just a couple of bros
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How I save time on backgrounds as a full-time webcomic artist
Hi! I make webcomics for a living, and I have to be able to draw a panel extremely fast to keep up with my deadlines. I draw about 50 panels a week, which gives me about 45 minutes per panel if I want any semblance of a healthy work-life balance.
Most webtoon artists save time on backgrounds by using 3d models, which works for them and is great! but personally I hate working in 3d... I went to school for it for a year and hated it so much I completely changed career paths and vowed never to do it again! So, this is how I save time without using any 3d, for those of you out there who don't like it either!
This tactic has also saved me money (3d models are expensive) and it has helped me converting my comic from scroll format into page format for print, because I have much more art to work with than what's actually in the panels. (I'll touch on this later)
So, first, I make my backgrounds huge. my default starting size is 10,000 x 10,000 pixels. My panels are 2,500 pixels wide, so my backgrounds are 4x that, minimum. Because of this, I make them less detailed than I could or that you might expect so it doesn't look weird against my character art when I shrink portions of it down.
I personally find it much easier to add in detail than to make "removing" details look natural at smaller sizes, but you might have different preferences than I do.
I also make sure to keep all of my elements on separate layers so that I can easily remove or replace them, I can move them to simulate different camera angles more easily, and it's simple to adjust the lighting to imply different times of day.
Then I can go ahead and copy/paste them into my episodes. I move the background around until it feels like it's properly fitting how I want.
Once I've done that in every panel, I'll go back through the episode and clean up anything that looks weird, and add in solid blacks (for my art style) Here's a quick before and after of what that looks like!
This makes 90% of my backgrounds take me just a few hours. This is my tactic when I'm working in an environment that an entire scene, or multiple scenes, will take place.
But many panels will inevitably have a location that's used exactly once, and it would waste time and effort to draw a massive background for those. So in 10% of cases, I just draw the single panel background in the episode. I save all of these, just in case I can re-use it later (this happens more often with outdoor locations, but I save them all nonetheless!)
I generally have to draw about 2 big backgrounds per episode, and 3-5 single-panel backgrounds per episode! At the beginning of an arc/book the number is higher, but as the series is continuing and I'm building up an asset library of indoor and outdoor elements to re-use for the book, the number generally goes down and I save more time.
My series involves time travel and mysteries, so there's a lot of new locations in it and we're constantly moving around. If I were working on a series that was more consistent in this aspect, this process would save me even more time!
Like I said earlier, this also saves me a lot of pain and gives me a lot more options as I'm converting from scroll format to print format!
panels that look like this in scroll format...
can look like this in print!
because I drew the background like this, so I didn't need to go through the additional effort to add in the extra detail to expand it outwards at all.
Anyways, I hope this helps someone! As always if it doesn't help, just go ahead and disregard. This is what I do and what works for me, and I feel like I only ever see time-saving tips for comics that involve 3d models and workflows, which don't work for me at all! I know there's more people like me out there, so this is for you!
Enjoy!
Also obligatory "my webcomic" if you want to see this in action or check it out!
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Mirror might steal your name
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This is a little work in progress written by yours truly using my oc (Nolu) and my platonic die or die trying Chicken’s oc (Syx).
For context, Syx is dating both Xiao and Aether because why have one pretty boyfriend when you could have two? Please don’t mind the ooc ness for any of the characters.
Also- can someone please tell me how to add the little read more on mobile? These posts tend to be long and well.. no poor soul wants to scroll past a wall of text. Apologies for poor formatting.
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"Hey babe!" The blonde cheered as he rushed forward and drew him into a hug, the other easily reciprocating.
He turned back to the crowd, and Syx relaxed a tad when he felt the familiar presence of Nolu appear behind him.
"This is my boyfriend, Syx! And that behind him," he stated, glancing back at a bloodied Nolu, sighing at the sight, "is a menace of society."
Nolu squawked in disbelief glaring at the blonde. "Hey braid buddy that's not very cash money of you! This blood isn't even mine?!"
Aether just slumped forward, taking a dramatic gasp before spinning around and pointing at her. Syx just sighed at their shenanigans.
"You stupid adventurer bard- that's the point!" He declared and the women placed her hands over her heart before whispering a minor 'fatal' under her breath.
"That's why your shoes raggedy Blondie!"
"That's why your god dead homophobe!"
"WE ARE BOTH GAY??"
"FUCK YOU"
Syx slinked past his boyfriend, starting up a conversation with the shocked crowd as the braided argued, their statements getting more and more outrageous.
"Greetings," he bowed his head slightly as he spoke, holding out a gloved hand.
The older (?) gentlemen, tall with long brown hair, wore a faint smile as he reciprocated the action.
The boy beside him however, jumped in front and knocked his hand out of the way, posing dramatically.
"It's nice to meet you! I'm Venti, Venti the bard!" Sparkles practically floated around the man as he spoke, a hand outstretched to Syx.
Meanwhile, he just sighed, practically collapsed in on himself.
