Levi George's Doodle Zone

Help me feed myself and my imaginary pets by giving me work at: www.awesomefighter.com.au

[levigeorgieboy]

Another year has gone by and another year this darn comic is not done. But the thing to be happy with is that I have actually done SOMETHING on it instead of letting it rot in my head like I have for the past few years. I have parts 1, 2 and 3 all plotted out (Like treatments written on paper, not just in my head). I’ve started writing (started a very awful first draft) and have dicked around with character designs enough where I have them figured out and don't feel the need to change them. I’ve been reading more books about writing too.

I’ve been reading a few comics for inspiration (procrastinating). One I LOVED was called ‘At the Shore’ by Jim Campbell and I just learned that that one took him about 8 years to complete so I guess I can cut myself some slack. I also liked one called ‘This Was Our Pact‘ by Ryan Andrews which seems like it took at least 3 years. Plus I’ve been reading Jinji Ito. 

I have some ideas for how to keep myself motivated next year which I am still figuring out but for now, I am going to go to the beach and make plans over the next few days. For now, I’m going to the beach.

[levigeorgieboy]

g-G-Ghost!! 2.10.2019

In an ideal world, I would be much further along than I am now BUT unfortunately, I had an animation job that I just poured my heart into, plus a teaching job and those two things conspired together to cease ALL production on my comic (hence the giant gap between posts). 

But that’s okay. I can get back into the swing of everything now. To get the ball rolling, I am going to partake in Inktober and do some illustrations for g-G-Ghost!! I never really locked down the exact method, and this is a good opportunity to do so.

I’ll rejigger the production timeline accordingly and see what can be done to get things happening again. I start a new job next week, so It’s going to be interesting to see how I manage that along-side this.

[levigeorgieboy]

G-g-Ghost 5.8.2019

I think I’ll just have to accept that I’m going to fall behind schedule with the writing. It’s annoying but the time investment neems to be worth it. I’ve been getting a little cranky with my artistic and writing ability as it often feels like nothing is really coming together how I hoped. I did 3 hours of writing on the weekend, changed a few things and suddenly felt like I had no idea what I was doing and wanted to start again. Then when I came in this morning and looked at everything it seemed salvageable. Then after an hour of adding/removing ideas, it seems fine again. The project is looking more and more manageable. The treatment for Part I has gone from 5 pages to 3 pages and the story has become much more streamlined and simple.

But I’m now about 5 days behind schedule which stinks but if I just focus on writing I can probably get back on track. On a positive note I am 50% through writing and 10% through the entire project (apparently!) so that’s kind of exciting!

I got some good advice about putting a comic together in photoshop and bought some cool brushes I am excited to use. I am hoping I can get kind of a brush pen look. Don’t want to set any goal for this week except to get the treatments finished. All that really matters is that the character arcs make sense and the story is told economically. I tend to add a lot of fluff that I have been removing.

[levigeorgieboy]

If I can't get my act together and stop writing this treatment this will be me! (Or more likely I’ll just quit)

[levigeorgieboy]

