Rooftop (Patreon)

Play The Game... The game...

[Edited: Still getting used to the 2 subscriptions lol]

Don’t forget about that card game! It may come back to the plot later.

For now here's the band and company enjoying the afternoon at the rooftop over Tony and Davo’s building.

See, I recently noticed that, outside of commissions I've been doing, I hadn't really done a big elaborate piece since last year. So before I started working on the comic again, I decided to make a big Summer piece. 

Actually, that last Lil pic I posted was supposedly going to be part of this but a bunch of the original picture got scrapped. I just decided to finish her sketch anyway and I have another one like that that will come out soon. Besides a short mini comic I sketched and will maybe soon finish.

One of the big changes on the original concept is that this picture stopped being a beach piece at some moment. 

While sketching I had a funny thought that goes like this. “These guys must be rich because they sure go to the beach a lot lol”. Well, yeah, on one hand but they’re furry OCs, that’s part of their nature, and canon wise it sort of makes sense because they visit cities with beaches while touring but I then decided to make a pic portraying a regular stay home summer.

The original idea was actually them taking one of those cages that some buildings put on the clothing lines in the roof so the clothes don't go flying or get stolen and each one gets assigned to an apartment on the building and turning it into a place to chill, and it looked awesome on the first sketch, but during the lineart process I scrapped that because it looked weird. 

It ruined the negative space. But I kept the clothes because they look cool in the composition and the improvised canopy to play around with the lighting.

Now including a slightly more realistic working glasses Tina!

When I draw her and most characters with glasses I like to do it with this cartoon classic trope of the glasses becoming their eyes instead, A la Millhouse! But just to keep it fresh I changed it up a bit here so now you know what my characters see when they see her.

I think this is the first time she appears with the whole band on a big detailed pic.

See, the vibe here is someone brought one of those complex tabletop board card games to spend the time. Lil and Diego are still discussing and deciphering the rules. Tina, Davo and Tak are chatting while playing. RJ is either watching the game or has already been eliminated and now is happily admitting to Zara that he still doesn't understand it and Diana and Tony are chatting in the back.

There's 4 alt official versions including the non canon swimsuit version that doesn't make sense anymore because this stopped being a beach picture halfway through the process of making it but I ended up drawing the other versions over it and I'm posting just because… eh what the hell…

A thing I'm a bit proud of in this picture is that I took the time to draw the insides of the apartments in the distant buildings in the background. Nothing too complex but I usually just draw windows as black squares with reflections. It's mostly noticeable in the full res versions of the pic.

Another thing I put some too much effort into is the cards of the game. Once again I'm repurposing the Cartographer’s universe as an in universe franchise someone apparently made a game of. I'm also adding the three cards you can actually see because only those I actually finished. The others are incomplete and made to be seen just from one side. The way the game is played is that there are different types of deck, you can play as a pirate, an insurgent, a scam artist, and… well, that's a story for another day…

But I will add that this picture, by accident, is also doing a bit of subtle world building because, through the cards, it’s probably the first time a picture of the universe of the band implies that there are feral animals you can ride on. Just saying…

And now. Let's do some comics.