How working on Featured is like so far... (Patreon)

Hi guys! I've been hard at work creating the Featured version of the comic. I'm not allowed to talk about a lot of it, but I can give you guys vague updates and all that good stuff!

So first, Featured is a LOT more than just drawing the new Chapters. There's lots of extraneous work to do- Concepts, the banner, additional promotional art, etc. I drew quite a few trial pictures before I ever even got started on the comic, I think I was just working on concept stuff for a month!

Working with an editor is also unique. My editor is very good (IMO) and helps me find focus in the story. Even though I think there is merit in the kind of story I was originally trying to tell, the changes I've worked through with my editor makes the story much more concise. He is very honest about things I need to change though, there is no tiptoeing around critique to make sure no one gets offended. This helps me improve my work a lot and I prefer it this way, but I can see how it could be stressful for other people. Also, nothing is "final" until it gets approved by him, so there is a pretty high standard of work quality. And also things take a lot longer than you'd expect to get done, because after I finish I have to send it to him and it takes him a few days to look over it. So realistically, I don't have a week to make a chapter- More like 5 days.

Having an editor overall has been great, he makes great observations about my story and also critiques my paneling/lettering/etc quite well. The whole thing makes me realize just how many skills I need to have down-pat to create a Featured comic- It's not just drawing well. Knowing photoshop extensively enough to create the comic in multiple formats and sizes, being knowledgeable with lettering techniques as well as font types and when to use them, speech bubble placement, paneling, work choice, and on top of it all- Writing a good story!!!!! I really feel like comic artists don't receive the appreciation they deserve lol, this is a LOT OF STUFF that we're expected to be the masters of D:

I personally have had no issue staying on-schedule, but getting things approved takes time so I am kind of behind right now. I'll need to adjust my work speed to get faster to accommodate this.

Also, adding color to the comic takes like no time lol. It's just as much work as the comic being in black and white, the thing that is taking the most time is honestly lines because I'm spending more time on making faces look good and having super-dynamic poses in some scenes. Lines take like three days and I can color and shade the entire thing in one.

Overall though, I consider myself a particularly fast worker because I've done multiple comic series' in the past and I still am having to go at turbo-speed to meet the deadlines. Even though the panel minimum is 40, I end up with about 100 panels an episode! It's really impressive that anyone can keep up with this pace, let alone do it nonstop for years. Though I THINK I'm putting a lot more work into it than a lot of the featured comics since mine is so plot-heavy and I NEED it to be long, haha. Doesn't matter though, I just want to make ITGR really good, I don't care about it compared to other comics.

Anyway, right now the barest earliestest I could possibly launch is around July 20th. It will probably NOT launch that early, but I'm going to work my ass off to at least TRY to get it by that date. TURBO MODE ACTIVATE