KEY POINT: Think of a scene as an upside-down triangle. The beginning of the scene should frame what the whole scene is about. The scene should then funnel down to a single point, with the most important word or line of dialogue stated last. Let’s look at the ideal sequence you should work through to construct a great scene. Ask yourself the following questions: Position on the character arc: Where does this scene fit within the hero’s development (also known as the character arc), and how does it further that development? Problems: What problems must be solved in the scene, or what must be accomplished? Strategy: What strategy can be used to solve the problems? Desire: Which character’s desire will drive the scene? (This character may be the hero or some other character.) What does he want? This desire provides the spine of the scene. Endpoint: How does that character’s desire resolve? By knowing your endpoint in advance, you can focus the entire scene toward that point. The endpoint of the desire coincides with the point of the inverted triangle, where the most important word or line of the scene is positioned. This combination of the endpoint of the desire with the keyword or line creates a knockout punch that also kicks the audience to the next scene. 6. Opponent: Figure out who opposes the desire and what the two (or more) characters fight about. 7. Plan: The character with the desire comes up with a plan to reach the goal. There are two kinds of plans that a character can use within a scene: direct and indirect. In a direct plan, the character with the goal states directly what he wants. In an indirect plan, he pretends to want one thing while actually wanting something else. The opposing character will have one of two responses: he will recognize the deception and play along, or he will be fooled and end up giving the first character exactly what he really wants. A simple rule of thumb can help you decide which sort of plan the character should use. A direct plan increases conflict and drives characters apart. An indirect plan decreases conflict initially and brings characters together, but it can cause greater conflict later on when the deception becomes clear. Remember, the plan refers to how the character tries to reach a goal within the scene, not in the overall story. 8. Conflict: Make the conflict build to a breaking point or a solution. 9. Twist or reveal: Occasionally, the characters or the audience (or both) are surprised by what happens in the scene. Or one character tells another off. This is a kind of self-revelation moment in a scene, but it is not final and may even be wrong. Note that many writers, in an attempt to be “realistic”, start the scene early and build slowly toward the main conflict. This doesn’t make the scene realistic; it makes it dull. KEY POINT: Start the scene as late as possible without losing any of the key structure elements you need. COMPLEX OR SUBTEXT SCENES The classic definition of subtext is a scene where the characters don’t say what they really want. This may be true, but it doesn’t tell you how to write it. The first thing to understand about subtext is that conventional wisdom is wrong: it’s not always the best way to write the scene. Subtext characters are usually afraid, in pain, or simply embarrassed to say what they really think or want. If you want a scene with maximum conflict, don’t use subtext. On the other hand, if it’s right for your particular characters and the scene they are in, by all means, use it. A subtext scene is based on two structural elements: desire and plan. For maximum subtext, try these techniques: a. Give many characters in the scene a hidden desire. These desires should be in direct conflict with one another. For example, A is secretly in love with B, but B is secretly in love with C. b. Have all the characters with hidden desires use an indirect plan to get what they want. They say one thing while really wanting something else. They may be trying to fool the others, or they may use subterfuge they know is obvious but hope the artifice is charming enough to get them what they really want.

John Trudy, The Anatomy of Story

[levigeorgieboy]

Watched this video about Gone Girl and how scene structure works. I looked at the scenes I had in my treatment and managed to cut out around half of them.

[levigeorgieboy]

G-g-Ghost 29.07.19

It turns out that writing a story is hard because you move things around and come up with more efficient ways to conveying things and then you have to cut other things so you aren’t doubling up. You put in little placeholder ideas that don’t work and you put in ideas that seem good at the time and then are bad later. In short  Bleughhh! I’m behind schedule.

Behind by 0.17% of the schedule which is about half a day. NOT GREAT! I decided that I’m going to write 2 drafts instead of 3 because I’m being so careful with this treatment that when it’s locked down it’s mostly going to be writing dialogue and if I do that it keeps me on track (Otherwise I’m a full week behind.)

Last Week:

I printed off the first draft of the treatment and wrote notes all over it. Finishing Part III meant going back to Part I and making the series arc work better. I’m kind of adjusting the characters to match the Arcs which means they are coming across differently to how I imagined but I’m seeing more of myself in both of them which is kind of interesting.

This week:

- FINISH V02 TREATMENTS FOREVER!

- Design Harriet as a kid.

Unfinished Business from last week (and the week before):

Lou’s Character Design

That will put me a little ahead again. Good luck to us all.

Other Thoughts:

I spoke to a friend who teaches English at a university about what Ghosts represent in literature and she said that they are often used as a metaphor for; repression, the shadow our selves, regret, guilt. I wonder if I should read a book or essay about this.

- Levi

[levigeorgieboy]

G-g-Ghost! 22.07.

Well, last week was a little less constructive than I hoped. I am still figuring out exactly what is going to happen in Part III. I’ve got some good ideas that are coming together but the arc I mapped out for it was a little vague and that’s caused me some problems on this step. It also means I have to go back to Part I and probably Part II and adjust things. So I guess this week I’ll be doing some after-hours writing to keep the schedule.

I did start doing some character re-designs though. Not totally happy with them but they need to be simple because I’m going to be drawing them a LOT. I’ll probably do a few other versions.

I am BARELY ahead of this chart which is annoying. I really need to catch up on the writing aspect. I think if I spend an additional hour working from home I’ll probably be able to get back on track this week. I can't believe it’s already been almost 10% of the intended schedule.

Unfinished Business from Last Week:

Finish Part III treatment

Re-Read all complete treatments and make them flow better.

