Xanthippe

Thanks to all of my patrons! October 2019

I've been doing these later in the month to give declined payments a chance to go through, but the 31st might be a little bit TOO late. Still, it meant that I could draw myself dressed as Pandora, while dressed as Pandora.

Speaking of which... expect chapter 3 of Pandora's tale in early November... and just a reminder that $5 patrons and above will be able to read the whole thing as soon as it's ready!

My comics playlist

I'm working on the last few pages of Pandora's Tale chapter 3 right now, so I'm listening to Spotify a ton. And here's my playlist! I'm definitely showing my age with this one (lots from the late nineties, when I was a teenager) but I think the oldest song is from 1978 and the newest is from a month ago, so there's a lot of variety.

(My favorite band is Bis, in case that wasn't obvious)

A Film for the Future – Idlewild

Alphabet Aerobics – Blackalicious, Lateef...

Pandora's Tale: Chapter 1, first draft

For anyone curious about how I write the scripts for Pandora's Tale, I've attached a PDF of the first draft of chapter 1. There are a few differences between this and the final version - notably, the title was still just 'Pandora', and the pages where Pandora is inside the pod were completely rewritten so that they better fit the themes that were emerging as I worked on the chapter. There are a few other places where I re-worded something so that it made more sense, or just so that I could fi...

Pandora's Tale chapter 3 preview

Here's another page from chapter 3, and a bunch of new characters! Looks like Pandora's trying out a new look as well...

Thanks to all of my patrons! September 2019

I've been on a Stop! Hibari-kun kick recently, so here's some fanart of the unstoppable girl herself to thank my patrons!

Patreon updates have been a bit thin on the ground lately as I've been recovering from a nasty virus and also busy working on Pandora's Tale. But you can expect some new content later on this week!

Pandora's Tale: More backgrounds

Here's another set of clean backgrounds! This time we're inside Isabelle's apartment. Most of these are from the opening scene of chapter 3.

Thanks to all of my patrons! August 2019

Thanks for making this past month the best one so far!

Pandora's Tale: Chapter 3 preview

Gasp! Here's a special preview of the first two pages of chapter 3 -  Sisters in Arms, part 1! 

Pandora's Tale character design sheet: Natalya

Psst... here's a character we'll be meeting in chapter 3! Her name is Natalya, and she's an important member of the Pioneer City resistance cell. She's also the tallest member of the cast, at around six foot five. I hope you'll look forward to meeting her!

Pandora's Tale character design sheet: Zero

Here's the last of the design sheets for the first two chapters: it's Zero! With that pigmentation, she really isn't well equipped for the desert climate. Zero seems like kind of a jerk, but she's a cryptographer, which is important for the resistance, and also she has a van.

Pandora's Tale character design sheet: Miss Fortuna

Here's the design document for Miss Fortuna, the most level-headed of the main cast and the resistance's fanciest lady. Her first name is Veronica, but almost everyone calls her "Miss Fortuna".  We'll be learning a lot more about her in chapter 3. 

Pandora's Tale: Chapter 2

The next chapter of Pandora's Tale starts today... but what's this? For my $5 and above patrons, I'm making the full chapter available right now!

I hope you enjoy it!

2019-07-10 12:16:00 +0000 UTC View Post

Thanks to all of my patrons! July 2019

 Thanks to all of my lovely patrons! Your support makes a huge difference to me and I really appreciate it.

Aaaaand $5 and above patrons may soon discover an extra perk for their support, so stay tuned!

Pandora's Tale: Isabelle's apartment

Hey! The combination of Pride plus my art show caused me to be ridiculously busy for most of June, but now that things have calmed down a bit, I've been able to put much more time into ongoing projects, especially Pandora's Tale. Chapter two is around 3/4 complete, and you should be seeing it some time in July!

And on that note, here's a first look at Isabelle's apartment! Backgrounds are my sworn enemy, but I'm pretty happy with how this one turned out.

