New Style Update and Cartoon Progress

Hello out there!

If you haven't had a look in a while, visit http://beholdthecheese.com to see the work I've done to update the website's look. I'm pretty happy with it overall. I think each section is much more clearly separated from the others. I'm also happy that not everything on the site floats in white space. If you like the updated look, let me know!

Unfortunately, I may be the ONLY one who signed up for that creating comics class. No, it's not in my head. In fact, you can see the flier here. If you are interested in taking the class, you should definitely sign up. The bookshop who's hosting the class told me that they need at least 5 people to register. Now, if the class doesn't actually take place, I'm still going to produce new cartoons. I've been working on several new sketches already.

I think it's a little unfair I've been holding my so-called "sketches" for new cartoons hostage. I've decided to include snippets of them below. They're in ballpoint pen.




I've kept the punchlines out of these scans, but that gives you the opportunity to let your imagination run wild! I may also have a few other surprises with regards to cartoons, but I hope these sketches whet your appetite at least a little!

Stay tuned!

-Art

Update on Style

You can probably see that the design of the blog has changed. I thought this look was simpler and less gaudy. Even though the template for this blog is originally from Blogger (I'm not that great at Web design yet!), I edited some features to make its style consistent with the home page of Behold The Cheese.

If you visit said home page, you'll see I did touched up a few things. I thought, even though the site is consistent in its gray color scheme, people are supposed to come to the site to have a laugh or too. The gray was too dreary. I think the orange headers and aquamarine links make the site look more playful, and the feel of simplicity on the page remains. If you like the new look, let me know! I'll continue to to design the site so that it pleases the eyes and invites laughter.

-Art

Web Site Style and New Cartoons Prospects

Hello everyone!

Before I begin, I'd like to recommend Head First HTML with CSS & XTHML to anyone who wants to learn how to make basic Web pages. You can find it on Amazon here: http://bit.ly/2cHv5H. If you've followed my site and my blog, you've probably noticed how it's improved over the past couple of months. I have to give credit to the authors at Head First for the book's accessibility.

Today I finally dived into the CSS sections of the book, and with the knowledge from those chapters, I finally change the blue hyperlinks to a calm gray. I also made the headers on the page less enormous, added a new header for the dates on cartoons, and put in some line spacing for the (small amount of) text on the site. Any experienced Web programmer may scoff at how trivial these actions are, but that doesn't matter to me. I'm happy the site looks more professional even with such small changes. I'll continue to update the site's appearance as I read through the book.

Now, on to cartoons. The website is designed to host my cartoons, and yet I only have one cartoon posted (and drawn!) for the year 2009. Don't think that I'm giving up the trade, though. I registered for small class on creating comics that I think will help me create better flow. I made my first attempt at paneling with my March 6 cartoon, and I'd like to continue in that style. Rest assured, I have several ideas floating in my head about my next cartoons. Most of them are complete in the idea phase, and some are even drawn in pencil, but before I post any more cartoons to the site, I want to harbor a few more skills from this class. I'll try to update this blog with my drawings from the class every week.

Thanks for your patience,
Art