Lou’s Character Design

This Week:

Complete the unfinished things from last week 

make a good start (maybe finish?) the First Draft of Part I. If I can do that I’ll be just narrowly ahead of the curve.

It’s a bit annoying that I’m falling behind schedule. I keep telling myself I’ll make time to finish parts of the project off on the weekend but it never quite happens.

[levigeorgieboy]

G-g-Ghost 15.07.2019

Week #3 is done. My current housemate Chris is moving out and I had to empty a drawer that he let me keep some art stuff in. In it, I found cards with plot points for this comic from 2 or 3 years ago. I didn’t want to look at them because they are likely awful but I will when I finish writing.

Last Week:

Speaking of! Last week I managed to; get: 

Part III plotted out. 

Write the treatments for Part I and Part II.

I still need to re-read them and fix some small things but for the most part, they are finished. I actually thought I had to finish Part III’s treatment too (but according to last weeks blog I don’t have to so I am on schedule, just barely.)

Those assets I made a year ago are REALLY keeping me afloat. I didn’t have time to do any real character turnarounds but I did start sketching one of the characters again because I’ve gotten slightly better at drawing since I designed these characters. (All the images in this blog entry were found in sketchbooks that are 1-3 years old).

There are the most recent character designs. The one of Lou (the ghost) It probably 3 years old. The one of Harriet (the woman) is probably a little less than 2 years old. I still kind of like them but I need to re-design them SLIGHTLY.

This Week:

I would love to get back on schedule for the writing side of things. I have about 5 weeks to write 3 drafts of 3 scripts which is likely not going to happen unless I start getting up REALLY early (It’s not going to happen. I’m going to have to allow myself more time). So this week I want to:

Write the rough treatment for Part III.

Re-Read and polish the treatment for Parts I, II and hopefully III.

Maybe show someone the intended story and get some feedback.

Create 2 final Character Designs for Part I.

That won’t get me on schedule sadly but it means I’ll have a good month for writing scripts and I may have to change my daily routine to meet the deadline.

Other Things:

I didn’t track down the book about writing Dialogue because I couldn’t remember what it was called. But it was called The Art of Dramatic Writing and I have ordered a copy today. 

I started listening to The Demonologist (See the previous post) for some general guides on how Ghost and Demons work (both which feature in the story). The first chapter was VERY useful.

I’m apparently almost 50% through the writing process which is exciting. It’s exciting having this thing gradually come together. 

Anyway, see you next week!

[levigeorgieboy]

They came to learn the Earthbound Human Spirits are no more than individuals whose bodies have been deducted from the total entity. caught up in a confused state of mind, such unfortunates possess life, but no body. Yet, body or no, these human spirits are stuck in a temporary limbo between this realm and the next.  Factors have somehow conspired to prevent the spirit from making any onward progress. "The Ghost Syndrome " Ed explains "Is brought on by a tragedy in the life on an individual where death occurs suddenly or under very traumatic circumstances. Less often the spirit will linger because of an unusually strong attachment to things of this world. But in either case, the Earthbound Spirit identifies with this realm rather than the next. Now, it's a general rule that people who can contemplate an afterlife will pass over correctly. However, the mind of the Earthbound Spirit tends to be rigidified in a particular state of emotion. Deep down the spirit seeks resolve of course, but it is so caught up in the trauma and misery that nothing makes sense to it except its own emotional state. Many times the Ghost isn't even aware that death has taken place. This is because the individual as a ghost no longer has the awareness it had as a flesh and blood person. When communication takes place you often have to tell them- in fact, you've got to convince them; they're dead. That they've been disassociated from their physical body. The mind you see is unaffected by the advent of death. So if death comes suddenly or in the midst of an emotional trauma, the spirit gets caught up in a state of unresolve. This is why spirits linger, sometimes for ages. Time is not a factor for spirits. They live in a sort of perpetual present. It is wisdom and realisation that allows the human spirit to progress successfully."

Brittle G (2013) The Demonologist: The Extraordinary Career of Ed and Lorraine Warren - The True Accounts of the Paranormal Investigators Featured in the film 'The Conjuring'

[levigeorgieboy]

g-G-Ghost- 8.7.2019

Week 2! Above is one of the concept frames I created last year. I am eventually going to have to start drawing new pannels again because blogs are  VISUAL medium and text is boring. Also, this pre-vis is tentatively keeping me above the progress bar that my life is now going to be a constant race against. I can feel it closing in on me and lord knows how the actual drawing part is going to go later when I am working FULL TIME and have to get UP EARLY to work on this thing.

