 it's been a while since we last spoke I think yeah like face-to-face like this I guess and I hope that you will enjoy this super long vlog because I feel like I'm gonna sneeze I feel like I've been filming for about a month doing this comic and it's just it's not a step-by-step process but it's kind of like where was that each week for the process of the comic and it's been a sort of long month of comic creation and working full-time but trying to do this comic on the side so I started out this journey by wanting to write two short comics kind of like I did before with my two short comics that are like sister comics but also have nothing to do with each other other than I made them at the same time I don't know if it made sense to do that again I feel like there's sort of something missing in that I feel like if you do I don't know if I did more than one maybe I should do like four and make like a compendium of comics or I should just do one and then another one another time that also means I can finish and complete this comic and kind of spend more time on this singular comic so yeah welcome to this vlog of just a month's worth of creating I hope you enjoy it because I just wanted to do videos that I enjoy making which is just like this long chatty vlog and maybe you can work on something whilst you watch it or maybe you can just you know put it in the background whilst you do something that's kind of like how I enjoy vlogs I kind of use them for inspiration and a lot of the time it does really help me I just I pop on a art studio vlog and literally helps me to just create this was the month of June and probably like the end of May so we're getting there I feel like this comic is gonna be finished soon and I will roll the clips and I will see you at the end thank you yes I will be rambling on whilst you watch this bunch of clips and work on your own stuff I guess or tidy or or just sit and watch it which I don't think any of anyone does I was going through my stock basically just tidying up I moved this shelf from a part of the room to another part of the room behind me so I could put this little desk next to me so Chris can work next to me sometimes we just yeah it just helps to have someone there next to you working sometimes for and we found out for both of us so we're that like weird couple that can sit and just work next to each other I guess which isn't weird I don't know why I said that's weird and yeah so I took some time off from my comic I know this is gonna be shocking news to you guys but sometimes I draw stuff that isn't my comic even though I go on about my comic all the time these weren't some pesto little doodles that I thought about making I really like the simplicity of these drawings and I think it would be really cute to make some little peppy drawings but yeah drawings stickers I mean wishing on a star Emily is burning and slow disappearance on my old comics and I was just looking through them because I felt like I don't know sometimes I cringe at my old work and then sometimes I find it inspiring and at this point I was like inspired because I thought hey you did this and not everyone can follow through and finish a project so this is like great even though maybe it's not perfect to you anyway I was looking at them for inspiration for me because I was thinking with what pages do I like the best and how can I make sure that this comic that I'm gonna do is the best comic that I've ever made or like at least it's I'm getting better I'm evolving so I was looking at all pages from these old comics that I really liked just thinking about the style like how did I approach this because it's been a while since I drew in this style where I color on the background and then do the pencil so I was like remembering oh yeah I did it this way with the pencils and then I did the inks on the back and then did it on the front like and then flipped the whole scene in Photoshop because obviously the way that I drew it on the back is how it's intended to be read in the comic I really like the way that I'll call Marcus Stain and blend and especially through I'm just using a cheap A4 paper which is probably not the correct way to make comics people make use Bristol board for comics for instance and I've just never never done that in whatever first made a comic project when I was in university I did it all for some reason on tracing paper no idea why then I took it into Photoshop and I just colored it in and I really liked the way the lines had sort of this crinkly texture to some of it no no it's wrong with me I think it adds like a tactile element house and texture anyway the point of what I was making is using paper just printer paper is quite nice because you get the inks to bleed a little bit which is probably not you know it's not what everyone wants but for me it works because you get these textures where the ink is just bled and they're sort of melding into one another and you're getting some really nice depth to some of these drawings which I think is just something I enjoy it might it might not be for everyone but I really love textures and work and yeah so these are my old pages and how they kind of came out within the comic trying to figure out whether how I want to like line the boxes of these comics as well for each panel because before I had done it with like the black pencil and then the most recent ones I've like rubbed out the black pencil but I'm not sure I prefer it's a small detail but it's an important detail and I think if you work so hard on something you want everything to resemble your idea of it so yeah just going through all pages and thinking about how I approached past projects and how could I improve on these projects I was looking at this that I thought was going to be the pattern insert page the end papers for this comic but then I realized it doesn't really fit the style at all so probably gonna have to redo that in the style of these new pages this is a page I first did which is just items in the antique store of this comic so if you don't know what this comments about it's about a woman who I guess is living alone I don't know why I've done another comic where someone's gone to live alone I think there's just something interesting about a character being alone and not having anyone to turn to so I think that's why I've made this character alone again but she goes she loves thrifting and antiquing and putting on social media and I was thinking like how what would happen if she picked up something she shouldn't have from an antique store it's kind of a generic thread of a story because we've heard this one before you know I'm hoping there's a couple of you know twists and turns and little things within this comic that will make it different and make it stand out story-wise which I'm not gonna spoil because obviously I want you guys to read this comic when it comes out so maybe