Organising my 'Catch-All's

Over the years, I've kept these sort of 'catch-all' notebooks for collecting the ideas that appear in my head every now and then. Those ideas could be related to stories or projects that I've had in mind for ages, they could be for new stories, or they could be connected to nothing at all and just be something I'd like to keep for later. 

I don't know how often I go back to read those things I've written, especially after I've finished a notebook and moved on to the next one, and all that just leaves those ideas, even if written, alone to be forgotten about until somehow they're picked up again.

Just recently, I've found a solution to prevent that sort of thing from happening.

This might seem excessive or overwhelming

Since I have plenty of spare notebooks in my storage, I've decided to put them to use here (especially the ones that are less practical to bring everywhere I go). What I do with them is this: I dedicate one of them to a specific category that I tend to write about.

Afterwards, with my old catch-alls, I read through them thoroughly and then if I find anything I like or find that seems relevant to something I'm writing (or could potentially write), I copy that idea down into the notebook dedicated to the category that ita fits in.

So far, I have five books.

#1 is for my first major universe/group of stories: my sci-fis set in the planets revolving around Star Piaros (and beyond).

#2 is for my second major universe, where one of my other main projects is set. This is where the characters from Gone Unsupervised! and Agonie Island's other inhabitants live.

#3 is for my other stories that are not set in any of those two major universes of mine. Those stories could be one-off narratives or be set in a universe with multiple narratives, which isn't as 'huge' or as ambitious as my main two.

#4 is for any of my ideas for stories that I'm in the middle of writing that I'm not sure about keeping or leaving out. There are some ideas that I like, but I'm not exactly sure how -- or if -- I should weave them into the story that I planned them to be part of. Sometimes, I rewrite information and come up with new ideas, and I don't know what to do with the old ones that I still believe have potential.

Finally, #5 is for anything that isn't tied to any story that I'm working on, or anything huge set and/or set in stone. This book contains loose ideas, prompts, and just anything that I've written that could potentially inspire something in the future.

Now, because I've organised the things I've written in my old catch-all notebooks by copying sets of writing into their respective notebooks, this makes looking back at my old ideas much easier. This way, I can assume that nothing I've thought about and written down gets buried under assorted compilations of text, never to be read again. And also, this puts many of my spare notebooks to good use.

Starting Again

It was my birthday earlier this week (on the 10th of December) and one of the gifts I received was a sketchbook. With that sketchbook, I've decided to use it for thumbnailing my comic pages. I thought it would be nice to have a focused place to have all my thumbnail drawings, and I guess it'd be cool to flip through all the work once I've got a decent amount of pages filled.

This was from one of my aunts on my dad's side

I'm starting with my 'Gone Unsupervised!' project, of course. I'll show the thumbnails I've done for one short here. It won't be a huge spoil since this one is a remake of an already existing short, so enjoy!

Although, I do feel like that before I actually get started on drawing the actual comic itself, I should set up the character reference sheets and make some concept art for the house that the characters live in, too. 

I should've drawn up everyone's shoes in the lineup, but whatever...

Maybe I should do concept art as I go, as in: before anything new shows up, I'll do the concepts for them, rather than doing everything all at once. It might make the pace of creating this project much faster, but I don't know how well this might work in the long-run. Maybe because this is a more slice-of-life project, it won't be too harmful.

In the meantime, for 'Project: Mydan', I'm just working on its story and characters, still.

Those are what I have planned to do for now.

Process of drawing 12F.Ave's lineup

As pasted from my logs on my art Tumblr.

Day 1

Here we have sketches of the first four. (I actually changed French’s pose a little since I took the pic). Maybe I should make everyone’s posture as straight as possible so their heights are more accurate…

Day 2

Sketches of the second four are now here!

Fixed up some of the first four’s poses to have them be standing more straight so their heights are more accurate, too. Also wow, I did not know how actually tall some of these guys were. (The final four of the house actually contain the most middle-heightened people in this group, haha)

Day 3

The sketches of the final four are complete! (Thinking about giving 2.0 & Barley some more height, tho. I dunno, yet)

Here’s how the whole lineup’s looking so far…

Also, here’s some context for the heights (that blue rectangle is a 30cm ruler, btw)

Attempting 'Gone Unsupervised!'

Because of all the plot stuff I'm still working on with Project: Mydan, I'm going to be drawing up another project in the meantime. That comic project is titled 'Gone Unsupervised!', which follows the more humorous scenarios experienced by these twelve weird teenagers who all live in the same house.

I don't really have a title design for this, yet

The twelve began as a group of characters I created when I was twelve, and at around that time I had no friends in school, so I used those characters as a way to cope. They've stuck by my side all throughout high school (and I have great friends now).

The comic format from 2020.
Also, notice its prototype title, 'No Adult Supervision!'
which I changed because it was too long.

Starting from 2020, I've actually tried making a comic strip series with them, but university got in the way and I didn't plan the whole proect out very well, so I stopped. I tried again to make a comic series with these guys back in 2022 and I stopped after one comic for all the same reasons.

The new attempt in 2022. I plan to divert from this style of
colouring when I draw it again, though.

It's nearing the end of 2025, and I'm also finished with uni, so now I have plenty of time to work on my projects again. I've also written a ton of scenarios for Gone Unsupervised!, which should keep me active for a while, and also, I'll have enough room to work on Project: Mydan in the meantime. 

When it comes to working on my projects, I plan to have two going on at the same time: 1) is something more narrative-focused, and 2) are more focused on small/simple scenarios and gags, without any big story or anything. My art style isn't too complex and I find it difficult to feel burnt out with my passions, so I think I'll be fine.

Update on 'Project: Mydan'

I'll admit, when it comes to working on Project: Mydan I've deliberately decided to put off drawing it for some time. I've done it for one reason: Kamilla as the story's protagonist. For ages, I've been thinking about how to go about her role as the main character and 'hero' of the narrative. I've felt like she's not strong enough as one, at least for me.

I know, when I initially started writing Project: Mydan, I gave myself a limitation -- keep the story somewhat simple. I thought it'd be good because I could make it a little shorter to complete. However, I wanted the characters to be people we actually care about enough to follow, because in my mind, simple doesn't equal shallow.

To be continued...

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.