Live cartooning in my local library...

...today!!! I am kinda nervous.. I am just an amateur! I bet there will be some kids looking at my stuff and then within hearing distance saying something like 'what a bunch of crap..'
>:-(

or even worse.. a woman coming up to me and asking 'Do you know Maaike Hartjes?' I am afraid that in that case, actual blood may spill...
>:-)

Anyway, here are some more cartoons I did for the library (my apologies to the non-Dutch again, because these actually are in Dutch.. again..)

Part 2 & 3

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London wifi cause of no Tuesday cartoon

I AM on vacation, I DID work ahead, I DO have a cartoon page, but the hotel WIFI wont let me post it... sorry guys, hope I can at least gat this message through, because the past two days I didn't even get THIS far on the net...
so here goes nothing.. see ya on Sunday (back home) hopefully

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Dutch cartoon 3

Another one for the cartoon-weeks in my local library. Look who gets to 'star' this time? :-D

Sorry, too much text to translate... But it's basically about Zowie not being allowed outside because that would scare people. But she can come to the library during the cartoon-weeks, because she can pretend to be a cartoon-figure, so she only has to dress up a little bit.
And Zoë already knows as what cartoon figure she will dress up... (for the rest, see pictures ;-))

Back in the race..

.. to win some Lowlands festival tickets. I edited my animation film a little and added some decent end-credits (with some sound effects!) so that people (who know Lowlands) would recognise the film tent (called Echo). Because so far, no-one did!

Took me all weekend and most of today, but I just entered the contest for this week!

Not sure how many more weeks I can enter, but I emailed the producer of the radioshow to ask her and she is trying to figure it out herself now :-D

You can see the edited version here (if you want):

PAGE ONE HUNDRED!!!!

Congratulations me, on drawing 100 pages of ongoing cartoon story! *lol*
(Does this now qualify as a 'graphic novel'? :-P)

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Dutch cartoon 2 (with translation)

Here is another cartoon I did for the cartoon-weeks in my local library

Translation:

- So these are the cartoon weeks in the library?
- yup

- I can't really tell yet
- you can't?
- no, can you?

- well...

No tickets...... :-(

They waited till 21.30 to call somebody else. But I didn't know till after ten since I was at work and my friends were probably afraid to text me in case I thought it was the radio show. But then none of them were available to console me after the show because they were probably all in bed by then. (Or my phone just acted up again and didn't receive any text messages that were sent.)

I still think it is really low that they send those emails to people who didn't win, leaving you a complete nervous wreck for 24 hours and then just totally devastated.

Very mean. I have a couple more chances to enter, although it is unclear how many, because one part of the Lowlands site says: 15 weekly rounds, the radio website says 14 weekly rounds and the competition page itself says till June 1st, even though week 11 only just started today and June 1st is in 4 days from now.

The Lowlands site also says you get an email when you win telling you how to collect your prize. Nothing about having to go live on radio. And nowhere does it state if going on the radio is compulsory to win the tickets. It's the most unclear competition I have ever entered, but I also cannot find an email address or a webpage with all the competition rules.

But if I enter again and they sent me another email asking me phone number and telling me to be available I'll just ignore it or tell them I am not available.. or too sick to answer the phone or something. Because I don't have the nerves to go through this again. I just have the creative talent. If that is not enough, they should have stated so on the website somewhere.

Radioshow on Thursday night... aaaarch

If you have time to listen to Dutch radioshow 'Met Michiel' on 3FM from 19.00 till 22.00 than you may hear how they are calling me to tell me I won the tickets for Lowlands with my animation film.

You know why I think that may happen? Because I got an email tonight requesting my phonenumber so they could call me live on air, in case I won...

AAAAAAAAARCH!!!!

I don't want to be in a radioshow! I just want to win the tickets! Besides I have a shift at the art house tomorrow, so I may not even hear the phone over the noise of the film projectors...

AAAARCH, I am going to make a total idiot of myself, I just know it... I am going to be trembling all night and won't be able to adjust the focus on ANY of the films.

And if they end up NOT calling me, I am going to be relieved at first but also SO dissappointed!!! AAAAAAARCH!!!

Back on track: Page 99!

Dutch Cartoon 1

And here is one of the cartoons I did for the 'cartoon weeks' my local library is organising for next month. I have more, but I will post them gradually so there is new stuff up here more regularly.



And now I am off to a local music festival with my drawing map and camping chair, so I can sit in the shade and do more cartooning while I listen to live music :-)

My First Animation Film...

..had to be finished before Sunday at midnight. And it's 23.19 now, so I made it!

I made this film in an effort to win some tickets to the Lowlands Festival. So this is about 'how much music/Lowlands means to me', or something silly like that.

So here it is, My First Animation - the main reason you had to wait for new pages this week. I hope you like it (click twice to open the YouTube site for a bigger version):



(Oh and in case you are wondering, the biggest stage-tents at the festival are blue-yellow striped, violet-blue striped and red...and the filmtent is decorated with lots of eye-balls.)

And here are two photo's I took of the set I built in my study:

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Next page:
EDIT: hopefully soon, but am also making an animation clip that has to be done by Sunday and some cartoons for the library that have to be done on Tuesday...

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Next page: probably Sunday, maybe earlier

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Next page: Wednesday

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I am 3 pages ahead, so next page...probably tomorrow already! :-)

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Next page on Sunday!

2 pages a week?

