Part 3 - Page 1 and 2 and 11 Redux -Sketch + the plan

First off, I'm not redrawing the entire thing. It's just that since we're close to the end of the sketching process, I'm retouching a few pages I didn't like. I had planned to just edit the original posts, but I thought it would be fun to go through what I'm changing and why.

On page 1 I reapproached the paizuri and got rid of the bottom right panel. I did this for a few reasons. Firstly, the hands in the original were awkward. So awkward that I covered them up with a panel in the bottom right. Second, in the script, the bottom right panel should be much more. Basically, Sokka is finished, stuff is dripping from her chin, and the morning sun is starting to cascade across her body. I really felt like I could do more with that, so I turned it into a much bigger panel on Page 2.  Third, the Paizuri itself didn't look like it really felt good for either party. My guiding star with all of this is the phrase "can I fap to this?" As a viewer, I want to feel two things looking at something like this. Sokka needs to feel as though he's engulfed (because mirror neurons) AND that Toph was really into it. Neither of those things was happening. I think this hits the mark much better.

In Page 2 I deleted Panels 3,4, and 5. They were unnecessary and the dialogue associated with them was either unnecessary or could be either deleted or moved to Page 3. Then I drew a completely new panel based on the script for panel 3 from page 1.

I think with Page 11, there were a few things that bothered me. First, her face. Over the course of making this I've developed a way of making her face much more consistent, and I just wanted to redo her face to that standard. I also wanted to give her chest more fleshy weight. That's because I've been privileged enough to get advice from pH on how to draw titties. I'm not as good as pH, but hopefully, you can see the improvement in later pages. I'm trying to apply some of that knowledge in these earlier pages.  I also redid the jyzzics because they didn't have the energy I was looking for. Remember, on page 10, Toph asked some random guy if he was interested in some paizuri. That's something that feels crazy and chaotic and I felt like that should be represented in his physical response to the situation. Like "HOLY FUCK! WHAT THE FUCK" kind of a response. It's why she's smiling and biting her tongue. She thinks it's cute and is getting a kick out of what she can do.

If you're wondering how long these took. They were very quick. I did all of them in a couple hours last night. Honestly, it has taken longer to write this text than redraw these pages. It's a lot easier for me to make adjustments once something is there and my head is clear. Sometimes I have forced myself to make progress in this when my head and heart weren't all there. Going back to pages with a clear head lets me make them better very quickly. I am going to continue doing this throughout the comic. Though, to be clear, I am extremely happy with the majority of Toph Heavy Part 3. It's just a few pages that stand out as being subpar. And mostly it will be a panel here or a panel there.


You know what, this is patreon, I'll just tell you what I plan to do.  As I work through sketching the last twelve pages of the comic, I'm going to fix pages 5, 16, and 18.  Those pages are especially garbage. Then I'm going to go through the comic and fix the occasional panel that I don't like. For example, on page 30, the panel where Azula is grabbing Toph's chest is bad. It just doesn't make sense logically. How did she go from holding her legs, to grabbing her chest, to holding her legs again on page 31. It's weird. So I'm just going to get rid of the grab and have Toph's chest bouncing like there's no tomorrow.  It'll be stuff like that. Then I'm going to add a page between 4 and 5. Then I'm going to add 2 to 3 pages before page 1. Once all that is done we'll move on to inking. Inking will be much quicker than sketching. The struggle with sketching is that making something out of nothing is... hard. The thumbnails help a lot, but they are so scribbly sometimes that it's basically like starting from nothing.  When something is already there, I can move very fast, which is why I was able to redraw the pages in this post very quickly.   Once the inking is done, I'll begin putting in flat colors. My flat color method is even quicker than inking. Then when it comes to rendering those colors and adding text, I am going to use the same quick cel-shading method I used in Part 2. It will be simple, quick, and clean. My hope is to have all of this done by may or june of 2022. Finally, once it's all finished it will be available exclusively on Patreon for a month, after that month I will post the comic publically.  I originally planned to post the entire thing all at once, but I've decided against that. I'm going to post the first 31 pages all at once, and then a page a week after that. Then I'm going to put the entire comic (including WIPs) on Gumroad for somewhere between $10 and $20. Then all of Toph Heavy 1, 2, and 3 will be deleted here.  I want to see if I can entice Gumroad sales. Last time, people tried to circumvent the Gumroad price by pledging here, getting the comic, and deleting their pledge. It sucked. Look, I realize that it also sucks to try and get people to pay for something on gumroad this way, but the only way Part 4 happens is if Part 1,2, and 3 sell well on Gumroad (or if Patreon numbers double.) That sucks even more.

I am hoping for the best, but expecting the worst. That's why Part 3 could be the end. It's written that way. I do have a plan for Part 4, which will have stuff like Futara (Futa Katara), but that may not happen. We'll see.