sometimes it's better to not make things too complicated aka me rambling a lot

first of all SPOILER - kai finally gets to "speak" soon! (probably on sunday, in the update for lvl 3 patrons)! he'll continue to mostly communicate through mimic and gestures but with jasper he feels comfortable enough to actually use words, even if it's just through text, and sometimes he can't convey what he wants to say solely through emojis or facial expressions, no matter how easily jasper usually understands him.

anyway, for that purpose i had to come up with a special speech box for kai, to make it obvious that it's him speaking and also that it's through a text or chat message.

i tried various things, make the box outline thicker, use screentones for the lines/the background, i was even about to hand draw every box but everything looked wrong and put too much of the entire page's focus on just his text, which i didn't want either.

it took me hours to come up with that last option of just his face &the envelope?? it's so simple. it shows the source of the words, it doesn't break apart the entire page layout and doesn't take longer than is necessary.

it surely was a process LOL. it also forced me to think about what my vision for this comic actually is. as i mentioned in a recent post, i'm not planning ahead very much but it became clear to me that i do actually have certain "rules" for how i want this comic to look and be like. i don't want things to be overly complicated, i like the layout clean and simple, and especially since it's a webcomic it has to be readable on mobile devices, despite having the structure of traditional manga. so cluttering the pages with details is no option. also, technically it's a story only about these boys, their surroundings mostly don't matter, so panels with detailed backgrounds are rare. i only need them to show where they currently are, every other time i draw for example fricking leopard patterns on a blanket are purely self-indulgent because i enjoy drawing stuff like that a lot lolol

i tend to be a bit of an overachiever and get lost in details easily. i always think my work isn't good enough if not every panel is a goddamn masterpiece or something super new and special, but i'm starting to realise that sometimes less is indeed more. it doesn't distract from what's actually important, it makes my work process easier and faster and i can use the extra energy and time that i didn't waste on details on tiny panels that nobody will even be able to SEE for actual illustrations \o/

what's my point with all of this? i don't know tbh