So, if I would post two pages a week you guys would still come and comment? In that case...

I will try and post a page on every Wednesday and Sunday. (So, knowing me, come back to check on Thursdays and Mondays :-D)

Is that a good idea?

I may even post more because I have found a good deadline for myself. I want to give it to someone as a farewell present. It's not a set date yet, but they will probably leave somewhere in summer. So I am both creating new pages and editing the old ones (especially the ones I did in November still need a bunch of editing!)

Now what....?

So I did my mini-NaNo of 25 pages last month, but the story is still not done. (I am not surprised)

I want to go on, but not in the same pace, because that was a little high. But not in a pace that is too low, because than I'll just lose momentum again.

So what would be a good frequency of pages to post, so that you guys wont lose interest or forget to watch?

And any NaNo veterans here that might have some advice on what might be a manageable frequency for me to make them in? I never actually finished a NaNo after November before, so this is all new for me (as a 7 year NaNo veteran! :-D)

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Better late than never...

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Monday april 19th...

Time to start part two of my mini-NaNo.

10 more pages before the month is over! (so that gives me two breathers this time ;-))

Page 82 + 83, the end of my mini-Nano?

Page 82:



And did anyone actually notice that I missed a day?

So just to keep my 15 pages in 15 days promise, here is page 83 as well:



Now I am going to take a few days rest first... and then... 10 more pages before the month is over! :-)

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Well at least it wasn't like you were all gagging for that forgotten page.. :-p
(Unless you read without commenting? Please comment! I really need the motivation. :-))

Here is 74:

Page 73 (what an idiot.. ;-))

I am such an idiot sometimes.. I worked really hard to get page 73 ready, but then what do I do? I finish it, but I forget to actually post it!!!!

So a little late, but here is... page 73:

Page 71 - edited + page 72

Yay, I have at least 3 readers back! :-D

Okay, I have edited the page I uploaded earlier today, because I realised I forgot something that is important for the plot.

But since it is already Sunday when I edit this, I will also add page 72 so the comment under this message is still valid ;-)

So here is the new page 71:


And here is page 72:

Page 70

Did I lose all my readers? Please come baaaaaack!!

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Page 69

But first 68 to remind you where we were in the story:


And here is 69!


See ya tomorrow!

April fools?

Hell no, today I am really really really starting with my mini-nano. I have decided to post at least ONE page a day for at least the first 15 days of this month. So half a Nano for half a month. That should give me a nice push again.

Maybe I'll keep it up for the whole month! Who knows..

So come back here today to read the first new page! :-)

Short Film Festival

One of the reasons why I am so busy in March, is because of the short film festival where I am working 4 days in a row (12.30 pm - 1.00 am)
Yesterday I was wearing one of my own shirts and a visitor saw it and complimented me on it. I told her it was my won shirt and she wanted the address to my blog. :-)

So if you are here now, welcome!

In between doing stuff I was able to visit the three animation blocks of the festival.

So to keep you entertained till I start the story back up, here are the trailers of my 3 favourite animation short films of the festival.

1: Love this story and the cute characters!


2: Fabulous mix of all kinds of 2D animation!


3. This one already won an Oscar


Okay, need to get to the arthouse now.. I feel totally broken and we are only halfway. A masseuse on standby would not be a luxury I think.. ;-)

Dutch birthday invitation cartoon

A little interlude to pass the time till I can start the cartoon story back up. This is a cartoon I did this week for my birthday invitation. Unfortunately it's in Dutch...

HELP!

I seem to have lost my momentum... Can someone give me a new push to pick the pace back up?

Or shall I make a new start (not with the story, but with my motivation) in April? I am kinda terribly busy until then..

How about I will start up a new NaNo in April at half speed? So that means 1 page a day.

What do you guys think? Do I still have readers, or have I alienated all of you by slowing down to an almost stand-still?

I really really really want to finish this story (and then colour it, edit it and publish it).

HELP!

My computer died!

One of the hard-disk (the one with Windows) gave out. The other one is full. But I need a new personal computer anyway. I am now working on the laptop with the other hard-disk as an external disk, so I can still reach the cartoon documents, but I am a bit busy with transferring files from the dead hard-disk (as far as still possible) and with burning stuff to DVD's (since my laptop is also full, and everything gets really S-L-O-W this way) and with trying to find information that will help me choose a new PC.

So posting cartoons is not in my top three of priorities at the moment.. :-((((

If there is anyone out there that has some knowledge about this stuff, feel free to comment. I could use the help.

I can't decide between a brand computer (that will have Windows pre-installed) or a shop computer (which is a system that was combined and build by the shop I usually go to (Computerland/Paradigit). That will not have Windows, but that means I will get an actual disk if I buy it extra, which is better than pre-installed.)

The shop computers are way more expensive though because they have Intel processors(i3, i5 or i7). The Brand pc I am looking at (Compaq Presario CQ5330NL) has an Athlon quad core (X4 630), which should be just as fast according to Tweakers, but is way cheaper. It does have a lower grade Video-card though, and I cannot find anywhere which motherboard any of the PC's I am looking at have.

Does anyone have any advice? I try to read stuff on Tweakers.net, but I have some trouble navigating around that site to find what I need..

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Sorry that this is so late!

BW, I found your PM and sent you a reply!

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Now that the link problems seem to be solved (I hope), here is page 66!

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And as promised, very soon after page 64!: