BEHIND THE SCENES #13 - Omake #42: "Blankets" (Part 3)

the end of this little side-story is here!!!! featuring a reversal where ava is the one getting embarrassed now, lmfao- at least, until the end anyway ;)

to start off with, i just wanted to say sorry for not posting much last week!!! my mom was visiting for the week so i was pretty distracted--i have autism, so pretty much any break in my normal routine totally wrecks my ability to focus, woops... we should be back on track this week though!! i guess it worked out too, cause i ended up underestimating the size i had to make the next update, and would have had to split it in half if i didn't have the extra time to work on it--so, an extra long one is comin' up next!!

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[the sketch of the cover panel!! for some reason chase's eyes were really far up on their head here? it realised it when i started the lines, cuz it looked really weird to me, lol--sometimes i have to fix little details like that halfway through making a panel... i wonder sometimes if anyone looks closely enough for it to matter, but. it matters to me !!!! so thats all we need!!! B)]

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so, story-wise in this omake, it becomes apparent that adrian has rubbed off a bit on ava while they were still together... a lot of ava's abrasive tsundere-ness comes from that, as does adrian's pension for mischief come from her!! i really love stuff like that in stories, where you can see characters having an effect on eachother's personalities and interests, even long after they meet-- plus, it's always fun to look back on previous updates with the context of newer ones, and understand why a character is the way they are in certain situations!! i dunno, i just think its neat!! B))

this sidestory is also laying more groundwork for the chemistry between chase and ava, and what it might develop into later, as some people have guessed... i always have a good time with all the different pairings of the main four characters, but i think out of all of them chase and ava are my favorite!! it's just so fun to write the banter, haha--and the fact that they have a similar dynamic to adrian and rem also amuses me, cause that means both ava and adrian ended up drifting towards people who are similar to the person they lost... trying to fill a void, maybe...? 

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[we're deconstructing this panel even more now DNDFNGHJ--originally ava wasn't gonna be smiling in this panel, but i thought it would be funnier if she looked a lil' smug about takin up the whole bed LMAO]

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so, onto some more art related stuff about this one!!

the first thing i wanted to talk about, was that i was trying to make ava's face more consistent while working on this update!!

tbh, i've liked most of the avas i've drawn recently--i think they're pretty good!! but i still ten to struggle with making her look the same way every time i start a new picture of her. it usually takes a lot of adjusting to look right, i think cause her eyes are usually sorta half-lidded to give her a laid-back look? so i never really practiced what the exact shape of her fully open eyes would be...

so, to try and remedy this, i did a little experimenting with the specific proportions of her head!! basically, just examining my favorite recent panels of her, to try and make her always look like those in the future!! this is something i do semi-regularly in this story, cause keeping my style consistent is probably my biggest challenge in art, and i want the characters to always look right--i thought it might be interesting to see some of that work-in-progress experimenting though, so check out some of the stuff i was doing!!

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[this was one i picked because the angle was a bit complicated, and even with that i liked how she ended up looking in it--and since her eyes were fully open here, it was a good one to examine!! i came to the conclusion that her eyes are pretty much flat on top no matter how open they are; it just sort of lifts the flat line upwards when she opens her eyes widely. compare that to rem for example, whose eyes tend to lilt down a little on the sides when she opens them fully!]

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[this was another one of my favorite drawings of ava recently, from the patreon wallpaper last month!! i just really liked how she looked in it for some reason--but as usual with her, her eyes weren't fully open in it... so, i decided to try and re-sketch it WITH her eyes fully opened, and compare the two, to see what changed... i think it came out pretty good!! and the idea i had about the eyes staying flat on top seemed to hold true here as well.]

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[aaaand this was one of the sketches i did for this update, after studying a lot!! i'm still not 100 percent on it, but i think i have a much better idea of her full eye shape now, so things should get easier in the future!! very epic!!]

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this is what i spend like... hours a day doing DNJDFJGNHN......... do i have a life outside this comic? well. the answer to that is.......................... (explodes)

anyway, moving on !!!! B)

the other thing i wanted to talk about from this update, was that i was experimenting a bit with a different art style while i was working on it!! not in terms of like, proportions and stuff, but more how i color/line things!! i was comparing it to see if it was any faster than what i do normally, but it doesn't really seem like it, surprisingly?? it really thought it would be, but now i think maybe i'm just so used to what i usually do that doing it any other way is very slow...

the style i was practicing though, is planned to be used for specific sections of the story that happen in the future, which i'll talk more about when we get there!! they should start showing up in episode 9!! >:3c

as for the style itself, i'll include some pictures below!! it's a style i was actually gonna use in another comic, called Homebound, which was set to be a sequel to this story in a way--like, set in the same universe basically!! i've combined the two stories now, however, so i wanted to put the style into gacha girl in some way, cause i really liked it!! here it is below, compared to the normal style!!

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[da normal style....]

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[and what she looks like in the other style!! it's not super clean or polished here, but the idea of it is to be able to draw more panels faster, and without complete sketches, using just like, gestural color fills and stuff!! i didn't do it like that here though, cause i already had a sketch, which i think might be why it took so much longer than i expected...]

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and, for fun, here's the homebound characters in the same style, in a picture i made in like, 2018 i think?? when i was first conceptualizing this universe!! it really is a seriously big story, so i hope you all are ready to be here a while, ehehe >:3c

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[the homebound cast.... they'll show up in this story in the FAR far future, but that won't be for a good long while!! maybe even years!! there's a chance you'll not even recognize them when we do, though... but i won't spoil it!! ;) ]

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i think it's cool to see the ways things have changed in how i draw since then... for some consistency though, i incorporated a lot of things from the gacha girl style into the picture of ava i did, and i think it makes it look alot nicer!! so, win win!! >:3c

okay though... i think that's all i have to say about this one!!! hope it was interesting, ehehe!! :D i had a lotta fun talkin about this stuff >:3ccc

for now tho, i bid u all farewell!!! love u guys!!!! <3