Der-shing Helmer

MI234 Preview/ Process notes

I was hoping to finish this up today but, 1am and I have to be up at 7 so I'd better save it till tomorrow...

But, some process notes for these pages!

As usual, after inks are done, I move to flats. I'll flat the biggest color groups (hair, skin, blue, black, gray, etc) into a single layer, then duplicate that layer for actual painting. For the water/lighting effects in these pages, I'm using some photos I took of the pool in our apartment complex and masking out the areas I don...

TM434 Preview

I'm not sure I can get this up tonight or not... if not, then here's a sketch preview to tide you over~

MI232 Preview

Argh, need to go to bed now to wake up early! So page will be up tomorrow instead of tonight, but at least you can get a peek at the lime-green version of the comic instead of the normal blue one.

MI Stuff- Thrippers

These little guys!!! They are an excuse for me to draw googly eyes on sticks tbh

They inhabit the surf zone, and like "playing in the waves" (ie jumping into the damp sand left behind by receding waves, and eating the flotsam that washes up). They use their tails as a sort of paddle that allows them to leap into the air to evade enemies or just to posture at each other. Their tails have a sensitive fork that allows them to "see" food behind them, and which can also detach in an emergency.....

November Wallpaper PSD

aaaand, some PSD action. Mike's face always looks so ugly as a sketch XD

I thought about doing more "traditional" holiday colors, but thought our blue cave/ bg cave lights had a somewhat wintery look as it is. And yeah that little thing in the corner is a bit spoilery but between you and I we are about a page away from seeing those thrippers, so it's no harm done.

November Wallpaper- Flappy Holidays

It's here: a completely nondenominational, exofauna inclusive holiday wallpaper~ You can grab it in a variety of sizes in the attached .zip file.

I hope you all have a great time gathering around your family thighfish and maybe lighting a candle or two... those caves get pretty dark.

For those who like looking/ fiddling under the hood, the unflattened .psd of this file can be found here.

November 2015 patron supported

Thank you so much for the support this month!

Time for a bigass stream

Streaming here on Picarto

Today I am listening to an audiobook of Dan Simmon's Arctic horror novel The Terror* and finishing up this Meek page, then moving onto either more comics, commissions or wallpaper stuff... I will probably go until the audiobook is done (approx 8 hours) so feel free to drop in any time.

*This is an incredible book, which I have reread and enjoyed several times, except the pe...

MI Stuff- Old art is the literal worst

I can't believe how ugly this is, lol. At the time I was actually pretty okay with the proportion styling and how everything was coming along. Now, 1.5 years after drawing these, I am ~horrified~.

I was trying to find a ref while working tonight and saw these and thought "what if I actually posted them," and now here we are XC Remember kids, don't chop down the first design tree you come to, just keep working at it.

BTW/heads up I am going to be streaming comics and ...

Health mystery solved/ More upcoming content for you~

Hi guys!

First, a huge apology for the lowish posting frequency lately, I've been dealing with some health issues which are getting resolved now... I mentioned it here and there in the comic blogs but basically I had a ton of really debilitating full-body joint pain for the past month and a half. It felt exactly like rheumatoid arthritis, but... wasn't... After doctors visits, blood tests, etc, I found out I actually gave myself lupus, lol. There is a form of temporary lupus that can arise...

TM Stuff- The Pasori People

Just a little thing for Meek readers...

The Pasori live in the far North, in the harshest areas of Dia. They are characterized by their black hair, strong  and swarthy features, and "barbarism." They're quite used to warfare, high infant mortality, random attacks from interlopers, starvation, etc., and are seen by the rest of the world as almost inhuman- at least, until a young man named Luca deSadar rose to power and united the Pasori and Santri peoples against the Carissi to be...

MI Stuff/ Shoptalk- First page thoughts

The first page of a work is one of the most crucial pages you can do! It sets the tone for the art style, for the feel of the story, and the type of characters in it.

I've read a lot of crap comics that start out with a page of text exposition and that just shuts my brain off immediately. Don't start with a text wall. You can start slow and establish your setting and ramp it up from there, you can start with a character or group of characters interacting, or you can start (as I did here) i...

November State of the Union kind of thing

The above images show a portion of work you guys have supported in Sept and October. We’re at a minimum 10 webcomic updates per month between The Meek and Mare Internum, but averaged 11 updates!! I was also able to fulfill 20+ commissions, some shown above, as well as 6+ hours of private tutoring AND a monthly wallpaper. That's a lot for 2 months~~

I am ...

MI Stuff- Development pt 1

Again with the nostalgia! I don't think I've shown these anywhere yet...

