BEHIND THE SCENES #12 - [S1E8.43]: Back Then

whew!! this was a big one... lotta backstory!! i hope everyone enjoyed it!! >:3c one more update with rem and adrian will come next, finishing out this little moment between them, and then we're back to eve and penny for a while!! and past that... well, i don't wanna spoil it!! ;)c

man though, this backstory was something that's been floating around in my head for a while now, so it was really exciting to finally get to put it on paper!! or... uh, screens, i guess... yeah…

making a long story has led to a lot of odd situations where i think about an idea that's important to the story for like, months and months, but i can't tell anybody about it, so it just lives entirely inside my head... and then when i finally DO post it i end up forgetting i can actually talk about it now, ahaha

i really like how it ended up coming out though!! i had a lot of fun designing the kid versions of these two >:3c seeing how a character has changed as they grew up is always really neat to me!!! honestly i love designing characters so much, its probably one of my favorite parts of making a story... which might explain why there's so many of them in all of mine... >w>'' im simply a sucker for large casts!!!! eat me!!!

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[wonder who those two next to ava are... perhaps we will see them soon... next chapter perhaps? ;)c i'll give you one hint though--we've already seen one of them before !!!]

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another thing i was excited for in this update was that i think it gave some much needed connection between adrian and ava, and by extension adrian and the main cast!!

i know that right now people are probably still a bit unsure about adrian and rem versus penny/eve/chase/ava, so i really wanted to bring the two groups together a bit more... i think adrian and rem's interactions are fun enough to read that they can hold their own for quite a while, but this IS a story about penny and her immediate friend group at the end of the day, so i want to make sure people know we're still in a story about them, even when they're not directly in the spotlight!!

speaking of that, the next episode (we're on eight right now!) will be entirely focused on the main cast!! each of the four will get a good amount of time in the spotlight, so i think that should help bring things back to status quo a bit more B). and since i'm not doing any big side-plots or super long holiday specials anymore, we should be set on making really good progress!! i can't believe we're already this close to the end of season one.... i mean, it's already been like, a year and a half at this point, but. dang!! that'sa lotta episodes!!

i hope you're all as excited as i am for it, ehehe!!! <3

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[the care home!! (which in case anyone is confused, is pretty much just an orphanage LMAO, i just didn't wanna call it that cause it sounded goofy as hell)--funny enough, the original picture i made this panel from is actually of a school, DNJSDFNJG

most establishing shots in this story are done through heavily edited photos, which i then draw lines over at a low opacity, to give it some more dimension. it saves me a tON of time on doing super detailed backgrounds, but still helps give a good idea of where the characters are--and then readers can fill in the blanks in their head!!]

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[these are the images i used to make the one above!! making these is always really fun tbh, i love editing photos, ahaha]

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so--onto some more technical art stuff!!!

i think the most interesting thing about this update drawing-wise is probably the baby versions of ava and adrian!! we didn't get to see any full-body shots of them, so i'll include the full designs below--i think they're really cute!!! 

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[da bbs....]

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as for inspirations, for any fans of HxH, you can probably tell that baby adrian is very similar looking to killua, ahaha--it felt like it suited him well, and i'll never pass up an opportunity to reference something i love, so like, why not!! another thing to note is the lack of ears and a tail--a little hint at further parts of his backstory... but we'll find out more about that later!!

ava, on the other hand, was inspired outfit-wise by ellie from the last of us!! (only the first one though. i refuse to acknowledge the second.) i realised at some point while drawing her that she was already basically wearing the same thing, minus the undershirt, so i was like. fuck it undershirt time. and now she looks like a version of ellie who was REALLY into homestuck for a little while as a kid. it could feasibly be canon, even... who knows... actually i forget the timeline for the last of us thats probably wrong woops.

ANYWAYS. MOVIN ON.

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[a sketch of the last picture of rem in this update, feat. some notes i made while drawing her about how to draw her eyes...her facial proportions ended up being pretty much the same as avas in the end, so i wanted to be sure her eyes were sufficiently different, to make sure she was distinct looking!!]

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the last thing i wanted to talk about for this one was the way i color flashback sequences!!

so, i think it's a pretty standard thing to make flashbacks sepia-tone after movies started doing it forever ago...i dunno how it got started, but it already has a pre-built association in people's minds with The Past, so it's a good color scheme to use!!

i briefly considered making parts of it blue in color instead, cause some of it took place at night, but i decided against that in the end to keep it more consistent... i also think it's interesting to see the past flashbacks in comparison to the newer ones, cause you can see the changes in my artstyle over time a lot more clearly without any colors!! i always enjoy those kinda side-by-sides, like when artists post old vs new art as a twitter trend or something... so, it's kind of just an excuse to do that myself, hehehe >w>''

i'll include a comparison of some older versus newer ones below!!

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[this one was REALLY early omg... all the way from the third episode lmao... same dorks as always though!! B)]

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[this was from the flashback where we learned about chase being a lil egg, and some more of penny's feelings about eve!! honestly not too much has changed since then... mostly the eyes, i think? that's usually what changes in my artstyle, i feel like.... hrm... >.>'']

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[a different set of dorks, in a higher quality!! i really do like how the newer art looks more, even though it's not much different... i can't tell if that's just cause i've stared at it for so long, or if anything actually improved, but, hey, it's whats in ur brain that counts!! B)]

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man i have no idea if that was actually an interesting thing to talk about woops. but hey i already wrote it all out so. have it anyway!

that's all i have to say about this one though, i think... so, as a parting gift, have some isolated backgrounds for ur viewing pleasure!!

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love u guys!!! <3 see u next update!!!