Hey everybody- I’m making this post public because I desperately need more patrons and using Patreon depresses me more than normal. Despite my best efforts I take deleted pledges and “de-friendings” very personally, especially on days like today when I’m in a bad place mentally after a tough month. During these times I get defeated very easily and have difficulty working or doing much of anything. I’m trying to stay positive, but you could call this “the depressive phase” or “a cry for help”. Your understanding is greatly appreciated.
The attached livestream, from yesterday afternoon, actually received some views and comments, which is always encouraging. I would have posted it here exclusively but as stated, I don’t have a large enough audience to survive on. I still have a lot to offer and I refuse to give up. I wish I didn’t feel this way so often but I lack the good fortune thus far to make it stop. Practically every living artist whom I grew up idolizing has by now moved on to something else to get by. I don’t know how to do anything else (nor do I want to) and so I feel worthless and without a place in the world. I fear ending up on the street someday in the future. If I lose all my patrons then I will close this page up. I place the responsibility for that in the hands of my remaining patrons. I have no illusions.
Re: 10 Steps To A Finished Page. In the video, I am blue-lining and inking the art for the 74th page of the second metasaga of Ceaseless Fables of Beyonding. The lettering, panel borders and balloons were already finished, taking around 2 hours. As you can see, I had actually started before recording, so the time elapsed for this stage is probably 3 hours total. After this, I scanned the page, imported it into Photoshop (in Grayscale), and set the Contrast to +50, and the Brightness to +15 (this omits any heavy blue marks the scan picked up). Then I use Select Color Range, with the Fuzziness set to 200, to select the white area of the page, and delete it. This leaves me with a “wireframe” of all the black marks on the page, which I lower the Brightness of completely. This means there won’t be any tiny “gray areas” attached to the black lines; everything is solid black.
Previously, I established an RGB “coloring file” for CFB pages in Photoshop, which I use until there are more than 20 layers, and then set up a new one (PS can get grouchy past 20 layers). I place the new page on the top, on a new layer, and resize it until it’s the same size as the previous page. Then I make all previous pages invisible, and open a new layer under the new black lines. So: in this case, the page layer was “Layer 74”. I rename the new layer underneath “Layer 74b”, for “Background”. With me so far?
After deciding on a “base” color for the background, I use the Magic Wand to select the blank area between the borders of Layer 74, and use Select Inverse, which will highlight the panel interiors. Then I hold down Alt and select the interior of each speech balloon (not the lettering) that wasn’t included with the blank area between the borders. Then I select Layer 74b, and use the Paint Bucket to fill in all selected areas.
If you’re following along, you should see a colored layer beautifully filling in the illustrated portions of the page. Now, I make Layer 74 invisible, and use the Eraser to erase all the lettering that was colored in on Layer 74b. I will also use this opportunity to clean up any rough areas in the two layers (after making 74 visible again). Then, in between 74 and 74b, I add a new layer; Layer 74c, for Characters. (Note: for each principal character or object, I have a Color Guide made, and saved in its own folder.)
To color in the details for each panel, in particular the characters (which I color first), I use the Magic Wand to select the square of color on Layer 74b representing the background of the last panel, then go to Layer 74c and work within the highlighted area (using the Color Guide as reference). This is great because you never have to worry about “going outside the lines” of the panel. I color one character at a time, going backwards from the last panel the the first. Trust me: it’s better to go one character at a time, rather that flip back and forth through the Color Guides.
Okay! After some work you should now have the basic colors of the page laid out, on one-color backgrounds. Now, on top of the entire stack, I add Layer 74d, for Decoration. This is where I add points of light, and/or highlights. Typically I use white with the Paintbrush, with a small “glow” or star-shaped brush tip. (Let’s say around 33.) This is the quickest part of coloring, unless there’s a lot of metal or mechanical details that need to “shine”.
Next: I set my two colors to absolute WHITE and BLACK. (I usually pick the color of the inked page, to get the exact opacity of the physical ink.) I set the Paintbrush to the “diffused” tip, sized around 35, with the Opacity set to 25%. I go to Layer 74c and, using the Magic Wand, select an individual area of color in the last panel. Using the Paintbrush, I add the light and dark effects necessary on the area, then move on to the next area, working backwards from the last panel. When I get to the first panel, all the characters on the page now look like they exist in three-dimensional space. Plus, you can work underneath the highlights, for extra effect.
