[Full sequence] Confessions Comic- Eucharist (Patreon)

Surely 11 pages don't need many refs, right? Wrong. I can always find a way.

The fun stuff:

Scouring stock images for every 70's/80's black british formalwear pic I could find. I drew Mrs Thomas and her kids a bit brighter and more fashionable than the other churchgoers because a lot of the colourful eyecatching styles carried over from the Caribbean with the Windrush generation (She'd have been younger then and come over with parents.) Yes I fell down a research hole for a side character again.

Also I had like 4 pixels to work with at that scale but I wanted to get the little ribbons in the girls hair bc how cute is that reference…

Watching etiquette videos of communion…as you do. Mostly I was looking for refs for how they'd hold things, but also learned about people bowing just before it was their turn so I added that in. Also god don't look at me, none of that stuff on the altar is even readable (and only half of it is there because it was so busy...)

If u remember I had Cliff lick Eugene's thumb at the beginning of the confessions comics, this time I kinda wanted Eugene to be the one being inappropriate, brushing Cliff's lip with his thumb. I'm finding shifting the dynamic quite fun, at first Cliff is all cocksure and treats it like a game, but now he's actually getting what he wanted he's scared of mucking up, so he's less sure of himself!

Will I ever draw this kitchen again? I do not know. Did I need to know what tea and coffee containers they'd have? yes.
I also decided what they were cooking for dinner... my grandma used to make this and it feels very british to me, beef mince in a gravy, and fried chips or potatoes. The smell of oil frying really feels nostalgic. I'm not saying it was good food but we are not known for our cooking.

One of the most challenging things about finding references is that a lot of the styles that show up when you search 80's house...are from wealthy homes, or like magazines of show homes that nobody really had, or modern recreations. I wanna know what normal lower class people had, not the highest tech ovens and the most trendy pots and pans! So generally I end up looking through stock photos or reddit and facebook for peoples old pictures.

Tbh when I'm actually drawing it in...a lot of things are so small and messy that they're barely recognisable as what I'm referencing, but I think it still adds a vibe.

Onto the technical stuff (crying):

I made a rough kitchen model, initially following the scale of a real floorplan from the real building I'm using, before realising the scale was weird haha. I wanted it to feel cramped, and I didn't really know where to position the viewer/camera to give that feeling, so it did help to have a physical model to try different things.

I do find it quite restrictive sometimes though, because you can't see through walls, or fit the camera (my big phone) into corners of a small model. I think it came out with dodgy perspective once i put the figures in, but I decided to let it go haha.

The traced panels! You'd think I might have traced the complex building panels and church interiors but no. Why would I do that. (cries) anyway these were things I do find kinda hard, people in small spaces or with the background where you can't see feet. It's hard to know how big things should be behind them. The last two I was just being lazy tho, I was nearly finished...and very ready to be done.

Honestly I do really love drawing small moments like these and I try not to edit myself too harshly for stuff like this, yes- technically it's not necessary for the plot and could be cut, but it often adds a lot of like...heart.

I did however draw the stairs wrong here and there shouldn't be a wall there. Those stairs...caused me so much pain.

I drew them the wrong way around so many times despite how hard I tried, I have no brain for spacial maths. It both did and didn't help that I was basing it on a real building with limited photos...I was genuinely looking through the house listings for glimpses of how it worked.

I ended up flipping the last two pages so I could use the lovely but backwards stairs I drew, you can see before (1st) it was breaking the 180 rule and felt a bit specially abstract. Taylor suggested having them looking up/down at eachother bc I hated how the flipped version (2nd) had both of them facing the borders, and I love how it turned out. Worth the effort in the end.

Do the stairs matter you ask. it matters to me. sobs.

This was interesting, I thought the realistic background colours would be too boring for a dramatic kiss, but actually it added to the sense of intimacy and tangibility, to have the space more grounded.

I really wanted it to be like... a good kiss without the reader thinking 'oh my god they're in public' until they snap out of it, so that's why I set it in the inside part of the stairwell- where nobody could see easily.

(and why the stair layout mattered to me really, I wanted it to be clear where exactly they were.)

A ref post isn't complete without reconstituted cheeto Eugene (its play doh).

Literally holding a 3d model over my screen hahahaha. I didn't stay faithful to it, but it did help me get me get unstuck.

Thank you for reading the insane rambles of a madman. I hope you all have a good week!