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Page 12 is live over @brutecreationcomic

"I hate drifters...there's always something chasing them. And it's always bigger". - Pine said earlier in the comic. What could be lurking in the clouds? Ya gotta read to find out!

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Page 11 is live over @brutecreationcomic

Find me on CARA !

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Testing out some vector stuff for a forest for future work on Brute Creation. Over the next few months (?) I'll be building up a little personal library of plant life for the next issue. Hoping to create a few re-usable plant assets to quickly pop into panels.

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When I started Brute Creation Tumblr announced it would allow AI to scrape images for training. Now Instagram is doing the same thing. It was such an effort to get things set up, and I wasn't ready to tear it all apart and start over. I'm still not ready to jump ship just yet.

Glaze and Nightshade are free resources for artists to help disrupt AI theft Glaze - Protecting Artists from Generative AI (uchicago.edu) A lot of artists are moving their work over to Cara, which has Glaze built in. I've also found it has a great community of artists springing up already. You can find me over on Cara @ jdmakingcomics

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Adventurer! You've stumbled across a Dungeons and Dragons themed webcomic! If you enjoy Brute Creation, and are a d&d nerd like me, maybe you would enjoy my comic Dames and Dragons. You'll join Seles and Ausk as the fumble through dungeons and life with bad puns and jokes. Head on over to Dames and Dragons comic. Adventure awaits! -JD

@damesanddragonscomic

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PAGE 10 of Brute Creation is live over @brutecreationcomic

Thanks to those who have been following the dev blog and the comic blog! This last week has been rough with some not art related things going on. So seeing those likes and kind comments have really helped boost my spirits.

I've not been feeling the drawing vibe lately, but hopefully I can shake it off and get back to just enjoying the process.

Thanks again for your support! - JD

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Page 9 of BRUTE CREATION is up over @brutecreationcomic

Hop on over and read along! Brute Creation posts weekly on Mondays.

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Crop of a panel in progress, it's nearly in it's final stage! One great thing about working in vector is I can drag drop and resize without worrying about messy pixels. Freeing me up to make a small handful of angles for complicated things like the drifters or Myka's glider and drop them across multiple panels. Flipping, scaling, skewing and spacing out the use of repeated assets can help keep things from looking too repetitive. If it happens that's okay, in the grand scheme of things it's better to have a completed comic than worry over a few repeated birds in a panel. Read the comic over @brutecreationcomic

Brute Creation is on Instagram!

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Pages 8 is live over @brutecreationcomic

Thank you so much for following along both on the comic page and here on the dev blog! -JD

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Composition Break Down

Let's break down a panel of Brute Creation. This panel looks simple, but subtle composition choices going on. I'll walk you though it- JD

First up I've thrown a thirds grid over the panel. We've got Pine talking into the radio right on a grid line marking a third. Placing him right on the line will draw the viewer's eye to the character. Myka is off center, favouring the screen right third line. Moving her slightly towards this line keeps her from being dead center in frame. Things dead center frame will look... well, dead. It's a good thing to try and avoid, unless it makes sense narratively. Generally things on thirds lines, or their intersections will draw the eye. There's more to the rule of thirds than just this, but it can be found online with a quick search if you're interested.

The general shape the characters make is triangular. Triangles are a really strong compositional shape. They're dynamic, and keep the viewer's eye bouncing between their points and in frame. There are several triangles repeated in the panel, brown panel wall, the tip of the wind gauge fin, and the negative space behind the panel wall. Repeating shapes can also unify the composition.

Leading lines, lead your eyes through the composition. Using your character's eye direction is a surefire way to establish a leading line. In this case Pine's eyes drop down to his suspender we follow that line to the bottom of the frame and across to Myka's hair up to her eyes and then to the wind gauge fin, which points us back towards Pine. It's a circle that loops the eye around frame. Pine's screen right arm also leads back to Myka's head.

This one is pretty straight forward. The space around the characters is asymmetrical making it more interesting visually. This is kind of a repetition of keeping things off dead center.

For lack of a better word I've called this a frame bumper. The idea is that the frame bumper is anything that keeps the viewer's eyes from leaving frame, bouncing it back to focus in frame. Pine's head breaks the panel frame here, leading the eye into frame from the previous panel. BUT it also counter balances that strong directional line the wind gauge makes and bumps it back into the frame. His eye direction helps focus the viewer's eyes back into frame also.

So there you have it! Even a seemingly simple panel can have a lot going on compositionally. Hope you found the breakdown helpful. Happy drawing! - JD Reblogs welcome with hashtags please! #brutecreationcomic #brutecreation #brutecreationcomicdev You can read Brute Creation over @brutecreationcomic

Pages 1-7 are available to read now! Brute Creation is also on Instagram

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A throwback to a panel that I really enjoy. I might break this panel down in a later post, as it feels like the composition has some interesting stuff going on. -JD

You can read Brute Creation @brutecreationcomic Pages 1-7 are available to read now :)

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Sketch and colour side by side of the latest page of Brute Creation. There are some small panel size adjustments, and Myka and Pine wear goggles and caps in the final version, but otherwise things pretty much remain the same. The goggles and caps were left out on the rough sketches because they would obscure the characters' expressions and head shapes. I wanted a solid idea of what these would look like before moving into the colour phase. -JD You can read the comic over @brutecreationcomic Pages 1-7 are up now!

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An early drawing of Myka riding a drifter. The drifter later got switched out for a glider, and the design changed from a reptile to a bird. Mostly to add some visual variety. This was also at a time when I was still considering working with line work. So there's some thought put into how the comic could look with basic tones. - JD Brute Creation comic updates weekly over @brutecreationcomic Pages 1-7 are up now

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Brute Creation page seven is up to read over on @brutecreationcomic

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Feels like I've hit a milestone here on Brute Creation! Six months ago when I scanned some rough sketchy pages and experimented around in Affinity Designer I wasn't sure what to expect. But now, with 18 of the 32 pages hosting colour, it seems the comic has found its style groove. It's exciting to see the comic coming together, finally! Brute Creation posts weekly updates over on @brutecreationcomic

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Chipping away at the comic today. Pages 1 -6 are up to read on @brutecreationcomic

Brute Creation is also on Instagram if reels are your jam.

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Page six of Brute Creation is live over on: @brutecreationcomic