Art show preview 2

This thing is happening this Saturday, June 22, at Princess Kennedy's salon in the Salt Lake City Public Library! It'll be part of the Utah Arts Festival, and the reception is between 6:30 and 8:30 PM. 

In the meantime, here's another snippet. It's a story about gender dysphoria, the various ways it affected my life, and how I tried my best to ignore and bury it. It's definitely some of the darkest and most personal stuff I've ever shared in comic format, and contains the following...

Art show preview

I'm a busy gal right now, and it's mostly because at the end of the month I'll be having my very first art show, hosted by none other than Salt Lake City legend, Princess Kennedy! The name of the project is Dial D for Dysphoria, and you can see part of one image above! I'll have more details to share soon!

Thanks to all of my patrons! June 2019

I really appreciate your support. More Pandora's Tale coming very soon!

Art Club: Something oddly familiar

Well, here's something a bit different.

Late last year, I decided to re-read a weird little sci-fi story I wrote back in the early 2000's. Two things quickly became apparent: I was far more interested in writing about one of the side characters than I was about many of the more pivotal members of the cast; and said character was a great big trans analogy. Here's the fun part: I didn't know I was trans at the time, though this story was written right around the time I first started to wo...

Pandora's Tale: Clean backgrounds

For certain locations that have complex backgrounds, or that we'll be seeing a lot, I'll create a full background that I can drop into scenes as needed. This cuts down on a ton of work and helps me put pages together faster! Here are three such backgrounds: the first is the Helper Corporation lab seen in chapter 1, and the others are new locations in chapter 2. Sometimes there are background details that don't make it into the final version due to positioning, so this is my chance to show the...

Princess Kennedy sticker design

I'm excited about this! Recently I drew this for Princess Kennedy, who is both my stylist and Salt Lake's foremost trans celebrity. Stickers bearing her likeness are a common sight around town, and have appeared in locations all over the world. I've had the honor of designing this latest batch of stickers, which will make their debut at Pride next month!

Pandora's Tale character design sheet: Doctor Shah

Here's a first look at a character who'll be introduced in Pandora's Tale chapter 2! Who is she? What's her deal? Is she always this grumpy? I can't answer any of these questions now, but look forward to meeting her very soon!

Thanks to all of my patrons! May 2019

Thanks so much for your support! It means the world to me! Even Disgruntled Catgirl cracked a smile!

Pandora's Tale character design sheet: Con

Here's the design sheet for Con, a passionate member of the resistance and Isabelle's oldest friend. Her name is short for something, but she doesn't like people knowing what it is.

Pandora's Tale: Chapter 2, page 3 (pencils)

 Here's an exclusive look at the first few pages of Pandora's Tale chapter two! 

Pandora's Tale: Chapter 2, page 2

 Here's an exclusive look at the first few pages of Pandora's Tale chapter two! 

Pandora's Tale: Chapter 2, page 1

Here's an exclusive look at the first few pages of Pandora's Tale chapter two!

Thanks to all of my patrons! April 2019

You're all lovely <3

Pandora's Tale character design sheet: Isabelle

Here's the design sheet for Isabelle, one of the characters who just showed up in Pandora's Tale! She hasn't done much so far, but she's going to be a really important character in the story. Unlike our protagonist, she's really tall! She's named after Isabella de Luna, a famous courtesan of the Italian Renaissance. Renaissance courtesans are one of my favorite topics to read about, and this story will contain a lot of references to them - so if you stan Veronica Franco, Tullia d'Aragona and ...

Pandora's Tale character design sheet

I'm working on design sheets for the major characters in Pandora's Tale! As well as giving me a standard reference model for the characters, I can also layer new outfits over them as needed. I'm hoping that this will make it a bit easier to keep everything on-model in future chapters.

So here's Number 6165 in her standard Helper Corporation dress. This is also the first time I'm showing off her full color scheme! By the way, each square on the grid behind her is one foot, so she's just ...

Pandora's Tale Chapter 1 cover

It's coming! The first chapter of Pandora's Tale will be released starting this Wednesday, one page every day. In the meantime, here's your first look at the completed front cover!