NaNoWriMo Winner - Exclusive Excerpts for the Next Few Days

After 30 long days and nights, I finally did it. I finally beat my 75,000 word challenge and went over by 2,007 words. It's been very long, very hard, but extremely worth it, I've gotta say. Now, I'm a writing nut, and of course I didn't just stop after I verified my win. I'm still working on Who's Taken Me? from my trilogy, but I did the whole second part and a bit of the third part. With this under my belt, I hope I can finish this book soon, so I can start to tie and cut the knots of the entire trilogy. Then it can be ready for publishing.

One odd thing I realized is I really really REALLY need to revise the first book. It's not a bad read at all, but I have so many other things to add, remove most definitely, and switch up. It's going to be serious business that gonna take up a great deal of my time, not to mention other projects I have, my art, and that doggone manga, Axolotl... But I hope to be able to keep it all up, keep it together, and keep sharing this stuff with you guys.

It's not really that obvious by the title or anything, but I'll be posting excerpts from my third novel's first draft over the next few days. Bear with me if some parts don't make sense. After all, this does happen to be a first draft and taken completely out of context to boot. Without further ado, here's the excerpt that's on my NaNoWriMo profile.

***

Secrets. Over the past few days, I’d acquired such amazing secrets, both accidental and purposeful. I’d shared one of my own. With someone I thought I’d never trust: a doctor. I grinned wider like Osiris. I liked secrets. I liked hearing them as much as I liked finding someone to share them with. But these were special secrets that I heard in the dispensary. Very special secrets. Precious secrets. War secrets, I thought to myself. I got a shiver down my spine, it sounded so exciting. I, Specialist Private Sheldon Quincy Lamar, had war secrets that the General of the Army himself believed I could handle and veil as needed. All of a sudden, all the doubts and qualms I had about my military service dropped about a thousand miles or 17,600 double time military paces. No matter what, I would follow Osiris’s orders to the letter, to my limits, and to the grave. I would prove myself to him, my would-be father, that I was worth it. That I was worth the risk he took to include me in this war secret. I told myself that snowy night that one day or one night, whatever, I would join his side and protect what he swore to protect. Even his Celestialite secret.

***

Hope you enjoyed it. I don't know for sure how many other excerpts I'll be uploading, but I think if you enjoyed this, you'll enjoy the others *nods vigorously*. Some of them are funny, some of them sad, dramatic, you name it, Sheldon's going to fling it at you.

Just be aware, to all you younger viewers out there, there is some mature content in Sanitize. It's mostly language and violence, but keep in mind, immature Sheldon and his main group of acquaintances in this book are mostly teens and young adults in the army, so very crude humor and reference ensues. And this instance of reference he made at some point. Plus, there's that PG-13 type of thing with battle sequences and frightening images, that kind of thing. But you know, if you're under 16, I wouldn't read it without that thar parental consent. Who's Taken Me? is considerably darker, more violent, and more adult than the last two books, although the second book as it is now contends well with the this one. You'll thank me later. Or not, as the case may be.

Later.

GCS Exclusive Picture: Sleeping in California

This picture didn't have to take me as long as it did. My original intention for it was to ink and color it, but I decided against that and went for working on my traditional, or non-digital, style. But with NaNoWriMo, I haven't been drawing that much, so the production of this picture was slowed.

This is one of the first, if not the first, time I've ever drawn someone from Sanitize asleep. It's considerably harder than it looks. The muscles have to relax and look limp. Plus, you have to be aware of how gravity will be pulling everything down in relation to the surrounding objects. And how restful and peaceful the person's sleep is... There is a number of things you have to be aware of when drawing sleeping persons.

I drew this a very long time ago, so I don't remember exactly the order I drew everything, but I probably drew the bed first without the sheets. Then I may have drawn a rough image of his head then his neck, body, and his limbs. The pillows probably came next and then the background. And then the outside world. Then I shaded, fixing things as need be.

It's very hard to draw a muscular torso from the side, in my opinion. One has to portray the wideness and depth of the back as well the breadth of the shoulders properly to make the buff guy/girl look right. It's even harder when there's clothing involved. Line value is really important with clothing folds in traditional works, especially when the person you're drawing is sleeping. I decided to draw him above the sheets because he's in California but from a colder place, he gets hot very easily. And it was a simpler task to draw him without the sheets over him. It also helps exaggerate his size.

The hand could have been drawn maybe, but I put it there for a good reason. Sheldon is very tense, and he is tense even when he sleeps, so the hand makes him look slightly less relaxed than most when they sleep. Secondly, it makes it look vaguely like he's been tossing and turning in his sleep.