Now, we select the last colored panel area on Layer 74b with the Magic Wand. I decide on two unifying colors, and use the Gradient Paint Bucket tool to add gradients and make the background look like it has depth of field. Then, I use different texture effects with the Paintbrush (still at 25% Opacity) to add realism. I go back to the pure Black to add shadows beneath the characters. Same thing, I work backward from the end, so by the time I hit the first panel I have a page minutes from completion.
After checking for errors, now comes the easy part. I link Layer 74 with all of its “children”, then do Layer > Merge Linked. Now, Layer 74 is the completed page, and can be saved as a .jpg and posted on the website. Once I have enough pages, I pay to have them collected in book form (as they were intended), like I did on 2/22/22 with the first Ceaseless Fables comic book, which no one pre-ordered. I don’t have the funds to pre-print copies for sale, so there’s no other way to do it. Believe me, I had plans to gift them to Patrons for hanging in, but currently literally all my money goes to rent, bills, and food. I’ve been wearing mostly the same clothes for the past ten years. I don’t date or go out for fun ever. This is all I have.
The coloring stage of the strip, unless I have to create new Color Guides for it, runs about 4+ hours. That means it’s possible but unlikely to draw an entire strip in one day. However, this requires that the plotting, writing, and roughing of the strip are already completed. Plotting and writing cannot be accurately timed because they can take from a few hours to a few months. Oftentimes time actually has to pass before a story can be completed properly. There are plot points happening in the current strip that were conceived over ten years ago.
Let’s talk about page #74. Here we have what I would consider a “self-indulgent” page; it features Daemir Daggerbite and Essul, characters I created back in 2009. I know these two well enough that I could write conversations all day between them. Not only are there dozens of written pages delineating their histories to which the reader can refer, I have dozens more notebook pages detailing their histories in the 20 years between the two 5-part metasagas, which I use for reference. Daemir was always intended as an Indiana Jones surrogate, so appropriately, he’s led a lifetime of adventures that can be expanded upon of simply enjoyed. When he goofs on Essul for always having a young female apprentice, CFB fans can refer back to the very start of the strip, when Essul was working for the Royal Court of Inway. Essul’s current ward, the mysterious two-headed girl Eyesix-Whysix, was found in the ruins of a wizard colony, in Creepwood. If you recall, the Duchess of Creepwood retained two-headed wizards as counsel in the original strip, and they abandoned her over a dispute (#201, 1S). Stands to reason that these same wizards would found a colony in the same province, no?
Daemir mentions that the (Nefarian) Empire “dissolved all the old Briguilds”. Real CFB fans will know that the Midirian Briguilds were corporate religions that specialized in trades and businesses. Most of them were wiped out in the collapse of the Capitol Spires during the Tournament of Greatest, allowing Nefaria to usurp their functions in the establishment of her Empire. However, one Briguild operated secretly, to their advantage; the Hatmender Briguild. Essul draws their symbol in spilled Moon Mead on the table; you may have seen this symbol in prior strips (particularly ones based in Smisland), and Quiatas, Refusaleth’s majordomo from the original strips, was a Hatmender. If you’ve been paying close attention, there’s been a Hatmender in the new strips; the mysterious, silent, many-eyed Dr. Sturmosh.
Oh, and take a close look at where Daemir and Essul are chatting. It’s the M.E.W.L., in “outpost mode”.
I hope everyone has learned a lot from this entry; I would’ve made it into a podcast you could listen to if I had the time, but I do not. Maybe in the future, if there is one. Mainly, I hope that this illuminates the titanic amount of blood, sweat and tears I have shed for this comic series for the past 13 years. It is my baby and I treat it as such. If it has to be appreciated properly after I am gone, so be it. But the entire point is that it never ends. Whenever you want to come back to it, it’ll be here.
Thank you for listening. That’s all I have to say for the time being.