So, What’s New?
This month was a stellar learning experience for me. I got some new tools in the toolkit, things like the Loomis Method I had never even heard of before. I learned about the workflows of established (comic) artists and got some awesome resources to continue my art basics. After all, as I keep reminding myself and you, I never went to any art school. Sometimes I wish I had gone through the art path in high school, maybe I would’ve gotten my papers!
I started a sketchbook as well, another entirely new thing. I didn’t even realize how well you can gauge your progress in skill from this thing. It’s pretty nifty to see the evolution – I can pretty much tell when something truly clicked, and the drawings that come after evolve at a much more rapid speed. At the moment, I have used 11 pages of the book, which is quite something!
The most exciting piece of news, however, must be the completion of the sketches for DA! Ep. 1! Yes, you heard me right, I finally finished this phase despite the tsunami of freelance work I have been dealing with for the latter half of the month. I also came up with a layout for the cover, which I think will look amazing when done. It would be the largest, most complicated piece of art I’ve done for a while, maybe ever.
Art Project: DA!
So let’s start with the star of the month, shall we? 8 pages of sketches, which came to… are you ready? 43 panels, aka images, drawn altogether! I’ve never in my life stayed so consistent in my art, I mean, just look at that horrific amalgamation at the beginning of this article. That’s the free-flow of my mind, how on earth I managed to keep the three characters somewhat similar through the pages, I have no idea.
From about 23 thumbnails to 43 panels feels like a leap and a half, but I suppose it is not. After all, it only means about one additional panel per planned event so, I shouldn’t complain. I’m sure things will get more… proportional when I get into the groove and find my workflow for bringing these stories alive via this medium.
I can’t begin to tell you how excited I am for the next month. As far as I see it, the hardest part is done (composition and such), and I expect to be breezing through. That is, if I can keep the inner nagger in control for long enough to do so.
The bane of perfection
My friend, I don’t know if you suffer from this condition, but perfectionism is a cruel mistress. If I had to guess, this is a lingering ghost of my past, something I’ve yet to properly work through. I mean, having the constant fear of being anything but stellar haunting me isn’t that great. Or helpful, for that matter.
All the lines I drew had to be perfect. I would go down to the pixels to clean things up if they were too grainy or squiggly. And then, then I read some other people’s comics. And I understood that I don’t have to make the linework perfect, not by a mile. Plus, I don’t know about you, but I personally think there is something charming about seeing the imperfection of the strokes every now and again. Makes the piece seem more… human, you know?
AI, the enemy of creation… Or is it?
Here we embark on a topic that has got the elite societies of social media going up in flames. Using AI to help in the creation of something like books or art, covers, whatever have you. Time of honesty: Currently, I do not see how the AI would be able to help me in my efforts on the actual making side of things, so I don’t use it for much more than as a chat buddy. If, however, it became a thing that could truly help me with the different phases of the process, yes, I would use it without shame.
But Mrs. V, how could you?! How can we trust you anymore?! That’s it, I’m boycotting you, your dog, your cricket, shame on you!
I mean, you are welcome to do so. So long as you understand that those who do not use the tools available to them are typically the fools of the world. My main goal is to get my stories out there, to show you the tenants of my soul. I’ve done a pretty bad job of it thus far, so believe me you, I will take all the help I can get. IF it serves my purpose. And you should, too.
Just don’t be the kind of jackass who claims to be all organic and on the side pumps themselves full of roids, ok? People hate to know they’ve been lied to, that they’ve been deceived. It’s much better to be open about the things we use than to try and cater to an audience that just doesn’t have that sense of reality in them. AI is here, boys and girls, better buckle up and get on the ride, or be left at the station.
New ability unlocked: Project Management!
You know I had my whole comic project on one file, right? All 8 pages, and the cover, with all the materials, layers, sketches… You know this is very bad, right?
Can I have a serious word with you for a moment, friend? Ok, good.
DO NOT BLOODY KEEP YOUR WHOLE PROJECT IN ONE GIGANTIC FILE!
What if it gets corrupt? Now your whole work of months is gone, kaput, in the ether! If this thought doesn’t send shivers down your spine, you need to go get checked – it’s utter devastation to have something you put so much effort into vanish into thin air. All of us creators – whether writers, coders, artists, or otherwise – know the dread of it.