I will spoil it in the future what I was thinking and how I approach this story to make it less generic I think adding different interesting details can definitely expand on a story yeah so she picks up something she shouldn't from an antique store is the basis is the elevator pitch for this comic this is the first page I think I complete and it was when I really started getting excited about the project again and what it is is just like antique objects I wanted a page of just panels of antique objects I think this one works well it goes into a little detail more detail then some of the panels of the previous pages but I like that I like sometimes in comics or in even in TV shows like anime or cartoons whatever when you have like a panel or a frame of just like super or not even super realistic but just a more realistic style and it sometimes works really well so that's why I'm trying to do here it's not obviously super realistic but it's more realistic than the stylized other pages I did also on the left you can see the opening panel shot which I also read it because I obviously have a problem but anyway yeah I was just going over these a little bit with more of the pencil to show to kind of tie in with the other pages a little bit more because if the black pencil is present in both then maybe it would make more sense to be more consistent Pesto here distracting me she always comes and just lies on the paper which is cute and also annoying because I'm like can you move and I want to move you cuz you're cute but I need to work this is a page of my main character entering the antique store and sort of seeing for the first time this picture frame that is going to be kind of a cursed object or is it guys we'll see but yeah so this is the object that she probably maybe or should have picked up and yeah I just I really like this page just this one in the spread will go with the previous you want one you saw so we understand that she's looking around all these antique stuff I think I need to add another page later in the comic where we kind of see maybe that this is her hobby that she does collect stuff and takes photos for Instagram and things like that or I don't know if we do need to do that I don't know if I won around her character out in that way because it would make sense but also I don't know if that's her thing or if she was just like a casual it's just a casual like shopping trip for her and she just happened to be there which I think is also a nice kind of in a way like bad luck isn't it more if she it's rare that she would enter an antique store I don't know I need to think about it a little bit more I might be adding a couple more pages here and there just around out the story a little bit because it is a short story so I have to be like no come on cut out all the fat basically just get to the story but sometimes you do need those little details to just kind of you know make the viewer connect a little bit more to the character because always you why do you care about her just a character but maybe if we have some sort of reason to root for her then maybe it will be more interesting so still learning you know the as I do the process I think I'll never stop learning and I think I have definitely developed on my writing skills or my doing comic skills I guess or at least I have so this was sort of the first page I completed with the actual character in it and in the initial concept of this page there was somebody behind the counter but I feel like the theme of this comic is definitely loneliness and I don't think I want to see another character in her reality like with her even if it's just an interaction of talking to someone over a counter I think we is implied that somebody is coming to assist her there so yeah I think it's interesting to think about it that way we're moving on to some packages for my Etsy and sending off some Emily is burning comics running out of these so I probably need to do a reprint which is always fun but also scary because you're like how many more of these are gonna actually sell like people still interested in this but I am exhibiting in Fort Bubble in November but also in a Bristol art convention in October as well so it's gonna be good so I do definitely need to stock up on stuff I've never actually done like a proper convention before which is a bit nuts but I done like my local one in Gibraltar which is a proper convention I don't know why I said proper convention but I think there'll be more for all in these other ones and I think there'll be more people interested in comics in these other ones oh my god I'm so excited we've got some pins finally done we're gonna check them out now because I did one and Chris did one but they've just arrived and we've been waiting like a couple weeks for these now we're gonna see what they look like which I've never made pins before so it's gonna be exciting okay so here are the designs are they? all the little things oh my god! amazing! incredible! there it is it's what you pick it up and it's got two pins on the back looks great and it wasn't as small as we thought no it was so these are on Etsy now once one oh look let's take them out of the package okay so this is the company BPS which is branded promotional solutions these are so cool they offer to make them for us they were turned for a video shout out so go check them out I'll link them down below so this is my little soy fish pin and it I'm so happy I love I've never made a pin before so it's just really exciting I just love the sushi so it had to be done and then here's Chris's little cat so cute as well I love the gold line what are I guess so what happened with this is I created the line work for the pins and then I sent it to them and then they redid the line work for me so if you guys aren't comfortable with like digitizing stuff and you just work traditionally this is a really good option for you so we didn't like digitize these really like I do remind a bit on Photoshop just to get it clearer what I wanted but Chris didn't digitize his um as in we didn't make them vectors so it's really nice they made the vectors for us and they came out so nice so happy with them and really really grateful to EPS so again I'll link them down below thank you again BPS and that there's a story of the pins which um I have already put up on Etsy um they haven't really sold anything so I guess if I advertise them here maybe somebody might be interested anyway uh I want to talk about the comic a little bit more picture this is the name so I am just going to do a demonstration of a page here I would at this point I think this was a bit truly like three weeks so maybe now but I was still kind of trying to find the style and I think after this kind of page I mostly get there and I say mostly because as I'm doing the comic I'm definitely still finding little things I enjoy about my style or the way