#But it just doesn't have the right line weight variations and stuff

[flightyalrighty]

(sorry if you've gotten this before or if this is not the right kind of question for the blog)

Do you have any advice on HOW to make a comic series? From what I've seen your work is fantastic, well made and written! (Cool concepts, story, and character dynamics etc)

How did you start? How DO you start?? How do you comic lol

I'm glad you enjoy my work! I'll do my best to answer this question!

I could give the ol' "Just jump in! Get started!" But I don't think that's the answer you're looking for, here. Even if it's technically the correct one.

"How do you make a comic series" Is one of those questions where the answer is kinda difficult to summarize in a single ask, because there's a whole lot that goes into it, y'know? I'll give you a brief run-down of my process.

I figure an idea for a story. In the case of Infested, the whole story was written before I even got started on the script. This is an outlier in my usual process and I don't normally do this and definitely don't recommend it.

Figure the plot like how you would figure a regular story's plot; The beats you wanna hit, the way the characters develop, the beginning, the middle, the end. What's the point of the story? What, exactly, are you trying to convey here? Who's the target audience? All that stuff ought to be figured out before even picking up a [MEDIUM OF ARTIST'S CHOICE].

Script the story. If you've seen a movie script, these things look a bit like that. You wanna not skip this step because this is where you determine the visual language of each page. Comic script writing is a whole thing and a half but I do have some random tips regarding it. -> When writing the beginning of a new scene, write down the time of day, the weather, and any important details about your setting (this is most important if you're working in a team). -> Using storyboard/film language when trying to figure out a scene is very helpful. You're not gonna remember exactly how that scene looked in your head when you finally get around to penciling it. Trust me. Write it down. Or thumbnail it! Thumbnails are also very helpful! -> Remember that you have very limited space for dialogue. Write with that in mind.

Figure the paneling on a page. I work at 11x17 and do my panel layouts based on those dimensions. I tend to make more important panels, or panels with PUNCH or SHOCK bigger than the others. Each panel is an individual illustration, but together they make a whole piece. You gotta treat it like that, y'know? Find the focal point on a page, find the most important element of it, and make that your focal point. Don't be afraid to get a lil wacky with panel shapes, either. They don't HAVE to be squares and rectangles. Check out what other cartoonists do! Get inspired! Paneling is an art-form within itself!

Page from "Hanna Is Not A Boy's Name" By Tess Stone

5. Penciling time! Get the perspective figured out, then draw the background, then draw the characters. Do it in that order. Trust me. With a background already set up, characters can be drawn more like they exist within that space, instead of floating in front of it. Also? Be aware that comic artists need to be ready to draw ANYTHING. You may have a great idea that you GOTTA put out into the world, but you have no idea how to draw, say, a car. Or debris. Or jungle foliage. There's no shame in using references, tutorials, or even doing a bit of tracing if something's outside your wheelhouse. Here's a bazillion tutorials from two guys who REALLY know their stuff.

6. Speech Balloons! Yes, really. In fact, you may want to do this and penciling at the same time. I certainly do. It's better to figure this out immediately so it doesn't hurt you later when it comes to getting your balloons to share a space with your art. Here's some great advice on the whole subject from a master of the craft

7. Inks! Line weight variation is key. Closer to the "camera" means thicker lines. If a part of a character is in shadow, that part is gonna get thicker lines, too. Personally, I make my background line art thinner than character line art. It helps the characters pop out!

8. Flats! Or flat colors if you wanna get specific about terminology. It's exactly what it sounds like -- Coloring the characters and backgrounds with the bare bones basic colors. I highly recommend keeping the character flats and bg flats on separate layers if you're working digitally.

9. Rendering! There's no hard and fast rule as to how a cartoonist ought to render their comic -- If they want to do that at all, even. Go with what you believe looks good AND is something you can do quickly. The "quickly" part is important. Heed my warning. Don't be like me.

And then I'd schedule the comic to be uploaded on whatever day suits me -- Thursday (usually) in Infested's case.

