Online graphic novel by Shilin. http://blackbird.ashen-ray.com
Amazingly, this volume is only a few pages away from being finished. Unfortunately, there are still abount 50 pages to tone ):]]> http://blackbird.ashen-ray.com/view.php?page=155&chapter=3
Some dialog on the last 2 pages are edited, since I am apparently horrible at this language thing. Also I've noticed my layout style varies too much ): I am not very satisfied with the last 10 pages or so as much as I am with today's update. Need more practice!]]> http://blackbird.ashen-ray.com/view.php?page=153&chapter=3 http://blackbird.ashen-ray.com/view.php?page=151&chapter=3
This will probably be the last pages I tone before next week's update; I will be spending the remainder of the week working on a commission.]]> http://blackbird.ashen-ray.com/view.php?page=77&chapter=2 http://blackbird.ashen-ray.com/view.php?page=149&chapter=3 http://blackbird.ashen-ray.com/view.php?page=73&chapter=2 http://blackbird.ashen-ray.com/view.php?page=71&chapter=2
I will set it as my goal to tone 2 old pages everytime I post new pages as the volume is coming to a close soon. Hopefully it will make the polishing of the first volume a much quicker process and minimize stall time before continuing the story.]]> http://blackbird.ashen-ray.com/view.php?page=147&chapter=3 Protagonist monologue continues til the end of time. Some story background information pages are also updated. Without images though they're pretty much huge walls of text for the hardcore bored. http://blackbird.ashen-ray.com/view.php?page=145&chapter=3 Veloce speaks her mind. http://blackbird.ashen-ray.com/view.php?page=143&chapter=3
Also, a new layout is up! It is image-heavy but hopefully nice to look at. Please check it out and let me know of any layout placement errors that you come across! There are a lot of incomplete links that lead to nowhere, I will update those in the near future.]]> http://blackbird.ashen-ray.com/view.php?page=141&chapter=3 The servants of Keritzel's mansion shows their concern for their masters' safety. http://blackbird.ashen-ray.com/archive/view2.php?chapter=3&page=139 Weirin points out something odd. http://blackbird.ashen-ray.com/archive/view2.php?chapter=3&page=137 Veloce proves that good manners doesn't bring you too far. http://blackbird.ashen-ray.com/archive/view2.php?chapter=3&page=135 Please check the news for more details. http://blackbird.ashen-ray.com/archive/view2.php?chapter=3&page=133 Please check the news for more details. http://blackbird.ashen-ray.com/archive/view2.php?chapter=3&page=131 Please check the news for more details. http://blackbird.ashen-ray.com/archive/view2.php?chapter=3&page=129 Please check the news for more details. http://blackbird.ashen-ray.com/archive/view2.php?chapter=3&page=127 Please check the news for more details. http://blackbird.ashen-ray.com/archive/view2.php?chapter=3&page=125 Please check the news for more details. http://blackbird.ashen-ray.com/archive/view2.php?chapter=3&page=123 Please check the news for more details. http://blackbird.ashen-ray.com/archive/view2.php?chapter=3&page=121 There will be a 1-month hiatus in updates as AX is drawing near, and I will be staying at LA for about a week after the event as well. See you in a while~ http://blackbird.ashen-ray.com/ Please check the news for more details. http://blackbird.ashen-ray.com/archive/view2.php?chapter=3&page=119 Please check the news for more details. http://blackbird.ashen-ray.com/archive/view2.php?chapter=2&page=117 Please check the news for more details. http://blackbird.ashen-ray.com/archive/view2.php?chapter=2&page=115 Please check the news for more details. http://blackbird.ashen-ray.com/archive/view2.php?chapter=2&page=113 lol I broke half of my promise since it's no longer Sunday :p but I've fulfilled the other part by bringing you 4 pages this week. I missed the days when I did 4 pages everyweek, finished pages too. On a more positive note, 2 more weeks of school, then exams and done :D! By done I mean I'll have other stuff to work on LOL;; Hopefully the toning part will go as planned. Onto today's pages: WATCH OUT VEL, SOMEONE'S BEEN STALKING YOU http://blackbird.ashen-ray.com/archive/view2.php?chapter=2&page=109 Silly girls, always making a mess wherever they go. My video card isn't fixed yet, but I think the fever being gone helps me brighten up a bit about polishing the line art; this week's pages felt better to me. I love this pencil *v* http://blackbird.ashen-ray.com/archive/view2.php?chapter=2&page=107 Here are your new pages with all my germs and viruses on them. I suggest you start from 103 if you don't understand the action because you forgot what happened before. I finished it earlier when I still had the flu (and I still do) and I was too tired to completely rearrange my various machineries and connections to be able to scan it so it had to wait until now. My video card also died last week, so I hadn't been able to do anything art related on my comp, and it won't get fixed until the next time I go home, which is in 2 weeks. This weekend and the next were supposed to be for me to catch up with all the things I've missed so much due to school, but nooooo, I had to get sick and have my brainchild malfunction. I swear I am not the boy (or girl) that cried wolf; shit just happens to me. I used a 0.3mm pencil to draw this page, something I've recently obtained thanks to my friend who found it for me. It's awesome, it makes the 0.5 pencil I used to use feel like a marker. This was supposed to make up for my inability to draw on large pages (so I draw with a smaller pencil) I can't control it very well yet, so some details are messy; on top of that, the integrated graphics card I'm using right now is just shit, and everything on my table is messed up because I had to change my work environment due to