Sheldon's hair is normally shoulder-length, but at the beginning of the third Sanitize novel, he has very long hair.

His muscles were harder than normal to draw in this position. I don't know why it was harder, but this pose was horizontal and I've avoided drawing horizontal bodies in the past because I regularly prefer standing characters. I don't normally draw bare or even semi-bare legs either, so that was an added challenge. I drew his lower half rather large to create the illusion of depth and size. Because Sheldon does indeed have very wide hips and very big *cough**cough* fat *cough* thighs.

Sheldon's cover is of lightweight material but of a sturdy substance. That's why it can hold folds the way it does while holding many of them as lightweight fabrics do.

I haven't yet adapted Sheldon's own drawing style to his pictures, but I probably will as soon as I do another picture where he has drawn something. But anyhow, the pictures of Daisy are a staple in his room, and when he moves to different rooms, he tends to plaster his walls with pictures of his little sister and scraps of things devoted to her.

The outside is one of my favorite parts of this picture. I actually drew it freehand, but you guys and gals can probably tell. I stroked the eraser through the penciling a few times to give a reflective, shiny feel to the buildings like the morning sun is shining down on the sides of the city. For a tropical feel, I put in some palm trees, and California has palm trees anyway, if I'm not mistaken. As for the clouds, I drew those today. It's one of those sunny, pleasant days were clouds look like mashed spuds.

Well, that's it for this picture. Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more! With NaNoWriMo ending at midnight tomorrow night, I can be doing more drawings.


This picture, Sleeping in California, is an exclusive picture only available on this here blog. Additional exclusive, you-can't-get-them-anywhere-else pictures, story excerpts and more will be available only on here, The Cooking Shed. Hooray for sounding like a stuffy corporation. Other pictures, story excerpts, etc., by Genre Chowder Studios (this happens to be me) can be found at GCS's deviantART page.

Later.

Sheldon Draws His Second Voice, Shelby

This is Shelby. Sheldon drew him for reasons that are secret as of now. But I will say this: in Sheldon's mind, Shelby is stringy, the same height as Sheldon, brown-haired, brown-eyed, and plain in dressing.

Sheldon, as I mentioned before, has schizophrenia, undifferentiated schizophrenia to be exact. One of the symptoms of schizophrenia is hearing voices. Sheldon has three voices he hears in his head, and the second one he starts to hear is called Shelby. He first started to hear him when he was eight after his first voice, Thelma. And here is a bit about him.

Of the three voices Sheldon has in his head, Shelby is the only definite male and the most "friendly" on the grounds that he sometimes says encouraging things to Sheldon. One could probably argue that Taylor Dusty the Weeper is nicer, but that's just 'cause Dusty doesn't say anything coherent, therefore is never rude on those grounds. Often, Shelby gives Sheldon little pep talks that actually make him feel better sometimes. Shelby and Thelma, the female voice in Sheldon's head, are almost always at odds, always arguing and seizing on each other's words, picking fights, that kind of thing. Kind of like siblings now that I think of it.

The strangest thing about Shelby is the way he sounds. His voice sounds exactly like Sheldon's, which understandably makes Sheldon very uncomfortable a lot. It's, in fact, the reason why Sheldon draws him with a mouth similar to his own. But normally Shelby is personable, even amiable. When he and Thelma argue, he is almost always defending Sheldon or Sheldon's choice.

However...

Shelby has a tendency to prod at certain things. Things that tick off or else really bother Sheldon. And Sheldon has had to learn the hard way that he just has to ignore him. Because if he doesn't, if he gets mad and ticks off Shelby (and it doesn't take much at all, let me tell you), Shelby explodes and turns nastier than sadistic Thelma, usually culminating in an excruciating guilt trip for Sheldon and a command to self harm from Shelby. Yeah. Shelby, for the most part, is the one that introduces Sheldon to orders of self harm. In fact, something he said nearly made Sheldon commit suicide. The only real way to mollify Shelby when he's mad is to just do what he says; at some times, Sheldon and Shelby's relationship vaguely echoes that of a domestic violence environment.

As he gets older, Sheldon learned to be careful when responding to Shelby, though sometimes he's not careful enough, and he just barely saves himself from savage insults to his character and defaming. When Shelby's getting annoyed, he starts to act bitter and victimized, saying Sheldon should "be grateful for what he's done for him" and listing many a reason that seem "plausible."

