#the idea had been in my head and the thumbnail in my drafts for like 3 years or something

[blackhazefanblog]

We'd never see this in canon only because Lanoste would never discipline his son.

[sticksandsharks]

congratulations to the newly wed couple

thank you to everyone who has not only purchased the comic, but also had kind words to say in tags and through asks!! I am away for holiday for most of this month, and I have been/will be largely offline on account of this*-- but please know that my heart is incredibly full to know people like this story!!

(*any posts that go up here have been scheduled before I left)

A few recurring questions I'll answer here real quick:

Will Sacred Bodies have a physical print? Yes! I would like to self-publish this book after the fair is concluded and sell it at conventions and through my online store.

What are the Ba'It based off of? Their body/limb plan is based on pteradons!! with some bat and bird anatomy thrown in. Garaang are semi-bipedal so that makes the silhouette even weirder, but you see some quadrupedal stances in the comic and it might make more sense then. I don't want to post or talk too much about some of the minutae of their design, as it is part of the story itself. :}

What medium did you use for the comic? It's all digital; I used Clip Studio Paint to draw the entire thing. I use the base watercolour and design pencil brushes that come with the programme. How long did it take you to make the comic? It's a little hard to estimate-- initial ideas, visdev and writing drafts were intermitent at the start of the year; once I landed on the story, finalising the script would've taken no longer than a week of recurring writing and editing. It's the actual drawing that takes forever, unfortunately. I started thumbnailing around April, and pencilling, colours and painting were a 10-11 hour work-day commitment for most of June and July. (I lost a lot of work-time in May cause I fell ill, womp womp). I'd probably say it was 4 - 5 months of labour. Are you going to write more stories in this world? I would really like to! I have a lot of ideas rattling in my head for the Valley of the World-- the place that the folk of the Spire have escaped. That being said, I have a whole graphic novel to finish first! It has been pushed back on account (but not exclusively because) of me working on my SBCF entries the last couple years, and I don't want to neglect it any further!! (it's 350+ full colour pages though so it was always going to be a huge undertaking)

Thank you again for the outpouring of enthusiasm and support; it means the world!

[spacey-xannabelle]

Fateful Encounter...

Last month, at around April 10th, I decided to revisit an old project I started months prior which was to polish up a test sketch of a comic page about Lucy encountering Lumi in the dreamspace. And after slowly making progress on this, I'm finally finished with this!

I'm gonna leave some artist notes under the read more, but overall I'm super proud of how this turned out!! This is pretty much my first serious attempt at making comics in general so this has been a very interesting learning experience!

Artist notes: So this is what the original sketch for this whole thing was. It was just me scribbling out a scene I had in my head for Startrails that I wanted to put on paper:

This I'd say was made around 2020-2021 ish. At the time, I didn't really do much with it. Until several months ago, I thought of trying to redraw this page and expand upon it.

But my first attempt at doing this didn't quite lead anywhere. I barely got through the thumbnailing process and just gave up bc I lost motivation (and life/work stuff was Happening so yea I had to put this aside as I figured stuff out). Here's the first draft of the thumbnails:

It was just two pages at the time and was pretty simple. I left this project sitting in my files for a while until I one day just, started binging videos from Thestarfishface on YouTube, primarily her webcomic guide videos. And I decided I'd give this project another go.

It was here where I began making a second draft of the thumbnails and this was what I had to work with:

I wanted to experiment with the panels and get funky with the compositions this time around. The 2 page draft expanded to a 3 page thing. But I thought it would've been better if I added one more page at the end with Lucy waking up as a conclusion to wrap this whole thing together.

And in the middle of working on page 3, my friend had suggested to do a an impact frame page, which I hadn't considered during the thumbnailing, so 4 pages became 5. And this was the result!

I posted the pages as I finished them onto my deviantart so that's where a lot of my thoughts were journaled as I went along dfjsdh. To summarize my ramblings there, this project was a very fun (and a bit frustrating) learning experience! I'm hoping to keep practicing and improving my workflow, and hopefully one day make Startrails a full fledged webcomic :')

Additional ramblings:

The structure that Lucy finds Lumi in is inspired by an orrery.

For page 5, I initially didn't plan for much dialogue but as I drew it, it felt just a liiiitle bit empty, so I kinda just threw in some dialogue for Mira. But bc I was already in the inking process (and I just wanted to have this project completed), I didn't redo the page to even include Mira in it. So Mira's just out of frame sdfjskdh. If I had more time and energy to keep this up, I'd have made a revision of the page so I could include her.

This experience has taught me that I could seriously work on my rendering process a bit more, and that my layer management is just atrocious sdkfjksdfh

This has also taught me that while Medibang has the tools needed for me to draw these pages just fine, it also lacks some stuff that I personally need if I were to do a longer project like this. So I'll be experimenting with CSP next!

The dialogue throughout this whole thing wasn't all that planned out- I really just stuck close to what the initial doodle had which probably wasn't the best idea bc I just have like, 2 pages of Lucy's awkward sounding dialogue aaaa. I might do something a bit more dialogue heavy to help improve this skill next time.

Anyway, thank you for reading through my 1 am ramblings on this little project of mine shdkjhks

[sleepy-pigeonn]

A Look Into My Hades Fan Animatic

I don't know to call this other than a collection of resources and reflections about the process of making the animatic. Hopefully it's interesting or helpful for someone. But feel free to ask questions if you'd like clarification/more info!

___

Inspiration (A non-exhaustive list)

It's possible that I've seen/read fan works that may have inspired me unconsciously, so there's no way I can possibly include references to them all. However, the ones I listed here are ones I recall looking back at repeatedly.

The fancomics "First Flight" and "Bonehead Boon" by Liana Sposto

Robbie Elliot Art's animation "Take Tonight"

Toastyglow's animation "Glitter & Gold" and PMV "This Year"

Storyboards posted by Paige Caldwell (@/papernewt) on Instagram

Zag admiring some of these beautiful fanworks.

The following sections are below the cut: References, Songs, Script and Thumbnails, Studies, Drawing, Editing, Random Facts

___

References

These were very helpful to creating the animatic!!

In-game references

Hades Wiki

3D Model of Zagreus by @/chunyou_ on Twitter

I also used screenshots I took while playing

General references

"How To Direct A Fight Scene" by Howard Wimshurst

Poses from the photo libraries of The Pose Archives and AdorkaStock

3D Model of Male and Female Heads by William Nguyen

I also just looked stuff up online or took videos of myself acting out some of the movements.

___

Songs

I thought of basing my animatic on any of the following songs:

"Icarus" by Bastille

"Dirty" by grandson

"Underworld" by CYPRSS *

"I'm Still Here (Jim's Theme)" by John Rzeznik

"I'm Gonna Win" by Rob Cantor **

"Could Have Been Me" by the Struts

They all have a varied degree of "Zagreus vibes" but I wanted a song that could be used to show as much of the game as possible. "Could Have Been Me" was the song that I could imagine more things for, so it is the one I ended up using.

* Look at this awesome Zagreus fan art based on this song

** Some of the lyrics for this song are so fitting for Zag but others are pretty ooc.

___

Script and Thumbnails

I've seen other artists annotate the lyrics to the song they are working with and attempted that here. But that process is a little confusing for me, so I kept these descriptions vague. It was helpful in keeping track of ideas, since some of them are faster to write down than draw. Especially for fight sequences.

I used Storyboarder for the thumbnails. I opted for this program because (1) it lets you add an audio file and (2) it has very basic tools. It can be used in a more nuanced way than I did. However, with 3 and a half minutes of frames to work out I needed something that helps me draft down ideas efficiently and without overwhelming me. And this was pretty good program for that.

The script and thumbnails happened in tandem a lot of the time. Think of it as brainstorming, both in vague writing and loose drawings. At this point I am trying to see if these ideas flow with the song, if they are readable, if they achieve what I had in mind.

___

Studies

Okay. So I am happy with my ideas. Now. How do I make sure the drawings are identifiable as taking place in the game?

This is where those in-game references came in handy. I looked back at my thumbnails and made a list of everything I would need. From characters to locations. Once I had these down, I made folders to make sure everything would be nice and organized.

I tend to avoid backgrounds like the plague. However, for some of these shots to work I need to give the viewer a sense of where the action is taking place. I know that I struggle imagining three-dimensional spaces while drawing digitally. So, using my thumbnails and the references I gathered, I did studies of all the locations I thought would be important using good old paper and ink. This also served to fine-tune shot compositions.

___

Drawing

The animatic itself was drawn using Krita. Usually, I worked on all the backgrounds using the studies as a base and then added the characters. My drawings started very rough for a couple of reasons. The main one was that with ~200 frames ahead of me I was afraid of letting my inner perfectionist get me stuck. I kept reminding myself that, being an animatic, the drawings could be rough as long as they are still readable. As I got more comfortable using Krita, I was able to create cleaner backgrounds.

Even so, I hit an art block around the two minute mark where I Could Not Draw. This is where I heavily relied on those References I Keep Talking About. They were my savior and are the main cause for the more "finished" look towards the end of the animatic. I think the best example of this was the shot featuring Thanatos. I was deep in the art block territory by the time I needed to go from thumbnail (top left) to final frame. No matter how much I redrew them, I didn't like how they turned out (top right). To work this out, I found references from The Pose Archives and used them as a guide (bottom left) to get a sketch that I liked (bottom right). I felt this look was more sketchy than I've would like so I ended up cleaning it. I followed a similar process for most of the frames following this one. As a result, the final frames of the video turned out cleaner.

___

Editing

Once I had all my frames ready to go, I imported them into HitFilm Express and made a composite shot where I basically just matched the timing of the frames to the music. Frames that have camera movements (like the very first frame) were made in their own composite shots. I ended up having to delete some frames so some sections didn't feel rushed. In the end, there's like 5 versions of the animatic because I kept making little changes. The biggest was adding Zag's dialogue at the beginning since I felt the video started up too quiet. I don't have any images for this stage. Please have this comparison instead.

___

Random Facts ✨

Adding color was a last minute decision, it was mainly because I thought a colorful sunset would be prettier. My original plan was to shift the gray tones of the background into more yellowish tones once Zagreus reaches the surface, but keeping everything monochromatic.

If you pause quickly on the very last frame you'll see I accidentally made Zag's leggings black instead of red. I was on auto pilot at this point. Adding color was worth it overall but so time consuming. My respects to people who do fully colored animatics.

