One scene in Sun Sprain follows Beat over a few years of being alone, and to help give some exposition I decided to share a few journal entries they would've made over the months of vagabonding around the pacific northwest. I've always been all for doing my comics 100% on my own, but I thought I'd branch out and take on the assistance of my soulful & skilled friend Frances Tsounis (@Vemrill on most socials). Frances is an astounding force of nature when it comes to looser, sketchier, energized pieces that I just can't do. I thought their wild and free art style would be a perfect fit for Beat's penmanship.
Frances and I worked together over a little under 2 weeks to make 13 or so pages of journals, doodles, etc. I wrote the entries and Frances transcribed & scanned them. I provided a loose reference for how Beat would draw himself (top picture). For most of the entries I described margin doodles that I thinked Beat would make, sometimes including basic sketches to get the point across (pictured above). I'm so thrilled with the outcome and I can't wait to use these remarkable scans for the next batch of pages!!!
You can find Frances's art on Instagram, Twitter, Deviantart, and donate to them on their Ko-Fi if you enjoy their hard work in my story! --> https://linktr.ee/vemrill <--
Pointy ear edition cuz floppy edition had a couple weird scans <3
Pointy ear edition was made on a copy of the original earless version, which ended up becoming floppy ear edition. The colors on this version are slightly off from the original markers I used.
Whole thing drafted, inked, and finalized in 3-4 days.
I got accepted into the ANW artist's alley in January, so I'm working on stuff for my table, including a zine called "I'm your Nintendog and I'm still okay". A little nostalgic romp 💕 I have a guest artist for Sun Sprain working on a couple asides for the next set of pages right now so I'm working on this to keep myself sharp.
The dog has no ears because I'm making a "floppy ear edition" and "pointy ear edition". Readers can pick the nintendog they remember growing up with.
I'll probably sell this zine before ANW so look out for a discount code / early order or somethin! ❤
December 21st!!!!! Thank you all for your support. I haven't made a comic in over 2 years so the fact a few of you have been so trusting and generous and faithful in me has seriously done so much. I appreciate you all immensely. Whether you're around for years more or just a little longer, I hope you enjoy all the time here that you can!
On the solstice, I'll upload the first chapter on Patreon for early reading. You bunch will be the first to read Sun Sprain!!! I'm not sure how long the entire book will take or when I'll finish it by, but I'll work until the final page is complete. Can't wait to see where this story leads to! :^] <3 hope you're excited too!
Going to write the end of chapter 1 tonight and come up with a release date. I'll reveal it this weekend. Probably releasing chapter 1 sometime in December to play it safe. I'm really nervous about this but I think it's time to announce @_@ wish me luck!
Milestone reached tonight! Hooray!!!! 25 pages make up the first scene in the book, and all have been finished, reviewed, and given their finishing touches. I wasn't even fully sure I'd get this far, but I'm so happy to be here. These next few scenes will (hopefully) take a much faster time to produce as I'll be using some different mediums. We can only wait and see. The next part takes place in the story's "present", so we'll finally get to see Beat with his sun sprain affliction! I've been so eager to draw these two a little older.
Page 1 of Sun Sprain is an interior shot of a college house party, so I figured I'd add some loose reference to a few familiar faces from another comic concept of mine... DeAndre, Benji, and Kath from Thrift Island :^} I try to avoid easter eggs in my comics but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to draw some of my faves in a pretty inconspicuous setting!
This page was made in several sessions over about a month. I just finished it up now so I might end up tweaking a few things later (always save your layer files!) if I'm unhappy with them, but overall I'm calling it done!! I was having trouble getting Beat and Brad downstairs without a lot of panels, so I opted for this larger layout. I'm so glad I stuck to it!
1 - General sketch, different colors for different areas/depths to help the lines make sense to me. Blue - upstairs, previous area everyone was just in. Green - Foreground, laundry room and garage. Originally was gonna have a few figures in it. I later changed this (too much, possibly too distracting from the rest of the page.) Orange - Midground, Beat and Brad walking down the basement stairs. Pink - doorway to where the two are heading. I wanted bright pink/purple light coming out of this door so I made the sketch extra-bright to keep the focus in mind. The panel below was set aside for an establishing shot for the downstairs room. I have another page open to the side for a reference of the outside of the house so I could set up windows / walls correctly.
2 - Some lineart and color. I went into this without much of a plan. Usually when it comes to making large scenes with a lot of things I've never drawn or tried drawing, I just go for it and slop around until it looks okay. Looking in my layers from here on out , you can tell I'm not very organized, especially in the final screenshot.
3 - Main page finished minus a little extra rendering / effects. All the lighting and colors are in place, along with the shadows. I left the bottom panel aside as its own separate beast. Compared to the previous screenshot the layers are complete chaos. Usually when I'm coloring on this level I have to stick to 1-2 nightly sessions in order to not lose track of what each layer is for. This process is very hasty.
4 - Fully-rendered bottom panel, adding several other layers. I kept this panel in its own folder set on sai so I wouldn't accidentally screw up any of the layers from the page above. Very fast and loose here!! This scene is going to be extremely brief, and this lighting will never be repeated after the next few pages, so I opted for something a little more exciting than monochrome purple (which is what I originally intended). Kicko disco ball along with some LEDs for some fun, why not?
5 - The (probably) finished page.
I don't typically keep track of how long these pages take me, especially odd ones out like this, but I'd estimate the total time spent on this would be about 15-18 hours. Could be more though! We may never know u_u but it did take a long time. Worth it? I think so! I love making big weird pages like this.
