AlwaysRats

Arteza test

I decided to replace my old copics with new markers and they're working out amazingly well so far. ♥ They're called Arteza Everblend and fair bit cheaper than copics.

Spring to Summer

Small announcement! 

I'm coming to the end of my scans, tests and medication and so far it looks like my health is improving. I feel overall much better but I'm still waiting on some results. I do have a few more things that need sorting out but my weekly hospital and GP appointments are done at least. All in all, positive outlook! I'm pretty chuffed.

I've been working on finishing all the long pending stuff in June in preparation for something pretty big starting properly in...

Casual wear

Something for the future. We want the boys to wear their more casual summer clothes in the future over the finer tunics meant for celebrations.

Jáhko's very plain but Veeti keeps some of his rich boy embroidery.

Sketches by Miikka and colours by Elli.

Odie - sketch covers

Thought I'd share these! These were some of the sketch covers I did for the Odie 2's Kickstarter.

Pride

Happy June everyone. ♥

Inks - Elli
Colours - Miikka

Colours

Well! Since the updates within the last few months have revealed a definitive fact about Veeti, think it's appropriate to draw this. I wanted to do this quite bad last June, but I figured I'd wait that the comic has progressed to a certain point.

- Miikka

Scruff

Feels like it's been forever since I've drawn this feller!

Pebble in the lake

For YIH! Page layout and inks by Miikka, colours by me.

We shared a couple of panels from this a little while ago, but here's a whole page. Still can't say much about it!

- Elli

Deep woods

Concept art. Forest wisp and Sotka. Potentially looking at a more pencilly/paintingly style for the comic's backgrounds in the future.

- Elli

The Harmonsuo Estate in 1839-1840

The Harmonsuo Estate as it stands in 1839-1840.

Harmonsuos are known for their tailoring, but in addition to that they do have a healthy bit of farmland, where goats play a big part in their income.

Most of the farm with the exception of the goats however, is for their personal use.

They grow their own potatoes, some wheat, sunflowers to earn a little pocket money, onions and other crops.
With crops come animals; two working horses to work the land, few cows fo...

Jáhko & Veeti

Thank you for all the lovely messages everyone. ♥

May

Image unrelated, but I wanted to give y'all a brief update about what went on in May as this same stuff is going to continue (to some extent) to happen in June.

My partner had a surgery at the beginning of May and was off work for 3 weeks (he's well now despite some complications, yay!). Unfortunately, this wasn't the only thing hindering my work but I also had a health scare that I'm still working through. I've not wanted to discuss this in public because it's very personal and I just ...

Hammer

Fiery guv. I've been chipping away at this very slowly for a long time as I've not had time to paint consistently. Unfortunately I haven't got the first sketches saved as I started this such a long time ago. Step by step of this lad below and attached as a download.

Odie 2 - 8

Page 8 from Odie issue 2. Inks too!

Odie 2 - 6

The full page 6 from Odie 2. I had a really good fun working on this comic and I'd love to do more issues in the future.

ATGR - inks

One of the projects I've been working on! This is now the second issue I'm doing with Miikka for Miles Greb, the author of After The Gold Rush. Couple of pages from issue #5.

Charcoal - wip

Thought I'd upload the full res of this, hope you like it!

This month has been a really difficult one. Both my partner and I have been in and out of the doctors for tests and assessments more or less every day. Really want us both to just get better now.

Kid an' May

Happy May everyone. ♥ Spring has arrived and it's been really up and down weather wise in Kent. The weather keeps bouncing from hail stones to glorious sunshine to pouring it down.

I've closed commissions for the time being, until end of June at least, just so I can work on all the pending things that are still lying around art wise. I've got some more spring cards to send out!

I've had a massively busy start to the year with a couple of projects I'm not able to discuss at the m...

Charcoal - steps

I'm still trying to practice painting without lineart and work on colour contrast. I've been very busy with work lately so I've not had much of a chance to do it. But here's one! I'd love to get better at this and do more. Happy May!

Pebbles

Hi everyone!

Wee bit quiet this month on the upload front, I've been really busy with work. I've got something I wanted to show you though. Miikka's lines but colours are mine. ♥

Future videos (new camera!)

This was requested not long ago and I've actually been on a hunt for a little camera to show you more traditional art progress and some audio over it.

I've finally got a camera and it's thanks to you guys. ♥ I've been saving up for a decent one and from the really raw tests I've done so far, the footage looks great.

I have very little actual video editing experience though, so at some point I'm going to spend some more time in DaVinci to just.. Practice I suppose is the right wo...

Script - CH2 - 19-20

I thought I'd share some of the script with you an' all! This bit of the text is a draft for the pages 19-20. There's a good chance we'll still change bits and pieces, but here's the rough idea. Would you be interested in reading more of these in the future, before we get to the thumbnail stage?

For further clarity, as Rob's name hasn't been mentioned in the comic yet, Rob in the text is the policeman Georgie has a chat with on page 18.

2019-04-01 18:16:58 +0000 UTC View Post

CH2 - 18 (52)

The other side of the spread, with text! I'm going to reserve a day towards working on the next two pages once the Patreon funds are in. ♥ Thank you everyone!

CH2 - Page 17 (51)

Yay we have text!

I'm going to save these for Patrons for a little while longer. I'd like to build a buffer before releasing them on the website, but we'll have to see what kind of timeframe I need for that.

Ch 2 - 17-18 - Colours

Here we go! ♥ I've not yet decided what day I'll release these on the website, but you'll get to see the text versions on Patreon first.

It's been a delight to get the chance to work on Tistow again. I've missed it.

Tistow - 0-50

Website version of Chapter 1 and part of Chapter 2 (up to date with the pages released online). ♥

I mentioned this in a post on Twitter, the website is unfortunately down until I have time to look at rebuilding it. Until then, you can download the web version here.

17-18 inks

Aaa this weekend turned out really well. I managed to get done what I wanted to do page wise. I've made a start on the colours when I'm writing this, but they're not quite far enough yet to share.

I want to experiment with something on two of the panels (namely the quite empty looking one on the bottom right). See how that goes.

It's been really fun to finally get the chance to pick the comic up again. I've really missed it.

Ch 2 - pages 17-18 - pencils

I've had a super productive day. ♥

Those who follow me on Twitter, might've caught some glimpses of the progress of these two pages.

I was commissioned by a very kind supporter to spend one day just drawing Tistow. As you might know, I've not been able to touch the comic for a long time because of other work. I've really missed drawing it and I had such a great day today doing just that. ♥

Initially I wanted to try to finish one whole page from start to finish, but inste...

Grouchy + colorize tests

Unfortunately my recording seems to have cut out after I finished the inks with this one. Added some process stuff of the colouring stage at least!

I tried the ClipStudio Colorize AI for fun on this, and while it's a nice feature, it doesn't really do much for me. It isolates things nicely but also ends up making a lot of patchy gradients here and there. 

Here's a couple of Anna's I also tested it with:

2019-03-17 15:50:53 +0000 UTC View Post

Sotka and Rat

Sleepy kid. Clip from an earlier stream. ♥ Here's the finished sketch.