Blaster done!

Again, it's been some time since my last entry. My bad. Anyways -- good news! I finally got that weapon concept art done!

This is the blaster of Kamilla, protagonist of 'Project: Mydan'
If there's anyone who remembers the Spectrobes series,
you might recognise some of the blasters in the third image

This happened somewhere a little over a month ago. I actually quite like its shape and am satisfied with its umbrella disguise. When it comes to how it'll look in colour, I'm not entirely sure yet. But I hope figuring all that out will be easier than designing its overall shape... Like I said before, designing tools & weapons isn't really my strong point (or at least, not yet) but I'm proud of what I've come up with. It makes me want to practice designing these sorts of things more. 

Anyways, with that concept art out of the way, I'm finally able to move on. Originally, I was going to get to working on the comic roughs traditionally, but I figured it would be inconvenient if I was going to sketch the pages again digitally. So I'm planning on just getting to do everything (except thumbnails) digitally. I'll just leave comic roughs to when I work traditionally.

Pusing past "boring" bits

(Undated entry, possibly written in Februrary 2025)

I've been pretty inactive for some time, and the reason is -- I'll admit -- because I've been putting off a boring part. In other words, I haven't been disciplined enough to just get that boring bit done and over with. The boring bit in question is the concept art for a recuring weapon/tool that the main protagonist of Project: Mydan (AKA Kamilla) uses. Not that I necessarily find making concept art of weapons and tools boring, it's just that it's not really my strong point and because of that, the process gets less interesting. However, I shouldn't let something like that cause there to be a huge gap in my progress. I shouldn't have to keep relying on waiting for motivation or inspiration to come.

Progress after finishing semester 2 of 2024

I'm going to be honest. Since my previous entry, nothing has changed, especially because of how I really wanted to focus on uni for the year's second semester. The task I needed to clear before I'm really happy to move forward is still trying to get the design for Kamilla's blaster right, and for months (or at least during the pockets of time I spent working on Project: Mydan) I felt like things were going nowhere. 

However, I strongly believe that now's the time I can actually get it done. You see, last semester, one of my courses required me to make design concepts for characters, making me experience the process of starting with various ideas evolving into a final product. Now, I'm applying what I've learnt from that experience into my own work, starting with Project: Mydan. Although I've been slacking abt in my progress (I'm just tyring to gain some momentum in this stage), I've managed to get some solid ideas down for Kamilla's blaster. I feel like I'm actually not going nowhere and just redrawing weapons, and instead using my references to get forwards in the design. I've been motivated and inspired lately. I hope to finaly come back.

Re-doing some things

I'm getting back into working on my comics again. I'm hoping this habit won't last a short time, this time. Right now, I'm starting with 'Project: Mydan'.

Just recently, I've rewritten the current scene I'm up to, which is right after Kamilla splits up with her friends, in the crater of city rubble, to look for her trailer and metal pieces. I did this because initially, I wasn't happy with how it turned out. This meant I also had to redraw a bunch of thumbnails.

Looking at the scene (which I'm going to avoid spoiling if anyone reads this), there is a thing or a few that I definitely need to make concept art of. For instance, a tool that Kamilla uses in an upcoming action scene, and also the mysterious machine piece that she finds. Maybe I should do some sketches of the crater, as well. That should be it.

Honestly, getting back into drawing and writing these projects makes me feel happy. I'm glad that I hadn't lost passion. I guess it was a little dormant for a while. 

Aiming for a 2024 Revival!

Hello everyone! I haven't posted here in a while. As you can probably guess from my lack of activity here (and pretty much everywhere else) lately, I haven't been doing much on my projects. And this is even though I had all of my Summer holidays to work on them. 

All that might sound worrying for most, but not for me. I know that my passion is still there, and it needs to be re-ignited with the right ingredients for its fuel. Recently, I have been trying to figure out what they are. This process may take just one guess, or, more likely, I'll have to test out multiple theories

So far, the theories I have come to a total of one. That theory is this: "If I update my project blog (and my projects Tumblr) on a more regular basis, then I will be more likely to do more work on my projects." Hopefully, this is the one. If not, that's too bad. But whatever happens, I'm looking forward to continuing my comics! ...And maybe more...?

(Also, uni's back and it's my final year, so it's going to be hell for me)

Subtle changing

When a character, place, or thing first appears outside of doodles and concept art, and into the canonical world that they're part in, it makes almost everything about them pretty much official. Even in my scenario, where I'm someone who's just making a casual webcomic project, I still feel that kind of pressure that everything seems all set in stone once something shows up in canon. 

However, as I'm making my comic, I notice that there are things that could have been done differently when I look back at the previous pages. There are things that I believe that I could have done better, so I try to change them

I can forgive myself because I'm working on my first webcomic project, but I have actually made some subtle changes to some certain elements. If you read Chapter 1, you may notice these if you pay attention. 

Take my my character Shashi, for example. He is Kamilla's cousin's son (AKA her second-nephew), who was introduced very early in the chapter. 

Here is what he looked like in his debut:

See all those stripes on his clothes...

And here is what he ended up looking like a few pages after:

Some of his outfit's colours changed for the sake of balance, too

Notice how I've removed some details on his clothers because I thought they were just too much of a hassle to draw.

Next, let's look at the colours of Kamilla's day outfit. Here is her first appearance wearing it:

A few pages later, you'll see how there have been some slight shifts in brightness, hue, etc.

Here is a comparison so you can see...

I just wasn't exactly as to how overly bright it was before, and wanted to create a better balance in her colour palette. 

You'll notice that this doesn't just applies to characters, but the background, too. You'll see how, with the art style, I'm still trying to figure out what direction that I want to go. I want to be able to make the process quick, but also appear well with the subjects.

And just recently, the colours of the speech bubbles and thought clouds have changed from white to a light yellow-brown colour just in case I would need the colour white to appear brighter if the future ever calls for it. Also, some lettering has been written by hand to create a stronger effect, if needed. 

Maybe this is a regular thing only for now. And maybe this will start to lessen once I become better and more decisive when it comes to making designs for my comics. It doesn't bother me at the moment, but I hope this will come to an end eventually.

First Commission!

Just last night I've gotten paid to do my first commission - with real money - ever. This is so exciting! I was so nervous that this time would never come, but it happened anyway which I'm super grateful for. The commissioner, a friend of a friend, found my offers on DeviantArt, which is one of the places where I announced that I was open. 

Aside from Instagram, I feel like DA is where I've most successfully grrown an audience. I guess that also makes sense because DA is a platform that I have been on since early 2014 (at age 12-13), and I have met people who have grown up with me and my art. Even after the time the UI changed permanently and many users moved to other places like Twitter, Tumblr, etc. there have been some old mutuals who have stayed and still see my art. 

To get myself ready for opening commissions, I really thought that I had to gather up good examples for the variety of character drawings that I'm able to do. And because I lacked any relevant/recent examples of characters that were my own, I decided I would do nine drawings before I would open. That didn't work out. I wasn't very consistent with my time and effort. I guess forcing myself to draw up 18 examples was not the best idea. Anyways, I gave up and just did small doodle examples xD

You can see what I've done on my commissions webpage, which you can view here.

What you see on my commissions page may seem a bit too "mathematical" or maybe even boring to read. So, I have also been considering putting together a sheet which showcases my prices in a more appealing manner. I still don't exactly know how yet, so I'll leave that for later.

Aside from working on my first commission, that's all that I have planned in relation to commissions. And who knows? -- maybe getting into commission work will motivate me back into regularly drawing again... :O