the computer malfunction so it's not scanned properly either. In general this page turned out like some kind of shit that it's not supposed to be. I will rescan it when I get to toning everything, I hope you understand if you don't get what's going on. http://blackbird.ashen-ray.com/archive/view2.php?chapter=2&page=105 Dude like, today is obviously Sunday right? Yeah. This late page has been brought to you in part by my incompetency; you don't know how many times I redrew some of those panels (the pencil dent/marks aren't visible here because I clean it up in photoshop with levels and dodge/burn). Sometimes I wish I know the basics so my life could be easier. Otherwise, just in case some of you may think that Maelstrom characters are all ducks or something and can float on water, it's Watertread - a skill that can be learned by everyone through hardwork without the use of magic. Similar things can be done for walking on air or walls/ceilings, it's just that some are harder to do than others. http://blackbird.ashen-ray.com/archive/view2.php?chapter=2&page=103 I am terribly sorry for the constant delay in updates in the past while. I try my best to keep up, but now that I update every week again, I am always late. So I will push back the update schedule to Sunday; hopefully that will let me be a little more on-time so I won't waste your time checking back. If you want to be notified, you can always subscribe to my RSS feed or mailing list. If you don't know how to use RSS feeds... learn it! It's really very convenient for keeping up with the web. KERI LIVES IN THE WHITE HOUSE! I'd be pretty fit if I were him, having to travel large distances daily from room to room. That doesn't mean I don't want to go to Europe and live in an expensive house for a day though! The birds here are the aerial equivalent of horses. Yes, they have long white beards; if Santa existed in Maelstrom, the sleighs would be led by these fellows. http://blackbird.ashen-ray.com/archive/view2.php?chapter=2&page=101 BAD BAD KIDS, stay up so late to flirt; you're going to be in so much shit if you get busted--oh wait, busted already! Incentives are a random comment and a scrap CG I did earlier this week. The CG was posted on hte forum and my blog, but since not many people check those, I might as well use it as incentive here anyway. http://blackbird.ashen-ray.com/archive/view2.php?chapter=2&page=99 Sorry for the lateness; those who read the chatbox would know that I've lost my binder in school twice 2 days in a row. It's here now D: And why is Keri feels the necessity to dance around when playing violin? I don't know, most likely due to my obsession with riverdance and fiddlers. I wish I play violin lol;; http://blackbird.ashen-ray.com/archive/view2.php?chapter=2&page=97 I only had time to tone one page, so this is gonna look weird lol =( somehow it's taking me longer and longer and longer to do each page. Aren't I supposed to speed up the process as I get more familiar with how I draw the pages...? Oh yes, a new illust of Keri is added, for those of you who don't use DeviantART. http://blackbird.ashen-ray.com/archive/view2.php?chapter=2&page=95 FIGHT BEGIN!!! FIGHT OVER!!! Hope you enjoyed the elaborate war show. jk the real fights start later lol ): and if you don't know what the shit is on the first few panels... you might when I get them toned one day. http://blackbird.ashen-ray.com/archive/view2.php?chapter=2&page=93 Sorry for the lack of updates in the past month or so, a lot of stuff was messed up and I posted update statuses whenever on the main site whenever I knew I couldn't make it. I will spare you the unnecessary details therein and promise I'll try hard to not do this too often. Anyways woooo I'm always late now, so I guess when I say Friday, check back on Saturday...? (if I change my schedule to Saturday, I'll probably end up finishing it on Sunday or something) I have no discipline. )= And I keep getting more and more carried away with my "toning" lol... it feels like CG set cut-and-paste to me now since this is exactly how I cel-shade full-detail CGs. I kind of enjoy it, so I hope you won't mind the delays that's resulting from it. And it looks like I won't be getting the tones done for the untoned pages in my break afterall; so this trend of update will continue on (except for today's) through til my school year ends in April. Sorry and I hope you'll understand. Otherwise, horray for Blackbird being literal weee http://blackbird.ashen-ray.com/archive/view2.php?chapter=2&page=91 Silly Veloce, that's not an illness, it's called a HANG OVER, and here's the number for Alcoholic Anonymous. http://blackbird.ashen-ray.com/archive/view2.php?chapter=2&page=89 I dedicate the C: face to Karu; your C: is the one and only inspiration behind this and I can't get it out of my mind LOL http://blackbird.ashen-ray.com/archive/view2.php?chapter=2&page=87 CAUTION: EXTREMELY IRRELEVANTLY EMO http://blackbird.ashen-ray.com/archive/view2.php?chapter=2&page=85 Tuesdays with Veloce as she busts your face with mind-boggling analogies http://blackbird.ashen-ray.com/archive/view2.php?chapter=2&page=83 Keri's being NOSY? HE MUST'VE PICKED THAT UP FROM WEIRIN! http://blackbird.ashen-ray.com/archive/view2.php?chapter=2&page=81 I'm on time! I am on time!! http://blackbird.ashen-ray.com/archive/view2.php?chapter=2&page=79 OUR HOUSE IS ON FIRE!!! There is no better time to act cool than now :O oh and if you hadn't noticed, there's now a shout box along with the new feed :) http://blackbird.ashen-ray.com/archive/view2.php?chapter=2&page=77 And the RSS Feed is born! I just found out I drew Gorchen (the old man) wrong for the past like 8 pages, because I didn't look at the earlier pages for reference... so I had to do some beard shaving )= http://blackbird.ashen-ray.com/archive/view2.php?chapter=2&page=75