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Digital kevindraws

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I am unfortunately away for a long while, and cannot really draw, but at the same time, want to share something, so, here are a few pages of the comic. My co-author is really excited about it, and very disappointed we don't get more views, so go give her some love!
It gets better (visually), as one does.

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I once had a ratfolk alchemist character for DnD, who then was thrown into AW as drug dealer, and after that - into Fallout verse. I'd like to have simple refrence sheets for all my characters - luckily I don't have a lot of them - but thus far sketching Ninnec I think he turns out to be too pretty.

I'm also struggling, wanting to make him fat, but also wanting to give him elongated, rat-alike shape, and these desires clash. Thus far my preference for animalistic shapes for animalistic people wins.

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After much time on hiatus, I have finished this thing!
I admit there's a lot of stuff I haven't posted yet, and it fills me with shame.

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Might be natural enemies, but the bunny over there might love the buff!
I do like subways, though. Not riding them precisely, but I see them as a great setting. My gf had noted that I seem to find corridors aesthetically pleasing, and... maybe she's right, and maybe a subway tunnel is just a giant corridor I enjoy.

For the background in the subway, we have guest appearances of dcmike's Arden, Goozerbug's Zanzibar, Alibi-Cami's Jouska, Seiden's Vicariant, greycait's Russel, some random legs, meanlittledolly's Dolli, HyenaKicks9's Gait, Clippit's... well, Clippit, and Ulario's Amarjeet on the foreground.
 
If I may, I wanted to ask how you usually prep yourself for when you're starting a comic, I saw the one your doing currently and it looks so awesome!
 
yonmita rae said:
If I may, I wanted to ask how you usually prep yourself for when you're starting a comic, I saw the one your doing currently and it looks so awesome!
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Well, this deserves a whole article on its own, I guess! Though I cannot say the current comic is awesome - it was my first try, as well as an attempt to draw in a more cartoony style (I have always wanted to draw like Megan Lawton, but my leanings were towards a more realistic style), which I must say right now: was a horrible idea. I suffered through this current comic, and one thing I took out of it immediately, after maybe five or ten pages: do not do what you aren't comfortable with. Nevermore shall I try and draw in anotehr style than my own, because it's unbearable for such a long time.

Now, as for preparation, I guess it depends on what level you are. And I don't mean artsy, technique or anything like that, I mean what you have on your hands already. I had many ideas, and I have brainstormed and written many of them until just a few stuck. When they do stick, and I understand I won't drop them midway, I start outlining the basic plot. I suppose you cans tart working with only basic plot outlined, but I'd recommend against that. At least know where and how your comic starts, where and how it ends, and the rough outline of what's in the middle. So, for me personally, the plot comes first, and at times it's rather detailed. Like, not "in this scene they do this", rather, it is broken per pages with a basic outline of what characters do or say. I am uploading every chapter as a scenario on my patreon, but I guess I can give you a preview of what I work with.
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I also tend to think that if you cannot tell the basics of your story in one sentence, it's a bad story. Everything IMO should be able to fit one single sentence. Tell others the basic story in one sentence, like "A group of friends try to stop a mysterious vampire killer". Tell them the contents of your first chapter in one sentence like "Lily and Adam encounter a crime scene for the first time and are distraught to discover their friend was a victim". In my opinion, too many inserts, too many buts and such mean that your story is confusing, and doesn't flow right.

Another thing Honeybee taught me was that even in a memory lane drama there should be some action. Honeybee is a slow, melancholic story, almost like autobiography, and I think that it'd be much better-paced if we had some action in it. Some chase, some danger, anything to break this monotone thing... I have little experience with romance (I read, like, a book few years ago), but even this generally even and flat genre seems to have some danger in it, some race against time. It seems like an important thing to have in a story, let alone - a comic.

I spend a lot of time world building. One time, one great writer told me that your lore, so to speak (which makes sense term-wise, as we were speaking about video games), is like an ancient grandfather's clock. There are gears, and pendulums, and springs inside that make the hands move at a needed pace, but you don't see them until you open up he back panel and look closer. You,a s an author, must make the gears turn, but the reader must only see the hands turning. And it's a great analogue, actually: you have to show only what's important to the plot, but in your head it should make total sense; you should be confident in your lore and in what you're doing as opposed to creating Deus ex machina. So, deep lore, the laws of the universe always exist in the back of my mind, and I have separate documents with med-detailed stories about what happened to the world, what does it mean, how it exists, and so on, even if I never show it directly. In Honeybee specifically, it's the time period. If you're attentive enough, you can figure out the exact year, month, and even day (+/- three or four days) during which the story takes place. You have no idea how many months have I spent researching a specific time period, specific location, starting with laws and customs, ending with outfits and visual aesthetics. I almost delved into seeing what weather it was, but just couldn't find forecasts for that date. But how does it help the story if people know where it takes place, and whether it was Tuesday or Saturday? - it helps in no way. Same with colour coding, which I do enjoy, - colours mean things, but I don't have to spell it out to the audience - they might understand it on their own, or at least feel it. Still, keeping the story with references that make sense gives you as an author a lot of confidence in doing the right thing. So, yes, lore is important.