Of course, I kinda suck at relaying my process, so the final thing I can do for you is direct you to an extremely helpful book that really breaks it down in a way that may click with you as it did with me.

I hope this was in any way helpful to you!

[dandelionsandderivatives]

Advice on finishing seams without a serger?

I don’t really want to own a serger and I feel like they’re fairly recent machines anyway. There must be a better way to finish seams?

For my skirt I just turned the fabric twice and hemmed so it would be a nice finished edge. The issue is that then when I attached two seams, the poor needles had to go through 6 layers of fabric and sometimes I was at a corner and they had to go through so much it didn’t fit under the foot. There must be something I’m missing because this wasn’t even a thick fabric.

HALP PLS!!! 😭😭

Hello! I'm so sorry for the late response; I've had a few disruptions to my regular schedule in the last few weeks, and I wanted to give this a good, long, thorough answer. You absolutely don't need a serger; I'm pretty sure my grandmother has never owned one, and she's still wearing things she made back in the early 90s. I'm not as good a needlewoman as she is, but most of my stuff has held up at least as well as its storebought equivalent.

(Probably) the easiest and simplest option is just to zigzag over the edges of your fabric with a sewing machine. A serger essentially rolls sewing the seam, trimming seam allowances, and zigzagging/overcasting into one step. Depending on what you're making, you might want to trim seam allowances after sewing the seam, and then zigzag over the raw edges, or, if you've got a lot of short seams that won't fit nicely under the machine after you've sewn them, you should be able to zigzag over the raw edge of the fabric before you sew the seam. (The issue with the second option is that you'll have the full seam allowance left in there, but if you're doing that sort of precision piecing I expect the seam allowance will be narrow enough that it doesn't matter.) This doesn't necessarily have to be a zigzag stitch proper; my mother's machine does a finishing stitch that looks a bit like a blanket stitch, and I've seen other variations. But practically every machine made after 1970 or so has a zigzag, so you'll probably have the equipment to do it. The key part is that you want to catch the edge of the fabric inside the stitch, so that the stitching thread is binding the last few threads of the fabric together.

The hand-sewing equivalent to this is whipping (whipstitching) the edge of your fabric with needle and thread. I generally don't put my handmade clothes through the dryer, but all of the ones I've finished with this method have been fine in the washing machine. Most of them have survived at least one trip through the dryer unscathed. I suppose you could also do a blanket stitch, but that seems like an unnecessary amount of work.

Other methods:

Seam binding: I haven't personally tried this one. It's usually used for heavier fabrics that won't be lined (a single-layer blazer or skirt, etc). I'm sure it has other applications, but I haven't seen it often.

Pinking: This is the old-school way to finish seams. I haven't really tried it myself.

French seams: These are annoying to do on a curve and can add a good amount of bulk, but they're a very clean finish. Usually used on lingerie and other lightweight fabrics (doing this in coating weight sounds like a nightmare but also a really good high fashion concept).

Flat-felled seams: This is the way the inside of your jeans is finished. Historically it was often used for shirts, shifts, and other high-wear areas where you wanted to avoid chafing. It's somewhat similar to the French seam.

All right, now for Sewing Confessions: I'm pretty lazy when it comes to finishing my seams. I started sewing with historical stuff that wouldn't get washed super often and vintage dresses, all in quilting calico. (This is generally a bad idea but for some very specific eras of fashion it can work.) My most-washed historical piece was probably my chemise, which was sewn from old sheets. I didn't bother to do much finishing on any of these, partly because I didn't know how, and partly because I didn't really want to flat-fell all the seams in my chemise if nobody was going to see it. (Now that I'm thinking about it, I may actually have flat-felled most of my first chemise. I made a second one fairly quickly.) The other fabric I worked in was cotton flannel for nightwear.

