Bad News

Hello, some sad news I'm afraid.

I had an email this morning from the company that hosts the main Mathema website.

The site had been hacked and I just wanted to leave a note here to try and warn anyone who gets asked for their details.  

These people have nothing to do with Mathema.  I'm disgusted and upset that they've been able to access the site pretending to be associated with it.

The Mathema site has been closed for the moment because of this. Hopefully the problem will soon be sorted out. 

Sorry :(

What I've been working on...

Hello, I hope you're well  :)

Pages will be back and more so, soon.
But I thought I'd post you some of the sketches an new research I've been doing.
All of the reference has been taken from photos; either from H. F. Talbot images (including watercolour above), from here http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/young/young-exhibit.html, or from the book Lost London 1870-1945 (I bought this book yesterday and it's amazing).

After doing some of these I'm really excited about going on another sketch crawl – I shall book it in for next weekend.

Some of these were done with my new fine liners.  Which are pretty good, though the guy at the Letraset stall was trying to sell me markers as well – how do I explain that I've already sold my soul to Coptic?
Also I acquired a new (used) pencil.   Which seems bit strange... how can I know what it's drawn?  But that's probably getting a little too philosophical for pencils.  Anyway, it's a great colour, I've been drawing machinery from the Birmingham Think Tank with it.


Met Becky Cloonan at a signing yesterday  :)
I'm super-charged at the moment, and I'll post again soon.  Hope you enjoyed this stuff.

Gifts

I was going to wait until I post the pages but I was so happy to receive these that I thought they deserved a post of their own.

A certain Patrick has contacted me a couple of times now about Mathema, and today he sent me these images he's put together using some of the character artwork. I think they're great, take a look and enjoy :)
(For some reason the gifs aren't running, sorry about that – in the second one the pages are meant to turn and the flames move in the last one)



Thank you very much Patrick :)

I was also sent a fantastic necklace made to glow like Beth's in a previous picture; I'm so amazed to be given these things, thank you again.

I'll get back to you soon.

Happy Valentine's Day

I hope you've all had a good Valentine's Day;
Have little extra from Mathema too :)

Panel preview


And some colouring practice (with a slightly shifty looking Emery and Reuben, haha)

Hoorah! An Update! :)

Hello Everyone!
I hope you all had great holidays.
(I had an awesome Christmas thanks ;) )

---

So where are we now?
Well, I have a lot of things that I've been pretty excited to show you...
First off, I know you're gonna be annoyed because the pages aren't posted yet but hopefully when you see this stuff you'll understand why I've been taking my time.
I'm trying to make it a whole lot better; you guys are a great support and I've really been trying to make sure what I do is worthy of that.

So to see...?
The new site :D
I hope you like it; it's a brand new layout and there's a few bits of new artwork to check out on the home page – I hope from these you can see the difference I've been trying to put in.
It should be at the same address (link below). No, nothing works just yet, give me a few days:
MATHEMA

But wait! There's more...
Some more artwork that I've been doing for you to check out :)

These are for the 'characters' section of the site;

They are based on the backs of Victorian photo prints (and trade cards) where the company would print their name/logo.

And some more like this:

This is the same as the one at the bottom of the home page – when I've finished titivating I'll post you the full version :)

Anyway, please let me know what you think of everything!
And my apologies, but you can see why I've been taking my time with the pages.
If you feel the need to vent your anger please feel free to abuse my email :)
(But they will be there soon.)

Merry Christmas

Hey guys,

Merry Christmas everyone :)
I hope you're having great holidays and had lots of fun yesterday.

The last pages of Chapter 1 are almost there; with revisions of the site being made as well, these will all be posted in January.

So happy holidays, and thanks for hanging in there – Mathema will be updated very soon.

o<|:)

New pages will be up soon :)

September Absence

-This is the worst party I've ever been to!-

You guys are much better to me than I deserve; thank-you for the comments (Elise, Amanda) they really keep me going and September has been a very tough month.
It makes me very sad when I have to break promises to you and let you down on updates.

I'll tell you first that two new pages are up [and we are getting pretty close to the end of Chapter 1 :D ] as of this evening, and despite the recent hiccup it's never been a case of quitting the project.

[Mathema]

As for the boring stuff about me...

Well I've been on a sudden change of plans for which everything came together/had to be done during September – on top of that I was contacted to do a short illustration project.
I've gone to study again and this last month (and some of August) has been a whirlwind of applications, references, banks, loans and moving house.
I'm now living back in London :D which is great – and though I feel a little strange telling you, I've managed to rent a room with the biggest bed I've ever slept in. (Plus, I went today to pick up my new library card... yes I'm that sad, it's one of the first things I did.)

But I'm here now, and hopefully things can settle down again.


:)

I'm really sorry the pages didn't get uploaded this week – for personal reasons, I'm going to have to postpone the update until next Thursday, the 17th. :(

Sorry if you were waiting for them, but thanks for being patient.



P.s. I've just realised that sounds rather dramatic; don't worry it's nothing horrible :)

Silhouettes

I just thought I'd post you these, I mentioned them last night but they needed brushing up today:



These are some silhouette portraits of Emery's immediate family. Some of these you won't have seen before at all, even if they've been mentioned:
Top: Verity and Michael Hall (Mum and Dad)
Bottom: Emery and Reuben (Brother)

I'm probably going to use more of these/bigger versions as part of the character section, so let me know what you think :)

I know it's a bit old fashioned--even for them--so it's mainly for my own amusement, I guess the 'family' significance is personal; there's been two tiny silhouette portraits hanging on the wall of me and my sister ever since I can remember...

