Going Green

Not in the sense of 'becoming more environmentally friendly', you understand.  Nor in the sense of 'bearing an increasing resemblance to a martian' (not that the ones in the Martian Ballet trilogy were actually green - funny, that).  More in the sense of 'digitally repainting my blog'.

I've done 40 posts on A White Horizon (this will be my 41st), using the original blue-grey colour scheme with a stock background, and I've decided that the time has now come to change this, and give my ramblings a more personal look.  The new background is based on a photo of a largeish (approx 22 by 34 inch) drawing I did last year (or was it the year before?  I forget) using only a piece of old wallpaper, and two black sharpie markers.  I've altered it quite heavily in The GIMP, which is one of my favourite bits of software ever, but in case you wanted to see the full and original version here's the raw photo:

The drawing currently remains untitled.  It also lacks an official orientation - I originally displayed it on my wall the way up that it appears above, but these days I've got it sideways, as it appears in the new blog background.

I have no idea how long it took to draw that (it was several weeks, but obviously not working on it continuously), but I think it used almost a whole pen's worth of ink.

While I was in the template editor just now, I've also changed the whole colour scheme of the blog to something in the orange-yellow-green area of the spectrum.  You probably already spotted this fact.  I've noticed that this seems to be a recurring design motif in a lot of my websites: the Cylinder and Miserable site started out grey, then went blue for a bit, and finally settled on the orangey-yellow look which it has carried with only minimal alteration for the last two or three years.  Throughout its lifetime Grace and Caffeine was housed on various greyscale sites, but then when I came to redesign the 'Complete Series' site in summer 2010 I went for a coffee-esque brownish theme.  "Wait a minute, brown isn't orange-yellow-green!" I hear you cry.  Well actually it is.  In RGB or HSL colour space, browns are actually orange in terms of their hue, but darker (i.e. lower luminance, and sometimes also lower saturation).  My George Darlan fansite is green too.

Although, having said that, the Fort Paradox site is mostly bluish-purple and black.  So the 'trend' in question isn't a hard and fast rule.

I do like yellow, though.  Probably because it's a warm colour, and I really don't get on with the cold.  My bedroom walls are pale yellow.  The pot called it 'creme fraiche' or something, but it's basically pale yellow.

I think if I had to pick a single favourite colour, though, it'd be white.  That might have had something to do with the choice of 'A White Horizon' as the title of my blog.  Some of my favourite verses in the Bible are ones in the book of Revelation, talking about what Heaven will be like, and the colour white seems to get mentioned rather a lot.  And someday, eventually, I might get round to redesigning thishere thing again and actually having a background which shows a horizon, in white.  But I don't have a suitable photo to work from at the moment, so for the time being we'll go with the untitled abstract drawing in pastel orangey-green.

What's your favourite colour?


Stats time:

• 11 For 11 status: I've equalised again: both got 7 down, 4 to go
• Latest book read: Stuart Olyott's commentary on Ephesians
• Latest film/TV watched: Eddie Stobart: Trucks and Trailers
• Latest music listened to: Chameleon Circuit by Chameleon Circuit (on YouTube)
• Latest food/sweets/whatever eaten: a big sticky toffee pudding with cream.  followed by coffee
• Programs and web pages currently running: Outlook 2007, Windows Explorer, The GNU Image Manipulation Program (alias 'The GIMP'), Firefox (tabs: MatNav; hannahlikessheepbaa.blogspot.com; A White Horizon; Blogspot Create Post)
• Webcomics posted today: Cylinder and Miserable #1125

- The Colclough

Well, that answers that question...

I was wondering the other day whether anyone else would notice the passing of Grace and Caffeine.

Someone did.  Feedback like this - http://hannahlikessheepbaa.blogspot.com/2010/09/grace-and-caffeine-or-works-of-someone.html and http://hannahlikessheepbaa.blogspot.com/2010/09/grace-and-caffeine-part-ii.html- makes it all seem worthwhile.

Can't let that pass without saying thank you, Hannah :)

And thanks also to Tim for the rather prominent G&C link graphic at his Sidewards webcomic site :)


On a totally unrelated note, I'm about to go and put the finishing touches to Megastropulodon Attacks!  Watch this space for news on the film's online release...


- The Colclough

Rest in peace, Grace and Caffeine

So, it's all over.

I began writing Grace and Caffeine more than three and a half years ago.  It's been with me since before I started my degree.  It's been a major element of my life for what feels like forever.

Back at the beginning of August, I wrote the 178th and last strip.

And this afternoon, I completed and uploaded the new-look archive site, containing every single strip ever written, along with colour versions, development sketches, cartoonist's commentaries, a brief guide to the characters, a revised and expanded FAQ, and the 20-episode run of Grace and Caffeine's precursor Games Baptists Play.

Thing is, there is now absolutely no work of any description left to do on the whole 45-month-long project.  And it feels really weird trying to get my head around the fact that one of the two longest-running creative projects I've ever undertaken is now done and gone.  It hasn't really sunk in yet.  It might take days, maybe even weeks or months, before I really get a grip on the fact that my pet project isn't there any more.

It didn't really end very spectacularly.  You always want these things to end in a blaze of glory, with fireworks and trumpets and one last massive achievement.  But it didn't.  It all ended with a tiny - almost insignificant - fix to the HTML code on one of the new pages.  It was a very small glitch that had snuck in ages ago and I'd forgotten to change at the time, so after making all the dramatic moves (logging in to the server, wiping out the whole of the old site and uploading the 388 files which constitute the new one), I then found myself going back into the abandoned house for a few moments to tweak a few characters of the source code, re-save the page... and with that tiny little gesture, it was all over.

I'm nearly finished with Megastropulodon Attacks! and The Making of "Intergalactic Hamsters" too.  Once they're done, nearly all of the old threads will have been severed, and I'll be well and truly off the end of the map and wandering out into the post-college-era void, trying to pick up the threads of whatever new tapestry is heading my way.

The other thing is, I'm left wondering if anyone besides me actually cares.  I made it known a month ago that the project was coming to a close, and nobody's said a thing.  No "Do you really have to stop?", no "So why've you decided to pack it in now?", no "Well, it's been an interesting three years"... not even "Thank goodness you're giving it up at last you miserable *beep*!"  Is there a single other human being on the surface of this planet who is remotely interested by the fact that I won't be restarting Grace and Caffeine this month as I have the last three Septembers?  I don't know.  I hope there is, but if they're out there then they're keeping really, really quiet about it.

Anyway, enough self-pitying rambling.  If you are one of the minority who are at all interested, the shiny new archives are now open at the usual URL, http://gc.mattghc.com - feel free to take a look around and offer any feedback that might come into your head.

Now, what's the next project going to be...


- The Colclough