zelempa: RayK: "I could draw you a picture." (rayk draw you)
Head on over to [personal profile] laurie_ky's journal to bid on her Moonridge offer, a Due South story with art by me!
zelempa: Fraser looking apologetic (fraser apologetic)
[personal profile] luzula has podficced my Due South story Volcanic Geranium! Check it out and download it at her journal. I love, love Luzula's voice and she has a calmness and depth that gives my silly makeover story the illusion of dimensionality.

This is the first time someone I don't know personally has podficced my story, and I am so excited, you guys!

For the record, you can feel free to podfic, remix, or whatever you like any of my stuff. Yes, you!
zelempa: zelempa classic (Default)
[community profile] ds_c6d_bigbang revealed today on AO3. I did five drawings for [personal profile] tres_mechante's Elements of Life.

There's a little more commentary on each one (and of course the reference photos!) on my reference photo/art tumblr, in between photos of Ian McKellan.

Fire

Earth

Air

Water

Spirit
zelempa: RayK: "I could draw you a picture." (rayk draw you)
A Far Cry from Cocoa Beach

A Far Cry from Cocoa Beach
Fandom, Pairing: Due South, Fraser/RayK
Size: 6 pages
A/N: Comic adaptation of A Far Cry from Cocoa Beach by Mizface, drawn for Queensland Flood Auction. I know, I know--it's a little (lot) late!
Warnings: Possibly NSFW; Ray is shirtless approximately 80% of the time and there is also some non-explicit Fraser nudity. Also, you know, it's a cartoon and does not resemble an Excel spreadsheet.
Summary: "You never heard of a genie in a bottle?"

[cross-posted to Due South Noticeboard]

zelempa: RayK: "I could draw you a picture." (rayk draw you)
I signed up to do art for C6D Big Bang because I'm good at making commitments for Future Zelempa! As an exercise, ria_oaks is hosting a "mini reverse bang" where artists can post quick drawings and writers can respond, if they are so moved, with drabbles or whatever. I just posted a nerdy little drawing.
zelempa: Fraser looking apologetic (fraser apologetic)
I haven't gotten my own personal Yuletart present yet - but here's a driveby rec: look how pretty are this mystery artist's Fraser and Ray!
zelempa: Fraser looking apologetic (fraser apologetic)
DS Seekrit Santa has issued an open call for betas and cheerleaders. As a participant, it's probably a bad idea for me to volunteer, but if you're not participating and you want to offer your services to DS writers and artists, go! go and comment there!

If you want to beta or cheerlead for ME, uh, comment here! :D
zelempa: RayK: "I could draw you a picture." (rayk draw you)
I just finished my last assignment to turn in to my final comic book inking class tomorrow, and instead of sleeping, here is a round-up post of all of my Due South-related work from this class.

All of the art )

ETA: Before I forget: now that class is over and I won't be getting any more critiques, should I want to continue any of these projects (or something similar), would anybody be willing and able to be an art beta? Basically, you would look at my pencilled versions of the comics and tell me, "Too many close-ups, I don't remember where in space they ARE" or "Too rushed--put fewer words in each panel," or "That doesn't look like Ray," or "That doesn't look like a human hand," or "I don't understand what's happening right here," or anything else that you think can be fixed, before I commit anything to ink. Let me know!

[xpost: ds_noticeboard]
zelempa: RayK: "I could draw you a picture." (rayk draw you)
By popular demand (thanks, two people who voted!), I'm doing more of Chicago's Most Wanted by Speranza as my final project. It is to be four pages. I chose a scene from the middle.

The story so far: Fraser has gotten amnesia while undercover and now thinks he is a robber. Ray has just figured out the pattern of his robberies--all evil corporations, since Fraser's still essentially virtuous--and we join him unofficially staking out the next target.

Freeze

There are some things to clean up, but I'm okay with how it's turning out! I'm doing a modified combination of pen and brush with a limited wash palate (black, white, and two grays). It only took two episodes of "Glee" to do the pencil tracing and all the inks, so I'm hopeful I can actually get the remaining three pages done in the week I have left despite my former track record of one page per week. We'll see what my classmates and professor say tomorrow.
zelempa: RayK: "What else...?" (rayk perplexed)
I keep cutting it closer and closer! Here is my homework due tomorrow, using pen nibs (closest to the Pilot pen method I've used traditionally). It's a moment adapted from You Just Have to Leap by alex51324. It's not really a direct illustration so much as me turning Alex's joke into a one-page comic (there are other characters, for example, in this scene, whom I totally left out.)

What are you doing?

Again, I'm a little disappointed with how this one turned out -- it feels chaotic and rushed, largely because that's an accurate assessment. I was away all weekend, so I didn't have as much time as I usually set aside. (I even took a sick day, but I spent most of it convincing myself that my mild headache meant I didn't have to do any work!)

We're about to start work on our final project, a three-page comic in whatever style or combination of styles that we choose. I'm undecided and directionless, so it's poll time!

Poll #3863 I Want Your Input On My Final Project
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 4


What story should I work on? (regardless of style)

View Answers

"Chicago's Most Wanted" by Speranza
3 (75.0%)

"American Way" by Resonant
1 (25.0%)

"You Just Have to Leap" by Alex51324
0 (0.0%)

Other, specify in comments
0 (0.0%)

What style should I work in, primarily? (regardless of story)

View Answers

Ink wash - watercolors with grayscale, like I did for CMW
4 (100.0%)

Black and white brushwork, like I did for AW
0 (0.0%)

Pen, like I did for this one
0 (0.0%)

zelempa: RayK: "What else...?" (rayk perplexed)
Redo of my previous piece, a scene from American Way by [livejournal.com profile] resonant8. (The lack of outer panel borders isn't a stylistic choice, I just worked slightly bigger and it didn't fit in my scanner.)

You, Ray

Same style, different composition. In critique, my teacher pointed out that you really don't need to be zoomed out on what is essentially talking heads in panel 1, but in panels 2 and 3, the gesture is what is important, so zooming out and showing the whole body there made more sense. She also wanted to see more of Fraser's transformation, which was nice in that it allowed me to be a little closer to canon (by which I mean fanfic) in his movements.

A classmate pointed out that panel 1 was a golden opportunity to show Ray in the position Fraser ends up in the big panel, to play up how Fraser's mimicking Ray's body language. I think this was a good call. I didn't make it an exact mirror, but there are some similar elements.

I love when I get people who don't know DS at all talking about the characters. :D

I basically just redid panels 4-6, trying to improve them, but I think I ended up making them slightly worse. In general I feel like I've lost some charm. I should never revise. (Bad attitude!)
zelempa: RayK: "I could draw you a picture." (rayk draw you)
My next homework assignment was to do straight-up black brushwork, no diluted ink to make shades of gray. (Variations in the level of black on the image are due to my bad scanner.) This is a scene from the wonderful American Way by [livejournal.com profile] resonant8.

You, Ray

I thought that the black blacks would be easier than the grays, but in fact it's a lot harder to be confident about placing shadows when you can't experiment with lighter shades before you commit to dark, and I think the stickiness of undiluted ink makes it more obvious that I can't control my brush.

Dialogue changes were due largely to making this a self-contained page that anyone can follow without knowing the context (you should read the story if you haven't, but I was thinking about my classmates). I also wanted to set up Fraser and Ray's usual body language before I twisted it, but this may have been a mistake.

I'm doing an edited version for homework this week (I'll probably post tomorrow), which is better in composition I think, but possibly slightly worse in execution.

Still! Valuable learning experience, and it's one of my favorite scenes, so I was happy to work with it.
zelempa: RayK: "I could draw you a picture." (rayk draw you)
The inked version of my page one of my highly theoretical comic of Speranza's Chicago's Most Wanted. I say "highly theoretical" because ink wash takes SOOOOO LONG. This one page took me the better part of a day including "America's Got Talent" breaks. (How about that Prince Poppycock? Man, do I love dandies!)

chicago's most wanted page 1
zelempa: zelempa classic (Default)
Ink wash version of the HCL pic from last time. Some things I like more, some things I like less.

billy talent in ink

My homework for this week was to pencil a page which I'm then going to have to ink (still in ink wash).

So, the deal with this class is that we have to do comic pages for each of the styles we learn (ink wash, spot black with brush, precise b&w with pen linework a la manga, etc.) So, the pages we do won't add up to a cohesive whole, except perhaps a few multimedia pages at the end. I'm thinking of doing one- to three-page excerpts from several different fics, since it would look weird to keep switching styles in the same comic. The sad part is that I can't commit to working on a nice, long, finished project. Of course, it also frees me up to do teasers from longer fics than I might normally attempt. :)

Fun game: Identify the source material I'm using for this first assignment! Hint: I am now totally, officially this author's creepy internet stalker.

sorry, ray

I know a couple of authors who have already indicated to me that I'm free to use their work for comic-ing. If I stray into other authors, though, it would be polite to seek permission before I fan-art their work, right? Or at least before I post it?
zelempa: RayK: "I could draw you a picture." (rayk draw you)
Here's some homework I did for my shiny new Inking Comics class (pencil drawings from photographs; presumably we'll be doing something like this in ink wash next).

First up, because I love to draw faces, the much-iconned HCL smoking Hugh-Dillon-wolfpack-of-two-ring-prominent Johnny-Depp-eyes Tiger Beat Billy Tallent shot.

billy talent

Discussion question relevant to HCL: I know there's a moment there where Joe is jokingly/really upset about something Billy has done and he says "That's not buddies," but does Ray ever say this dS? I have seen it a lot of times in fanfic in the last like three days!

Next, because I hate to draw cars (ugh the difference in quality makes that evident), another sketch of the GTO. I didn't save the reference photo I used for the multi-fandom mix and match kit, but I got the feeling while drawing this that I was using the same one? Or maybe all pictures of black 1967 Pontiac GTOs LOOK THE SAME.

billy talent

Discussion question relevant to the GTO: What's the origin of the nickname "The Goat"? I have seen it in 2 different fanfics by 2 different authors but I don't remember it in canon.
zelempa: Fraser looking apologetic (fraser apologetic)
Because I'm kinda between things, some recaps!

DS 3x3: I Coulda Been A Defendant Ray and Fraser briefly watch them embrace through the one-way glass, but Fraser says, "They have a right to their privacy," probably hoping that anybody else would do him the same courtesy should they happen upon him getting cozy with another another man in the interrogation room.

DS 3x5: Seeing Is Believing "Oh!" says Thatcher. "Just because she's a woman, she can't be the killer, she can only be the motive!" "It's good to be the motive," Ray insists. "It's very good to be the motive." Aw, Ray. Do you kinda wish you were the motive?

I've also done some light editing on some of the other DS recaps. I think I've been erring too much on the side of not quoting extensive portions of dialogue because I didn't want it to be like, the annotated transcripts. Then I thought, why not? It's just, I've never recapped something where I actually liked huge bunches of the dialogue before. (Sorry, TS.)

I've also tried include a little more analysis and, occasionally, mentions of fics and episode metas which influenced my thinking, although I haven't read nearly as widely as most people in fandom, so please do let me know if you have your own favorite episode-related fics or metas (for these or other episodes) which you think I would enjoy!
zelempa: RayK: "What else...?" (rayk perplexed)
Title: The More Things Change
Fandom: Due South
Pairing RayK/Stella
Rating: PG
Word Count: 4700
Author's Notes: Because I'm a jerk, I write my first het ever for LGBTfest. Prompt: "Ray knew he wasn't straight before he married, that doesn't change his feelings for Stella." Beta thanks to America's first gay president [profile] yolsaffbridge.

Ray laughs shortly. "You don't want me to take you to a…"

It's weird, he can say anything to her on the phone, but actually sitting with her here, in the car, in the flesh, he can't bring himself to finish his sentence.

"Oh, please do," says Stella. "Could you? I've never been to a gay bar."

Same old Stella. Subtle as a jackhammer.


Read on my site | Read on AO3

[Crossposted to LGBTFest and DS Noticeboard]
zelempa: Fraser looking apologetic (fraser apologetic)
[livejournal.com profile] akamine_chan pointed out over on ds noticeboard that today is World Turtle Day, an excellent time to make a donation in honor of Ray's mysterious turtle. I am totally on board as I am all about saving the world for the most trivial, geeky, fannish reasons.

There are many turtle-related charities, it turns out, including the classic World Wildlife Fund which has an "adoption" program for various endangered species where you get a plushie and an adoption certificate (too cutesy for me, but probably good for a kid), and this Baja California based group which lets you NAME a turtle for $150. This is a very exciting opportunity which proved to be too much pressure for me. (Also a little more than I had budgeted for random turtle donations?)

In the end, I donated to the Sea Turtle Restoration Project, so, please don't tell me they're horrible. Or do. Or don't. I don't know. They weren't on Charity Navigator, but they were recommended by Earth Island which is four stars. Do we even trust Charity Navigator? People are always complaining that the CEO's make way too much even on the four-star charities. How do you research your donations?

ETA: As long as it's still WTD, here are a few others:

Oceana - $35 donation gets you a food network sea turtle cookie cutter, for all your sea turtle party needs

Adopt a giant tortoise from the Galapagos! Also works if you are a fan of Dr. Stephen Maturin

Marine Conservation Society - UK based (amounts are in pounds), also have a specific "adopt a turtle" program which I stumbled on NOT EVEN LOOKING FOR TURTLE STUFF ANYMORE.
zelempa: Fraser looking apologetic (fraser apologetic)
Title: Upon Close Inspection
Fandom, Pairing: Due South, Fraser/RayK
Rating: PG... or possibly G. There's swearing, that's it.
Word Count: ~12000
A/N: For Lucifuge 5, for Help Chile. Prompt: post-COTW curtain!fic.

"Can we try to be normal?" said Ray. "Just for a day. For like, two hours. I'll be Ray, and you'll be Ben, and that'll be Dief, our dog."

From the doorway, Diefenbaker whined.

Ray pointed at him. "You, suck it up. Take one for the team."


Read at my site | Read on AO3

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