#i feel like there should be more water behind lapis' back but 1) i cannot be arsed to pull this file up and paint over that again aghhhhh

[ask-whitepearl-and-steven]

In these apparently trying times of "lack of content" I was wondering if we could get a glimpse behind the tablet and see how you write! Could you talk about your process and how you keep track of things and parse out your story? Do you storyboard or write rigorous notes? Is it all in your head? I am super curious about your system.

Oh yikes I’m about to disappoint a lot of people. 

Okay, here’s the thing - I cannot physically keep notes because I get distracted and forget to write things down. I’ve tried keeping notebooks for WD!Steven stuff and I have come to accept that it’s only for show. I barely use it. I cannot use my memory on the effort of writing notes - I’d much rather use that energy to remember things in my head.

I brute-force everything through my mind palace. My mind... house... mindshack. 

My process is simple: 

Step 1) THINK

I constantly get asks that I feel might be good for the comics. I’ve made posts on this before but the main way I decide if I’ll use an ask is:

Is the ask addressed explicitly to Steven (or another character?)

Is the ask not giving away any fourth-wall-breaking information?

Is the ask actually ASKING Steven an open-ended question or TELLING Steven to do something?

If the ask is too vague (”so what do u like”) or gives away too much (“Steven don’t u think ur actually half-human? If Rose had a baby it would be half gem half human. Wouldn’t that be the same as u? You should ask Rose about a gem named Spinel I bet she would freak out!!!!!”) or if the ask is just pushing for Steven to do something instead of asking (”go to the moon base!”) then I almost always ignore it. 

Step 2) Storyboard!

After choosing a question, I’ll sit and… stare at my desk/the wall/twitter without seeing it and instead storyboard the entire comic in my head. Sometimes this happens in a matter of minutes. Sometimes I’ll work it over in my mind’s eye for days before I like it. This includes the dialogue.

Yes, I do this while driving. I have an hour drive to work. No, I have never been in an accident. My autopilot works really well. I guess. Probably. I often have no memory of the actual drive itself but the comic gets written. 

Step 3) Sketch!

Afterwards I go into my drawing program (MediBang Paint) and sketch out each individual panel on a layer. Sometimes the sketches are detailed. Sometimes they are just sloppy action lines to remind me what I’m going for.

I script in my head WHILE I’m drawing the sketches. I try out different lines as I go through each panel and see what fits the most. This sketching process takes about 3-5 minutes per panel. 

Step 4) Lineart!

After I’ve sketched at least 50% of the comic, I go back in and start doing lineart. I will do this mindlessly - it is only at this point that I allow myself to listen to a podcast, or music, or have a YouTube video running while I draw. (I cannot sketch/storyboard/script with any sort of noise on. Has to be dead silent.)

The initial lineart process takes about 10 minutes per panel if the panel is simple like the one above. If I go through the process of adding necessary details, patterns, or have to create phone background detail, or draw a background in general, then it will obviously take longer.

If I do color comics, it takes 3 times as long which is why I hate coloring.

For the Lapis arc I also added tones. It was not as annoying as coloring, but it still took me twice as long as an average panel because there was so much layering to be done between the water/lapis’ wings/backgrounds. It was not fun. 

Step 5) Dialogue 

After I finish the lines for ALL the panels, or at least 50%, I start going back in and finally adding dialogue and details. I do the dialogue all at once because it allows me to view the flow more naturally. I end up reading and re-reading the panels several times to make sure there are no repeating words and that it flows more or less like a normal conversation would.

This takes about… eh… an hour or so for an average 20-panel comic? 

The bulk of my editing is done at this stage. I will go back through and re-read the finished comic several times and try to weed out weird details or typos. 

If I find none, I post it to Patreon, because it’s a guarantee that I will find 3 more immediately afterwards. That’s how posting art to social media works. Also, many of my Patreon patrons are usually kind enough to point out any typos I’ve missed. (MediBang doesn’t have a spellcheck so don’t judge me too harshly…)

And that’s….. it. I post to Patreon, make any last-minute fixes if I have to, and then queue everything to tapas and tumblr. 

And then I immediately begin to worry about the next comic. Because… that’s how it works. 

I understand it’s not exactly a professional process. That’s because I’m not a professional! I’m self-taught, and this comic is meant to be for fun, not for profit. If I make a Season-finale comic or a season-start comic, I typically go through the same steps, except I add thumbnailing to the mix (drawing tiny copies of the pages on post-it notes to see how many pages I can fix it to.)

