#Especially when I've leveled up my art skills enough to feel more comfortable drawing more things than before

[that1notetaker]

Are you continuing your cotl au because i am just SO INVESTED IN IT, so im just asking if there are any pieces you are going to post.

I'm not sure if you're the anon who asked me the same thing or not, but I just posted a new part I wanted to finish drawing properly a couple months ago but lost the brain itch to do so. I might add to it because it's still unfinished.

I don't think NT4Waltzes is discontinued, it just takes a little while for me to circle back to an interest that started out so strong. The story, however, the one in my head, is finished. I have it all planned. So hopefully I'll be posting more of it soon.

[pisoprano]

I'm not exactly an expert yet, but here are a few bits of my comic-making wisdom:

Do a practice comic with something preexisting

If delving into creating a comic that you really want to make good sounds intimidating, you might want to do something simple that you're less invested in instead first. Find a fun bit of dialog or a moment in a fic you like and then try recreating it as a comic. It doesn't need to be fancy--you can even draw it on sticky notes if you like--but the practice of fitting characters into a frame with some speech bubbles can help with training your brain to what to look for when breaking up the scene into panels and how to space things out in the panel. (And as a bonus, you might brighten someone's day if they saw you made a comic of something they wrote)

Decide which aspects of making the comic you don't want to concern yourself with

One thing that is always helpful to keep in mind when making a comic is that you do not need to be spectacular at everything. Part of this is the usual advice to not judge your own art too harshly, but part of it is simply the fact that you shouldn't be putting Michael Whelan-levels of detail into every single comic panel--you're going to want to cut some corners at some point.

It honestly can feel like a weight off your shoulders when you decide that you're going to limit what colors you use, that you'll not bother with backgrounds unless you have to, that you'll use your image creation software to generate certain aspects of the image instead of doing it all by hand, etc. For example, with my comic, I realized about three pages in that I didn't really want to have to always be adding shading/highlighting--it's one of those skills that I've historically had trouble with and I was more concerned with getting to the end of the story in a reasonable time frame, so I decided to just eliminate this part of my comic art process altogether and only spend time working on those skills in non-comic artistic works.

While there is the conventional art advice to do the parts that are difficult for you so you can get better at them, that doesn't mean that you have to do all that practice now, especially if you're just starting out in this medium. Your job when starting a comic is to just figure out how you want to go about making a comic, don't make your life more difficult by trying to juggle other things you want to eventually get better at too if you don't have to.

And if you do decide to simplify one aspect of your work, you don't always have to simplify it. I decided fairly early on to simplify aspects of Catwalker's costume since I didn't want to be constantly referring back to Catwalker's character sheet or episode screenshots and trying to guess what it would look like if he moved his arm such-and-such way. The degree of that simplification has varied a lot throughout the comic (pawprints or no, black connecty bit between the shoulder and glove or no, abbreviate all the gold accents all over his chest and arms and by how much, etc.), and while I might consider my lack of character design consistency to be a flaw, drawing this character so many different times and ways has helped me get comfortable enough with him that I'm not as intimidated by all the detail work as I was when I started and I'm now pushing myself to reflect his canon designs more accurately now that I know I can handle it.

No matter what you choose to simplify, that simplicity doesn't devalue your comic--plenty of my favorite artists in the fandom are making me laugh my head off with nothing but comics doodled in pen. We're just happy to get the comic in whatever way it comes.

In short: figure out all the ways you can get away with being lazy and take advantage of them, you can push yourself to do more complicated things whenever you're feeling up for the challenge.

Figure out layout constraints

One of my larger regrets with Runaway Catwalker is that I decided to have each page be it's own image. I did this to follow the format of the first (originally intended as a one-off) page I did, where I just threw in random panel borders at random angles to fit around whatever pictures I drew. While it does create a distinct visual identity (and it has led to me coming up with some page layouts that I'm rather fond of), I'm constantly dealing with the issue of not having enough space to let everything breathe. I'm always moving things, resizing things, rotating things, adjusting the dialog so the bubbles won't cover as much of the picture up, cutting off/extending/redrawing images that I cannot get to fit in the available space... and it's all only necessary because I won't let myself deviate too far from my original image template (the only real change I've let myself have is making the template 50% longer starting with page 12, but I'm still having all the same problems). If you are not constraining yourself on purpose like I am, I'd highly recommend doing what many other online comic artists do: have each panel be it's own image. It'll make your life so much easier.

