Whoa

I think I feel sort of betrayed by a someone I thought was a friend. I'm not blameless, but it's still a kick in the teeth.

Nothing in my life but TV

Another cracking episode of Life on Mars last night - hope you enjoyed it Gopher. Decided to give Prison Break a look too even though it just seemed too daft to entertain. Well, it was daft, and it was entertaining, but I’ve got the feeling I’ll give up on in a few episodes time, it was just way too stupid. For now though, stupid’s what I want.

Joys of the internet

Solving mysteries has never been so easy, especially those dumb niggling vague memory type mysteries.
When I was a kid I remember catching a bit of a weird and creepy TV show, something about it really got under my skin in the way those things from the late 70s early 80s could. All I could remember about it was Hywel Bennett starred in it, there was a bit by a cliff and there was some sort of countdown thing (maybe) on the screen, or at least the titles looked like some sort of digital type. That’s it. These minor memories left such an impression on my young mind that over 20 years later they’re still an itch I’ve had to scratch.
A quick look on IMBD at Hywel Bennett’s career and I’ve finally found out what this bizzare show was; Artemis 81 was it’s name and it was as strange as I don’t quite remember it. Sadly it’s not available to buy, but I’ll keep an eye out.

Ready

As Danny says over on his blog January’s a bit of a grim month. It’s not been the start to 2006 I’d have liked. It’s the usual thing, the year should be a fresh start, but it always begins feeling hung over from the year before.
Things seemed to be getting tougher lately but after having to go away to a work meeting and coming back feeling pretty low the last couple of days have seen me finally perking up. Today I went swimming for the first time in ages and I remembered how much I liked excercise, the feeling of using my muscles and that the tiredness that came was actually part of the reward. Being carefull with what I ate was easy because I didn’t want to do anything that might’ve negated my excercising. It was an simple easy balance that I didn’t have to work at. Those feelings came back and I realised that I was ready to start the year properly, and it wasn’t going to be hard at all, it’s going to be a pleasure.
So after an nice swim I walked back into Town with Rebecca, we looked around the shops, had coffee, read the papers and it was perfect.

Yawn

Three hours sleep last night has left me feeling a bit weird. What is it about having an early start (had to be on a train for 5:40am) that makes put off going to bed? Of course I’ll be staying up until some stupid time tonight for no discernible reason.... other than being an idiot.

Back on my other blog

There's some mutterings about The New Policeman and The Tooth Fairy over on Jackanory BTW.

Pin up

Someone has started a 'meme' getting people to do pictures of Batgirl and seeing as I've got too much work on I thought a bit of avoidance therapy was in order. Apologies for the slightly sexist nature or my pin up, but seeing as we're talking about a character who used to have a 'Bat-Compact' complete with make up and mirror I thought I'd have a laugh. 'Course as I know nothing about 'memes' I have no idea if I have to submit this to someone or something, oh well, hope you all like it. Check out Garen's Batgirl too, it's lovely.

Pencil pushing

Full of busy this week so posts have been thin on the ground. I’ll post some artwork soon to prove that I have been working. As well as a thumbnail or two to for anyone interested in the process of turning squiggles into scribbles into finished artwork I’ll post up a couple of characters designs. It’s been a bit of a headache designing the characters, I thought I’d finally got something together for the main character when I realised it was wrong and was actually the supporting character. I’m still trying to decide what the main character looks like. Theres’ an ‘odd looking thing’ in the story too and I’ve no concrete idea what the little blighter looks like, it keeps changing.
Y’know I’ve only just noticed how often my posts are about what I plan to do rather than about what I have been doing. Hmmm. I’ve no idea if that’s a hang up from back when I started this blog as a way to push me into getting stuff done or if it’s because I spend too much time thinking about doing things rather than actually doing them. Best not think too hard about that.

Fighting on the dance floor

A day late (Rebecca was at work last night and we wanted to watch it together) but I watched 'Life on Mars' tonight, and havea new favourite show. Very impressive opening episode, a little bit Sweeny and a little bit Quantum leap. Strong performances all round, but Simm was excellent, making what was happening to him seem like plight, not just adventure. Using the title of one of the greatest songs ever written is a bit of risky thing, thankfully LOM is off to a good start.

Look elsewhere

There's new posts from me on Jackanory and Wassock's Lantern (links to the left) for anyone who's interested. Think of this as your one stop hub for all things PaulHD :)

New blog, same as the old blog.... but different

You might have noticed that I'm using a new template. I quite like this one, I think it could stay for quite a while, but it does need some changes, and when I figure out how to make them they'lll happen. One change has already happened, no booklist in the side bar. I like the idea, but there just wasn't the space, so I've decided to do the booklist as a seperate blog. The link to the blog ('Jackanory' as is disingenuously called) is on the right and I promise to update it more often the the old version. Actually it'll be easier for me to update seeing as I just have to post instead of messing around putting links in the old fashioned way when I don't even know what I'm doing.
For Christmas I got a very nice digital camera so I'll start posting photos up some time, I'll also update my old profile picture as soon as I get one of myself that doesn't make me gag (interesting aside - I got my mug in the local paper this week as part of this 'bookseller's recommends thingy', and it's horrible. I look homeless, I look dead and recently dug up, I look bad. I have seriously dark eyes which are barely open, my hair was wet which comes across as greasy and I've got a few days worth of stubble (fairly usual for me) which makes the leap from grungy to dirty with alarming ease. I knew I'd had a rough couple of months, but I had no idea how bad I've been looking. Ugh.)