Back in 2013 I decided I liked this Mars exploration concept well enough to get started trying to draw it out. The story was much, much different back then... at the time, the premise was that global war had broken out on Earth... anyone who decided to stay was being marooned on the red planet, possibly forever. The setting was during the third wave of colonization, after two failed waves, and probably the last practi...

October Wallpaper PSD

A look into a pretty typical PSD file! I tend to optimize for fewer layers whenever possible because I dislike clutter :D Lots of clipping masks and layer masks and a few adjustment layers when needed... Personally I love looking at PSDs, so hopefully a few of you find this interesting!

Feel free to rip it apart and do whatever but obviously please don't repost or like... idk, sell my secrets to the Nazis or whatever

October Wallpaper!

They are here~

Since it's finally starting to feel like autumn where I live, decided to start off on a nice wallpaper note and include some of the seasonal fruit that's been showing up at the local grocery. As we descend deeper into cold weather I will probably start to venture into winter cabin fever wallpaper notes, but we're not quite there yet.

I have to give major credit to Tracy Butler's wallpaper sizing for my templates since I'm sure she's already optimized for popular si...

October 2015 Patreon supported

Thank you so much for the support this month!

MI222-223

Closeup of the spread from pages 222-223. You can right-click to see the entire image~

MI Stuff- Pen Goto

Haha, this is such an old sketch...

Penelope Goto is the commander at Devotion, which sounds like a military title but isn't... the base is scientific outpost built, owned and financed by the US government and private funding. She is a commander more in the sense of a mission commander, but her mission is simply to keep the base functioning, managing the people coming and going, incoming resources and outgoing wastes, maintenance and development, maintaining a certain standard and ima...

MI221 Preview

This page will be a little bit more fun to read once the colors are on :D I wonder what's just around the corner... any guesses?

TM Stuff- Dagster

I haven't gotten into the mechanics of who these guys are, but they have to follow certain rules. And, despite having a lot of power, they are still  technically "mortal" in that they can be killed. Dagre has been in this iteration a while and has taken a lot of damage. He hides it ~okay~ but under the fur he is falling apart. Regardless of his body condition, he is still very dangerous.By the way, he talks in monosyllables because of the pain and difficulty he has forcing breath up through...

MI Stuff- Dr. Michael Fisher

He's a dude

JK. For a protag I guess I haven't really gone into a lot of detail inside the comic, mostly because I noticed that... I don't know if this is the case for you, but when I'm reading or watching scifi, I often automatically approve of the credentials of the characters. Unless something really dumb happens (like the biologists running away from the creatures in Prometheus)(!!!scream!!!), or unless their job function is a vital plot point (like you-are-the-only-pilot-who-can-do-th...

TM426 Preview

This finished page might not be up till next week (I forgot I'm gonna be mostly out of town doing things that don't take place in my room all this weekend, ughghg) but I liked this preliminary work so I'm posting it now~

Feels good to finally have the plot pick up after so much setup!

MI219 Preview

I think this is my favorite page so far

October wallpaper thread

It's either gonna be MI or TM on this wallpaper... THOUGHTS? Suggestions?? Feel free to comment! Or, if you see a comment/ suggestion that you like, just "like" it and I'll stare at it intently because it is useful feedback.

There is also the possibility that I ignore everything and make something crazy that I think you'll like. GUESS WE'LL FIND OUT

TM Stuff- Wallpaper Archive

What are theeessseee

Check out the ZIP file! These are the wallpapers that were available for a short time to only the most dedicated of readers, who would vote every day to try and acquire a letter. If you voted the entire month, you'd get all the letters, unscramble them, and find not just a new Meekipedia entry, but also email me the word to receive one of these wallpapers! Holy hoops, batman! (and yet hundreds of people emailed in, you readers be crazy)

I'm slightly embar...

Milestone 9 and onwards!!

Just a note to say thanks to all of you for your support these past 3 months! We're pretty well established in the 10x updates a month zone, have hit the wallpaper goal and are inching towards the 12x updates (3x a week, every week) goal. I can't adequately describe what a relief it is to know that I have rent and bills covered every month, and I am so glad to have the resources to focus on making comics I love more than anything for all of you instead of doing work that means nothing to me... I...

September 2015 Patreon supported

Thank you so much for the support this month!

Quick stream!

https://picarto.tv/shingworks

Starting in maybe 5 mins!

Finishing up some Patron commissions, probably gonna stream until I'm done (maybe 1-2 hrs). Testing out some efficiency techniques as well, so stop by if you like that kinda stuff~

MI217 Preview

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