Major Mistake

The latest page of Gone Unsupervised! took seriously too long. Like, to an INSANE amount. I try not to make excuses for things like this, but I know there's a major factor of that latest page that was, what I believe, one of the reasons why it took so long to finish. 

If you take a look at the page here, one of the characters, Grace, brings along to the scene a total of fifteen books. I had the idea of that because I thought it'd be mildly funny for her to have a ridiculous amount of something. But then, in the middle of working on that page, it hit me just how much to do it was, drawing fifteen books in almost every panel (and the page has eight of them).

The whole process with the books I found to be just so tedious and motivation-draining, and it didn't help that I also was facing a major art block early on in working on the page. 

Anyways, the page's done now and I learned something in the process. I'm never putting that many props in a page with that many panels ever again. ...Unless I find a shortcut or whatever, because that was boring, haha.

I have exciting news!

I'm finally making a start on my 'Gone Unsupervised!' procect! Actually, I released the first page on the 15th of February and the latest (third) one just a couple days ago, so this entry is actually late, haha...

So far, progress is good. I've got a bunch of scenarios planned for this series, and concept art should be easy since the setting for it is based on real life, so I know I won't get stuck.

Here's where you can read it so far:

GU!'s Blogspot | GU!'s Tumblr | The Duck 

I'll even post updates for this on social media, so you can keep up with my stuff on there, too:

Twitter/X | Bluesky | Instagram | Facebook

(P.S. Also, normally I'd upload to my comics site first, but I'm deciding to update it when I've finished with the whole short, this time. Also, I'm considering other webcomic hosting sites too, such as Tapastic, Webtoon and/or Comic Fury)

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.

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

Kamilla vs the Petal-Rat!

Here is the first major action scene since the chapter began: Kamilla vs the crater Rat. This is the process of its creation. 

The set-up for the traditional art part of things

Before anything, I want to say that the critter that Kamilla encounters in this scene is not exactly a "rat", or at least the kind that is known as one of Earth's most iconic pests. It's just a common pest on Imest, a city petal-rat, known by most as a "rat" because of its many similarities with its Earthean counterpart. 

Trying to design the "city petal-rat"

Now with the Earth-rat-Imest-rat out of the way, I can finally move on to the real process!

At first, I thought I was already prepared to start drawing the thumbnails for the chase scene. I had its description all written out in the script, which meant I already had a good sense of direction, right? Turns out, that was wrong. I was actually struggling to figure out how I wanted the way the pages to look, even though I was only working on the thumbnails. 

The scipt for the chase. Read if you like!

So, what I did was try to draw up a storyboard showing how the scene would go without having to worry about page composition. My mind is mostly pretty simple and in this kind of situation, my preference is to work on one thing at a time.

Storyboarded

This way, I would be able to get a visual script of what would be happening in the chase scene. My intention for this scene was for it to be both short and (hopefully even) mildly entertaining for the first piece of action in Chapter 1. 

I actually only relied on what I could remember from the written script for the storyboard. Really, my only use for the text version of the scene was to get a basic structure for storytelling so that I could feel a sense of direction. I even had to cut off parts of what was originally planned because it was going on for longer than what I had intended when I rewrote it with thumbnails.

And, although the scene was scripted, I didn't include any specific details on what was going on during the action. As seen in the thumbnails/storyboard, there are small moments where there would be some kind of activity such as Kamilla and the rat jumping on these sorts of platforms, Kamilla falling face-flat onto the ground, the rat jumping onto Kamilla's face, etc. Those things, I didn't write in the script. Instead, these ideas came from two pages in my sketchbook full of small moments I would like to see in the scene.

An idea I had that took inspiration from this

Finally, with having finished a storyboard that I was pretty proud of, I moved on to working on the page thumbnails themselves. Although this required me to pretty much draw each moment again, I was able to easily figure out the composition of the comic pages. 

Turned to thumbnails

As I'm writing this entry, I haven't yet made it to the next step, which is drawing up the pages themselves. But it's really simple - the same way I've done the rest of all the other pages. All I have left to do next are as follows: sketch, line, colour, and publish. Until the next scene requiring some kind of coordination, the process begins again!