Hope that was… educational? I don’t know. Either way…

[theregoesjodariel]

Supergem: Writer’s Notes, Chapters 1-10

Hey gang! It’s a long time coming, but I finally got off my ass and finished the full notes for chapters 1-10 of Supergem, my big huge SU fic. I’m just about to finally get to work on the next batch of chapters, so I figured now would be a great time to look back on what I’ve done so far and provide some hopefully interesting commentary. Read on for that stuff!

Chapters 1-5

Right off the bat, chapter 1's title is a reference to the now-famous single-page retelling of Superman's origin story from All-Star Superman #1. There, "kindly couple" was used to summarize Clark Kent's crashlanding on Earth and discovery by the Kents.

Chapter 2 features what I feel would be the natural result of trying to fire bullets at a Gem: absolutely nothing. While Gems are obviously made of hard light and have been shown to be capable of being hurt by conventional means-- see Peridot getting Wile E. Coyote'd by the corrupted Gem in Beta-- I like to imagine that bullets are simply so small and so high-velocity that they'd pass through Gem bodies harmlessly. The science is probably wrong, but let me have my Rule of Cool.

Aside from sporting the amalgamated personalities of Lapis and Peridot, the two superheroes Turquoise takes the most inspiration from are Superman and Spider-Man. She shows at least some compassion for all people, even bad guys, like Superman, and she throws plenty of quips, especially when getting it handed to her, like Spidey.

As stated in the notes, I do not have a set design in mind for Turquoise, but I DID end up canonizing elements of a couple of designs I really like within the story. She sports the unique five-pointed hairstyle and orange suspenders of ahhween's design, as well as the cool cyan color scheme and water cape of cheerkitty1410's. Those two are just fantastic.

Axinite is a Gem OC of mine, a gladiatrix who fights in arenas on Homeworld, which function as the world's equivalent of recreational sports. A lot of the lore I have for her is regurgitated in the narration.

There are, of course, a couple of lines from "Stronger Than You" in chapter 4. There's the title, plus Turquoise correcting Val that the fight is one-on-two.

When I created the character, I actually completely failed to notice Val's considerable resemblance to Jasper, both in appearance (big, bulky and orange) and personality (haughty, judgmental). Naturally, when it hit me, I wrote in a nod to it in chapter 4.

Chapter 4 sees Turquoise and Val's fight spill into a mall, the very same one from Pearls' Night Out, currently my only other multi-chapter work. Rhiannon and Diane, both OCs from there, also make cameos (Rhiannon is the employee who points Turquoise in Val's direction, Diane is the journalist who interviews her on the street).

Pearl and Jasper handle city planning like military tacticians, because, well, they are military tacticians. They're also very overdramatic about it, natch.

Amazonite is a close friend of mine's gemsona, a former Crystal Gem who retired to become a seamstress after the corrupted Gems were all cured.

A couple of things involving Jasper take inspiration from the excellent Back to Beta. Pearl acts as Jasper's parole officer of sorts, rewarding her with Pearl Points for doing a good job and Jasper has an attachment to Earth music for its ability to say what cannot be said through simple speech, just like in there. Go read Back to Beta if you haven't, it's outstanding (it's also Jaspearl-- look at me go).

In one of many instances of Jodi Doing Too Much Research Into Things That Don't Matter, I actually broke out my copy of SU: Art & Origins to study its map of Beach City to determine just how nitpicky Pearl and Jasper were being.

Why do the Nephrites want to talk to Pearl? Maybe we'll find out....

Garnet "borrowed" Andy's plane to go to Empire City. That's a step up from "finding" a phone, don't you think?

I like to imagine that Bismuth has been rooting for Lapis and Peri to get together since the moment she met them. Her gaydar is just that good.

Believe it or not, I genuinely considered having Turquoise adopt a secret identity at one point during planning. I call myself out on it through Steven in chapter 5.

I knew I just couldn't do this story without Jasper since she is, in a way, the villain (or at least a villain) in Turquoise's origin story. As an abuse survivor, showing the ramifications of her and Lapis' time as Malachite as best I could was tantamount to the main storyline.

Chapters 6-10

The foreshadowing in chapter 6's identity should make Ms. Knight's identity a no-brainer for seasoned SU fans. No one spoil it if you figure it out, though!

Ronaldo is absolutely, positively, 100%, one of the guys who doesn't shower before the convention. That's so him it hurts.

