
Lady Annabelle is a princess, who is in a coma, who fell unconscious at the same time as Horatio. Before she was in a coma, she worked as a detective and sometimes would work with D.I. Time and Marigold.
Detective Inspector Time
An old friend of Annabelle's, he is a detective actively working on the case of the murdered royals.
Marigold Time
Marigold is also working on the case of the murders of royalty, and is the adoptive daughter of D.I. Time. She also works as a detective in the police department.
Vonivera
Lady Annabelle's lady in waiting, she is a friend to Horatio and a frenemy of "Angie." Unlike the other ladies in the castle, Vonivera is a fairy and she finds it odd to be amongst elves and humans.
Angela "Angie"
Another one of Lady Annabelle's ladies in waiting, Angela is "a close friend" of Vonivera's (or at least that is what she tells people).
Soundtrack-
I compiled a playlist of music that I listen to while writing this story. I decided to make a different playlist for the second draft, because it is neat to look back and listen to music that I listened to when writing the first draft of this novel.
My Goal-
Since I'm on the second draft, my goal is going to be edit/rewrite at least 12,000 words. I made my goal smaller because, editing is really hard and I don't want to make myself stressed with a large goal. There are also a lot of things that have changed in the plot-line, so getting those changes into the story, along with the world-building is very important in this second draft. While it may not be perfect, I have the third draft to fix those flaws.
I was nominated by Maith at Maith's Musings, thank you so much for the nomination. I really like the concept of this tag. 😄Also I was tagged for it right before my surgery, so it made my day when I got it. 😃
3. Answer the question, which is a task to write a letter.
4. Now, nominate five bloggers who you think are worth it. Make sure they know that they are nominated.
The prompt:
Imagine yourself to be twenty years older than now. You have become what you always wanted to, and are living your dream. But suddenly, the 'current version of you' pops out of nowhere and asks for some tips. What tips will you give? Write a letter from the 'twenty years older you' to the 'current you' and tell how you reached your goals in twenty years.
You are receiving this letter from the future. Hard to believe isn't it? But I am you, just twenty years older than you are now. (Other differences from you-as-now, are that I am acting in and animating movies and a published author and illustrator...so more differences than just age, but that is beside the point).
I have advice for you:
If you're feeling run down or like you everything feels hopeless, you should know that you can get through it. It may be hard to believe while you're in the middle of the situation. But you will get through it, and once you get through it you will be stronger than before.
Don't worry about giving up on your dreams or goals. You never will (especially if you're scared about giving up on them), if you keep working hard, you will get to them. And if someone tells you that you can't do something, prove them wrong.
Also you don't need to (constantly) remind people that you are committed to something (for that very same reason). You know you what you like doing, and if you're scared that you're going to stop liking it or give up liking it, then (ironically) that means you're not going to give up liking it. You know that, deep inside, it brings you happiness to do, and that is important.
If you keep working hard on your dreams and goals, you will get to them eventually. It may be hard at times. Some days may be harder than others: some publishers may not like your stories, some animation studios or people may not like your animations, some authors may not want you to illustrate their books, or some people may not like your movies or some casting directors may think you're not the person for the role. But if you keep working hard and pushing through, you will get there. And you may find a publisher who likes your book, people who like your animation, an author who wants you to illustrate their book, people who like your movie, and a casting director who thinks you're the perfect person for the role.
Anyway, I hope my advice makes you feel better,
Sincerely should it be sincerely or love? Uh, I don't know, I'm writing this to myself.
-(Future) Quinley
P.S. I may have created an issue in the space-time continuum. Oops! But at least you have advice now, right?? But, I'm fixing this issue now! [Sounds of rumbling can be heard.] Alright everything's fixed. Also, you, um, may have something similar to Star Fleet in your future now...oops.
Click here to read the first and the second posts in the series.
While I don't normally post two drawing posts in a row, I wanted to share some more drawings connected to my last post. My body has been physically hurting recently, so it hurts to draw. Because of that I felt like I should post some of the drawings I did before my surgery.
In other news for this blog, I have a world-building post (for the Look Into the World series), which I am working on, and which I will post once I finish adjusting some parts of it and adding in some illustrations (after I feel better). Also, before my surgery, I entered in a world-building contest on World Anvil . You can read my entry here.
And now, since the updates are done, on to the post:
I decided it would be fun to practice drawing in different styles, and the drawing style the voters wanted me to do was The Cursed Princess Club (which is a webcomic).
I ended up drawing Oak in that style, and I really like how she turned out in the end.
This is a drawing I did of the air god. The voters wanted me to draw him in his temple. I really liked how it turned out in the end.
This was not a majority vote, but I thought it would be fun to draw Elm in the drawing style of the Cursed Princess Club as well.
The drawing above was also a majority vote. Voters asked for a drawing of Matilda in the style of Steven Universe. I decided to take it a step further, though, and ended up drawing Matilda in all different types of drawing styles, just to see what she'd look like.
And finally, the drawing of Felix in the style of Tim Burton was kind of a majority vote (I say "kind of", because there wasn't really a winning vote on the poll). And I just thought the drawing Matilda would be fun to do, even if it wasn't a majority vote.
I really like how they both turned out in the end.