Our equipment can fail us. And if I’ve come to know anything about how tedious and time-consuming art can be… Let’s just say that after watching some pros and their tips and tricks, my comic is now in it’s individual files. Each page with on its own. No more threat of crashing and lag in the software due to the massive size of the file. No more fear of the blue screen messing up my whole project. If something goes bust, it’ll likely be just the one page.
Join me, breathe the air of liberty, with a boat load of files within folders and even more folders. It’s great here! Easier to manage too.
On a lighter note, I found a new toy.
Liquify.
Have a randomly weirdly shaped arachnid leg? No problem! Bend it to shape with Liquify. Want to turn that frown upside down… Liquify! Not that I had to do that, my characters are seemingly too aloof to do much more than act surprised. As if being hunted in a magical jungle was that surprising to a prey animal…
Anyway, I found the marvels of Liquify. Gosh, you have no idea the pain I’ve gone through to do minor adjustments to my models before. The constant erasing and re-drawing and erasing and crying into the void about the damned uncertainty of my hands… But not anymore. I can just nudge my lines, and wow, they pop straight into place!
Of course, I must now be careful not to start overusing it. It’ll become the second coming of smudging. I don’t know what it is, but something about making things all blurred and smudged brings a smile to my face. Just look at that horrific amalgamation again! It’s all smudgy and cool!
The Magic of Sketchbooks
This has changed my life. I’m not kidding. As a kid, I would constantly scribble in the notebooks at school, it was a nice way to pass the time during those boring lectures. I had, at best, three-square margins and some slack to do my thing. But now? A whole book! So I put it to use immediately.
Whatever possessed me to look into the Loomis Method, I thank thee (also, here is a video by Draw like a Sir, what a great resource his content is!) It was the perfect training to get me used to the idea of practising drawing and the basics. I can say that I understand the globe that is the head quite well now. Albeit I still have thousands of miles to go before I can be confident in it. And then to add the cartoony style to it as well… well, that is its own story entirely.
And then… then I didn’t get obsessed with cats.
I’m telling you I didn’t get obsessed with them! It’s just that Aki is a bloody cat… And while the balloon of a head is relatively straightforward, the ears and the snout are not. It still eludes me, after days of scribbling and looking at things, the cat face still escapes my grasp. I think I’m getting closer, though. So I guess I will just have to keep drawing cats.
The thing is, that in the manga-style drawings, humans have an extremely simple nose. Just a line with a notch on it, so to speak. But cats? You have the nose ridge, the actual nose, the upper lips with the balls in them, the lower jaw that behaves in wondrous ways… And it all has to be in perspective, and the parts move way more than the human mouth-nose area ever could! And we don’t have canines! And the ears… What’s up with cats’ ears anyway, those freaky things?
Confidence is key, isn’t that what they say?
And confidence comes through experience. I can tell the way my hand is more stable now as I draw, compared to what it was when I began. Same goes for the DA! Sketches. The more I draw, the better, more confident my lines.
And what is absolutely perfect for me is the fact that my mind works in visuals. How my thoughts work is marvellous. When I think of a chair, a chair comes up (this time it was one of those small milking stools). But that’s not the end. Whole scenes from my worlds, frozen in time, and sometimes moving in dynamic ways… I see them all as if a faded memory of a lived happening.
This, of course, pairs amazingly with drawing and the accumulation of experience in this skill. My memory is mostly visual, too. So as I draw, if I learn to analyze my weak points properly, my skill should evolve tremendously. Visual things just click for me, and sometimes I don’t even know why or how. I just know that something is off. Intuition, much?
The coming month
There you have it, a sneak peek into DA! Ep. 1. I love seeing how the scribble came to life in the sketch, don’t you? Poor Kiki, she wasn’t ready for any of this.
The coming month, I am planning to get deep into the Inking of the project. Time to commit, so to speak. I am hoping to also get the flats in, and the shading. Who knows how far I will be able to go with it.
There is that disclosure again, however, of priorities. Husband and paying work must come first. As sad as it is, my creative efforts are not yet at a place where I could focus on just them. It is the dream I work towards, however! And what a wonderful dream it is.
So, you and I, let us both keep working on getting pieces of our soul out there, ok?
Psst. Check out the DevLog for a tidbit about the world of SCaN (and every other story). And my X for more news and behind-the-scenes pictures of the progress.