I wish I made Meg a pinker (or blue) hue rather than purple. In my mind I saved purple for characters related to Nyx (hence why Hypnos, Than, Chaos, and Charon have shades of purple). But I guess it is a sweet detail because of how Meg confides in Nyx in the game.

I kept a log of all my progress. Apparently getting the thumbnails done took about five months (August 2023 - January 2024)?? Anyways I leave you with these entries.

___

Thank you for reading! I hope it goes without saying but I really appreciate all the support this animatic has received. All the hearts and comments and tags, they mean a lot.

[binarybitex]

behind the scenes: Boss Babysitter

with the most recent chapter of Heart Hollow being released (Boss Babysitter), I thought I'd share some insights into my creation, writing, and notetaking for it.

caution: this post contains spoilers!

Welcome to Boss Babysitter; Mr. Andrei Wright decides he needs to come back down to the Hotel's floor after his Assistant Manager - Lewis Lockheart - destroys company property in an emotional overflow. Zeke, still processing having seen his orderly manager snap, has to join the two managers throughout daily tasks at Heart Hollow Hotel. The three of them oversee maintenance, attempt to review an end-of-week-report, and have a meeting with housekeeping. Not even halfway through the day, Mr. Wright decides it's time for lunch; Zeke offers him a cigarette outside in order to give the two managers some space. One questionable conversation later, Zeke trudges back inside to enjoy Lewis' company for the remainder of his break. After a brief history lesson and some comments that are just a bit too sweet for coworkers, Zeke and Lewis' attention is brought outside as Andrei Wright gets arrested for fraud.

the earliest mention of this chapter was from the very first Heart Hollow master arc list (dated 2019 or so). a lot of things have changed, but I knew from the get-go that Andrei was going to be arrested.

fun fact: when i was originally creating Heart Hollow in 2019, I was taking a much more adult-comedy-cartoon route. there was, in fact, going to be a shoot-out as (gasp) the FBI and (even bigger gasp) the IRS show up!!! i decided to scrap that. it just doesn't match the "real-life" drama route im taking now lol

the arc list from november 2021 is one of the first redrafts of the story after my 2-year art block.... the one from april 2022 was after I started making the comic. again, lots of things have changed, but I always outlined space for an episode revolving around Andrei's arrest

here's me brainstorming potential chapter names. i recall struggling with the name because i liked a lot of my options; however, i eventually stuck to "Boss Babysitter"

........

(eheheh it's a play on the hit DreamWorks film "The Boss Baby" featuring Alec Baldwin as "The Boss Baby")

the first idea on what i wanted the meat of the chapter to be about. i wanted to really put the nail in the coffin about Andrei's mismanagement and how that's been affecting Lewis.

more exploration into what the chapter was to be about. i find this one curious, actually, as this was from my earlier notebook (2021-2022) so I guuuuueeeeess I had a pretty good grasp on this chapter early on......??? thank god for notebooks bc it's really hard to keep everything crammed up in my brain.

the chapter before it ("The Heart of Heart Hollow") concluded on Lewis punching the employee bathroom's mirror. i had to bring up the aftermath, how Zeke was managing having seen that. i also wanted to touch upon Lewis' return back, and how unlike him it is to take an impromptu vacation like that. i knew even in the earliest drafts of this scene, that Lewis was going to lie about where he got his wounds from.

early sketches of Lewis' arrival after his impromptu vacation. these lil thumbnails make me giggle.... theyre just so silly lookin.

i also needed to consider how their day was spent with Andrei joining them. i broke it down piece by piece here, scene by scene. i love my additions of dialogue within my loose ideas. it really brings momentum to my writing process.

also, sidenote: can I just say that I do not hold the same beliefs as Andrei? he's a shit head and i wanted to make his character very uncomfortable to be around.

the scene between Andrei and Zeke was one I've had planned for years. it was so euphoric to finally write it out and send it out into the world. here's the snippet where he outwardly admits to his white collar crime.

for the longest time, I was going to reveal that Zeke was living at the Hotel at the very end of "Boss Babysitter"..... however, when I was writing the aftermath of the mirror break (in "The Heart of Heart Hollow"), I thought it appropriate to include Zeke's squatter status. the drama of the story starts to tie itself together as we witness Lewis do something dangerous and impulsive, and learn something rather confidential about Zeke. we start to wonder: who are these characters? what have they gone through to lead them here?

lastly...... just a little doodle of Andrei in prison garb. i love that he's let his beard grow a bit more.

[yesmaddyposts]

I've been writing angst for several days and needed to break up the fog with something happy and silly, so here is a rough draft snippet of part 2 to my Barbie & Her Android Boyfriend Ken AU:

~~

“This is a bad idea,” Barbie says. “This is a bad, horrible idea.”

On the screen of her phone, Kate shakes her head. “What are you talking about? This is a great idea! It’s the perfect opportunity to see what he can do!”

Barbie paces the length of the hallway with her phone in hand. She takes a peek through the cracked open door to her home office. Ken is still in there, spinning slowly in her desk chair and staring up at the ceiling. He’s been at it for ten straight minutes, and she wonders if dizziness was left out of his programming.

She returns to pacing outside the room. “I can’t bring the world’s most expensive android prototype to Gloria’s vow renewal ceremony!”

“Well you should’ve thought that through before you brought the world’s most expensive android prototype home with you,” Kate reminds her. 

She’s right. Barbie knows she’s right. But she’d let her curiosity get the best of her. Ken had been online for three full weeks now, and so far Mattel had only let him stretch his legs to go between the showroom—a large windowless space designed to look like a standard apartment’s living room, complete with a double sided mirror so executives and engineers could look in without being noticed—and the engineering lab. Ken wasn’t being used to his fullest potential, and none of the executives would listen to Barbie whenever she brought up bringing in real subjects for Ken to interact with. 

They were wasting him. They were impeding his progress, and she had no idea why. She’d tried keeping him distracted for a while, going so far as working overtime just to sit with Ken in the showroom watching television with him. Gloria had even been kind enough to bring some board games from home to test out Ken’s reaction speed. They all learned the hard way through several games of Uno and Candyland just how much of a competitive streak the android really had.

But as the third week of movie marathons and board game nights came to a close, Ken suddenly expressed something to her that just about broke her heart. 

“Barbie, I’m bored.” 

So that’s how she ended up here, at home with a platinum blonde android sitting at her desk. It had been embarrassingly easy to get him into her car. He could walk by himself, and didn’t hesitate to follow her to the parking garage. All he needed was a hoodie and some sunglasses to conceal his face from the security cameras, and then they were free. She had every intention of bringing him back, of course. Just after he got a little outdoor time. It was for research! 

“It’s for research!” She says aloud. 

“Exactly! What better way to research his capabilities than by putting him in a social gathering setting?” Kate’s phone shakes as she props it up against something and leans back on her couch. She whistles sharply and Tanner, her golden retriever, jumps up on the couch for a snuggle. 

“Listen,” Kate starts. “Allow me to impose upon you some Weird Barbie Wisdom.”

“I wish you wouldn’t call yourself that,” Barbie laments. Kate waves her comment away with a dismissive hand. 

“You know just as much as I do that Ken needs practice. The investors are going to want to see him in action sooner rather than later, and with the way things are going he won’t be ready. All of our hard work is going to go down the drain if we do things by Mattel’s book.”

Kate pauses to fend off Tanner when he stands on his hind legs to lick her face.

“The executives are a bunch of nepo-babies who don’t know their head from their ass when it comes to robotics. You gotta start taking risks.”

“But what if something goes wrong? What if Ken isn’t ready to be around all those people so soon?” Barbie bites her thumbnail subconsciously. 

A bitter tang hits her tongue and she purses her lips in disgust. She drops her hand back down to her side. Of all the times she’d tried to stop biting her nails, it had been Ken who really got it to stick. Last week while they’d been watching Bring It On, one of her favorite so-bad-it’s-good comfort films, he noticed her nibbling at her thumb. She did it when she was stressed, bored, or deep in thought. At that point her poor thumb was almost completely bitten down to the skin, leaving it red and raw looking. 

Ken had gently grasped her wrist and brought her hand down, interlacing their fingers. She’d turned to him, caught off guard by how careful his touch was. 

“You shouldn’t do that. It looks like it hurts.” He’d told her. 

Two days later when she came into work, he’d been so excited to tell her that he and Gloria had spent all weekend looking up ways to quit the habit of nail biting. He recommended she get bitter tasting nail polish so that she would no longer get satisfaction from biting, even going as far as to spend ten minutes breaking down all the best brands by price, brand, and product reviews. 

“If the whole thing goes tits up, you’ll have me and Gloria there as backup. We’ll get him out of there with some excuse about food poisoning or being late to a self tanning appointment, whatever.”

Kate scratches the underside of Tanner’s chin, and the dog starts kicking his back leg so hard against the couch cushion Barbie can hear the dull thumpthumpthump of his paw through the speakers of her phone.

“But I’m not worried. We did a great job with Ken’s programming. He’ll be a natural.” 

Kate’s general “it’ll all work out” attitude always had a way of convincing Barbie into things she didn’t want to do. She has a feeling this was going to be no different. She sighs, but before she can respond with another excuse not to go through with this, Ken speaks from inside the office.

“Barbie? Who are you talking to?” 

Barbie pushes open the door and enters the office. She turns her phone around to show Ken her screen. “I’m on a call with Kate from work.”

Ken gets up to see her phone better. When he’s closer, his face lights up in recognition and he grabs the phone from Barbie’s hand.

“Hi, Kate from work!” He exclaims excitedly, his wave at the camera a blur of motion. “Love the new mohawk.” 

“Thanks, Ken!” Kate responds just as excitedly. “I was thinking about dying it a crazy color. Maybe half purple and pink, or ombre.”

As Ken and Kate become invested in the topic of hair color options, Barbie shakes her head and takes a seat at her computer desk. Looks like she’s going to have to go shopping for men’s formal wear. 