I'm enjoying this page and I have a feeling some of the detail is gonna get blupped out when I start adding the lighting/shading, so I figured I'd share a little lights-on peek with you! Those layers... do I know what's going on? Barely
Pushing through it! Page 18 and 19 (adding an intro page to clarify/establish setting). Sometime tomorrow I'll do another Toyhouse upload, so look forward to that! I've also been putting together playlists for both Beat and Brad that I think I'll add to their profiles in case you want some more music >:^]
Evening :^] Full-steam-aheading this scene right now, if I'm unhappy with how something's going I just toss it and try again. Here's some sketches / lineart from a few pages that I've scrapped for tweaked versions.
Hey there! I'm working on this page at the moment and want to talk a bit about some ideas for how I'll be releasing this story.
If I'm being realistic, I can't finish this comic in the way I want and still have it out before 2023. I think instead it might be easier on me (and maybe more fun to read?) if I release it in parts. Here's my basic run-down:
Finishing a large scene with maybe 3-4 sub-scenes in it would mean a release. The rest would follow: 1. First sub-scene to Patreon for early reading about a week/half week before uploading off-Patreon begins. 2a. Full large scene to Patreon for early reading, along with thank-you page for Patrons still pledging upon release. 2b. Posting one page every few days on Instagram and Deviantart. 3. Once the full scene has been uploaded on social media, the entire scene will be posted to my website where it will stay permanently free-to-read and easy to access.
This schedule will help me break this story up so it's not so daunting, and I think it'll be fun to have my story release bit by bit on social media for those who enjoy a more daily-comic experience :^} And for those who prefer chunks, Patreon and my site will be around. This is mostly to archive my own thoughts lol but if you have any thoughts / opinions on this idea lemme hear em! <3 And thanks as always for being here, you're all super!
Just somethin small :^] <3 I had an idea that while Beat was vagabondin' around, he stayed in one town a lot longer than he typically would... maybe it was the scenery that appealed to him, or maybe it was the hottie boy java stop that would offer him food n water. We'll never know for sure...
Chugging through this beginning scene. Mixing up some media with this one, going full-digital for a couple of pages until these two come out into the sunshine. Using the shaded scenery as an excuse to make doing lines a little easier x_x I'm working on a release date for this, not sure what it is yet. Fingies crossed, you'll be the first to know :^]c
Wanted to share this behemoth in progress x_x still coloring, then coloring the lines, adding text, fine-tuning a few things, and adding another panel above the first in that empty gap.
You a fan of these progression shots? I'd love to share them a little more often if they pique your interest!
Saturday 5/21 at 5:30 pm I'll be streaming the inking of a Sun Sprain page set on my Instagram! :^} come on by if you'd like to hang out and watch! 💕 🌞 🏃
Not of Sun Sprain, but the first two in Sun Sprain that I've finished! I'm happy with the technique of digital to traditional to digital, but I can see other pages being done in other ways. Time will tell where the extent of mixed media goes in this book.
I won't be spoiling too many pages, I just figured the first two would be a special occasion worth sharing :^}
So it begins! Starting with a scene just after the very first few pages (still figuring out the dialogue, which really bases the pictures in a scene for me).
I'm trying a different strategy of illustration for Sun Sprain - while with other books I've done full digital, full traditional, or trad sketching + digital lines/color, this time I'm flipping things around.
I'm sketching the pages digitally, printing out the sketches, taping them to mixed media paper, and illustrating the lines over with a lightbox. After that, I'll scan the pages back into my laptop, making touch-ups and adding color. This will help me get the crispness of traditional lines I enjoy and the ability to play with light in my computer. Most importantly, a digital sketch allows me to catch my mistakes in anatomy / spacing / sizing and fix them much easier than if I were drafting this comic entirely in pencil.
I'm so excited to be illustrating again! The QnA will be finished up and shown early April, so if you've got any more questions about any of my stories / my process now's the time to ask! 💕
I wanna answer some questions you have about my comics or comic ocs! Anything goes :^} ask as many as you'd like 🌟 I'll share my answers in another post
Afternoon! Spent some time after work today doodling some thoughts of Brad.
I was able to get a ton of materials for illustration a while ago thanks to all of you! Lots of page tests and more comic-lookin things will be showing up!
HOORAY! After ages of working and drafting, I'm happy to announce that Sun Sprain and The Sea Beast in Henry MacArthur are arriving free-to-read on my website in 2022 / 2023!!!
Thank you to the bottom of my heart for being here and enjoying my stories, I can't wait to see what you all think of them! :^D
I also released huge updates to Kelda's Cove today, so definitely drop by Toyhouse if you haven't already. Lots and lots of fun stuff, including the huge release (finally) of the canon Sea Beast lore, timeline, biology, etc. Yippee!
More to come in time, thank you all for giving a hoot about my work. It's a lot more encouraging than you know to have you all here :^} Thank you thank you!
I appreciate your loads of patience! I'm getting prepared for a huge art upload (and some more fun things) to my comic toyhouse on the 28th. I hope it'll be fun for you all to see! :^}
Still on that sea serpent / gay people in the sun shit!!! I just thought you'd like to see a few more teeny lil things to hold you over till I'm finished >:^}c
hey there! I mentioned new things were on their way - my health issues that sparked earlier this month really hindered things, but I hope it'll be worth the wait!
The video above is a lullaby whistled from James MacArthur to Henry when he was a lil baby. I've been making lots of concept art and lore for this story, and I'm very eager to share it. I'm gonna workshop it for a few more weeks to make up for my lost time but it'll come to Toyhouse (and here) after I'm done. Thanks again for all the support! Gettin real close on this one!
