School of Thought (WIP) (Patreon)

As usual, this is a work in progress. If you don't want to spoil anything before the comic is done, DO NOT READ THIS POST. However if you want to read this post after the comic is posted, you're more than welcome to look at my thought process and changes.

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Update 1/21:

Colouring and final details done!

I still need to text this but it is faaar too late for me to be able to think of the right words for this story.

Filling out the details on the posters and blank spaces was a lot harder than I thought. I may revisit them after sleeping and change some things up. I'm unfortunately not entirely sure if the story is clear... but that may be because I'm tired.

Update 1/20:

Panel 4 done!

I'll need to probably add more details in the window to help fill out the space. Right now it feels like the clues are too easy to spot. I'll have a fun time filling in all the empty gaps in this panel.

While I was drawing this panel, I thought "What if this skeleton is someone's parent?". I couldn't think of a way to put that in without a name tag on the skeleton which I feel is a bit weird. Classroom skeletons don't wear name tags right?

I may have to add a few things on the teacher's desk to fill it up. It may require some kind of planning if I intend to have objects relate to future events.

Update 1/19:

Panel 3 done!

Did I basically copy paste 3 houses? Yes... yes I did. Out of laziness? Yes... Does it serve some sort of plot purpose? Yes... yes it will, and will in the future (this is slowly my way of just copping out of doing extra work, just saying it'll be important in future comics).

Originally I drew a school bus picking up the kids, but that meant I had to draw a bus and a bunch of kids. I really wanted to avoid that so I decided to just have the three kids walk home. This happened to open up a new way of furthering the story using the houses. The bus' sole purpose was to tell the readers that it was after school, but I think having the kids walk home is enough to indicate that.

More empty posters to fill in with fuuuun details~ 

I recently listened to a video talking about expositions in film and how it can be done well (and poorly). I feel like these posters are basically my expositions. Hopefully I can figure out how to make good exposition that isn't just narrative text that comes with the comics.

Update 1/18:

Panel 2 done!

I hate drawing crowds. WHY DID I HAVE A SETTING WITH A BUNCH OF KIDS?!? Hopefully the amount I drew is enough

 I spent a lot of time thinking of what hand symbols some of the kids should have. I don't know if they'll serve any real significance in this comic, but I definitely will plan for more details on it in future stuff.

I chose three kids to stand on the playground set.. because three is a nice number. I also realized it kind of matches the hand symbol. Stream of consciousness I guess? Maybe I'll have three be a theme.

My script had the three kids wearing crowns to indicate they're special. I'm not entirely sure whether or not a crown would be appropriate... I'll have to ponder on this and come back to it.

Oh.. I realized I had three figures in the window. I'll have to move them to a different window so you can see all three. I guess three is a theme. Hahah maybe I'll do something with the rule of thirds...

Update 1/17:

Panel 1 done!

This was particularly challenging because I had to draw children. I don't like kids for a lot of reasons. One of them is their proportions are whack and unintuitive to me.

I went through a few different drafts of the script. Originally it was going to be about the 'new kid' that moved in. I quickly realized that there wouldn't be enough panels to show the entire process of the horror happening to the new kid. So instead, this will just jump straight to the end of the 'horror'. What you'll see are the kids who are all on the cusp of the horror. The beginning will be hinted slightly.

One of my most popular comics was the Mermaid one, I think it may be because there was a lot of texts to read. I intend to fill in those posters and papers with lots of hints towards the current plot... and the greater world.

I wrote in a little clue to what's happening here, that will only make sense in the distant future. Got to have both those 'A' plots and 'B' plots to keep the readers engaged.