[nathandiary]

Week 4 breakdown

Monday:

Over the weekend I did research on solarpunk, eco anxiety, new urbanism. I am interested in exploring the idea of new urbanism, self sufficence and community through community gardens in my illustration (maybe not the magazine)

Did some fox studies and fixed the head of the fox, illustration is ready for inking

Did artist studies of Catherine Meurisse’s drawings

Book binding workshop -> need to explore that with prints

Made a small hardback sketchbook

Tuesday:

Went to the careers fair

Went to the library and borrowed books on illustration and comic books to do some studies

Did research into MAs so I can start thinking about applying and considering my options

Did some writing and drawing in the new sketchbook I made

Wednesday:

Did studies of Catherine Meurisse, Zerocalcare and Lisa Mandel’s art

Thumbnails for the Day in the Life of an Art Student comic

Drew people in a ‘comic’ style by looking at reference pictures and using the style of the artist I studied

Had a group crit with the critique club, it made me think of how I was going to do for the binding of the poetry book

The use of letterpress embosses the letters on the paper so we can see them on the back. I need to try papers and see if I use folios or something else

Think about what the hand made version’s cover is gonna look like

Thursday:

Painted the fox and the rodents illustrations

Did a draft of the day in the life comics, I need to refine it on Monday morning to show it for the group crit

Friday:

Printmaking day

I made a new lino cut

I set the type for the colours list poem

I tried a million different papers to determine which one I should use for the book

I decided to go with the Sommerset in tan because it is smooth enough that I get a nice black without texture on it. The letters print in a clean way. It is sturdy enough to be bound (I liked the Japanese paper as well but it wouldn’t have been strong enough)

Had the tutorial with Flora, she helped decide which paper to get and was very supportive of the project. She suggested to look into poetry.

[sas-casebook]

Specialist Animation Studies: Statement of Intent Ideas

For my newest course, speicalist animation studies, I have been tasked with coming up with an original project idea of my own, looking at a particular feild of animation, writing an achedemic essay on the subject and creating a final product such as an animation. I first had to come up with the breif and ideas I wanted to explore.

Some mediums and ideas I first came up with included

Stop-motion

Rough concept, character reference sheet, synopsis, storyboarding, making head and clothes, foam body, stop-motion test animations.

Character design

Character sketches, model sheets and 2D test animation.

Potential ideas

Re-designing pre-existing characters from another visual medium

Designing characters from another non-visual source material such as a book

Designing characters for an original story pitch.

2D animation

Short synopsis, character sketches, reference sheet, thumbnailing, storyboard, key poses, roughs, inbetweens, final test animation.

Puppetry

Live action short film or film test involving using a rod, glove or 2D shadow etc puppet.

Storyboarding

Making a 2D storyboard to turn into an animatic.

Ideas

Adapting a non-animated scene into an animatic

Reboarding a scene from an animated film or tv show etc

Using pre-existing audio to make an animatic

Screenplay writing

Working from a synopsis or pre-existing non-script work such as a book or written story, writing story beats, making the first rough screenplay draft, and then more till the final draft.

Ideas

Adapting a non-animated story or scene into a screenplay designed for animation.

I considered doing a project where I redesigned characters from public domain fairytales, more specifically, the work of author Charles Perrault, such as Puss in Boots, Cinderella and Donkeyskin etc. But I felt not only was it too generic a concept, I also considered the fact I would have to do research on these subjects as part of an essay - and Fairytales and thier adaptations felt like too broad of a catagory for research purposes.

Finally, I settled on the idea of a project researching the stop-motion filmmakers Tim Burton and Henery Selick. Writting an essay about the two artists, who they are, thier histories and comparing the two as artists and thier approach to thier animated works. Once researched, I'd design two characters in the style of Burton and Selick respectivley, make a stop-motion puppet based on one of them and create a short stop-motion test with it.

I feel this will be a good subject for a project as not only am I a huge fan of the work of both Selick and Burton, but there are plently of books, articles and essays online about both artists, so I will have a specific yet wide variety of sources to draw from when writing an essay.

[breynoldsstoianovarts102-02]

Blog post four

When I reflected on all the work that went into creating the project three poster during the past critique my group members were impressed. Based on the content shown in the topmost image, they liked how I color coded and increased the weight of certain words. However, my group members and Dr. Chi noted that the overlapping-colored layers of the bold words were inconsistently placed. Additionally, a group member suggested that I could shift the last word of the quote to the left a bit more so it would not overlap with the magnifying glass. When Dr. Chi observed my poster she liked the texture from the background, but she recommended that I shift the author's name down to make it interact more with the background.

The picture below the previous one is the finalized version of the poster. Realigning the colored layers of text and adjusting the placement of the last word in the quote were straight forward tasks. However, centering the quote took additional effort. Since I had glued the visual elements onto the poster, moving them was not easy. Nonetheless, I figured that using the content-aware scale function on Photoshop would extend the length of the background. It took me a while, but with a little research I learned how to adjust the background's proportions. Looking back, I observe a clear distinction between the critique and polished versions of the poster. Rearranging the quote and author and resizing the dimensions of the background have all centered the text. This change has made the quote the clear focal point of the poster.

Since the start of project four, I have been familiarizing myself with my two assigned words--"funky" and "giraffe"--while pondering how to combine them into a logo. When starting out, I thought the best visuals for my logo would clearly represent my two words. Finding pictures to represent a giraffe was simple but trying to visually represent the adjective "funky" proved a challenging task. At first, I thought that "funky" might best be depicted by making the giraffe look like a dancer. However, after researching the word's meaning, I realized that "funky" is associated with music. As a result, I chose to design my mascot to represent a music album. The fourth image from the top displays my reference photos. I settled on musical notes and a pair of headphones to visually represent "funky" since nouns are an easy way to illustrate an adjective.

The third image from the bottom shows my matrix sketches. Out of the twenty-five designs, only three made the cut. Although all three sketches stood out, I especially liked the one sketch that combined continuity with figure and ground. During Mondays in progress check-in, I received some suggestions about simplifying my thumbnails in the third image from the bottom to make the text more legible. I was also told to consider studying the photo references in image three more closely and round out the shapes of the giraffe in my subsequent sketches.

Following the advice given, I drafted fifteen more thumbnail sketches that were variations on a previous thumbnail. When I was sketching out these thumbnails I made sure to simplify the giraffe and emulate the curvature of its head and sloping neck. The two bottom most images display the refined marks of the three thumbnails I chose. What I liked most about these sketches is the adequate alignment and spacing of the text. Since these sketches are also more simplified, they should be easier to interpret when viewed from afar.

A notable concept addressed by Veronique Marrier--an interviewee from these past two weeks' assigned readings--states that graphic designers conceptualize ideas from a broad to a narrow scope. This idea seems relevant to our current project since envisioning what good or service our mascot could represent was among the initial stages in the brainstorming process. I believe that this form of abstract thinking is a special tool that is constantly being cultivated through our in-progress checks and critiques. Having a broad vision, narrowing, and refining it are all steps that transport a project from a budding idea to a polished design.

[cats-artbag]

.:From story to thumbnail (SwapOut):.

@eaudecrow​ @chatxkilluaxnoir​

I’m so sorry I’m getting to these so late, my brain wanted to organize the thoughts regarding to this topic first, but I decided to start typing it out and will try my best to explain my process to you!

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

I had an idea one day which was something like “US!Pap dressing up as UT!Pap” that became “A skelebro impersonating the other”, which resulted in this phone doodle in April 2016 (and then later considered a sans version)

Then I wanted to make it into a story, so I began to think of some sort of a beginning, and an end, which are kinda easier to think of than the middle part. In fact I’m probably still thinking of how to make the middle better haha

I knew from the start that I wanted to do a crossover between Underswap and Undertale, and have a skelebro from one universe impersonate the other. And for trippy, inter-universal travel to happen, I had to think of a reason for Swap to activate his time machine, which is usually a last resort.

So here I figured out and established a setting that I wanted to start off in:

Starts in Genocide route in UnderSwap/Undertale where Frisk/Chara doesn’t return. US!Papyrus lost his US!Sans to Frisk. He killed them but now he's moping around, waiting for them to RESET... but nobody came. (Well... he did say if Frisk truly was their friend, they wouldn't come back.) There's no RESET. US!Sans never comes back home. No one does.

Which left me with this summary for the story:

“US!Papyrus snaps in his timeline and accidentally travels to UT where he ______.”

At this point I didn’t know how I’d end it, but I knew I’d loosely follow a route in Undertale where he’d end up [REDACTED], so it wasn’t like I was working completely from scratch in the first place for this story. I was never good at making things up from scratch, so working off of something that already exists i.e. doing fanart makes it easier. At the same time, I didn’t want to be unoriginal, which is hard haha ;;

Since he was going to the classic UT universe, I knew he’d have to interact with the characters there along the way before he finally reached the end.

So while keeping all that in mind, I finished typing a first draft of the entire story.

Yes, I typed the ENTIRE script for the comic before I started drawing anything.

Which, honestly? ...I think you’re supposed to do??

But when you’re young and just starting off comics, it’s easy to be impatient and to want to just work off the top of your head as you draw your comic...

I literally can’t do that though, as proven by my old comics that I never got around to drawing more than 2 pages of before I didn’t know where I was going. It’s also why I’m terrified of attempting the kinds of tumblr comics that swerve based on asks from people haha! I really admire the people who are able to do so.

I actually typed all these early thoughts here when I posted the first SwapOut page

Anyway after typing the first draft of the script, I finally let myself start the thumbnails. My script was divided into how much I thought would fit in a comic page as I typed, so I drew a thumbnail based on each divided section.

For example :

(these thumbnails are usually posted in the $2 tier on my patreon!)

The way I type my scripts is not standard at all, so if I know how I’ll draw them, I type their actions with their dialogue mashed together x’D But usually I’ll just type the dialogue by itself and keep going, spacing them out for each page. Also it’s good to arrange them so it helps the page flow naturally reading from left to right. (same with drawing as well!)

After that, I kinda use the thumbnail directly as a sketch nowadays (cos i’m a lazybones) and go straight into doing lines (or a more detailed sketch if the thumbnail is too rough/vague)

And that’s pretty much it! It took me a while to choose a page for an example haha but I think this is one of my favourites

As for Chapter 5, all the new pages were actually the scenes with Swap blasting his blaster! They weren’t originally planned in the script but I wanted to add more to the comic rather than him just enter the void and get out haha

I think a page probably takes me two days if I already have the thumbnail ready and I’m working on it straight without breaks, but I’ve been doing more of those which honestly makes my life on this a little easier (less grumpy and more relaxed yes please)

Again sorry this took so long to reply to! I’m also thinking of doing a more detailed tutorial thing for my Patreon but I feel like I already explained most of it here haha ;; Maybe more red flow line examples of my pages? idk

Asks are always welcome! I just suck at replying to them aha ;;

[flora-jimin]

Those Long Nights (1/2)

AO3 Link

Relationship: Hoseok x OFC, Endgame Min Yoonji x Hoseok

WC:2.7k

Genre: Hurt/Comfort, Angst, Eventual Smut (in ch 2)

Tags: College Au, Fem!Yoongi, Breakups, Pining

TW: Breakups, Relationship Anxieties

A/N: Lordy it’s been forever since I posted a BTS work. I probably got quietly booted from my nets pls lmk if I did I’m sorry yeet but I’m back this one one has been sitting in the drafts forver, so I hope you all enjoy the first chapter.

