Introducing "Lost To Time" : 01 - General Information

Hello my gemlins~ 💜

Today I’d like to talk a bit about one of the comics I have planned for after #MUTED (and show you some early sketches as well! They're basically all from 2016!) It’s a story I have been working on since I believe 2015? At least that’s when I drew the first rough character designs for the main characters Ayden (red hair) and Misha (blond).

The story is titled “Lost To Time” for now, though that might change again in the future. For the moment I quite like this title, though.

It’s a story about two boys who first meet by chance when they’re both still young children. Despite coming from completely different backgrounds, they soon realise they have more in common than expected: A deep desire to escape the environments they were born into and lead their lives free from expectations put onto them by people in authority around them.

When they find each other again many years later, those desires haven’t changed and because of unexpected circumstances, they’re determined to make every second of their lives count, before they’re lost to time…

It will be a soft drama, with lots of love, some adventuring and a bit of magic.  ̶(̶a̶l̶s̶o̶ ̶m̶a̶y̶b̶e̶ ̶p̶e̶r̶h̶a̶p̶s̶ ̶s̶o̶m̶e̶ ̶p̶a̶i̶n̶)̶

I used to describe the setting as Victorian and steampunk inspired, but in reality I just wanna draw a lot of frilly clothes, with flowers, gem stones, lace and a lot of other little accessories and items/places that I love (keys, stars, planets, cute tea cups, bird cages, old furniture, abandoned houses etc).

Recently I also came across the term “solarpunk” as kind of the opposite to steampunk? I didn’t look into it too much but it’s definitely more the aesthetic I’m going for. Cities reclaimed by nature, humanity building around and with it, cities growing up into the sky, along with sky travel through airships and all that good stuff. LTT isn’t set in a polluted world, I want to emphazise the beautiful parts of their planet.

The locations are partly inspired by real world places but reimagined to fit my vision of Ayden and Misha’s world.

Some early setting & vibe exploration below! These are all from 2016, nothing here is final but I figured I might as well show you where I started and how much things changed over time as I fleshed things out more and more :)

(🔝 some elements from this draft were straight up copied from other art I think?? I don't remember but I feel like there's no way the ship on the left side came solely out of my own brain, so I just wanted to mention that)

(🔝 looks too industrial for my tastes but I remember I just enjoyed drawing straight lines with the perspective ruler in CSP so I just kept going until I ended up with this haha)

I also tried to come up with Ayden’s airship in early 2016 XD I had no idea how to go about it so I just planned it like I would plan a character’s apartment LOL Like, where does he sleep? Where does he go to the bathroom? Is there a boiler room that can double as something akin to a kitchen? Does he need a lookout and how comfy is it gonna be? How and where does he enter his ship? How does it FLY?? This first draft is probably not functional at all, I got overwhelmed quickly and then never touched it again. I do like that it looks very scrappy and self-made tho, which is exactly what it is! Ayden built it all himself in secret.

When I tackle his ship again, I’ll approach it differently, try to get the big important questions out of the way, come up with the vessel shape from all sides and then (try) build it in 3D so I can later on use it for the comic.

And that's mostly it for now~! I'll turn this into a series of posts over the next few months, each time introducing something or someone else. Probably starting with Misha and Ayden :) Also if you have any questions about LTT, anything at all, feel free to ask!! I'm happy to talk about them in more detail, I've been sitting on these characters for like 6 years after all ; -;)))

💜💜💜