The generally meta premise of chapters 6-9 were the result of me drafting them right after I got home from my city's local big convention, which I had a wonderful time at. I did my first ever cosplay (I was Pearl!) there and managed to hold decent conversations with Zach Callison, Deedee Magno Hall, Michaela Dietz, and Estelle. The layout of DelmarvaCon is even copied from the layout of that convention center.

In one of many moments of narrative intersecting with reality, I did some sleuthing and found that Paulette was, in her very brief on-screen appearance, voiced by Deedee Magno Hall, Pearl's voice actress. As said above, I met Deedee at the con I went to. You know how everyone on and off set never stops talking about how nice she is? They're not exaggerating, she's a fantastic person. Kim Tan is fully based on her, taking her name from a couple of Hall's other roles (Kim in Miss Saigon and a bit character named Lori Tan from an episode of Third Watch) and Lapis and Peridot's encounter with her is based on my own; while she didn't usher us ahead of the line to meet her, she did take pictures of my friend and I's cosplays for free when she was supposed to be charging for them. Seriously, nicest celebrity I've ever met.

Chapter 7 has Peridot riff that she can "observe 800 moving objects and compute their direction of travel," a phrase long used to describe Prowl in the Transformers franchise. It has no character significance here, I was on a Transformers kick at the time of writing.

The uncomfortable pulling sensation mentioned in chapter 7 is called an "itch," a callback to The Itch, the oneshot serving as prelude to this fic. There, "the itch" is used to refer to the deeply unsettling feeling a Gem gets when fitted with limb enhancers-- think the feeling you have or would have felt from a dentist fitting you with those awful rubber bands to help with the braces process, it's that kind of feeling. The feeling being given off by Ronaldo's control device is similar, "adding" to a Gem when nothing need be added.

The long opening narration in chapters 8 and 9 were inspired by the writing style of comic book writer Scott Snyder, who has a tendency to start, end, or intersperse his comics with long, expositional comparative musings on seemingly simple or mundane things (seriously, count the number of times one of his Batman comics opens with narration explaining the philosophical meaning behind the rocks used to make buildings in Gotham City).

The cost of Connie's sword is, as stated in the story proper, a rough estimate borne from around half an hour of research. While there are other pink stones that could've been used, I picked pezzotaite because of its extreme rarity, just to drive home how absurdly all-out Bismuth went on it.

Give Jasper a metal-style song in Season 6, Crewniverse!

I like to think Jasper and Greg would be good friends. Think about it: you've just found out your former moral enemies were not only led by, but had close relationships with, the person you spent your whole life idolizing. Who do you talk to about it? Why not the person who knew her more intimately than anyone else?

At the end of the Turquoise and Steven segment in chapter 10, the two sit down to watch Crying Breakfast Friends' extra-length season finale, in which a number of characters get new outfits. Now what could that be referencing?

The narration of Jasper's thoughts makes reference to the exiled Hessonite, antagonist of Steven Universe: Save the Light and a criminally underrated character.

I'd like to preface this point with a content warning for abuse, as I'll be discussing that a bit here.

So, as I mentioned briefly in the 1-5 notes, I'm an abuse survivor; I broke up with my abuser, who I had been with for just about 3 months, in February of this year. An acquaintance of mine has since drafted a document exhaustively detailing all of the bad shit they did for which receipts could be found, and my abuser has reacted with avoidance, victim blaming, and a refusal to apologize. I wasn't yet aware of just how in denial of her own mistakes they were when I wrote chapter 10, so I tried to write Pearl and Jasper's conversation as how I wished the conversation my abuser had with themselves would go, in a perfect world.

To get reflective for a moment, writing that has taught me, in a way I hadn't seen before, how Steven Universe's real, heartfelt redemption arcs, as fantastically-written and just generally good as they are, don't always apply in real-world scenarios. My shitty ex is not Jasper and they never will be.

[prince-of-beach-city]

Bismuth Week day 1: The Crystal Gems

Description: Bismuth meets the new crystal gems

Word Count: 1,683

Rating: T

“Steven, I don’t know about this. I only just got a redemption arc, maybe we should take this slow.”

“Well, it’s like mom always said, life on earth is always moving quickly!”

Steven dragged Bismuth through the gem’s house. It wasn’t long after Bismuth’s return to the Crystal Gems that Steven realized that Bismuth had yet to meet the newest additions to the team. A hastily planned introduction was waiting on the beach and Steven was eager to introduce his new family member to his favorite aunts.