Chapter 2

-------

“One, two, three-”

“Oh, sorry, sorry I went the wrong way. Can we start from the top again?”

A sigh.

“Yeah. One more time from the beginning, Hobi. One, two, three four, step, turn, st-” There was a series of noises, and the other members of the BTS dance squad looked up, cringing as Yoonji and Hoseok nearly fell over one another. The short woman paused, taking a long, collecting breath so she wouldn’t flip her lid before she looked up at Hoseok, cat-like eyes narrowed.

“Jung Hoseok.” Her jaw ticked in annoyance as she locked him down with her gaze, crossing her hands over her chest as he shrunk back, eyes fixed at his feet.

“I-I’m sorry, guys, I guess I’m not feeling too hot today.” He admitted, scratching the back of his head. He glanced at his phone after taking a long swig of water from his bottle, his lips pulling into a tight line before a frustrated sigh left his lips.

“I think I’m gonna head home. I’m sorry for fucking up the Run, I’ll try not to be so distracted next time. Don’t worry, I should have something for BTS at the next Run, alright? I’ll be leaving first.” He apologized, bowing low to his best friends as he ducked out of the room before any of them could stop him.

BTS, or Beyond the Scene, was the top dance crew at the Bighit School of the Performing Arts.

The six-man, one-woman group had near-perfect synergy with one another, playing off of each other's strengths and specialties to put on breathtaking performances. They often held “Run” practices, where Hoseok-the primary brain behind their choreography-would try and make up bits and pieces with Yoonji-who also came up with a lot of the concepts behind their routines- often producing music for the seven to dance to.

Until recently, everything had always gone smoothly at BTS Runs, but lately, Hoseok had been getting distracted and it was beginning to show with his lack of focus during his dancing.

Yoonji crossed her arms, shaking her head as she watched Hoseok’s brunette head disappear down the crowded halls.

“So...My money’s on the girlfriend.” Jin was the first to speak after a minute or two of awkward silence, stretching his arms over his head. Namjoon frowned, elbowing him in the side lightly.

He arched a brow.

“What? You know I’m right.” He huffed as Jimin hummed in agreement from his spot on the floor, his head resting in Jungkook’s lap as the two Busan boys rested nearby. Taehyung, who was lying sprawled out on the floor like a starfish, lifted his head, lightly wiggling the tips of his feet.

“I thought he really liked her? What was her name again?” He inquired.

“Kim Yoon Seo.” Yoonji answered, stepping over his legs as she moved to her duffle bag, grabbing a sports drink to quench her thirst. There was a mumble amongst the boys, as the name did ring a bell.

Kim Yoon Seo was one of their underclassmen, being in the same year as Taehyung and Jungkook. Her and Hoseok had started dating a few months ago-munch to Yoonji’s displeasure, though she would never admit it to anyone-and the two had been close ever since.

Or, that’s what it looked like at first.

“So...who’s gonna be the one to actually drag him by the heart-shaped ear and make him spill the beans? We can’t keep letting him pretend he’s okay when we all know he’s not.” Jungkook sighed, his fingers idly running through Jimin’s bubblegum pink hair.

There was a silence that stretched in the room, the only sound really being the crinkle of Yoonji’s drink bottle as she finished downing it, wiping her lips. She noticed the silence and looked over her shoulder, finding five pairs of eyes locked on her form.

Her eyes narrowed.

“Why do I have to be the one? You all know I’m not exactly good with my words and this is clearly a sensitive matter.” She put a hand on her hip, pointing at Namjoon.

“You’re the leader, Joon. Why can’t you do it?” She huffed. Namjoon scratched his head.

“Well, you guys technically nominated me as the leader because Jin and Hobi hyung didn’t want all of the “not fun” responsibilities and you didn’t want to be the one that had to, and I quote: “Keep you group of idiots in line 24/7”. Besides, you live right next to him. You two even come to school together.”

Yoonji clicked her tongue in annoyance before she sighed and nodded.

“Fine. I’ll do my best, but I won’t promise you anything.” She picked her duffle bag up and the boys all got on their feet as well. Jin clapped her on the shoulder, smiling wide at her as they filed out of the room.

“You don’t give yourself enough credit, Yoon. You may not be the gentlest person with your words, but you still go above and beyond to help and that’s what counts. We don’t call you ‘Suga’ for nothing.” He beamed.

“You call me Suga because I told you to.” She reminded him, arching a brow. Jin tipped his head back, laughing joyously as he walked out of the room.

“Details, details.”

-Later-

Yoonji smiled as she dropped her duffle bag to the floor once she closed the door to her apartment, listening to the sound of claws on tile as her dog Min Holly came scurrying across the apartment to happily yip and bark at her feet.

She toed her shoes off, striding into her home, turning on lights as she went, all while Holly followed close behind, making a point to nudge her calves with every other step.

“I don’t know whether you’re happy to see me because you love me or because I give you food.” The Daegu dancer quipped, a small, knowing smirk coming to her face when Holly’s ears went up at the word ‘food’. She made her way to the kitchen, reaching into the cabinet to pull out a little cookie-shaped plastic container. Holly yipped, bouncing up and down as he watched his owner like a hawk.

He sat, he jumped, he walked in a circle, all to get Yoonji to move faster.

Yoonji knelt down, shaking the cookie-shaped container.

“Well, Holly-ya? Do you want Shooky to give you dinner?” She cooed, shaking ‘Shooky’ around so Holly knew there was food inside. He sat down obediently, pawing at Shooky’s head before letting out a small bark before waiting.

Satisfied, Yoonji screwed off the cap, pouring some food into Holly’s bowl before putting Shooky back into the cabinet, leaving her beloved dog to eat in peace.

She sat down heavily on the couch with her knees pulled up to her chest, chewing on her thumbnail as she tried to think of how to approach Hobi. It was never a problem before with her bringing up concerns to him, as all of BTS were very close friends. They all cared deeply for each other.

In Yoonji’s case, she cared a bit too deeply for Hoseok.

She wasn’t sure when exactly she started seeing one of her best friends as more than that, but it was the very reason she couldn’t bring herself to stop Hoseok from dating Yoon Seo when he came to their group one practice, ecstatic because the girl confessed to him one spring day. Yoonji had bit back a protest with a fake smile, ignoring the concerned looks from the other BTS dancers.

Apparently the other five had caught onto her growing feelings for their lead dancer before she even realized them.

Her train of thought was cut off by Holly bounding into the living room, barking excitedly before looking at the door that led to the balcony. She stood, her socks sinking into the plush carpet under her feet as she made her way to the door, sliding it open to stick her head outside.

She could hear the sound of sniffling and shaky breathing and her heart dropped, stepping fully into the night, looking to the left.

Sure enough, Hoseok’s curled up form was on the balcony right beside hers as he tried to keep the sound of his weak sobs to a minimum. Yoonji closed the door to her balcony, taking a couple of long strides to lean on the edge of her balcony.

“Hobi…?”

He startled, jolting and nearly throwing his phone across his own balcony. Hoseok looked up, wiping his eyes furiously to try to fruitlessly cover up the fact that he was crying.

“Aigoo! Yoongs I told you about sneaking up on me!” He scolded her half-heartedly, putting a hand over his heart. She frowned, studying his face quietly.

His nose and cheeks were cherry red and his eyes were puffy. The way he held his phone was a near white-knuckled grip and refused to meet her gaze broke her heart.

“Hobi, we need to talk.”

“I’m fine, Noona, it’s nothing-”

“Hoseok. You’re messing up more than normal during our Runs, you won’t eat with us after practice, and now you’re crying on your balcony at 9 at night. Don’t you dare stand there and tell me you’re fine.” She scolded him fiercely, her eyes narrowing in such a way that made a shiver run down Hoseok’s spine. He looked down like a child that had gotten in trouble, idly rubbing his thumbs over the screen of his phone. Yoonji knew he was trying to find the words, so she waited, watching him like a hawk.

“Can...Can I come over and sit down to talk?”

Yoonji closed her eyes and exhaled for a moment before she nodded, pushing herself off of the railing.

“I’ll put some tea on and order some takeout.” was all she said before she left him be, walking back into her home. After she slid the glass door to the balcony closed, she leaned on it, running a hand down her face. She had no idea what was going on, but if Yoon Seo had done something to hurt Hoseok-

Yoonji let out a frustrated sigh, going back into the kitchen to put a pot of water to boil as she dialed a nearby restaurant to order chicken and lamb skewers. She moved to her cabinet, taking out two mugs from the colorful set she owned.

There was one for every member of BTS and an extra for Namjoon’s twin sister, Kim Amy. The young girl had the set made for the group as a present when they started their group and Yoonji had decided to hold onto it since she cooked a lot of meals for the boys when they decided to celebrate at home.

Yoonji had been so fond of her character ‘Shooky’, that she had some other dishes custom made with his smiling mischievous face on it. She grabbed her mug and the purple and blue horse one beside it. That one was Mang, Hoseok’s character.

She set the mugs down beside each other, settling a raspberry tea bag in each one. Her front door opened from somewhere behind her and she didn’t bat a lash. Hoseok had the key to her apartment and vice versa.

“Hey, Holly. You look so cute today, as always.” Hobi cooed, scratching the poodle behind the ears before he moved to sit at the dining room table.

“I’m here, Noona.”

Yoonji took a collecting breath, putting his mug in front of him before she set hers down on the other side of the table, sitting so she could look him in the eyes. He bowed slightly to thank her, moving his nervous hands to wrap around the mug, leaving his phone face down.

Yoonji studied him for a moment.

Hoseok often had trouble sitting still, but when he was upset, he always needed his hands to be busy or he’d breakdown. She let him fidget with the mug for a minute or so before she spoke.

“Okay. Tell me what’s wrong.”

“Its….i-its Yoon Seo.” He sighed, shoulders slumping. Yoonji bit back the sly ‘no shit’ that was on the edge of her tongue, instead choosing to nod once to let him know she was listening and waiting for him to continue.

