June Box Peek Update (Patreon)

Another month has passed, and another Box Peek update is delivered.

Production Update
Honestly I didn't get a lot of days in this month. This last week of June was pretty sweet though and I got some good time in. The art for all the backgrounds is complete and all coloring is done too, including my dumb new background medium--watercolors.
Making Episode 7, I got sick of coloring in the sky with crayons or colored pencils so I decided to give watercolors a shot, despite my inexperience. While the result was amateur at best, this stuff is usually out of focus anyway. Then I noticed in the edit that the scenes with a watercolor sky even looked more vibrant.

So this week I tried to watercolor every background. It's not faster than crayons but it is less annoying, if that makes sense. I have to say none of these pieces should ever be framed or even looked at. They're really bad. Watercolors are so hard. I'll keep them very out of focus and we'll see how they work in the edit.

Which, to get to my next point, won't be happening soon. Baby Milo's appearance has put a slight delay on those pickup lines I referred to last month, so once this Ep 8 art is cut out I'm just going to start drawing Episode 9 stuff. And that honestly feels very crazy, like I'm actually getting close to the end of this crazy project. With six months left in the year and 2.5 episodes left to produce, I'm giving myself "2019" as the hardest deadline and we can celebrate if we get there sooner than later.

Behind-the-Scenes Thoughts
I want to talk briefly about Box Peek and silence. Recently I've started working with no TV or podcasts or Twitch or music and it feels really nice. Since the start of Box Peek I've always sought out some secondary entertainment to keep me going through the production process, but just last week I accidentally left my phone on the couch and it changed my whole world.

I think my poor brain is just absorbing noise for almost every waking moment. I count browsing the internet and reading texts as noise too, just interference, other voices I'm ingesting without room for my own. When I was scribbling away without my phone, I wasn't even that mad when I realized I'd have to get up to get it. I figured that was really the only part of that day or maybe any day when I had my brain to myself and nothing else was coming in. I gotta say it felt pretty nice.

I feel strangely connected to my younger self, who, with no stupid little internet-enabled devices, would draw in silence all the time. I have to think that if he saw what I was working on today, he'd think I'm really bad at watercolors too.

I'll be back here at the end of July (or perhaps the very beginning of August) for next month's update!

Thank you again for your continued patience and support,
Kyle