TopHeavy

Toph Heavy Part 3 - Chapter 3 - Page 10

Bad writers write  a lot. Good writers write enough. I'm trying to embrace that in a few upcoming pages. 

Toph Heavy Part 3 - Chapter 3 - Page 9

I want to explain why this is a week late. I'm probably going to regret talking about this. I know that its largely inappropriate; a thing no one wants to hear an artist talk about. But I just need to get this off my chest. Over the past year the amount this Patreon makes has gone down dramatically. January of 2024 is half of what January 2023 made. Now, my response to this is not to beg for more patrons but to refocus.  "I need to do better and justify a patron being a patron." is what ...

Toph Heavy Part 3 - Chapter 3 - Page 9 WIP Render

I'm super happy with this so far so I thought I'd share it before I somehow screw it up. LUL I plan to finish this up this weekend. 

Toph Heavy Part 3 - Chapter 3 - Page 8

What do you think? I think it may be too saturated, and I'm not sure about the speculars.

2023 Commission 5

I'm trying to finish up commissions from last year, and spent most of the week on this. I haven't heard back yet from the client, so this may change depending on their notes. 

Toph Heavy Part 3 - Chapter 3 - Page 7

Sorry for this one being late. Had to take a personal day during the week and it set me back. 

update

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One thing that removing that step did was let me spend more time on the render to get it just right. It's more like painting now, and I wanted to spend extra time on this one because the first panel is one of my favorite drawings in the entire comic. I'm so happy with how it turned out that the final panel being a little wonky doesn't really bother me that much. I may make some adjustments this weekend. I'm not completely OK with the rendering Azula's chest in the final panel, but by and larg...

Toph Heavy Part 3 - Chapter 3 - Page 5

I'm surprised at how much I like this page - how well it turned out,  how close it was to what I wanted, and how quickly I finished it. 

The difference between this and the last few pages is the lack of masking. I had been (starting with the last page of chapter 2) masking every single muscle group and part of the body for painting.

The layers looked something like this, and keep in mind that this is only about half of Toph's masks, never mind Azula.

2024-01-17 20:50:30 +0000 UTC View Post

Toph Heavy Part 3 - Chapter 3 - Page 4

This one took a few days longer than I intended, but I think it is a drastic improvement over the original. As usual, I will leave this here for a week, and I may make some adjustments before I post it publicly.  Next one shouldn't take as long since I'm not redrawing any of it.

edit1

edit 2 - added more detail in the shadows, softened up some edged.

Toph Heavy Part 3 - Chapter 3 - Page 3

I'm back! This page is done finally! Let's have a little catch-up chat.

For starters, I have to apologize. I haven't done anything in the past couple of weeks. No Toph Heavy. No commissions. No nothing. I forced myself to go on a complete break from Dec 18. to Jan 2. It was necessary because I was starting to feel burnt out. I considered washing my hands of Toph Heavy Part 3 completely because of how much trouble I was having with the past couple of pages. I felt like I was wasting my t...

Toph Heavy Part 3 - Chapter 3 - Page 4 Render WIP

Normally I'd put this in the WIP tier but I want feedback from anyone about this. I've been struggling with this render for the past few days. This is one of my favorite pages and so I'm being a little more picky than usual. I'm not sure about the rim light which is why it isn't in the second panel yet. I'm going to take a break from it, work on some other things, and let my mind reset. Hopefully, I'll make better decisions when I come back to it. In the meantime, I'd like to know your though...

Toph Heavy Part 3 - Chapter 3 - Page 3 Back to WIP :(

edit: this page is gonna take another week. I was working and reworking the rendering for hours. It's 1:20AM as I write this and I started putting the "finishing touches" at 2PM today.  I eventually realized I was polishing a turd. I was trying to hide bad work. Remember, no matter how good the rendering, if the drawing is bad, the art is bad. Fundamentally, the drawing was bad. Specifically the arm going under the leg. It felt very flat. There was also some weirdness around the hips. So...

Toph Heavy Part 3 - Chapter 3 - Page 2

As with the last page, I'll leave this up for a week and edit it if I see anything that needs editing. But I'm really happy with this page so I may not make too many edits.

I am currently redoing the first panel of Chapter 3 - Page 1 because Azula's neck is too long and it look weird and.... yeah. I have a sickness. I apologize.

Edit: Minor adjustment to this page, but I'll keep it alongside the previous version. Mostly just some adjustments in shadow in contrast. Nothing Major. ...

Toph Heavy Part 3 - Chapter 3 - Page 1

Edit: Adjusted the first panel. Leaving the old page for comparison.  Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

I want to thank those of you not in the WIP tier for your patience.

Here's my plan. I'm going to render a page a week. You guys will get that rendered page a week before I post it everywhere else. During that week, if I see anything that needs changes. I'll edit this post.

Would you like to be notified of those edits?

I could work faster, but I want to minimize...

Toph Heavy Part 3 - Chapter 3 - Page 1 - Render Pass 1

So we're to the render phase. This is about as far as I got today on this page. Right now, I would consider this pretty much done, but I want to give myself a day or two to sort of stew on it. Look at it and come up with a plan to make it better or fix things that aren't working.

The nature of this process means that updates will be less frequent. My goal is one to two rendered pages a week. If I go any faster than that. I'll stumble.

It's kinda funny, because if I'm honest ...

Toph Heavy Part 3 - Chapter 6 - Page 19 - Flat

AND WITH THAT FLATTING IS COMPLETE! (Background kinda sucks right now but that's ok!) 

Holy shit that took so much longer than I thought it was going to take. The major issue I had was wanting to do colored lines and have those lines being kind of sketchy. Making that work took extra care, and eventually, the best way I found was to use Clip Studio's vector lines and separate lines by color.  Then I selected and filled those lines during the flatting phase so that everything w...

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Eyelashes and Eyebrows, or no Eyelashes and Eyebrows? I think the hair obscuring both kind of makes her look a little feral and that's what I'm going for. What do you think?

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For the First time, I have to say it.
I think I made em too big

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We're almost done with flats. 

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Slept 18 hours yesterday. I guess I'm still getting over whatever bug I had. 

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back.. This took sooo long to flat. And I kinda gave up on trying to communicate the passage of night and day in one panel. This is why I hate taking breaks. I gotta shake off the rust again. 

quick update

I got sick on Tuesday. It thankfully wasn't Covid. I think it was the Flu. I'm almost completely recovered. (Still a bit dizzy and weak tbh) Let this be a reminder to get your Flu shot. It sucks this year. 

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Sorry once again for the brief hiatus. I feel bad when I go so long without posting but I took an extended break for my birthday considering... everything. 

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