About Alex

Alexander Townsend that lovable coward hits home more then you think. Alex is an amalgamation of the worst part of myself with a bit of amplification for better story line. Alex is what would have happened if I never grew a spine or developed a sense of ethics. Alex is still in the hero category because his involvement with Red keeps him from running away or doing really dastardly crimes.

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Really Alex keep it in your pants

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Alexander Townsend was my name in the SCA during my early twenties. The whole womanizing scoundrel yah that was accurately me. Though I worked very hard not to be “the other man”. Alex has no problems being a home wrecker (he would rather not get caught for safety reasons)

Alex tends to only be brave when there is a woman present to awe of his feats of bravery! I was such a coward as a kid. So many fears so many things I was afraid of movie theaters , heights ,talk to more then two people at a time, wolves, dark (when I was 15). Alex is my way of poking fun at myself.

Later on Alex’s issues are going to become a major plot line. This is something that is going to be similar to events that happened in my life. I am of corse going to change the plot change events to make the story more fun. You will have to read the comic to get the full story.

Alex like any hero in steampunk is not without his good points. He is an accomplished fencer (he is not aware of how good he is. That would require courage. ) he is very loyal to Red and his crew and sometimes this loyalty will actually override his overall fear. As much as he is a womanizer he does not feel women are inferior this has a large part to do with the various bumps and bruises he has received over the years working alongside Red. Alex is also the master of most social situations as long as it involves charm.

Like most steampunk adventurers Alex likes gadgets. Alex had Reginald install a revolver into hilt of is sword to eliminate anyone who might be able to best Alex in a sword duel. Alex has actually won more fights with the revolver then the blade (this is more due to lack of bravery then skill in fencing)

How sexy is too sexy! #webcomic

How sexy is too sexy!?!?

So I find myself getting to parts of the story where things can get graphically sexy. Let’s face it Alexander is a “man slut”. His pursuit of the latest steampunk bimbo would surely raise an eyebrow. The polyamorous air pirates and their non-monogamous ways and a touch of BDSM would also make it so readers under the age of 18 should never read my comic.

Here is my question. How much is too much? How much skin turns my story into comic porn? I am writing a story not providing excuses for nudity and sex. I have seen a few online comics that have some plot but it almost seems that somebody is getting laid every other page.

Looking at other great stories like Game of thrones , true blood, and Australia’s Underbelly (just to be clear i have a lot of writing before i could get that good at story telling) the sex and the nudity seem to fit the story. I have noted that there is more nudity towards the early part of the season. I really can’t think of a time where the sex was purely gratuitous. Sure there could have been a way to suggest what happened but let’s face it it’s fun to watch. (you know you love it) the point is that the nudity is such a part of the story it does not seem to be a boobie flick. Unless you are one of those people who find anything other then the missionary position offensive.

So here are my options
Option one : Go all out!! All kinds of nudity!! No fig leafing just draw the story as I see it.
Pros : readership will surely go up! Look nakid people!!!
Cons: alienate those who are more moderate in their thinking

Option two : Make two versions. Everything that I am doing is going to be story based so nudity need not be needed to tell the overall story. Then sell both the edited and adult versions making the adult version available only through paid subscription or print version (also keeps kids from reading it)
Pros : more revenue options
Cons: holes in story & extra work

Option three : do best to still tell the story but try to keep it clean.
Pros : wider audience
Cons : is it really what story I am trying to tell.

So tell me what you think! Email me artofpaint@gmail.com

Extra content for printed steampunk comic!!!

Nothing like a Financal pitfall to get you motivated in making money. Even more so when you realize your day job will never get you out of the Financal ditch you are in to add that extra rocket fuel to your personal projects if it might mean that someday you can cut free from the 9 to 5 and get some real work done!

So steampunk adventures was always intended to be a print book. I use the web media to promote and offer something for free. I have been a fan of lulu Self publishing. Why not start now. I could publish chapter one and see what happens.

So I had chapter one exported to PDF and started a horrendous upload to lulu . Took several hours to finally get everything uploaded (by the way I am in Australia so Internet is metered.. So it used up a portion of my bandwidth ) and guess what ???? Not enough pages!!

I am not the kind of guy to get upset for no reason. Ok I wanted to upload . Ok not enough pages . Let’s think about this for a second. This is the same stuff that is loaded on the website. Why would someone want to buy it? Then I started thinking. Let’s reward those folks who buy the printed version with something extra!!!

So here is where your feedback is going to shape how I do this! What do you want to see in extra content.

I don’t know the price of the book will be yet. But I want to make it worth it!

Told you I am back!!

Just to show you that I was Serious about being up and running again!!

How I do it! Part one! (Air Pirate)

So I know there is a lot of people that read my comic that know more about making comics then I do …. but there are a few folks out there that have no idea what so ever. so I’m going to walk you through a day of drawing for me. This is going to follow the path from sketchbook to your web browser.

