[wip] comics process & a very serious irl decision i made recently (Patreon)

A little peek at what my comic-making process looks like! It's pretty quick and simple compared to my illustration process. I have a lot of confidence in my linework and I think it always turns out better with minimal penciling, so my thumbnails are relatively simple. I say simple, but the feedback I receive the most from my professional work is that my thumbnails are immaculately detailed and easy to read -- "webcomic quality" is how an editor described it to me once! lmao. I've included a set of thumbnails from my work on the Legend of Korra graphic novels so you can see what they normally look like.

Anyway, when it comes to Angel Arcade, the process is super organic. Even the way I screentone each page (or even each panel) changes every time; I just go with the flow for that day. I always put down the speech bubbles first, because I think it's a mistake to not compose comics around text. My origins are in manga, which generally have much larger and generous speech bubbles, but I've also done a lot of studying on how American comics letter and compose their bubbles. I think I've ended up somewhere in between the two sensibilities. I also prefer imperfect, organic bubble shapes, so I never use preset shapes if I can help it unless there's a specific effect I want for more manga-inspired work.

Then I draw the lines, tone/shade, and that's it! Very simple and straightforward. While I've used Clip Studio's comic tools in the past and think they're very strong, I think ultimately for me, it's not worth using for something as simple as 4koma, or my normal comics work for most of the time. Because of my ADHD, anything that slows me down even the slightest bit becomes extremely detrimental to my overall process; I have to be unencumbered from the technical aspect or I'll never get it done. I've also spent so much of my life drawing comics on paper that I really do enjoy manually drawing and editing around the panels, etc.

In more serious news related to my work, I recently posted about turning down rather lucrative marketing illustration work for Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game because Mike Z is unfortunately on the dev team, a fact that Paramount obfuscated from me several times whenever I asked about it, and eventually was confirmed. That paycheck would've covered my health insurance costs for the year, but it turns out my integrity is not so easily bought. For anyone who wasn't aware of the fact and was considering buying the game, I hope my bringing it up publicly will help y'all make informed decisions about where you're choosing (or not choosing, in this case) to put your money. This mfer countersued the women who brought up the sexual harassment claims; I very strongly feel that he should not be allowed to make money from this community ever again. I also truly believe that it is absolutely worth every bit of karmic reward to have a spine about this kind of stuff.

Turning down a five figure paycheck means I have to rely far more on my Patreon and combined earnings elsewhere, so thanks again to y'all's continued support here. It is literally what pays my bills and allows me the very needed space and time to create my own stuff. If you'd like to support in other ways, both my artist shop and my Angel Arcade merch shop are still open! Much love to y'all frfr.

<3 irene