“Wait, Steven!” Bismuth exclaimed, pulling her hand from Steven’s grip, “Look, I get that you’re trying to help. If we’re going to stop the Diamonds, we Gems need to be aware of our individual strengths and weaknesses, but I don’t know if I’m ready to meet new people yet!”

Steven looked at his multi-colored aunt. “Look, I know you feel guilty about the past,” he said, “but Peridot and Lapis don’t know you yet. They don’t know about your past. They only know what I told them. And all I told them was that you used to fight in the war, and that you’re back now, and that you want to help save the world.” Steven smiled. “If you really don’t want to do this right now, we don’t have to, but trust me. These guys are going to love you, no matter your past.”

Bismuth smiled. If those words had come from anyone else, she would have turned around and went back to her bubble. But this was Steven. She would punch a Diamond for Steven.

“Alright, Steven,” she said, “I’ll give it a shot. Maybe I’ll enjoy this more than I think.”

--------------

“…Thank you Beach City goodnight!!”

Peridot breathed heavily, gasping for air despite not needing any. Perhaps she was being self-absorbed, but Peridot considered that introduction to be her best yet. Who cares if her only audience is Steven and the new member Bismuth? Peridot and Lapis had just delivered the most inspiring, rock-ballad-iest version of the Crystal Gems theme song ever!

…which was impressive considering they had only a keyboard between them.

Steven clapped furiously! He was so proud of his barn-buddies arranging and singing so amazingly! True, Peridot did most of the singing, but Lapis was great on the keyboard!

Bismuth still couldn’t believe the Gems had a theme song.

“That was great guys!” Steven said, “I mean, that’s not at all what I meant when I asked you to introduce yourselves, but that was so much fun!”

“Well,” Peridot said, “I figured it would be a good way to show that we are fully dedicated to the Crystal Gems, and are NEVER going to be loyal to Homeworld again.”

“It was my idea to replace every ‘gem’ in the song with ‘clod.’” Lapis said, “Frankly, I’m surprised that Peridot didn’t think of it first.”

“Yes, well, what did you think of it, fellow Crystal gem?”

Bismuth thought for a moment. “I think you have a lot of…enthusiasm.” she said finally.

“Wow, Thanks!”

Lapis frowned. As Peridot tried to talk to her new ally about her favorite earth things, Lapis was trying to figure out why Bismuth looked so familiar to her. Steven did say she fought in the war, lapis thought, maybe I heard about her from the quartzes, or saw her on the battlefield, or-

 Explosions. Cannonfire. Lapis shouldn’t have been there. The rebels shouldn’t have been there. Everything was going wrong. Gems were poofing left and right, smoke was everywhere. Explosions. Lapis saw before her a huge gem. A rebel. A grin. Evil. Excited. Crazed. Cruel. Lapis had taken all she could. She wasn’t made for fighting. She turned away. Her wings extended. Fly. Fly away. Far away. From the war. From earth. From ev-

CRACK

 “-apis? Are you okay?”

Lapis opened her eyes. Peridot, Steven, and Bismuth were all looking at her with concern. At some point, Lapis realized that she had fallen. At some point, Lapis realized that she had been shaking.

“I’m… fine.” she said, getting up, “I mean, I will be. Just give me a moment, I’ll recover.”

“Are you sure?” Steven said, clearly concerned, “You looked pretty scared back there.”

“Well, no need to worry Lazuli,” Bismuth said, “we Crystal Gems stick together. If something scares you, we’ll just get rid of it.”

That grin. That’s the same grin, the same face, the same-

“I remember you.”

The grin disappeared.

“I remember you from the war,” Lapis continued, “a surprise attack on the plains of Trafalgar. I was there. You dissipated my form.”

Realization dawned on Steven and Peridot’s faces. Bismuth tried to laugh it off. “Oh yeah,” she said, grinning, “That was a… pretty extreme battle. But hey, looks like you got patched up pretty good!”

“You think this is a joke?” Lapis exclaimed. The grin disappeared again.

“Nobody’s saying that Lapis,” Steven said, “let’s just calm down and-”

“NOT before I have my say!” Lapis’ wings extended to their full length. Bismuth recognized those wings. “Now listen here you,” Lapis said, getting close to Bismuth, “because of you, I was trapped for thousands of years in a mirror, TORTURED, for information that I never had, and gave me a stake in a war I never wanted a part in! I was left behind and CRACKED! I don’t care how much good you have done in the past, if you come anywhere near me I will show you what the bottom of the ocean really feels like.”