And whatever you do, try not to have images that are overly large--I've had complaints that my very long comic pages are difficult to read on phone, but fixing the issue isn't really an option since my previous design choices are not always compatible with cutting things into more digestible chunks (not to mention that tumblr can be very annoying about image files when they get too big). It's best to avoid that all entirely and keep your pictures to more manageable dimensions if you can.

And a couple previous posts I've made about making comics for your reference:

Video and advice I gave Selkie

My art process circa July 2022

doing a comic thing is like oh I have ideas!!! wow that looks like shit, composition wise

[gingerylangylang1979]

HI! I feel you, I also often make posts I'm not expecting any engagement with, especially regarding race which can be touchy. I do think it's important to engage in dialogue on these topics that aren't often addressed. I love the points you brought up in reply.

I think it makes perfect sense for Syd to take her time with letting Carmy touch her hair until she is ready. I think black women don't owe anyone all of themselves until they are fully comfortable and confident. Any allowance of intimacy is a gift. I think women, in general, forget this at times and give in to what they think they should allow a man. This could be the act of sex, an intimate touch, or even sharing of thoughts, feelings, history. If y'all ain't there yet, don't do it. If he cares enough he will wait and view it as a privilege.

Excellent point about not trying to write territory that hasn't been presented for the character. It can be tricky with fanfiction because we are generally writing non-canon and indulge our imaginations, but it can be particularly difficult going there with black culture in a way one doesn't understand. I think sometimes people feel they should go there because IT"S A BLACK WOMAN, when maybe they shouldn't.

Related, but maybe off-topic, I sometimes cringe at how artists draw Syd. I try not to critique visual art too harshly because they have more talent in that arena than I do, but it can sometimes be off putting if the image looks nothing like the character. Like writing, I try to give grace because most people are just trying to do their best and this can be an open platform to share maybe imperfect work but work that comes from the heart. And sometimes it's just an artist's style not to be totally canon realistic about characters. But I have had to correct people who made Syd lighter than she is. That's a huge pet peeve. Or sometimes she just isn't looking cute enough to me. But I mostly let it go because my Syd drawings would look like ass, haha!

Sometimes a writer's skill level really comes into play. I've been actually shocked to find out a writer actually is black and could just be they didn't have the finesse as a writer to make a scene not awkward. Sometimes this is difficulty writing about race because of lived experience, sometimes it's not having enough experience as a writer handling intimate scenes or dealing with nuanced topics. But I appreciate the efforts because fanfic is often a testing ground and safe space.

I've also come to find some white writers who I thought were black because they just seemed to have got it. I'm not gonna name names but I have very much been surprised discovering writers' identities through engagement with fandom. Some of the most insightful posters and fanfic writers are white lesbian women, for instance, who I swore were black and loved dick. Who knew? So this speaks to what you are saying about doing the work to understand and having exposure to a variety of interpretations of black characters. I'm sure those fans did but it is indeed rare.

The problem with descriptive terminology is that there isn't enough representation shown to a wide audience that demonstrates a multitude of ways to view us as black women. The language, especially in romance, is very limited. This is why we need more writers to write black romance. I have hopes of writing a black woman romance novel one day to contribute. I'm tired of the cliches and common tropes. Until we produce and publish more content it will continue. The issue is the industry perception that there isn't an audience for it. They are wrong, there is. Black film and tv success has shown there is, but most of the work is not primarily romantic and that needs to change.

Thanks for opening up this conversation! I do encourage other fans to chime in. Sometimes these topics get likes but not comments and I'm very curious about varying opinions.

TO EVERYONE WRITING SYDCARMY FIC (that isn't Black)

unless you are a Black person, please do not write about carmy taking down syd's hair. it's not racist or anything, but we can tell you're not Black when you do and it's just fucking weird. ALSO it strikes me as very interesting that you would just jump to syd allowing carmy to touch her hair like that. I really doubt she would, but that's me personally. also so many of y'all are doing it and it's starting to feel like an obsession with the concept of a white dude touching her hair and ion like that.

ALSO IF I HEAR THE PHRASE "BEAUTIFUL BROWN SKIN" ONE MORE TIME IM GOING TO VOMIT. WE HAVE SKIN, AND THATS OKAY. BUT JESUS FUCK SO MANY OF YALL ARE USING THE PHRASE "BEAUTIFUL BROWN SKIN" LIKE DUDE THATS A LITTLE FUCKIGN WEIRD BE CREATIVE PLEASE

(also it's fan fiction we know what she fuckin looks like you can just say "her skin" like it's so aggressively not that serious)