With all of these pieces, the fabric began to wear out/get shabby long before the seam allowances frayed enough to make anything structurally unsound. I have popped a few stitches here and there which could have been saved by a more robust seam, but in general I didn't have many problems. Once I was sewing in nicer fabrics (silk and rayon, especially), I started to have issues with seam finishing. So far, simple hand-overcasting has stood up well for most of these. My usual sewing machine is straight-stitch only, so zig-zagging hasn't been an option for most of these. They've held up fine so far.

Maybe if I got some really nice fabrics, it would be a different story; I'm not telling you not to finish your seams! But bargain-bin cotton flannel, in my experience, wears out too quickly to make conscientious finishing worth it. Don't stress too much about it! I'd advise, from what little I've seen of your sewing posts, to stick to a good zigzag, or whatever finishing stitch on your machine looks interesting. If you want to be strictly historical, try pinking or flat-felling, depending on era and context. When you make some really nice sheer blouses, then maybe pull out the French seams. When you're doing a pair of wool trousers, try seam-binding tape. Go forth and sew boldly!

[emptymanuscript]

Ok, watching him manufacture this thing is legitimately interesting.

It's kinda halfway between the stuff that makes me perk up with interest and the stuff that leaves me meh around weapons.

And since he shows pretty much the entire process, it just immediately triggers my curiosity around if it could be...

Improved isn't the right word and nerfed isn't the right word. Sidewaysed into a different tech tree is what I'm trying to express.

Like I'm mostly thinking about the Ekemai which are a fictional species (D&D race thing really) I have jostling around in my head. In my head the Ekemai aren't really superior or inferior in any particular way to humans, they kind of just balance out. On average anyway. Ekemai have about as much variation person to person as humans. But, as a general truth, doing one's best to compare limes to lemons, a comparable Ekemai will be noticeably stronger than their human counterpart but also noticeably less adaptively dexterous. Essentially they're natural bodybuilders, their muscular allows them to exert signicantly more force but not as much quickness in fine changes of muscle use. So they'll outrun a human if they both run straight along the same path, they'll start losing ground l if the human bends their path, and then they simply can't keep up with a human who is dodging back and forth because they'll lose a pace in comparison every change in direction. Or, you know, they'll pound a human in a boxing match unless the human is clever and quick to take advantage of how the Ekemai anatomy leaves them more open after each missed punch. It's not much but it's enough.

Which goes into their tech in how I think about it. I think of Ekemai tech at the same essential level and rate as humans. BUT because they're stronger and slower, they always veer off our tech paths because they tend to favor their advantages. So they don't develop better bows and arrows because that firing and reaching back for a new arrow or even holding a few and then just reloading those quickly isn't quite as advantageous for them as it is for us. Fewer shots but harder is a better deal and it goes into their initial thinking about problems, even where it isn't the best line of thought.

So they favor steady motion over clever motion and favor personal power over stored power.

They don't follow the bow and arrow tech tree, instead they go with the spear-thrower tech tree. It will never catch up speed wise to bow and arrow but that doesn't make it slow and at the points where we switch over, they have too much of an advantage at the atlatl and just keep developing that to give them ever more power along the idea that they probably won't overwhelm an enemy or prey with numbers but probably can if they can up the leverage so one arrow is very reliably a kill shot.

Eventually the trees link back up but they're still just a little off because they think about problems just a little differently because they are just a little different.

So I look at this weapon which is very cool and clever, and my immediate thought is to wonder how you would make it work original Gatling style, where it's not a really fast electric drill but some kind of hand crank or weight driven wheel. Focusing more on torque and strength of the power source rather than speed of the rotation.

[myheadsgonenumb]

50 Random Character Asks: Remus edition

You're not supposed to answer all 50 of these - but I wanted to, so I did. For wolfstar.

Remus:

1. Canon I outright reject

Remadora. Fine - it's canon he married her, but I do not accept it is canon he loved her. I can't even find evidence he liked her. She just wouldn't accept him telling her "no" and ended up marrying her out of sheer embarrassment.

