 Hey guys and welcome back to the average if you're new here, I'm Steph I'm the average artist and I make illustrations, comics, graphic design, stories, I'm a writer I do loads of different stuff, so you're gonna have a well-wind packed full of content if you stick around. Also if you are not new here and you've been here since the beginning Hi, welcome back. I love you guys. You're the best. Thank you And today I'm gonna be doing something that I haven't done in a while which I've done previously a couple of times Which is the paper art cut out illustration and I love doing these So I thought it was about time that I started doing another one Because I've been so consumed with all the comic work over the last two months I haven't really been able to branch out and do videos like I used to just because I've been so busy But now that everything is coming to a sort of end and climax with that The Kickstarter is going. I thought I would some time to breathe and Still work on an illustration from the comic But you know do it in a different style and watercolor instead of Copic markers and do paper cut out work If you couldn't tell already by what I was saying This is a scene from my latest comic Emily is Burning. If you don't know what Emily is Burning is It's a horror comic a short horror comic that I've been working on for the last couple of months And it's currently on Kickstarter. It's been fully funded and we've reached a couple of the stretch goals So that means free stuff for people who just banked the physical reward tiers. It's still going. It's got like 18 days left So I'm very excited and I wanted to make an illustration to celebrate that and I'm thinking I might make this one of the prints That is available as a reward, but I'm not sure yet It depends how I can scan it and stuff It might not look as cool once it's all flattened is what I'm saying But anyway, my point is the horror comic This is a scene from that and I thought what I would do is do the lighthouse because I thought that would be really cool to play with the layers of the waves and the rocks and different things And it was funny because I had to use this cheap sort of watercolor paper Which I've used before and I've complained about before but I had to use it because obviously I'm not going to cut up and use lots of expensive watercolor paper when it's you know One bit is going to be used on a tiny bit of wave and then the rest is discarded for a different purpose You know, it's an expensive project if I use like 10 sheets of expensive watercolor paper So this is that kind of cheap watercolor paper So you have to kind of work it and the way that the paint settles isn't very nice sometimes So you have to keep rearranging it and working it with different layers of color and different things So that was a bit of a struggle But you know, I've worked with this stuff a couple of times before I've used this paper on my other paper cutout art So I knew that it would turn out okay in the end My favorite part has to be cutting out all the pieces and then arranging them So here you can see that I just used this Um scalpel cutter tool I don't really know what everybody calls them in their own countries But I think we call them scalpel over here and then I'm also not sure I feel like the the real word of this will come to me, but please don't at me in the comments So I was using this and I realized that the blade was so dull and It was a real struggle and I was contemplating like, hmm Should I get up and get like the extra blades or should I just It's just one okay for now because I didn't know where the other blades were So if I if I got up and searched for them, that would be a good while I thought but actually I found them quite quickly So it was fine I got up and I got the new blade and then it was so much nicer and easier to cut out these pieces But for now, I think I'm still struggling with it slightly Oh, no, I think I've got the new blade by now because you can see that I'm doing some intricate stuff now This was really fun. I thought I wanted to play with more intricate Details in this one because it is kind of a simple illustration at the base of it But then as I go on I do like little tricks and things to make it more Have more energy and be more fun and more visually interesting So we have little things like these this grating or gate. I don't know what to call them these poles of the Lighthouse outside the balcony area All being cut out so you'll be able to see into the background slightly I mean, it's only a small thing and you probably have to really Look at the paper closely to see it But I think it's really nice and it was quite fun to do And I think in the future when I do more paper cut out stuff I'm going to do more intricate work Maybe and see if I can play around with that because that was quite, you know, enjoyable and it looked good And it just added a little bit of something special to it As you do the paper cut out challenge if you do it, you need to keep checking like how the layers fit with each other I always do this thing where I use the bottom end of the paper and then just Kind of work up in layers when I do my comic in the waves I usually just leave it blank to sort of show the whiteness of the waves But with the watercolor, I couldn't really do that. I don't know why I couldn't like foresee it working So I wanted to just use a Posca pens over the top to kind of cheat that look a little bit Then I went in with some pencils and I was just Adding texture and depth and different things