My comic

My script's been given the approval. There's still a bit of work on it (I've only blocked in the dialogue mostly, and the pacing needs looking at) but the new ending's been given the go ahead, and a good job too because I don't think I could come up up with another one and quite liked the one I finally managed.
Yesterday I took my new camera out and took a bunch of reference shots of buildings etc for the strip and today I took a couple of the inside of a coffee shop (need to take a few more of those though), now I need to knuckle down and get the thumbnails done. This is the hard bit for me, I need to make the characters 'act', the posture, facial espressions, etc, but as drawing doesn't come naturally to me (at least it hasn't for over 20 years) it's a bit of laborious struggle. But if I get it right at this stage then the mountainous workload ahead will be that much easier.

Funny ha ha

'My Name is Earl' jumps straight into my must see list. Good job really, things seem to jump out of it usually - 'Desperate Housewives', 'Lost'. Nice simple concept (Earl decides he has to do something good for every bad thing he's done or karma will kill him) that opens up loads of possiblities, solid characters (and great performacnes) that bounce off each other nicely, some good one liners, but most importantly, it really knows how to set events up. It's the way one thing leads to another or some that happened early has consequences with sometihng later that really makes 'My Name Is Earl' work.

Busy busy busy

Ooh, I've got a banjo. It's a 5 string Bluegrass one, but I didn't really know that until the helpful music shop owner told me, I just liked the look of it, what can I say, I know nothing.
I bought a chord book and a how to play DVD thing, it's going to take me a while to learn how to play, but then, so what, that's part of the fun.
In other news I go an email from the editor of my comic project, he's read my script and mostly likes it but has problems with the ending, both versions. I agree with him, endings aren't my strong suit (Simian Smith was lucky as the ending was pretty much the first thing I came up with, which is probably the best way to plot). I've emailed another possible ending, but I'm still not sure about it. Fortunately the Ed's got an idea for one which he'll share after I've had a try.
The other issue with the script is it's length. I've been asked to change it from 15 pages to 20. This is good, less panels per page will improve the storytelling and I can also change some dense single panels into two panels (in some cases they were two panels which I edited down to one for the 15 page count anyway) But it means more work. More work on the script, and more pages to draw. With the deadline quite tight I'm going to be hard at it.
My plan is to complete the script by the end of the week and do the thumbnails in another week leaving me about 5 weeks to do the final art. If this seems like plenty of time then you haven't drawn a comic! You also have no idea how slow I am.
I'm slow because I don't draw very well. What I do is redrawing, and I'm not bad at doing it until the final thing looks passable. Thumbnails are not meant to be finished drawing and no one expects them to look as good as the final art but it's where my lack of drawing ability really stands out, and in the case of showing it to an editor, which is what I'll have to do here, I'll worry that if I don't make the thumbnails look pretty then I might as well hand in several pages saying "This man can't draw, get rid of him. Now!" So the week I'm giving myself to do the thumbs is pretty optimistic, but it's also what I'l have to do to allow myself enough time to do the final art. This is why I stopped doing comics, I'm just better at single illustrations. But comics are an early love and the chance to be published is just too strong.
So, self doubt, talent limitation or not, I want to finish the strip for me, I want to be in the book and want to get better so I'll just have to knuckle down.... and whine about the process on my blog of course.

New Year New Me progress report

We’re only a few days in but how am I faring? Not too bad. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t spring out of bed at the crack of dawn run a few miles, write a book, tidy the house, redecorate, bleach my brain, iron my skin, etc. Just small changes. I’ve gone to bed a little earlier, woke up earlier, no sweets have been eaten, coffee drinking is getting back to a reasonable level, I’ve tidied my stuff up after me, exercised, done a couple of those ‘jobs around the house’ that I’ve been putting off, etc, etc.
It pretty low key stuff. But that, my friends, is the genius and the difficulty of this year’s resolutions. This year I just get on with things, I don’t put them off, so doing the washing up after I’ve eaten is a gold star in my big book of the New ME. Simple, but actually quite difficult, because there’s a massive amount of those little things which is why I’ve always been seduced into putting them off. Well no more!
Okay, that’s enough of the New Year New Leaf More Old Blather stuff.
Surprise day off today (I had to work on New Year’s day and didn’t realise I get time back for it, woohoo!) so I’m going head out in a bit and buy me a banjo, yup, that’s right, it’s banjo time, the Harrison household will never be the same.

Happy New Year to everyone!

Truth be told I had a really nice New Year’s Eve but the whole thing was even less festive than Christmas. NY just sort of slouched in like some adolescent with nary a grunt of recognition. Oh well, doesn’t change my plans for the year.
Being a New Year resolution kind of guy I’ve made a fair few this year. I’ll not bother sharing them all as it’d be a pretty tedious list, but the gist of it is to ‘be better’. I do it every year (and every Summer, Spring, month with a letter in it’s name, etc.) with varying degrees of success, but after I realised that even though I don’t always succeed (and how do you ‘succeed’ in being better? Isn’t it an ongoing process with no real end in sight?) trying does have a positive effect so I just carry on making them.
This year I feel far more committed after feeling that I’m ready for a big change, but most importantly I want to be the best version of me I can possibly be for when we have a child.
There’s been a few reasons why we haven’t wanted kids 'til now but for the main one has been the fear of bringing someone like me into the world, passing on my failings by letting a child grow up in the kind of bobbins environment I might provide just seems cruel. Also, what if I’m rubbish at being a dad? Timing wise we’ve got about 20 months before we have a baby (obviously for now I’m assuming everythings in working order, we’ll have to check that out. Gulp!), will that be enough time to be less of a bibble? Hope so... for the sake of the children! Well, child actually.