2. A canon or headcanon hill I will die on

just wolfstar really - they were never a couple, in canon, but they loved each other desperately and quietly from 1971 until they died. Theirs was - quite literally - the love which dares not speak its name.

3. Obscure headcanon

His mother taught him how to skim stones, and he taught the others how to do the same. He also taught the others about sex. Purebloods don't teach that stuff - they have a mother/daughter or father/son talk the night before the wedding. The wedding night itself is usually a disaster. But the muggle practice of educating your children on sex is considered most distasteful by the wizards who know they do this, and not even considered as a possibility by vast majority of them. Hope - of course - taught Remus all about it, and he told the others. Mr. Potter was most taken aback when he tried to talk to James, the night before he married Lily, and found out he already knew what to do.

4. Favorite line

Mr Moony Presents his compliments to Professor Snape, and begs him to keep his abnormally large nose out of other people's business.

5. Best personality trait

Empathy and gentleness ... and being the master of the wry understatement.

6. Worst personality trait

A tendency to bury his head in the sand and run away from and/ or ignore his problems.

7. Age/height/weight headcanon

current age: 63 height 6' 1" weight 13.5 stone (189lbs/ 85kg)

8. Unpopular opinion about them

He's not that fussed for chocolate and he is a similar height to Sirius.

9. Scene that first made me love (or hate) the character

Probably the boggart in the wardrobe scene. It's been over 20 years since I first read POA, but I'm pretty sure my crush was already cemented in place before he reached the shrieking shack.

10. Best moment on screen (or in the book)

Every time he drops whatever he is holding when Sirius's name is brought up.

11. Faceclaim for the role

I don't like face claims.

12. Crack headcanon

His hidden talent was how high he could wee up a wall, he beat the other boys every time.

13. Dumbest thing they’ve ever done

in canon - married Tonks. In general he's quite sensible. He did go skinny dipping with the giant squid once, though (and Sirius).

14. Most heroic moment

Willingly signing up to fight in a war for a world which hated him and offered him no future just because it was the right thing to do ... twice.

15. Worst thing they’ve ever done

All variations of Snape's Worst Memory - where he refuses to challenge bad behaviour, even when he has the authority to do so, and thus allowing people he loves to terrorise, bully and humiliate other people. I don't think SWM was the only example of that.

16. Deepest darkest secret they won’t even admit to themselves

He quite likes scurrilous Rita Skeeter articles - he experiences a lot of schadenfreude from them. He hopes one day she will write one about Draco Malfoy - because that little shit used to drag Remus's robes .

17. Quotes, songs, poems, etc. that I associate with them

I don't really associate any.

18. What they’d go to see a therapist about

He's a British Boomer. He doesn't go to a therapist.

19. Vices/bad habits

He's secretive. He's learned to be for good reason - but sometimes he keeps secrets when he shouldn't.

20. Scars

Lots. There's the large, jagged, purple one with visible teeth marks around his torso - that one never fades, and then lots of smaller, silver and white, faded ones which criss-cross his chest and make his chest hair grow in strange patterns. Fortunately the wolf tends to savage the same places over and over (the bits it can easily reach), and so the damage is limited to the same few areas and the same cuts open over and over. They heal quite quickly, but the scars never fade totally. The wolf has only managed to scar its face on three occasions: the night Remus's mother died, the night Snape got into the Shrieking Shack and the first full moon after James died and Sirius was arrested. He has a few, faded scars across his face from these incidents.

21. Drink of choice (not just alcoholic)

Hot tea and red wine (not in the same cup)

22. Best physical feature

His broad shoulders and his jawline.

23. If they were a scented candle, what would they smell like?

Vanilla

24. Most annoying habit

Talking himself down.