This is drawing is of  “Sarah the Steampunk Polyamrous Air Pirate” (Some title huh)

This image .. She is PISSED OFF! She just discovered someone trying ….oh wait I’m not going to give that away! The drawing was done over a few days with my sketchbook. and a 4H hard pencil!

Drawing of Sarah

This is how it looks right after being scanned into iphoto.. The problem I have been having is that the paper is too big for my tiny scanner . so you notice that the center of the image is sharper then the edges. this is because I place my hand down on the center of the image so it can be properly scanned .. I’m looking to fix this problem later.

The image was Scanned in as full color and not gray scale. at 300 DPI. I choose to not use gray scale or B&W because of some issues with Iphoto only liking RGB color pallets.  I use Iphoto to keep my images organized till I can have a chance to edit them in GIMP

Once I have them in Iphoto I categorize the image so I can find it quickly later . Keyword and bookmarks are my best friend.

Sarah in Gimp

Here I start to remove the background caused by the light escaping because my scanner is too small for the size of paper I use. One the background is removed it will be easier to add any kind of background that I wish!

Once I have done that. I add Layers ..

• Jacket
• Clockwork Arm
• Hair
• Sarah skin
• Eye Patch
• Brass works
• Gun
• Bullwhip

The idea is that each object should have its own layer .. I like to make changes to those layers later on.

Next time I will show you what happens when I add color.

http://steampunkadventures.smackjeeves.com/

 

How to get past “Artist Block”

Artist block .. its that moment where your staring at a blank page .. art tool in hand and nothing comes to mind. You want to draw but you can’t …. Writers bitch about this all the time, but who says writers get to suffer alone. I have a few tips that might help get past that blank sheet of paper

• Keep notes and save it for later …  sometimes ideas flow like a river.  You have more ideas then time. or like me these ideas come to you when you cannot pick up a pencil and start drawing.  Like a meeting , Driving , having a long boring conversations.  I use a program called Evernote.  It allows me to make a note of these ideas when they strike (I just have to remember his is a resource)

• Draw something else.!! Instead of working on your current project .. draw your cat or try out a new drawing technique. Start a painting if you draw .. or draw something if you normally paint … perhaps a potters wheel has been sitting around waiting for attention. This noodling and keep your skills sharp while your ideas are dull.
• See what someone else has done. I love Deviant art for this. The website is filled with creative people. It is very hard to not get inspired. for you comic book artists out there perhaps this is the excuse to go get that latest graphic novel by your favorite artist.
• Watch/Read movies/books on similar topics. I’m currently reading the “Lost World”
• Sex …. This is one place where the married folk have an advantage (And if you don’t find being married an advantage perhaps its time to talk about how you can improve your relationship… I am one of the lucky ones) . I always seem to be more creative afterward.
• Talk to someone about the topic. If your ideas are running dry perhaps someone else can provide that creative spark.
• Blog about what your doing …. see
• Walk away !  you might be trying too hard .. I find that this is very powerful for me. Most of the time I go for a walk to the local mall.. People watching will often trigger an idea.
• Side projects .. you know that idea you had .. that one you did not start because you were in the middle of this project! Well devote some time to start it, but remember to come back to finish this project!

I would love to get some feedback on these ideas or if you have a good way to get past your artist block!

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Twitter pictures of my sketches

Hey folks!
I’m starting to take pictures of my sketches as I create them from my phone and posting them on twitter via instragram.

You can see the feed as well as my instagram pics here

http://twitter.com/Artofpaint#

Tell me what you think !

Diffaculty drawing chapter 3

So chapter 3 has been a huge problem. It has been the most difficult to draw. And not just on a physical draw correctly kind of way. But also in the area of motivation. It has taken me some time to get past that. Here are the problems I have had to overcome

- introduction of the poly pirates
Not that I’m in the closet about being poly or anything it’s just I want to be more then “father knows best of. Polyamory”. Who wants to read about people who are perfect I want to have some real issues to overcome without giving the lifestyle reputation of being dysfunctional. So I have been trying to write something that will be fun at the same time not be a “how to manual”

- Nudity. What!!!! Nudity?!?! Yes the pirates get necked. I don’t feel like censoring my work at the same time it’s part of the story. So I have been working on a compromise. I’m also going to have a few versions when to goes to print. These will very from the version I would let my son read to version that will have disclaimers all over it. Do other writers run into this problem?

- violence
I’m not talking about your standard comic book violence. I’m talking about harming someone on a deep personal level. I had a hard time drawing this because I could not relate to someone who would want to do such a thing. I had to resort to reading some clinical info as well as some fiction. Both of those will give me nightmares. However this has made the scene where bjorn gets his revenge on such violent and twisted individual so much clearer in my mind. In fact my problem is finding a reason for bjorn not killing him.

http://steampunkadventures.smackjeeves.com/