“Lately, she’s been pulling away from me. Spending less time with me, giving me less...attention…” He trailed off, and Yoonji could swear she watched him deflate as he muttered the last word.

“Aish, this is foolish. I sound like a loser-”

“Hoseok, if it’s bothering you, it’s not foolish to me. Tell me everything.” She pressed, reaching over to gently pat the top of his hands. He let out a shaky sigh, biting his lip.

“She doesn’t seem to want to do anything together anymore. I know she’s busy practicing and honestly so are we, so shouldn’t that make our free time more precious? She’ll go for hours ignoring me, but talk in the group chat with the other dancers. I just wish she would talk to me, y’know? If she needs space, I’ll give it to her. If she wants to spend extra time with her friends and family, obviously she has every right to but I...I don’t like being kept in the dark like this. Even when she does talk to me, she’s distracted or she seems annoyed with me even being there and I don’t know what to do.” Yoonji felt her lips part in a frown as tears welled up in Hoseok’s eyes.

“I feel like such a loser for being so sensitive. I probably sound like some attention hogging weirdo, don’t I?” He huffed out a humorless laugh, running his hand through his hair, pulling at the brunette locks. Yoonji stood and swatted his arm lightly to make him let go, frowning down at his sitting form.

“Hoseok, you’re her boyfriend. You have every right to want her to give you some more attention. If she’s making you feel like you’re a bother on her for wanting that much, she’s doing something wrong. Have you told her about how you feel?” She inquired, rubbing his shoulders for a moment before she went to take the boiling water off the stove. Hoseok sighed.

“I did. She said she didn’t know what I was talking about and that nothing had changed so I kind of...closed up after that. I started worrying about whether or not it really was my fault. Now I just...I don’t know. I feel like I’m going crazy.” The dancer admitted as Yoonji poured the water into both his and her mugs. Hoseok watched the magenta color bleed out off the tea bag, smiling as the raspberry scent wafted up into his nose.

Yoonji excused herself long enough to grab their takeout once the doorbell rang, hastily shoving a few large bills at the deliveryman and insisting that he keep the change so she could return to Hoseok.

Once the plates were served and the tea was diffused, the conversation died, with Hoseok momentarily forgetting his troubles as he ate happily. She watched him out of the corner of her eye, smiling slightly when she saw him relax for the first time since she found him on the balcony.

-Later-

“If you want me to talk to her, I will.” Yoonji’s quiet offer was almost too quiet for Hoseok to hear as the duo washed out their plates and mugs. His hands froze in the soapy water, turning to look at her with wide eyes.

“R-Really? You’ll talk to Yoon Seo for me?” He perked, smiling so wide she could see one of his little dimples. Her heart stuttered and she looked away, drying her hands off with some paper towels.

It made her heart sink into her shoes at the hopeful look in his eyes, but she nodded, regardless.

The happiness and wellbeing of your best friend comes before your pining, Min Yoonji. Remember that.

She smiled despite the pang of hurt in her heart and put a damp hand on his shoulder.

“Yeah. I’ll do it, no problem.”

Hoseok grinned wildly and pulled her into a hug, drawing a small, startled gasp from her as he spun her lightly.

“Thank you so much. I love you so much, noona!” He beamed. Yoonji bit her lip and pet his head lightly, standing on her tiptoes to fully reciprocate the hug.

“Yeah...I love you too, Hobi.”

[moonlightalpha666]

(POSTING OLD DRAFTS FOR FILLER OH BOI)

Narcissistic Cannibal Original Animation Meme(?) (ZombieTubbies/WARNING: Dark Themes/Read Desc Plz/FlipaClip): https://youtu.be/mhXOsx-wV0c

HOOOOOOLYYY, SHHIIIIT, IT'S FINALLY DONE!! AFTER OVER 2 MONTHS OF OFF AND ON WORK, IT IS NOW FINISHED!! I'M BACK, WOOHOO! I plan on getting back into the groove of animating for often, so I encourage y'all to give me meme ideas! Don't hold back!!

Song/Audio: https://youtu.be/qYn8lfMEmfA

So, I've had this idea in my head for a long while now, and I couldn't find any memes similar to this one, so I decided to go through with it! But, unfortunately, the last time I tried making an original animation meme, someone managed to finish it before me, and it was very similar, and you can imagine how upset I was about it. So, if you think I've made a mistake, then feel free to let me know, but I'd like evidence, please and thank you.

Thumbnail Artist: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmffT6SOzRkh6A30VbksYlw @mindiethefox

So, ZombieTubbies has officially been raised from the dead!! Hopefully this vid will draw some attention to my beloveded AU! I'd love to hear your thoughts on it!! y'all could share this around, like, subscribe, all that jazz, it'd be greatly appreciated! I put alot of my heart, soul, time and effort into this, please don't let this flop! Thank you!!

#animationmeme #animation #narcissisticcannibal #zombietubbies #au #flipaclip

[jaytheredbird]

🥪!!

🥪 What's your creation process like?

@javechan_

For personal projects: my creation process is 85% crying/agonizing/losing-the-will-to-live; 10% researching poses, material and lighting references; 2.5% staring blankly at my canvas for hours before going to sleep, 2.5% actual drawing.

For professional projects: The 85% is done internally and in parallel to drawing thumbnail sketches, or researching references for whatever task I've been assigned.

@wajjs

At the moment I can't think of a better way to express it, but... whenever I have an idea for a story, if it comes to me in prose form, I let it marinate in my head for a while. I think about how tiring it would be to write it and if the writing experience could help me learn something new, or practice something I think needs practicing.

After that, I generally choose the title first, since I believe it's a fundamental piece to every story (it sets the tone, sets the possibilities of meaning while still keeping the door half open for any convenient innuendo).

For poetry, the process is usually much easier: I think of a sentence and immediately go like OOOOH THIS COULD MAKE A DOPE POEM and then spend the next hour coming up with rhymes until I'm satisfied.

@glaciya

A constant battle with myself, honestly. I usually think of one or two scenes or a bit of dialogue that I’m like yeah!! I really like those!!! about and then the rest is just me scrambling to make those scenes happen. I love the concept of building tension and an eventual, meaningful climax but actually having the patience to write it? Not so much lol. Although I will say some of my favorite scenes I’ve written have been just off the top of my head as I write, so I do need to put some more faith into that aspect of it as well

@spartanbunjess

My writing process...hummmm... I suppose I’d describe it as mostly unplanned. I get really bad headaches due to Fibromyalgia and writing is one of the only ways I can distract from them. I find an idea or think of what I believe a character deserves and just write. Sometimes I’ll write out a rough draft and go back to bulk it out. Usually it’s all written at once. I also love to write non-linear pieces. The way it can start with the ending or half way through the idea and bounce around just appeals to my chaotic mind. I feel it lets there be a sense of mystery (how did they end up in that situation) while also letting the reader know more than the character which I feel adds a sense of intrigue. Some days I can write 5-6 fics at once (which I did for omega Jason Todd week) and other days it’s a sentence. I’ve finally reached a point where I try to feel accomplished no matter how much I write. One word is more than I’d had before so it’s progress.

@firefrightfic

My writing process is, uh... pretty simple, tbh. Think of idea. Obsess over idea. Get enabled into idea by friends. Stare at gdoc, write start, hit block, leave for weeks, come back, finish story. Sometimes I'm luckier and can consistently write something start to finish, but overall I'm not the fastest writer in the world. I also get a bit obssessive over proofreading and editing. After finishing something, I have to leave it at least a few weeks before I edit it so I can look at it with fresh eyes, then usually read it at least three times over to be sure I'm happy with it.

[maikatc]

Black Sun Tale | Ten Dollars

alright, here we go y’all

remember that this is a first draft and i’ve only barely edited it, but comments and reception is heavily appreciated!

(also @rhyseoshaughnessy because they said to) --- There is always a time in someone’s life that’s the lowest, it’s a given. Those who break down from their faults and failures, ones who are toyed with to the point of numbness, the occurrences are common to an individual’s extent. 

However, ultimately the question is how to break away from the cycles, and it takes lifetimes for some to realize. 

It all boils down to the differences in people and what they want to achieve in the end. Though for some that desire is left unknown, or they were left with no certain answers, including Oliver Holguin. 

The day lengthened in time for Oliver by the early morning as per usual. His tired eyes slowly waking as he played through repeated melodies. Practicing throughout the nights, the song ringing out from the ukulele was beautiful to the ears. And as he continued onwards, his sight began to lighten up the bedroom. 

“As lovely as you are, I will have to go,” He sang with whispers tickling his throat. His bed-hair blocked him from catching somebody in the corner of his eyes, though the light greeted him with a shelf of books and a tablet on a nightstand instead of the man.

The complicated tabs and chords flew by with his fingers. The ease of the song left him concluding his mastery. “I’m sorry to let you down.” He rung the last lyrics and strings leaving the room in echoing silence. Taking a moment of pause, he placed the ukulele back to the side. He stood up from his bed. His sore legs fumbled together to go and grab a charger. His tablet turned on to a low percentage once he connected the two together. 

I need to stop using this at night, he thought while he searched for a tablature site. He pulled back his auburn bangs to read better, scrolling through lists of songs to learn. “… I need to find a new site too.” His voice croaked with soreness.

He sighed, letting the device charge. He stretched his joints in a yawn and walked out of his room. His left arm pounded asking for a scratch and reminded him to check the bathroom. The early morning traffic blasted noise through the apartment when he scavenged the cabinet filled with multiple vitamins and medicine. 

His tiny arms tried to recognize the feeling of what he wanted, and he debated on just getting a stool considering his height. However, he finally reached what he was looking for and opened the cap. 

Crap. The ointment cream container held almost nothing. “I have to get more before she finds out,” he muttered. His eyes stuck on the little bottle for seconds until putting it back in its place, ignoring his irritating arm, as well as his always ignored stomach.

***

Oliver sat on his living room couch, doodling on schoolwork and watching television. The velvet cushions pinched him by his skin in discomfort, though he’d been adjusted for years. Cartoons played on an overpriced T.V. as background noise with the occasional screech harming the boy’s ears. He worked with barely a care, only thinking once a question tugged his head hard. Eventually, to no avail he had to turn the entertainment off. What the hell is up with kid shows nowadays, he scowled.

Checking the clock, the arrows pointed to be ten in the morning. Oliver yawned. Twenty minutes of sleep couldn’t cope with boredom. However, from the amount of ‘good sleep’ he had gain from the past days, some rest could be assuring.  