That said, mood is also something one might struggle with. I think, visually this is the biggest question to pose, and the hardest struggle. I wouldn't care as much for a setting, for colouring or quality, as I'd care about the general mood of the story. Like, do I want it to be fun and active, with pert, sketchy, thick black lines, or moody and sad, with long, flowing ones. Do I want it to be colourful and fun, with lots of light and lavender shadows; or dark, and gloomy, all greys and blues. How will it help the story? Will it help at all? Can I support the theme I want to keep up by visuals at all? How can I do it? Like, look how good noir detectives look in black and white, with dense black shadows, and sepia noise over the image. Or how nostalgic and moody, say, "Blankets" are (which I highly recommend to anyone who likes comics and/or visual novels), or how the new Blade Runner supports its mood by overly dark image with bright, neon spots that makes it look oppressive, looming, and artificial. I think colour coding mentioned before also fits this paragraph well, but I may just be professionally deformed into guiding people throughout the picture via colours.

At some point in such a discussion anyone waits to speak about characters and such, but to be honest, I never prepare via characters. If creating characters is the first thing you do when you want to write a story, to me it sounds like masturbation. Like this person doesn't want to tell a story - they want to self-insert and tell everyone "look at me, I came up with this cool hero". Characters take part in the story, yes, but if there's no story, there is no character. Your evil corporation or bloodthirsty aliens that invade Earth will exist no matter what. The story will be there whether Josephine will take a gun to fight off showcasing her boob window or not. But boob-windowed Josephine without an evil corporation or an alien invasion is just a doll floating in space with nothing to do. So... while characters can be important to the story (and I only say "can", because of many books that have no main characters - the one that comes to my mind immediately is War of the Worlds), you need to think about the story and what you want to tell, not the characters. Unless we're speaking character-driven sitcoms, like Because i'm Depressed - then go for it.
 
kevintheradioguy kevintheradioguy , Dude! Thanks so much!! It really has broken it down for me, and thanks so much for the piece by piece scenes, that helps tons! Gives me insight into what I need to work on...all of this of course lol but I appreciate the detail and the structure you're giving.

I agree with you on story and settings though, that's tough, and I'm usually better with short bursts. I do like what you did with the scene break down, that does line it up for me, and the analogy you gave ( grandfather clock) makes sense and that seems daughtning lol, that just means I need to work on story telling. Mentioning mood too, that's like foreign to me but I understand what you mean by how it sets up and plays with the story and or scene, really I do appreciate this, it gives me things to think and play with and practice on, like when you mentioned mood and I'm like damn that totally slipped my mind! Plus attention to detail is interesting and something I often struggle with too, and I always want to know when to break it off, like you have enough for the story or to delve really deep, but I think it couldn't hurt to know a little more just in case. This really does help thanks again!
 
yonmita rae said:
thanks so much for the piece by piece scenes
Click to expand...
Note, that I use the method applicable for films. I have stumbled upon a series of lectures about how to write film scripts for Hollywood, and while they had a few useless things to learn, they also had this guide to scenes and how to write them; a method that leaves a lot to interpretation, but gives an outline enough to know exactly what's going on and what's important. I used that method, and adjusted it for my own needs. I'd point you to the lecturer, but I cannot really remember his name, asides for he was having a lecture right after the famous Joseph Campbell, but that doesn't say much. I might have a copy on one of my old laptops, though. This time I'll try to make it more akin to a very basic, simple story, and see where it goes.

That said, feel free to poke me about stuff. I'm approachable, and would like for people not to make the same mistakes I did if there's a chance to avoid that.
 
Threw basic colours.
It's both a larger kind of wolf, being equally tall (but not wide as wide) as a bear; and a taller human standing at around 175-180, so the perception would be a little twisted. I think I'll add other species to the image as well soon enough.

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Reworking a map for a RP world.

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