With that, Lapis flew away. And Bismuth suddenly felt so small.

--------------

For Peridot, it was not that hard to find Lapis. She was back at the barn, marathoning the spin-off of Camp Pining Hearts, General High School.

“Wow,” Peridot said, climbing into the truck, “if you’re watching this drivel, you must really be mad.”

Lapis didn’t respond.

Peridot sighed. “Look, I get it.” Peridot started, “If I was poofed by someone in a conflict I wasn’t a part of, I wouldn’t like them either. But Bismuth didn’t put you in that mirror, she didn’t torture you, all she did was punch you in the wrong spot at the wrong time. You know it and I know it.” Peridot paused. “So what’s really going on?”

Lapis paused the video. “…Right before she hit me,” Lapis said after a minute, “she grinned. Like she was enjoying the destruction. But it didn’t really bother me until… until I saw the same grin on Jasper.”

Peridot blinked. “Oooooooohhhhhh,” she exclaimed, “she reminds you of Jasper.”

Lapis nodded.

Peridot thought for a moment. “Well, I can certainly see the similarities,” Peridot said, “but maybe this is a good thing. Both Bismuth and Jasper messed you up pretty badly, maybe the way to work on from your problems is working them out with her.”

“You expect me to just forgive her and move on?”

“Of course not. I’m just saying, she’s had a bad past, you had a bad past, maybe working together to process them will be cathartic for you,”

Lapis glared at Pe/ridot. “You’ve been reading the dictionary again, haven’t you?”

“I’m almost up to the letter ecks.”

Lapis sighed. “This isn’t going to be easy.”

“Well, if I’ve learned anything, it’s that life on Earth rarely is.” Peridot smiled. “But it is worth it.”

--------------

A short flight later, and Lapis and Peridot were back on the beach with Steven and Bismuth. “Now Bismuth,” Steven started, “do you have something you would like to say to Lapis?”

“Yes, I do.” Bismuth took a deep breath. “Lapis, I am sincerely sorry for any undue stress that I may have caused you by attacking-”

Lapis raised her hand to interrupt. “There was a war. We were on opposite sides. And everything after that battle wasn’t your fault.” She smiled. “It’s in the past,”

Steven and Peridot exhaled.

“Still,” Bismuth said, “I feel kinda responsible. Is there any way I can make it up to you?”

Lapi thought for a moment. “Actually, there is a way you can make it up to me.”

“Great! Name it, and I’ll do it.”

“Stand right where you are and don’t move.”

“…Come again?”

Lapis pointed at Bismuth’s feet. “If you want to make it up to me, just stand right there and don’t move. I want to create a new meep morp about forgiveness, but I need you to stand right there, and don’t move an inch. Got that?”

“Uh, sure! I can do that.”

“Good.” Lapis turned around and started walking towards the ocean. Bismuth looked at Steven and Peridot. They shrugged their shoulders.

“Are you still not gonna move?” Lapis called out. She was ankle-deep in the water by this point.

“Not even an inch!” Bismuth called back.

Lapis nodded and raised her hand. A huge hand, made out of water, then lifted out of the ocean, towering over the temple, casting its shadow over the beach.

The assembled gems then simultaneously remembered just how powerful Lapis was.

“Steven, Peridot,” Lapis called out, “you better go watch from the temple!”

“Lapis, you know I love you,” Steven pleaded, “but I cannot agree with-”

“SHUT UP AND RUN!” Peridot dragged Steven back to the temple. Bismuth, true to her word, didn’t move an inch.

“Uh, quick question,” Bismuth yelled, “are you going to smash me with that giant hand?”

“What? Where would you get that idea?” Lapis yelled back, “Like I said, I’m going to create a meep morp about forgiveness!”

“Oh. Well-”

“By smashing you with this giant hand.”

Smash!

In less time than it takes for Ruby and Sapphire to fuse, the giant water hand impacted the beach and dissipated, leaving only a hand-shaped crater and a surprised nut un-poofed Bismuth. Steven, who was watching from the porch, was shocked that things had come to this. Peridot was slightly less shocked, but thankful that she was on Lapis’ good side.

Lapis took a breath. “You were right Peridot,” Lapis said, breaking the silence, “that was rather cathartic.”

All Bismuth could do was laugh. She was going to like these new Crystal Gems.