Semi-update

Hey,

-knock, knock-

There's only one page this week I'm afraid; I'll try and make it up to you in the next post :)
You can access the new one through the 'latest pages' tab on the home page or the 'comic' tab.

I see the blog has 3 new followers this week – thanks guys! I hope you're enjoying the comic.

---

In Other News...

My main aim for Mathema at the moment is to get the site working a lot more smoothly; I'll keep stressing myself out about it 'til it happens. I realise a lot of it has been left a bit static since the site went up and I really hope that bringing it to life a bit more will help the comic.

I made it to Wales by the way! (Yay - Welsh cakes)
I only went for a couple of days but it was great. I managed to miss one of my train connections but eventually I met up with my family on holiday in Carmarthen (if you're interested ;) ) and we visited a few places – highlight -> http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-dinefwrpark

But anyway, I feel I'm rambling more than usual because it's late and I've still got to stay up and finishing reading my book...because I've only got 20 odd pages to go, blah, blah.....blah, blah...

P.s. Hall Family silhouette portraits in the works...

Update-Yay

Hey,

Two new pages have been added to Chapter 1 -- and I can finally say 'new' and mean it :)
As usual the easiest way to get to them is from the home page or the 'latest pages' button in the comic section.
I'm really excited about the new parts of the story, I hope you enjoy them.

Now take note ;) - the other reason I'm excited about these particular pages is that, amid all the chaos of Mary's doomed soirée, there's something pretty important to learn about Charles...
(But you'll have to wait for more about that later on)

[I have checked them but, if there are any problems with viewing the pages please leave me a note -- I mention it because I may not be able to get to a computer before Monday.]

---

In other news...

Tomorrow I am going on a mission to south Wales, in the hope of catching up with some of my family that are on holiday there at the moment. It's great, they've already got a schedule of things-to-do planned out for me :D

Hooray! Up to 54 followers; awesome guys, thank-you.

And those that were fretting about my lack of cinema excursions will be relieved to know I made it to HBP a few days ago, and I have to admit, I thought it was rather good -- I'm a little biased though since book 6 was my favourite.

:D

Ta-Dupdate

Hey :)

--enter the gatecrashers--

New pages are up and ready to go – this is a pretty exciting point (for me at least ;) ) since we're now up to date; i.e. (drum roll, if you will) the next post will be brand new pages, brand new part of the story.

The pages are can be accessed as before, either by that side link on the homepage or through 'latest pages' on the Comic tab.

Other things...
Over the last couple of days the blog made it to 50 followers!
That's awesome; thanks very much guys I really appreciate the support.



...I still haven't seen HBP :(

Update

Hey!

New update – two pages added to chapter 1.
(You can get to them from the link at the side on the homepage or through 'latest pages' in the Comic section.)

So here be the first update on the fortnightly-Thursday :)

This is a panel from the latest page – I guess I like it because there are so many captions that could go with it :D



I am away studying next week [yes, I've heard some people go on real holidays] which is the main reason this update came soon after last week's, before setting the Thursday update.

The next update will be the 30th.

Hope you like the new pages, let me know what you think :)

Update

Hi,

There are new pages over at the site :)

Mathema

---

After the last couple of updates – and the corresponding notes on the blog – it's going to be best to set a day so everyone knows when the updates are going to be. I'm going to have to go with fortnightly, so that I can update a minimum of two pages at a time.

From now on Mathema will be updated on Thurdays, every two weeks.
(The first of these new updates will be next week – the 16th.)

---

P.s. Character bios on their way :)

Update

:)
I was able to update the comic a couple of hours ago so there are 3 new pages to check out, enjoy, hope you like them!

Mathema

Again I'm aiming for another quick update - that should come at the weekend.

---

At the moment I'm also working on some new art for the 'characters' section - it'll be great to get these up and running, I can't help thinking the site feels a little hollow without them...

...

So... it's gone 4am here, the birds have started singing again and my host won't load.
:(

I do not know why at the moment; I really want to post the update to you, but it's not worth previewing them on Blogger - it'll just chew the images up.

I'll post again later today, hopefully with better news.

Quick Note

Hey,
The next update is ready to go; it'll be posted tomorrow a.s.a.p.
:)

First Pages Online!

The first pages are online! :)

Mathema

There is a lot that's been done, hopefully those who have been looking out since Zuda will see quite a change - and hopefully for the better...

The comic will be moving on swiftly for the next set of pages (I'll be adding another update later this week) particularly as this early part of the story is revision.
After that I want to keep steady updates - I don't like the idea of posting in sections that are too small to read properly, but the maximum will be fortnightly.

As always, looking forward to your comments and I'll get back to work ;)

So close you can almost taste the pixels...

The site is live :D
...and pages will start going up over the next few days...

http://www.mathemacomic.com/
...take it steady, it does look pretty after all (haha)

But to keep you going:
Tell me pencillers and animators what is it about blue pencil that always makes it so nice to work in?? Quite honestly - is there a psychological reason?
Have a look at these new pencils (for one of the original pages) ->



Also I've noticed that the blog has grown to 38 followers.
Welcome and thank you very much guys!
[Edit: Awesome, 39 whilst I was posting, hello no. 39 ;) ]




P.s. Please note that the first pages of Mathema will now begin by listing all my claims for the characters' expenses.

P.p.s. Note to self - sarcasm is not very becoming...