because this watercolor paper is so Crummy that it just leaves blotches or paint everywhere. You need to I like to make these Illustrations a little bit mixed media if you're going to be gluing down different stuff You might as well throw in some pencils poscas whatever you want in there This layer I added pencils and stuff and then I started twisting like you see these shadowy figures I twisted them to make them look more Unnatural and curved and a bit creepier and I hope that that has that effect And I think it does obviously the color scheme is the same as the comic in the beginning Which is kind of pastels and relaxed and pretty But as the story goes on in the comic book it does get darker But I thought it would be fun to try to use the similar color scheme as it is in the beginning of all the pastels And the lightness because I always I've said this before but I think it's a good like Contrast to the story where it's creepy and spooky and what people are saying is kind of scary And I just want to build suspense and have subtlety within the comic and I hope I hope that I've achieved that I I'm having that thing where you make something and then you have a thousand percent self-doubt and you think everything you're making is awful But I'm trying to push through that because now people have bought the comic I'm excited to share it, but I'm also apprehensive so I'm like Please like it and obviously I think people will like it because you know, I've worked hard on it And I am proud of it It's just that that nagging feeling that all artists get of like I I don't know if I can do this It's scary, but you know you have to push through I always say this to myself with like my writing and anything that I share with people What would I do if I didn't share it? It would just be sat here on my desk and that would be it so even if it's not perfect You should share it and the world will probably like it more than you think I always find that this is the case the stuff that I don't like very much always does quite well and people respond well to it When I did this sketchbook in a day video some of the images that I didn't like at all I was like everyone's gonna hate this and I gave it away for free on my patreon all those pages So like my patrons picked the pages that they wanted and they everybody picked like things that I didn't think would go And I found that really like pesto do you mind? shush and I found that very odd and It was quite surprising but also Reassuring to know that even though I don't like it. Maybe other people do like it I'm not saying that I don't like my comic because I do like it But it just shows you that we're so hard on ourselves. I think Whereas people probably Respond well to stuff that you think wouldn't do so well So it's interesting and I think it helps that I have an audience and I can share the stuff with you guys And you can tell me like no, that's good or you can critique it or give me little tips And it's been really great to be able to have you guys And I think you've really all pushed me through making this comic and I'm so happy for your help and Some of you say that I helped inspire you and it's such a nice thing to hear honestly because I've been watching other youtubers before I became a youtuber and those guys inspired me and I know that feeling And it just I can't believe that I've managed to do that to some people and for me It's like the feeling is reversed Definitely you guys have inspired me to continue and make and finish these products So thanks for sticking around and commenting and and honestly anybody who backed the project Thank you so much. I'm so excited to share the comic with you guys and can't wait to see everybody's reactions Or if they're reading it or when they receive it, you know, it's also exciting And I'm honestly so excited for the day where I send the files off to the printer and then all the stuff comes back So we've got comics and now we've reached a stretch goal of a second print So people who got a print will get an extra print and people who just got the comic will get a print and then We've got the pocket mirrors, which are going to be really pretty I think and I'm so excited And I'm not sure we'll reach the stretch goal of the pins But I'm hoping so because that will be so nice to have these little lighthouse pins and yeah, that's That's basically it guys. I'm I'm really excited and I hope you're excited and thank you for sticking around and everything So here's the final illustration I really like the way that it turned out and I love as always the depth in these Paper illustrations and the way that you can play with the different layers and cut out different things and twist different pieces of paper And I used the moon in the background like I cut out the shapes of the moon and the stars And I just think it all works really well. Let me know what you think If you would like to grab a copy of emily is burning the link for the Kickstarter is down in the description below And I really appreciate any support you can give even if you can't afford it And you just want to share it with people that would be magnificent of you Thanks for watching guys. Please like and subscribe for more content and I will see you next time I'd just like to take a moment to thank my patrons who are the 12 dollar tier patrons Thanks so much to babbit, erica, saseel, james, Steph and lee, megan, tim and tom You guys are the best and if anybody wants to shout out at the end of my videos then go check out my patreon down below Thanks