On a less dark note, Shelby, like Thelma, comes off as rather less than intelligent, both in how he instigates conversations and how he responds to people's remarks. For reasons Sheldon can't figure out, Shelby frequently mimics sounds Sheldon makes like panting when he's out of breath.

Well, that's all on his persona. Now let's take a look at the picture quickly. Seeing as I did this in about 30 to 45 minutes, there's not really much to talk about except for some little things.

For instance, this is Sheldon's style of drawing as I've said before. This is actually really different then the way I draw most of the time. That's cause Sheldon's drawing style and habits are dissimilar to mine. I'm gonna list the differences below for you to see.

• Sheldon never inks his pictures. I almost always do.
• Sheldon doesn't draw full body shots often. I tend to more often.
• I prefer to make my drawings round, bold, cartoonish, and with just a hint of humor. Sheldon's art is usually long, kind of pointy, gaunt and somewhat more realistic than mine. This is how he sees things.
  
• Sheldon usually draws tiny hair details like split ends and misdirected strands of hair. I don't normally draw things like split ends.
• Sheldon leaves his lines open or faded in places. I rarely do that.
• I draw characters in general with shorter, more compact necks. Sheldon's necks look over long.
• Sheldon signs all over his pictures and obsessively puts nine copyright symbols by it. I use an online watermarking program for most of my picture, especially my digital works.
• The thing that takes me the longest is usually the face. For Sheldon, it's the hair.
• My handwriting is awful. Sheldon's handwriting is REALLY awful.
  
• And last but not least, I almost always, always, always color pictures before I present them. Sheldon nearly never does.

As another point of interest, Sheldon draws to help cope with his illness.

I hope you enjoyed this. Stay tuned for more later.

This picture is also on deviantART.

Later.

Mother and Son

This picture took me WAY longer than it had to. About a week and a half. I drew it quite a long time ago and started coloring it during the crunch to finish my second novel before NaNoWriMo, which I did. When I did the skin (I did them on the same layer), it was too harsh so my original plan was tone it down, but I found that using a Gaussian Blur softens skin tones considerably.

The eyes never pose a problem for me, but of the late, the newer way I do hair slows me down. I fill in the basic area in and around the hair, and then I go back with an eraser and rub it down to size. You'd think, with him having less hair, that Sheldon would be the easiest, but it wasn't. His hair is spiky, so I couldn't maneuver around his hair smoothly. But I got it down. Logistically, lighting and shading wasn't much of a problem.

I recalled "Hey! Laura Lamar's mouth is supposed to look kinda like Sheldon's!" A little reddish color mixed with her skin tone on a low opacity in the Hard Light layer worked very well, I'm happy to say.

Now, Laura's eyelashes do not have the same intensity of Sheldon's lashes, but their eyes hold similar intensity. They're the same color and relatively the same shape (if you look at Sheldon's eyes when he's older).

As always, after coloring the skin, eyes, and hair, I was up against hardness: clothes, props, background, and overall lighting. Sheldon's clothes were easy, took me only about 10-20 minutes *waves a hand dismissively.* But Laura's top was so difficult, mostly 'cause I approached it without a plan. I went through Impressionist Brushes and textures and funky fade-y patterns for about 3/4 of an hour before settling on what's here using fill colors and a special brush. The lace stuff on her sleeves wasn't nearly as difficult; I used the color from the green flowers, colored the lace, and did minor shading. Wouldn't even put it at 15 minutes.

The sofa... It took me some time to figure out what I wanted to do, but I got it right. I used the Bucket Tool and the Burn and Dodge tools with spatter brushes. Then I Burned the shadows. It was the wall, maybe, that was the hardest. I couldn't figure out what I wanted to do with it. I thought about stripes, but it looked bad, and the Lamars don't have striped walls anyway. After about 20 minutes, I came to using the Impressionist Brush, and thus, the end result.

You can't really see it, but there is a Soft Light Layer on Laura and Sheldon. I wanted to keep Laura's beautiful complexion visible rather than obscure it under a bath of orange, so I dropped the opacity considerably, but it lends enough effect to make a difference. Though... maybe that's 'cause I know what it looks like without the light.

And of course, Sheldon is a runny-nosed baby, so I had to incorporate snot in there somehow. The snot bubble was easy to do, but I wasn't sure how it would look against Laura's clothes. I hid the layer until I was done with them, it turned out fine, so I was good to leave it there.

This picture is also on deviantART.

That's all for now. Stay tuned for another picture later!

Later.