Somehow 4-5% of a year has already passed in 2-3 weeks. I’m hoping next week I’ll be able to shoot ahead because I basically managed to achieve everything I wanted to achieve last week. 

Last Week:

- I Used Dan Harmon’s story breaking method (see previous entry) to tighten up the event’s in all 3 parts. The characters have clearer direction now.

- Came up with an interesting plot for Part II that matches everything thematically.

- Kind of figured out Part III’s plot but it’s not as tight as Part II. It still needs a bit of TLC and also needs No Scrubs.

- I basically already have a treatment for Part I but there’s a not of ideas still floating around that I need to trim down. This is a dumb thing to say about a 3 part comic that currently seems impossibly ambitious but I want to make it manageable and the story itself was getting a bit complicated when it can be very simple if I leave certain things as subtext and don’t try to force them into the text.

This Week:

- I want to start drawing some character turnarounds. They kind of already exist because I’ve been doodling the characters for a while but I want clean fresh ones. There are 2 main characters (1 as a kid and as an adult), 2 other characters and I’m sure I’ll have to design a TON of extras. For now, I’d like to get the 2 mains. Basically, I just want to draw something.

- BUT if I actually want to catch up to the schedule I need to have Part III mapped out and have drafts of the treatments for Parts I and II. This probably has to be the priority.

- I am a little worried about my ability to write good scenes and good dialogue. I have heard of some good books about writing dialogue from the Art of the Screenplay Youtube Channel. I can’t remember what it was called.

- Also, I think I just have to accept that I have limitations as a writer and it doesn't have to be perfect.

Anyway, see you next week!

[danharmon]

Could you explain your story breaking process?

Start with random IDEAS.  Ideas can be anything - Poop is an idea, America, pickles, the number six, a raccoon, anything.

Some ideas will reveal related ideas, i.e. you may think, upon thinking about raccoons, that you have more than one thought about raccoons.  Clouds of related ideas that your mind recognizes as related in any way are potential story AREAS.  Look for areas that make you laugh and cry.

Draw a circle to symbolize your area, because your story will take the “reader” through related ideas in a path around a central idea.  You don’t have to know what the central idea is.  It’s probably dumb.  For God’s sake, you’re writing about raccoons.

Divide your circle into a top half and bottom half and ask yourself what those halves might be.  Like, your raccoon area might become divided into “positive thoughts about raccoons” and “negative thoughts about raccoons.”  If the division doesn’t feel charged for you, pick something else, like male raccoon thoughts and female raccoon thoughts, or biological raccoon thoughts and storybook raccoon thoughts.  At some point, you will divide your area into two parts that create a personal “charge” for you, like a battery.  "Ooo, I like the idea that there’s a difference between biological raccoons and storybook raccoons, that tingled when I drew that line, I want to know more.“ <– that’s my impression of you nailing it.

Divide the divided circle down the middle and pick another charged dichotomy for left and right.  For instance, biological/storybook raccoon area could get divided into dishonest/honest.  

Now you have four quadrants to your circle, going clockwise: biological dishonest raccoon, storybook dishonest raccoon, storybook honest raccoon, biological honest raccoon.  Any point at which you stop feeling charged, go back a step or start over.  Maybe you had to get this far to realize you don’t give a shit about raccoons.  Please note that at this point, people around you will start to express confusion and frustration, because they thought the idea was fine already.  Depending on your mood and standing, these people are called hacks, traitors, parasites, scabs or successful colleagues.

When you find an area that yields four charged quadrants, experiment with protagonists.  Easy answer first, maybe I’m a raccoon.  So once upon a time there was a dishonest biological raccoon that became a storybook raccoon, which lead to him becoming honest before finally going back to being biological again.  Cool?  If not, go back or start over.  Again, please note that many people will not want you to go back or start over.  These people will one day drown in their own blood while you point and laugh with God.  Or maybe they’re good people and you just have Asperger’s.

Then you keep dividing the pie, adding "curvature” to the protagonist’s path with the 8 point story structure you can find me blathering about elsewhere online.