He laid down, resting his body to the cushions he sat on. His mind rang until it blurred, nothing will happen, right?

His heavy eyes shut in only half a second. 

***

The sound of soft sizzles woke Oliver up. He rubbed his eyes, sitting up to see his mother standing in the kitchen across the room. 

“Seems like you were tired?”

Smile, smile. “Yeah, I slept a little late last night by accident.” He scratched his head while forcing a chuckle.

She cut up vegetables from the counter, assuring him, “You know that’s alright. It wasn’t even a school night.” 

The crunch of the plants getting cut up could be heard all the way from where Oliver’s mother stood. Oliver himself checked the time again to find the clock pointed only a half hour after five. Dear god that was a long time. “How come you came home early,” he irked.

“My last patient’s parents called in and said that she wouldn’t come today so my boss said I could take the rest of the day off. Hope she’s alright, though.” She placed her knife down to go and walked over to him. 

“You’re talking about Lavinia, right?”

She sat with him. “Yeah, the one with her phone.”

Oliver eyed her, “Didn’t you say that she’s been starting to act weird?”

“Mhm…,” she drifted, “But you don’t have to worry about that,” she messed Oliver’s hair with her hands. 

“Stop!” Oliver moved her hand away sluggishly, giving a warm smile to her satisfaction. Though her own chortles told him that he did all right. 

She stood up again, shifting back to what she did prior. “So now that I’m back early, do you want to go somewhere?”

Oliver shrugged, “We can go out somewhere if you want, where do you wanna go?”

“Oliver, it’s your choice, not mine. Don’t you want to hang out with a friend from school?” She opened the refrigerator, taking out prepped meat. “Your teachers say you get along with them but you never mention anybody to me.”

“It’s fine, Mom. They’re just kind of…” He avoided her eyes, “people that I wouldn’t hang out with privately.” He tried to laugh it off though his mother’s eyes sent concern instead. 

“Is this about Rowan and Ann? Because you know that that kind of stuff isn’t common-”

“Mom, that was three years ago, I barely remember it.” That’s a lie. “They aren’t the reason. Heck, I didn’t even get along with my class when I skipped a grade.”

“Well,” she placed the meat in a heated pan, “you’re almost eleven and you’re still cooped up in the house all the time.” The meat sizzled in the oil. The scent flowed through the air as they spoke.

“No, I’m not,” Oliver scoffs, “I go out to walk… sometimes at least.”

His mother clicked her tongue, shaking her head. “I have to check up on you more often.” Oliver’s eyes widened. ���I’ll bring you somewhere later today after I get some paperwork done.”

The boy’s eyes lowered without facing her. “Thanks, but you really don’t have to bring down work. Uh, your patients really like you, don’t they?”

“But I should be taking care of my only kid, shouldn’t I-”

“They’ll miss you,” he interjected, squeezing his vocal tone to be reliable. “Besides, you can get more money to pay the mortgage here faster doing so.”

“Stop making smart words with me.” A click in the stove caught Oliver’s ears. “Anyways, food’s ready.”

After setting plates and utensils, they ate together in a plain table of shiny marble. The meat turned out to be pork chops, and the taste would have been mouthwatering. 

“Ah, this came out perfectly. Hope you like it.” She beamed, taking another bite in the process. 

Oliver cut off another piece, biting his lip. “Yeah, it’s great like always, Mom.”

“You really need to invite a friend over sometime,” she exclaimed. “It’s not fun only cooking for you and me.”

He looked down at the food, sighing, “No clue when that’ll happen.”

They went to venture through stores after lunch, only for Oliver asking to leave an hour in.

***

Oliver skimmed through video posts online, scrolling past multiple in his disinterest. Crying sweats sank through his skin, though he ignored the occasional occurrence. Chirps of his mother babbling at her friends’ calls echoed through the apartment like every other night while Oliver listened in the back of his head.

“No! Jamie, you’re getting the wrong idea,” she snorted. “He’ll bring someone home at some point… hopefully.” The sight of her crooked smile could be imagined by Oliver in a mere second. 

The redhead placed his tablet to the side of his undone bed. A deep breath was enough to function himself, same went for staring at the dull ceiling. 

His mind dimmed from his usual racing thoughts, taking time to go at a complete blank. His hearing and sight blurred spacing out. His eyes continued to close and open, the emptiness making it difficult to keep his eyes open wide. To stay awake, he raised his hand towards the ceiling, using any muscle he had to keep it up. The warm air of the heater blew against his arm and long-sleeve. With every joint and wrinkle on his fingers, all he could observe with thought was his skin, which had paled from his constant brown. 

“Damn.” Oliver clenched his hand. The arm fell down as he hopped out of his bed to the rugged floor with his bare feet. The room was already heated for Oliver, though his decision was an exception to the discomfort. Picked up from an unused chair, the boy dressed himself in a crimson cardigan dangling down to his knees. As he fitted the oversized attire, he nabbed his tablet back to his hands and sat on the floor. “This’ll probably be better,” he slurred.

Reloading the site, a certain video caught Oliver’s eyes:

Alexa Katzmann Found Dead Indoors from Area Death. The thumbnail of news made Oliver’s eyes widen, his cold sweats rising as he clicked with doubt. 

The reporter stated the repeated script about area deaths. Of course, nobody could find the real reason of the death like always. While the woman explained the exact story, the camera panned at the body. Alexa was about five as the news said, daughter of a celebrity, though they censored enough appropriately.  

However, what played over Oliver’s screen made his heart beat faster, louder. 

Alexa’s stomach had been ripped out, blood scattering all over against her clothes and pale skin. Everyone in the room stepped on the organs without realizing they were there. Nobody could see the same scene Oliver viewed. 

He muttered to himself as the video continued to play, “No, no, no…” His breathing grew as his throat continued to burn from the air and panic. 

“This is the first report where an area death has occurred indoors.” Stop saying anything. He stopped the video and tossed over his tablet as his mind raced for answers. 

His scratched his arm over and over, his heart pounding over his ears to the point of needing to scream. “When?” He barely breathed out. “When did-? “

Oliver looked around his room. Now. He jumped at his ukulele case in a split second, unzipping it in barely any time. Fuck the ointment. He reached for an inner pocket, unzipping it until he heard a voice. 

“You really do get scared quick, huh?” The voice stung obnoxiously, making Oliver pause and enter back to reality. 

Oliver twisted his head, still shaking from the previous seconds. His mind already clicked together who it was, however. A taller figure stood right behind him, leaning against the wall with hands behind his back. The man’s messily styled hair and dirty trench coat brought more memory to who he was. The boy took a gulp before completely coming back to his senses. 

“… Why are you here now, Vittorino?”

Vittorino shrugged, popping out of the wall and walking towards him. “I was bored. ‘Wanted to see what you were doing.” His dark eyes darted Oliver’s position. “I see you’re about to have fun,” he scoffed

“Shut up.” Oliver slammed his ukulele case shut. He crawled back over to his bed, turning back on his tablet and biting his lip. Of course, he’s here because of that.

Oliver continued to scroll around on his tablet, his heart still pounding loudly in his head. The screen grabbed Oliver’s attention completely.

“… You know,” Vittorino spoke after Oliver’s ignorance, “You really don’t ever go out.”

His smile could already be seen without looking. “And you mention this because?” Oliver sighed out, his head refusing to turn to Vittorino. He typed up a video to re-watch in attempt to distract himself later on.

“Because are you really going to be cooped up like some nobody?” His tone was readably different from previous conversations, from what Oliver noted. Expectations for what to come next jotted to more limited possibilities. 

 “It’s better like that.” No turn made again.

A grumble could be heard before a sudden, “Come on!” Vittorino appeared right to Oliver, the boy’s body flinched and turned in the process. “Enjoy life a little!”

 Oliver’s shoulders lowered. “You’re being pretty persistent than normal.” 

“Come on, Oliver.” Vittorino dug his hands to his pockets, a sly grin creeping through like always. “Let’s go. Just a walk with me is alright, right?”

Oliver’s eyes squinted, his mind boggling at the possibilities that could happen with the decision, considering the teen-nuisance that is Vittorino. “… Fine.” But just why would he want me to go, was the only question in his mind that moment.

After drudging out of bed and to the living room, Oliver told his mother that he was going off to a walk. Vittorino followed behind him but she made no comment, gladly telling Oliver goodbye without noticing the teen’s existence. 

Obodo City was always a bustling mess.

The tourists running around, the teenagers crying over late trends and messages, the children hyper and shouting at the tall buildings and stores, even loud, annoying traffic that’s at a constant. Oliver paced through the sidewalks, crimson hood over his head as gusts of October winds blew before him. Buildings stood tall and jagged against each other that formed unimaginable shapes in the air. Balconies stood in neighboring apartments filled with laundry or autumn plants, some even blasting music while the owners took a cig. The sounds screamed at the boy’s ears while the scent of street food caught his nose easily. As Oliver’s instincts pressured him to take a bite of something, he refused, his teeth clawing at his lip. 

“So,” Vittorino ignited the conversation, “How’s your day gone so far?” He took no look at Oliver and instead viewed the sites ahead, to Oliver’s bewilderment. The only thing up ahead were greyed alleys and crosswalks, similar to everything else in the city aside from the intense smoke in the area. 

“… Have you been hungry lately?” The man snickered, snatching Oliver’s attention despite the rude comment. 

“I just ate.” He stated, looking ahead himself, “The question wasn’t needed.” 

“Just wondering,” Vittorino bent down to Oliver’s height, still walking, gleaming by Oliver’s sour expression. 

Oliver’s sight of Vittorino disappeared as his figure jumped up in front of the boy in a blink. “You have to admit,” Vittorino said, wrapping a stop sign around his arm. “This city really is awesome to look around in, right?”

“I’ve been here for the past ten years of my life, Vittorino. Best that can happen is controversy protests and holiday decorations.”

“Really? What kind of stuff do you guys decorate?” Vittorino’s brows risen up, curiosity almost purring from him. 

Oliver walked passed him as the crosswalk glowed green. A small crowd surrounded him as he shrugged. “Lights for the most part, nothing special.”

Vittorino appeared right next to him. “Sounds nice.”

Silence covered both of them. Oliver pondered over Vittorino’s past actions as Vittorino turned all over to view the sights of the city. Oliver followed him though the teen stared aimlessly at such miniscule of things. A tiny convenience store barely seen by a tall building and a worn-down restaurant included. Someone older than him being intrigued by such things made Oliver question his identity more than before. 

