Noyemi 2 Thoughts and Lessons Learned

This is just a blog post about my manga drawing journey. You don't have to read it if you're not here for that. The monthly patreon update blog will be tomorrow.

Here are my thoughts on Noyemi 2 during the time I spent drawing it. I learned a lot besides techniques specific to drawing so I thought I'd share a bit to give you guys an idea of what you can expect in the future.

First of all, when I started it back in May or something (I don't remember exactly haha, I don't keep track to be honest) I originally thought it would take me a month. This estimate was more of a “I hope this takes a month” rather than something really calculated. I do have experience with Galknights and previous Noyemis, so a month is around average, but how I try to use deadlines is a little backwards.

Instead of looking at my writing and my drafts and determining how long it will take, I start with the goal of about 1 month of work and try to write a comfortable length that can be done in that time. I want to put in a month or so of effort and see what comes out, stopping myself from polishing things for too long.

With the second part of Noyemi 2, I tried something else. First, I didn't want to hunker down and focus on just drawing it for a month, I wanted to draw other art as well and balance my time because not everyone is here for comics. I let go of the idea that I needed to finish by a certain time. Also, you might remember that I said the story would end at this part, that was when I was writing it out and laying the pages down. The problem with these early estimates is that after several edits and improvements to the script, the story got much bigger. There was just no way I could finish the entire race in 30 pages, so Part 2 no longer had to go right to the end of the story. I figured this out quite late into drawing it.

Here's how I write/draw comics:

• I start with a general idea: the themes, the main characters, or the main event the comic is centered around. At this point I don't share anything with anyone because I don't know which ideas will make it past this step. An example is “Supervillain almost kills a superhero that was related to them”

• Then I write a general plot structure that goes up to the end but not quite. Enough to give characters a rise, fall, a plot twist or two, and then the setup for the end. So with the supervillain idea, I'll turn it into [villain stealing something] [villain is stopped by hero] [they fight] [hero nearly dies] [villain in civilian life] [villain realizes what they did] [villain copes] [villain meets hero again] [ending]

• Now I start actually writing the story as it would be read/drawn. Creating character interactions, creating backstories, making up locations. For each part I write any number of scenes. Something like “They fight” is vague, so it could be half the story, or just a tiny part.

With Noyemi 2 Part 2, the start of the race and the tricks she did before crashing were one little segment too, but I thought that since the race was a long one, it needed to feel long. I wasn't happy with the race being over in 30 pages, especially since the original Noyemi ends so quickly. Noyemi 1 and Okabamadara have such rushed endings that I sometimes wake up in the middle of the night upset at them. Rushed endings are usually a result of me being burnt out and wanting to be done with the comic, another thing I wanted to change with Noyemi 2.

I never write the ending until I actually get to those pages when drawing and inking because I always want to be surprised by my own ending. I think this is a bad habit that makes my comics suffer, so in my next project, I won't be so fast and loose.

If you're reading this, then you obviously care enough about the behind-the-scenes stuff on this patreon, so I'll fill you in on what I'm cooking. Remember that webtoon story from a few years ago I was experimenting with? The story titled Fightr. I plan on starting it up again, and as a webtoon it'll be a much bigger project. I'm taking this very seriously, and I'm exploring kickstarter options to help me through it, but I'll be sharing a lot more info and art before I even get to that point. The art style will be quite different, but I am happy enough with my art and time management skills now, and feel like I'm finally ready to do this. I'll share more information in August... but for now, thanks for reading.