How the tables have turned…

Production Diary: I missed the Alien Tongues. They were fun to draw.

How the tables have turned…

The time for subterfuge appears to be done. Dante is going to make sure of that.

Production Diary: I enjoyed having the title of the chapter become a text bubble. It’s the little things that amuse me, you know?

Things around Port Harbourcape have changed, somewhat.

Production Diary: This might be self indulgent, but I kinda wanted to draw a different theme for the rest of this story, which led me to write this plot twist into the story, a few months back. It led to some pretty fun ideas that you’ll see develop.

Production Diary – I’ve always liked writing Lance’s elaborate, ridiculous theories. Considering that we’re approaching the end of the book, I wanted to do one last one. I hope the ‘washing your mouth out with soap’ doesn’t make me too ‘dated’, but I was a child of the 80’s.

That kind of threat was somewhat common in those days.

Strange things are afoot.

And also, “afoot” being a actual word is a strange thing!


Production Diary: This page has been done for a while, but for some ‘weird brain’ reason, I was waiting for the NEXT one to also be done before I posted it. Sorry about that.

Silver lining: Look for a 2nd new page VERY SOON!!!

Production Diary:

It’s another sort of “Intermission” page. The next page will dive into what’s going on, but I wanted a big “establishing” panel first. And since I didn’t have that space in the next page, I decided to give it it’s own page.

It’s also a call back to the title of a page early in the first book: “Alien Tongues” but, as Dante is noticing… something is off.

This was a tough one to paint. I decided to try the “less is more” approach to the illustration and it let to a bit of frustration when I was coloring it. I think I still have to figure out the best approach of how to draw and paint the pages with this new ‘simpler’ color scheme, while still having the impact and clarity of the overly detailed pages that I did in the past that became such a time-sink to get done.

Had Dante ever seemed so proud?

Production diary:

Seeing as we’re approaching “Port Harbourcape”, I wanted to revisit some of the first book. Take a stroll down memory lane, and one might say. I really like how this one turned out. I had the next page planned to be a similar thing, and I had started it as such. But that one was falling flat and I ended up scrapping it.

The NEW next page will probably be posted between here and new years!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Dante is vaguely threatening about keeping everyone on task.

Production Diary:

This page had actually been complete since around Thursday last week and I’d been procrastinating posting it. Not really for any reason at all other than to give the last page a bit longer on the front page, for you guys who hadn’t seen it yet.

I feel like the days of the “New page drip-feed” might finally be behind me as I’ve found a new ‘Groove’ to my workflow these days. Page 14 is being inked now and will be ready for color probably tomorrow, and page 15 is already written. So feel free to check back in more regularly! Things are happening!

I think Lance has a point, not enough appreciation is usually paid to the height of boat jumps.

Production Diary:

This page felt really GOOD to make. The comic’s production cycle has been having a bit of an identity crisis this past year. As you all might have noticed with the shifting paint styles. Though it has been something that’s always happened over time since I’ve been making these books, if feels like lately, it’s been more frequent.

That’s because the way that I had been doing the color, although I really liked the final product, has been feeling very ‘mechanical’ and I’d been enjoying the process less and less. Which is probably a reason why the updates had been slower recently.

But this return to where the comic all started, back to ‘Port Harbourcape’ has made me look back to the comic’s roots as well. And although the art was cruder, looking back at the digital ‘watercolour’ style I used to use for the backgrounds has given me a new appreciation for them and I wanted to revisit the style.

And boy, did I enjoy it. The first panel I did was the solo Alex and solo Dante ones and I fell in love with them. There’s just a warmth to the style that makes if feel so good to look at. And painting in that style felt more like I was ‘painting’ than doing the color for these has in a long time. Almost therapeutic.

I hope you guys enjoy it too!