Entering a cleaner street, Oliver queried, “Vittorino?”

“Hm?” 

“What do you have to do with Faustus?”

The man with the trench coat stopped at his steps. Oliver took a gulp down his throat. 

“Who’s Faustus,” he pondered.

“You know who I’m talking about,” Oliver spatters, “Emo kid, probably sixteen or something by now. Pale skin, white hair, blue eyes but he never shows one of them?”

“Oh! I know who you’re talking about now.” He sneered, “That isn’t actually his name, you know.” 

“I figured,” Oliver murmured. “But aside from that, you have something to do with him, don’t you?”

“And what makes you think that?”

Oliver threw his hands forward. “Nobody except for me can see both of you! That’d be obvious enough.” He crossed his arms. “But you both are weirdos out of anybody that I’ve ever met.” 

“That’s rather judgmental, isn’t it?”

“I’ve been trying to figure out who Zach is and where the hell he went since I was seven. I barely had any kind of way to figure out until you started popping up in my life.” Oliver’s unfastened hood flew out from the wind as he turned his sight to Vittorino’s eyes. He pleaded with brows furrowed, “Just tell me how you guys are related and why you both are really here in the first place.”

Vittorino’s mocking expression deepened. “Well, I guess I can admit one thing.”

“And that is…?” 

“You can say that I’m hanging out with you for two favors,” He raised two fingers down to Oliver, lowering one quickly after, “but one of them is for ‘Faustus’.”

“What was the favor for?” Oliver’s head drifted to the side. 

“One of them was more of an assignment out of anything, actually, but the other was so I could get some favors back.” Vittorino leaned by on a sign pole. “The one that wasn’t from the guy was basically just to check up on you from time to time. The assignment I can’t really tell. It’s about to be done though.”

“I swear to god, if you’re gonna screw me over somehow-”

“Don’t worry,” Vittorino rolled his eyes, “It’ll be beneficial for you.”

Oliver shook his head. “I don’t trust that at all.”

Vittorino chuckled and shrugged. “Fine then.” He stepped towards Oliver, slamming something to Oliver’s chest. 

Oliver coughed at the impact, but caught the item he handed. He opened his hands to find a ten-dollar bill. Turning to see Vittorino, he already found the mystery to be walking away from him. He dashed to catch up with him. “Where’d you get this?”

“I asked a guy and he just gave it to me.”

“But nobody can see you…?”

Vittorino lifted a finger. “I can be seen if I want, I just usually hide myself for the sake of it.” He dumped his hands into his pockets. “You needed ointment, right?”

Oliver tensed. “Yes…” he nodded, guilt building up inside of him again. 

“Go buy some then. Get extra stuff if you want,” Vittorino told. “Have fun, kid.” 

He was gone before Oliver could say anything. The red-head was left alone in the street. He looked back to his hand, covered over by a single bill. Pulling up his sleeves, he stared blankly and sighed, a small puff of cold air seeping out of his breath. 

“Might as well.”

-

Next >>>

[comicteaparty]

April 4th-April 10th, 2020 Creator Babble Archive

The archive for the Creator Babble  chat that occurred from April 4th, 2020 to April 10th, 2020.  The chat focused on the following question:

What is something you’ve improved with in regards to writing or comic creation thanks to working on your story?

carcarchu

Oh this one i can answer definitively. it's 100% lineart. forcing myself to have to do lineart for hours everyday is definitely a way to force yourself to get better at it while i still don't like it it's something that i can do now without being scared about it

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

Colouring. I had to get really creative in expressing emotion and hinting plot devices with colour. Also got much better with drawing gesture drawings due to looking at a lot of references!

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Either writing dialogue or drawing/painting backgrounds... I used to be particularly awful at writing dialogue. It was too stiff and formal, and sounded a lot like old prose. Now, because of writing a comic and going through several scripts, the dialogue is a lot more natural, and the pacing is more realistic to actual conversations. And the other: backgrounds. I really used to not even draw them at all, and doing a comic forced me to have to think about environments in scenes. So I went from drawing floating characters to having to consider where they are and how it affects the story/mood.(edited)

Feather J. Fern

Paneling! That was my main focus to figure out how to do good paneling to have clearer pages

Deo101 [Millennium]

Honestly? Everything. It's all gotten better and I've learned so much. I would say my biggest improvement is probably in my time management, and art wise is probably composition and layouts. But it's hard to pick because I've grown so much in every aspect!

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

Biggest thing I learned was to keep the story small and focused - and that the smaller, more human struggles are much better in creating tension than the whole default "the world's gonna end!" thing. Mind you, I still love a good "world's ending" story, but you gotta make people CARE about the people in that world first!

Holmeaa - working on WAYFINDERS

ohohohoooo I have done more drawing in photoshop in this short time I have worked on Wayfinders, than the rest of my life! That has given me some skills for sure! Coloring is another one, and generally just efficiency and flow in a comic

Nutty (Court of Roses)

For me it's been my use of color, and getting more confident in experimenting with it to really drive home a scene's mood!

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

The clearest improvement I always notice is my layouts - I’ve gotten more adventurous with panel shapes and placement as time has gone on, experimenting with more interesting designs for the whole page. Some of those experiments haven’t been totally successful but it always feels like a worthwhile try. I’ve gotten some really, REALLY cool layouts out of these experiments, and I love seeing how dynamic the panels have become compared to my first chapter. Also speed. I’m so much faster now. Thank gooooooodness (edited)

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

@LadyLazuli (Phantomarine) I've definitely noticed the experimental panel layouts! They're really cool.

AntiBunny

Planning. Book 2 is when I started using sketchbook thumbnails to plan ahead. The luxury of that first draft meant I could rethink panel layouts and how to best express the events happening if I first had an idea of what was happening laid out.

Also digital art by necessity since I switched to digital during the current arc. I was decent at lineart already, but other aspects have really challenged me to grow as an artist. I had to totally rethink the way I create backgrounds for instance. During this time the background quality actually declined a little while I got used to a new method, but experience has improved my skills greatly as I force myself into new methods.

DanitheCarutor

Hmmm maybe paneling, speechbubbles and backgrounds? My current project is my second real attempt at doing a comic, but I have learned a lot of stuff from the community and general art and story tutorials. Backgrounds and bubbles were the worst for me when first starting out, I only read manga before starting so the speechbubble shapes did not fit with how English is written. Plus I've only drawn wooded fantasy settings before making my comic, so using a ruler, figuring out perspective points and drawing buildings was very new to me. I still hate drawing cities and such, but I've gotten a lot better at it and it is easier to do now. Since I mostly stuck with B&W before my current project, coloring also kind of improved? Depending on who's looking at it. Lmao If I were to think about story/characters/dialogue, I have no idea if I've improved. Honestly, I don't pay much attention to the quality. Also my brain kinda says it's all bad regardless of what I make.(edited)

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

For my Improvements: I'm getting better at my comic panels, as I adjust to the vertical style. Before I've always drawn the standard format. It's more than just boxes, I try to keep a variety of sizes. I'm picking up roughly how much 'gutter space' I need per 2-3 panels.etc I'm also improving on choosing colors that fits my love of detailed linework.(edited)

OH! I'm also learning about Clip studio shortcuts, how to use the assets they provide which makes the process, abit easier on me. Things I need to change, is I want to get a good speedy coloring style, without referring to my usual coloring.(edited)

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

the more I worked on the comic, the more I feel ambitious in making different angles and perspective. So it's really hitting me out of my comfort zone which is good! lol Though I'm trying to keep in mind of my speed, what I feel like I've improved a bit is trying to keep in mind of paneling and dialogue.

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

Process! Space and i have definitely figured out the most productive way to produce content at the rate and quality that also provides us with time for our own projects. Comics are a useful tool that helps you discover ways to better organize your creative workflow for sure!

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

I think probably scenery. I used to dread drawing inanimate objects but now I feel more confident in filling in a scene & even look forward to it sometimes. Maybe also page composition and paneling but I still have a lot to learn there

eli [a winged tale]

One of the reasons I embarked on the webcomic journey is to push myself to improve not only storytelling but also utilizing art to create a reader experience that would be difficult to replicate with just words. I’d like to think that 9 months into making A Winged Tale, I’ve improved on deciding when is a good opportunity to invest more into backgrounds vs character dynamics and when should be focused more on sequences of panels and composition. While the comic is written in a four panel format, more and more I’m finding areas where the story could be told by breaking those rules (attached pic). It’s a balance and I hope going forward I will improve more in pushing the limits of panels and find ways to express the story in fun and interesting ways.(edited)

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

Wow that's a very good description @eli [a winged tale] I look forward to reading more of your story journey

eli [a winged tale]

Thanks so much Joichi! I’m eager to keep learning~

Capitania do Azar

I'm gonna go with planning and actually getting it done. I'm so much faster because now the process is much more streamlined to me

kayotics

My whole comic was started s an exercise to just get better at comics generally so I’d probably say every part I’ve improved at? The biggest things are probably colors and the upfront planning process

Phin (Heirs of the Veil)

Ooof hard question. I think my main improvement lies with page and speechballoon layouts and writing natural feeling dialouge. I'd say maybe also character acting?

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

I'm slowly learning how to create more engaging comic narrative. I read and research in the polished prem webcomics to see what makes them engaging? Like I'm going to challenge myself by creating a series of short stories with a reoccurring set of characters. Every new comic series I create is an experience, trial and error. Sometimes I skip the writeup and just go in blind, trust my own instincts. I'm glad to reach out and talk about it than in my own head. I hope by this year, I'll have at least 2 chapters of Hybrid Dolls out.(edited)

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I've definitely gotten better at planning/ outlining multiple chapters ahead of time. I did not even do this when I was doing the first 10 something chapters. (I did attempt an outline before I began the comic, but the story changed significantly from the outline by the time I started the comic, and I did not try to do it again for a long while.) I can't remember when I started, but I do recall having a lot of trouble the first time I tried to do it. It's gotten a little easier each time, though. In fact, I just spent the past few days outlining the next few very important chapters, de-tangling some big tangles. I'm really glad my outlining (and overall writing) skills had leveled up, because HOO boy, I don't think my 2014-2015 self could have done this!

I also became friends with enviros. I had already become somewhat comfortable drawing perspective when HoK started, but I had a sort of mechanical approach to it, like "oh I need some enviro for these establishing shots, guess I'll draw them." But now I LOVE drawing enviros! (some types anyway...) It's my comfort activity, something I treat myself to after a long day! In the thumbnails for my next few pages, there's a few enviro-heavy panels that I have to remove, because I drew too many of them (and the pacing got too slow as a result). I have to stop myself from drawing too many of these.