25. 3 things they’d want to take with them if they were dropped off in the middle of nowhere

a map of the area, food and water, a waterproof cloak

26. What they would do if stuck in an elevator with [insert character of your choice from the same fandom] Umbridge - seethe quietly, and smile politely

27. Their guilty pleasure

Sirius

28. How they feel about [insert character of your choice from the same fandom] Luna Lovegood - he smiled indulgently at her conspiracy theories and felt sorry for her because she had no friends and was lonely, he always made sure he took the time to speak with her for a few minutes every lesson and if he saw her in the halls. He liked her a lot - but he thought she was nuts.

29. Eating habits

Perfectly normal - Hope raised him to have nice table manners.

30. Sleeping habits

He can fall asleep anywhere (especially when it's close to a full moon). He is neither a night owl nor a morning person. He is a sleep person.

31. If the had a tumblr what would it look like?

photos and facts about dark creatures, interspersed with Rita Skeeter -style commentary on Umbridge. He'd also reblog a lot of Luna's stuff.

32. Something guaranteed to make them smile/laugh

Sirius taking something apart so he can enchant it.

33. Something guaranteed to make them cry

stubbing his toe - but they're tears of rage as much as anything.

34. How they react when they are feeling X emotion (sad, angry, excited, scared, etc.—can specify as many as you like)

It's very hard to tell when Remus is feeling an emotion. He doesn't like to let his face know. Until he gets totally overwhelmed and then he has a full breakdown.

35. Their idea of a perfect day

Wake up early - next to Sirius, a leisurely breakfast, reading a book with a cup of tea, going for a walk in the countryside and then heading into town to people watch. Eating out (so he doesn't have to cook) walking home in the dark, holding hands and looking at the stars, and then time for the crossword, cocoa and bed.

36. Their favorite season

Summer

37. What they really think about themselves

Secretly - he's actually OK with himself and sort of quite likes himself. He feels like he should be ashamed and apologise for his very existence and not bother the normal people ... but deep down he knows it's them that's wrong and that there's nothing wrong with him. Before she died, Hope told him he was her perfect, magic little boy and she would never wish him to be any different - and he has never forgotten that. He's funny and he's clever and he keeps a very neat sock drawer - what's not to love?

38. Favorite holiday

Christmas

39. Favorite game

Monopoly

40. Favorite book

He has three he will never admit to: Hairy Snout, Human Heart - by an unknown werewolf author; Gadding with Ghouls by Gilderoy Lockhart and The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore, by Rita Skeeter.

He tells wizards that he likes to read Beedle the Bard in its original ancient runes, and muggles that his favourite book is War and Peace.

41. If they could have lunch with anyone in the world (living or dead, from any fictional universe or the real world), who would it be?

Hope Lupin - he still misses her, after all these years.

42. 3 comfort items

His wand, the last jumper his mum knitted him before she died, and the first jumper Mrs. Potter knitted him after his mum died

43. 3 favorite foods and 3 they despise

Favourites: cheese on toast, apple crumble and bacon sandwiches. Despises: cooked carrots (though he doesn't mind them raw), semolina/ tapioca and fruit salads.

44. Their happiest memory

Being told he could go to Hogwarts.

45. Their favorite celebrity

Notorious Mass Murderer, Sirius Black

46. The person they most admire

Notorious Mass Murderer, Sirius Black

47. Their dream job

He'd settle for any well paying job, that used his talents and where they wouldn't fire him for being a werewolf tbh. He does quite enjoy being a free-lance boggart hunter (which is lucky - because that's how he's spent most of his adult life), but the pay is patchy and there's not much scope for promotion.

48. Scariest moment of their life

He doesn't really remember the initial attack by Fenrir Greyback - just a lot of pain and fur, and he didn't really understand what was going to happen the first full moon after... so his scariest moment was waiting for his second ever full moon, when he was only five, and he knew what was coming and knew there was nothing even his dad could do to stop it.

49. Favorite toy as a child

His dad had a collection of dark creature miniatures, which he has sent off to a catalogue for. Remus liked lining them all up, making them all fight, and making the lethifold swim across the floor.

50. A memory they’ve blocked out

He would tell you he's blocked out Draco Malfoy dragging his robes ... He has not.