the style of the comic should be so there is a tiny bit of inconsistency but nothing that is like terrible it just kind of works together I guess anyway so I think it's still consistent and still looks good to me but yeah I'm doing my process so my process which I've said a billion times is that I draw on the back the pencils then I use my alcohol markers and they bleed through this thin printer paper which I like using it's cheap and it's cheap and it has a nice effect so why not use it so the colours bleed through the paper and make this really nice like faded textured situation that I enjoy layered so I flip it over and then I do the pencils on top if any pencils are needed I'm trying to limit or use less pencils I guess now I'm not sure if it's working out because some pages need a lot of pencil because this is a horror comic I guess some pages need more definition than others if that makes sense because I feel like sometimes when you're drawing monsters or for instance or ghosts or whatever it can get a little bit more abstract because it's more interesting to have the reader kind of assume or see things within the page that they're maybe yeah anyway, off-tangent using black pencil to define certain areas but I don't want to define too many anymore just trying to use less pencil I guess anyway this page is funny because it was one of the first ones I did or a continuation of the one of the first ones I did and I didn't like it so I ended up redoing this whole page and even looking at it now I'm like it's not too bad but I don't know why I just got in my head about it so I just redid it and the new colors are much better now but yeah you can see the process still and I think that's interesting I really like watching people's processes so hopefully this is interesting to you and I really enjoy vlogs where I can just put them on and listen and doodle and work I've been watching a lot of studio vlogs again I kind of took a break from them I guess I was like burnt out from them but now I'm catching up I'm catching up and I'm watching every single studio vlog everyone has to offer everything I find it really inspiring to watch other people work I think it's really really helpful but yeah I'm doing a rulered line here which is interesting for me because I like to do the lines of each panel with freehand because I think it looks nicer my art teacher in university once said my life drawing art teacher who I really liked who was a really good teacher she said that there's nothing more beautiful than a free drawn straight line and I really think it's true I think it's so true like something pretty about it and you can tell when someone's free handed a straight line but yeah off topic I went through all of this used all these pans and realized I did not like the result and maybe the character was a bit off model so I just I just it could have been my own insecurities just getting to me and I redid this whole page or it could be that I was correct and now the new page is better which it is better but then I could technically do that for like every page I've completed so far so maybe it's not really it's not really a good way to go whilst doing art it's kind of detrimental to think I need to redo this page so that's my process I'm obviously working full time so anytime you see me doing this comic is definitely in my own time like my lunch break or on the weekend or after work usually because my time is obviously taken up with my own work I work as a graphic designer for a company in London and well I work from home so it's quite nice because I can just reach for my art supplies during my lunch break and stuff so it's super convenient for me to do both things so it's working out but I do feel like I'm just working all the time and if I'm not working I feel kind of guilty it's not a great attitude to have but the thing is when I do my comic I enjoy it it's fun for me but I'm super tired as well whilst I do it so it's kind of like oh no you know I have to take it easy a little bit you don't want to get burnt out but it is like I want to work on that but I'm tired but yeah here are some of the final pages I really like this one on the left and then there's one of the stuff from the antique store I kind of went over a little bit and did some more work on them so they fit together a bit more I've started like pinning up pages completed pages and trying to help the visualise the next page so everything is consistent so I'm pinning up everything and I'm crossing off stuff once I've done it so yeah so this is the new one and this is the old page so I did this new page and I think it looks much better the colours and everything and that's where I'm at at the moment it's coming to a head I would say definitely I think I want to add more pages to the comic because if I wanted to do a bound comic book which means like with no staples it's like a flat edge then it has to be 6 pages long so I'm missing out a few pages but I don't want to like stretch the story out just for the sake of it so either there's a couple of things that I might add to the story that would add like a couple pages and then I might do some like art of stuff in the back which I've seen a few people do before and I quite like it myself so I think it would be interesting anyway that's where we're at for this monthly update on the comic and I hope next month I'll probably be near finishing it and kicking off with a Kickstarter and so that's the end of the vlog I hope that you enjoyed watching it I haven't done the voiceover yet so I don't know what I said but I hope that I clarified and helped you understand my process a little bit talked about drawing and helped inspire you in any little way you can get my previous comics on Etsy if you're interested and also some other stuff the pin the pin which I realise I haven't really spoken about on social medias yet because I've been waiting for this vlog to show them off I will put the link down below from the company that sent me them and I think they're really really cool so I'm really excited to sell them actually the listing is already up on Etsy so that's kind of awesome never made a pin before very excited and yeah so they're up and what else yeah the comics coming along nearly finished and would love to do a Kickstarter so I'm gonna have to start thinking about those things that you need to do for the Kickstarter like the video the dedicated video the different rewards like what am I gonna offer I'll take you through that process as well if you're interested because I did it once before with Emily as Burning and it was successful and so hopefully things crossed this one might be successful um you never know though you never know creepy anxiety creeps alright that's the takeaway thanks for watching guys please like the video if you've made it to the end and comment something because it helps yes alright thank you bye