My biggest improvement is probably I've come to understand my characters and my themes much better, but that's more of a "I got better at making HoK" than a "I got better at making comics." There's definitely a difference between the two.

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

@keii’ii (Heart of Keol) ah I totally understand I tried the outline method before I start but my story changed alot after I drew it. So it start to feel like a waste of time for me, but I'll still write an outline to make sure to plan where my story heads(edited)

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Yeah! I needed to draw those first few chapters to understand the direction of my own story.

The drawing part is an essential part of self-reflection, to try to understand what it is that I want out of the story. The answer has always been there in my heart, but I'm not able to see it clearly from the get-go.

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

I end up breaking scenes and put them in for future episodes, since I want to get a certain flow in the story.

It could be tricky to see what it is you want out of the story until you are in at least 3 chapters in?

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I needed way more than 3 chapters -- though granted, my chapters are short, so that could be a part of it

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

I see the early first script as testing the water. like a test to figure out the characters personalities. Unless you are bringing in old characters which you knew before?(edited)

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Even if the characters have been with you for a while, unless I have made a comic with them, there is a big chance that the characters will completely change, too.

DanitheCarutor

You know, I was thinking about about this, mostly about how I wouldn't have been happy if I was able to finish my comic the day I started. Then I realized I'm happy that I didn't. The first chapter wasn't the best, I was just learning how to coloring a comic, still fleshing out my characters and was still brainstorming small kinks in the story. I also still didn't have as much of an understanding of perspective, or panel and bubble layout. Even though I still have a lot I need to work on, I've gotten a lot better in all those aspects. Even though my use of color is weird, I've definitely gotten much more confident in it, enough so that I experiment and take a lot more risks with style. Even though my panelling can be boring, I have a much better understanding of how I want a page to look. I've improved a lot with my planning as well, like even though my thumbnailing/storyboarding only takes maybe 30, I've learned to step away for a bit if I don't like a layout, or analyzing why I don't like it and brainstorming ways to make it better. If I had magically finished the comic all at once, it would look really bad and may have been less readable.

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

That is inspiring to hear about your improvement @DanitheCarutor

Natsu-no-Hikari

Chiming in! Just this week, Miko (my co-creator) and I were discussing how far we've come from when we started our first comic (https://liarsgotoparadise.com/) vs. where we are now. I think there have been a lot of learn experiences, such as art, dialogue, general editing - but especially with pacing and character interaction. We regret that we didn't stop to focus more on that interaction, as we wanted to move ahead in the story...and now we can't change that, except to start now and not allow ourselves to grow impatient. Take our time and enjoy the journey - that's our new motto. There's a time to rush ahead in perilous moments, but there's also definitely a time to catch our breaths and let the characters mingle and speak. It's an improvement that will become more noticeable going forward in Liars and our second comic as well.

[sigritandtheelves]

Au where mulders a writer of sci fi stories and Scullys a scientist hired by his editor to fact check some of his stories. Bonus points if theres a romantic subplot in his story and they quote lines to each other

A/N: This gets a bit meta for a quick sec. It is also… irredeemable fluff. I’ve had a hard few days and I needed something wholesome. I am 100% sure I will regret it in the morning, lol.

—

1.

He wants this one to be different. He needs the science to feel more real than the speculative world-building he’s done in his last three books. The universe should feel like ours, he thinks—its physics and its materiality should have the same weight. Its atoms the same heft. This is going to be the one, he thinks. The one that puts his name on the charts. It needs to not just be right, but to feel right. He calls his editor, asks about a consultant.

His index finger disappears inside the looping plastic phone cord as he talks—feet on the desk beside his word processor.

“Well, I might know someone,” his editor says.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah… she’s good. Not usually her line of work, but she’s bored with her day job. I think she’d take it on.”

“You think.” Mulder senses hesitation—the pause draws out a moment too long. “Charlie?”

“Yeah, Mulder. The thing is, it’s my sister.”

“Your—huh.”

“I’ll give her a call tonight if you want?”

“Okay.” The chair creaks as he sits up to bring the receiver to it’s cradle, but then at the last minute—“Hey Charlie?”

“Yeah?”

“Is she hot?”

The line goes dead.

2.

She is, though. Hot. Not porno hot, but… something. Dana Scully is short and fresh-faced, spring-stepped and the tiniest bit awkward a suit that seems ill-fitting, a little uncomfortable. She’s a pathologist—usually spends her days in scrubs, he thinks. But she majored in physics and her science is blade sharp, a razor to scrape his work clean.

“So in the novel,” she says, “It’s a conspiracy of men?”

“And aliens,” he says.

Her look is wariness and amusement, eyebrows to the hairline, red lips pinched to hold in a smile.

“See, they’re working together. They’re developing a colonizing agent that will wipe out most of the population.”

“Unless your hero can stop them.”

“Right.”

“And he’s a scientist?”

“Yeah, that’s the plan.”

“He’s working alone?”

“He has kind of a sidekick, a friend who’s a conspiracy nerd, spends all his days in his mom’s basement, connecting dots.”

She purses her lips and he senses her skepticism.

“What?”

“Are there any women in the book?”

“The main character’s mom is in one scene. And there’s a sexy informant. Plus the aliens abduct several women, and I tell their stories too.”

The lip pursing has been joined by a disapproving squint. “Let me read your draft,” she says.

3.

It comes back with notes. So very many notes. At first he balks—digs in his heels and swears at the marked-up manuscript on his desk. He throws a pillow, kicks his trash can. He wanted science notes, not… ugh. Of course, she has given him the science notes… and story notes and character notes and structural notes and even a few on language. He ignores the last page, where she’s placed a yellow sticky-note:

I know this is a lot but it’s only because I really like it. I think it could be great. Call me and we’ll talk about it more?

He frowns. He pouts. He doesn’t touch the book for a week. How dare she? He thinks. But then he thinks of her freckled face, that smile he’d gotten when he described the story, the way she’d gone nose-to-nose with his crazy ideas. After a while, and after he reads everything again, he realizes that she’s right.

He tucks away his pride. He works and works and works, thinking of her raised eyebrows, her little smirk, the whole time. Thinking of her, mostly. It’s three weeks before he’s happy with the draft, but he calls when he’s finished, nervous somehow, to hear her voice again.

“I thought you wouldn’t call,” she says. “I thought maybe… I’d gone a bit overboard with the comments.”

He laughs a little. “Yeah, well… me too, at first. But I think you’re right. About almost everything. Come over?” He’s surprised at how casual his voice sounds, how easy it is to ask her.

“Okay,” she says.

She comes to his apartment bearing coffee and a box of donut holes, stands his doorway looking vulnerable. Apologetic. She’s dressed casually this time—jeans and a maroon sweater. She tilts her chin in an I’m sorry pout as she holds up her offerings.

He smiles. “Come in.”

Wary at first, not sure what to expect, she takes in his apartment: the art on his walls, his leather couch, his fish. She’s surprised at how comfortable the space feels, how she wants to curl up in his cushions, put her feet up, watch a movie with him—though she barely knows this man. A clean, printed manuscript rests on the coffee table. He gestures with his chin. “Take a look.”

She does. Her eyes go wide as she thumbs through the first chapter. “You made the scientist a woman?” She asks.

Mulder nods, chewing his thumbnail. He tries not to hover, sips coffee and chews donut holes instead. She got jelly ones, bless her. When she’s skimmed roughly a third, she sits back and looks up.

“Are they in love?” She asks, cheeks red.

“Maybe,” he says. “I hadn’t thought at first—“

“They should be,” she says, and now his face is red too. “Can I read it all?”

4.

She comes back again. And again. They spend evenings reading, sometimes aloud, her nose wrinkling when something’s not right, talking about the story, and then talking about other things. They watch Plan 9 from Outer Space and he makes her laugh when he recites the lines. He frowns at her unbuttered popcorn. They drink beer and she settles into his cushions. He watches her face while she reads. Watches her lips. She swallows hard when he tells her that there is a love scene.

“So he’s a little roughed up from his escape, and she thought he might have been dead. But then he shows up at her door, and he’s stolen some vials of the vaccine… It’s kind of a reunion, plus they think maybe they’ve won,” he explains.

Her knee is touching his. Denim against denim radiates heat up her leg. Her palms feel hot. “So what does she do?”

Mulder looks at her and there’s a smile in his eyes. He’s chewing his bottom lip. “Well first she yells at him,” he says.

“Hmm. He did do something kind of stupid.”

“He did,” Mulder concedes. “But then… then she kisses him.”

“She does?” Her breath sounds too loud in her ears. His tongue comes out over his lips again.

“Mm hmm.”

The air: so still. Fish tank burbling. Pages between them on the couch. He watches her pupils dilate. She shifts and her knee rubs along his thigh. “Oh,” she says.

And then he’s kissing her, thumbs at her cheeks, taste of coffee on his tongue. Her fingers come around his wrist, feel the pulse point, stroke the fine hairs beneath his watch. She falls. She is falling. She does not land. Somehow she knew. She knew it would be like this with him.

5.

His book does well, so much better than he expected, even gets nominated for a Hugo award.

On Sundays, they lay in bed and read the New York Times Book Review, watching his title climb the list, smelling of sex and tasting of each other. He visits her at work, brings coffee, and vomits into stainless steel basin the first time he watches her use a bone saw. She tries not to smile, rubs his back, brings him a cup of water.

When the paperback edition of the novel comes out, he has a special edition printed just for her. It is Saturday and they are in the park, legs entangled, her head on his shoulder. “I have a surprise,” he says.

He hands her the copy and she frowns because it feels strange, the cover lumpy.

“What?” She asks, but he’s shaking his head.

“Open it.”

She does, giving him that squinty, skeptical eye he’s now so used to. He’s had the dedication page changed. Where it once said, “For Dana who made this book what it is,” it now reads, “For Dana, who makes my life what it is. Will you marry me?” Taped below it is a ring.

She gapes. She almost chokes. She smacks him with the book. “You sap!” She says. But then she is crying and putting on the ring and kissing him.

At their wedding, Charlie is insufferable. He drunkenly tries to take credit for bringing them together, not to mention for the book. They ignore him. They dance.

“Let’s write another one,” Mulder whispers into her hair.

-end-