Create more characters as needed, give them their own stories as needed.

Repeat every day until rich people give you money to do it for them.  Buy a house, become one of them and hire poor people to do it for you.  Somewhere in there try to get a dog and a funny girlfriend or it’s all pretty pointless.  Speaking of which, I just realized I’m the only one at the office. Thank you for this question.

[levigeorgieboy]

Revisiting my story circles and forgot about this part because it’s not covered in the damn channel 101 wiki.

[levigeorgieboy]

g-G-GHOST! 1.07.2019

A week ago I decided to get my act together and really buckle down and work on an idea that has existed in some form since I was a uni student and started to form properly about 4 years ago. It’s a comic called ‘G-g-GHOST!’. I had the idea when an acquaintance told me he had a dream that he and I at a party but I was a Ghost and he didn’t talk to me (not totally clear on why!). In the dream, I was upset about this and in real life, it made me wonder how I was perceived as a person. Then I got more ideas for it when uni ended and everybody started breaking up from their long uni relationships. Then again when a relationship ended after 5 years and I did a LOT of self-reflection.

In 2017/2018 I started doing some pre-viz for the comic and decided I didn’t want to over plan, I just wanted to start. Write it very stream of consciousness. I was sick of managing large projects and just wanted to get to drawing basically. Unfortunately, that didn't work because it’s about a year later and the comic is still not finished (but the banner for this Tumblr is one of the panels I did finish). My friend Jase who has also been working on a comic and HAS finished told me that I should make sure I plan it carefully and I’ve decided to take his advice.

So this year (2019) I decided to go the opposite direction and completely OVER plan. I taught a class last year called ‘Digital Media Project 1′ and something I noticed was a lot of students left things until the last minute instead of gradually chipping away at their respective projects over time. I suggested that when we teach it in the future we force them to keep a weekly journal to motivate them to do something purely so they have something to write about.

SO! I decided that I’m going to apply this logic to my own project. From now on this Tumblr is going to be a (hopefully) weekly update where I just document what I did this week to make this thing finally happen. If you are reading this you should honestly not bother. It’s purely a motivational device.

Last week:

I made a spreadsheet (all projects start with a spreadsheet) and planned all the hard and soft deadlines in order to meet my deadline. I basically am treating it as a client project. I would like to have each part finished by June 20th 2020 but if that proves impossible I’d be happy to have Part I finished. This week I made a plan. The first deadline is August 20th where the writing is hopefully going to be finished.

I brushed up on Dan Harmons story Circle and planned out the arcs for each part using that. This was difficult because there are 2 central characters and each one has a separate but connected arc in each part. So there were basically 6 arcs to map out and they build on each other as 2 series arcs. I used Bubbl.us to write the basic emotional and character arcs and then wrote a more comprehensive list of actual events.

In the end, it resembled less of a story circle and more of a spiral which I am going to pretend is my own invention and it’s my way of feeling like I am less of an amateur than I really am and that I’m BREAKING DA RULES!

I was managed to get Part I to a point I was happy with. It’s the part I thought about the most last year and was happy that the pieces fit the story structure nicely. Part II is the second lap around the spiral and I think it works as an arc but is a bit uninteresting visually. Part III one characters arc I am happy with but the other is again boring. But overall I managed to stay ahead of schedule.

This week I want to:

Make Part II more interesting/exciting.

Make the character Harriet have a more interesting Arc in part III. (Basically, the hard part is finding a way to make something supernatural or interesting happen to that character)

Double check Part I and II.

Future Ideas:

I’ll have to write a treatment and run it past someone who knows more than me about writing (Eg. Has done more than read Save the Cat or Hero with A Thousand Faces).

[loopdeloop-blog]

Pig life ain’t great.

Levi George, Adelaide, Australia instagram.com/levigeorge

[levigeorgieboy]

Made this lil LoopDeLoop for PIG.

[loopdeloop-blog]

“Why don’t they dance to the new Arcade Fire song?”

Levi George, Adelaide, Australia www.awesomefighter.com.au

[levigeorgieboy]

I made a thing.

[levigeorgieboy]

Made this lil guy for this months LoopDeLoop. The theme was Love is Love and I thought about pizza and totally missed the point because I probably should have said something nice about equality. 

[levigeorgieboy]

I made a little GIF about how much I enjoy coffee.