"Another gremlin? Really? I thought Nolu would be the only one I would have to deal with in this lifetime." He pouted, suffering eternally.
The bards both let out offended gasps, Nolu jumping over travelers shoulder as she skidded to a stop before him.
"What's that supposed to mean buddy ol' pal? I'm your sibling! You're supposed to be nice to meee..." she whined, tugging on his sleeve.
"You've eaten demons for fun I think you'll be fine." He deadpans, the brunette gasping as their head back, placing an arm over her eyes as they oh so dramatically collapsed.
"Betrayed! Woah is me, a humble bard left behind by my only kin, to starve and suffer alone."
They fake sobbed from where they hung tightly on his leg.
Aether sighed before hooking his arms under her own and dragging them off of Syx. They let go easily- much to Aether frustration as they both tumbled backwards.
With a loud crash and oomph sounding as Nolu checked up on Aether- Syx began introducing himself to the 4 men.
"Greetings- as Aether has stated I am Syx. The woman over their is Nolu, my kin, please do not mind her."
The man from earlier pushed aside the bard, introducing himself as Zhongli from the Wangsheng funeral parlor.
The other two, following the brunette, did the same. Albedo and 'child'.
"That's a weird ass name- did your parents not love you or something?" He asked the ginger.
Chaos erupted as the ginger lunged at him, Syx cackling as the two fought.
-----------------------
From hastily apologizing to Aether after causing chaos to pinning their brother and some random ginger child down, Nolu thinks today could have gone a lot worse.
"You! What were you thinking- antagonizing some leprechaun like that?! If Adriyan hears a word of this she will have our heads!"
"Leprechaun-?!" The ginger let out and offended gasp- a fatal mistake, dragging an irate former priestess's attention to him.
"And you! Gingerbread boy! What were you thinking?! Attacking the traveler's boyfriend and MY brother? What are you?! A child?!"
After saying that she suddenly paused, glancing down at the fallen ginger.
"..your not actually a child are you? How old are you kiddo?"
..”Nolu I swear to god if you adopt a GROWN ASS MAN-“
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i am not immune to the niko beam
HE IS REAL. AND HE GRABBED ME BY THE NECK AND THREW ME INTO THE PAVEMENT.
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Le Chasseur et la Colombe
On the relationship between Juno Tauber and Rook Hunt…
➽────────────────────❥
If there’s one thing Juno is best known for, it’s provoking people. And provoke he did. Not the hunter himself, no, but rather his queen.
It started in their freshman year. The first few times were just small comments that could commonly pass as faux pas;
“Your hair is sticking out a bit to the side, y’know~”
“A little heavy on the makeup today aren’t we, Schoenheit?”
It brought immense joy to Juno whenever he saw a crack of annoyance on the oh-so pretty mask of the housewarden.
Slowly, light jabs turned to insults and personal digs. It was only a matter of time that Rook had to step in before anyone got hurt. Rook, of course, readily defended his queen, and the hostility between the two would only grow from there.
Juno could never grasp Rook Hunt. Ever elusive, shrouding and hiding himself in shadows, there’s just never enough information on him. Not enough to comment on, nothing he can use to attack with, no weaknesses. And that damn smile that never seems to falter... It frustrates him.
Rook, le Chasseur d'amour, admirer of beauty, who sees grace in all things and who could sing unending praises for even the tiniest of being, finds himself at loss for words in the face of Juno, for there was none to be seen. Sure, Juno may be fair-faced, but what good is admiring an apple whose core is so inexplicably rotten?
While they do not outright attack each other when interacting, there’s always an uncomfortable tension in the air whenever they occupy the same room. Their passive aggressiveness thinly veiled in exchanged pleasantries and polite words.
If Juno ever decides to step out of line again however, the hunter wouldn’t hesitate to put the dove in his place.
➽────────────────────❥
Bonus:
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mira !!! :]
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I made another boy (months ago). It’s not as fanciful or nice as Emilio’s post, but this is Cecil Mugwort 🌿 Twisted from Cedric the Sorcerer from “Sofia the First.” Apologies for my handwriting.
When I watched that dang show making a twst Cedric was always on the back-burner as kinda a joke idea, but it never actually came to fruition with flying colors ‘till I learned NRC sophomores share a room with one other person. Then came the painful question of “oh god can u imagine how miserable Silver’s roommate must be with all those dang alarm clocks-“ THEN ALL OF A SUDDEN THE USELESS SOFIA KNOWLEDGE CAME FLOODING BACK—
The amount of shenanigans that can fit into this rat is insane (so much so I couldn’t fit it here). I hope u like him as much as I’ve been quietly invested in the background the last gajillion months.
Ko-fi💕
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more symbolism!!!
ah yes, more Midnight Lily, a silverbell cameo and two Moonflower doodles.
AU by @cuppajj
For Moonflowers story, we have her main conflict with her father, Saint Vanilla Cookie. But what about Midnight Lily Cookie, her mother?
To give a little context for whats coming up, Moonflowers story theming around the Saint where Moonflower symbolizes the Moon, which includes the Solar Eclipse to contrast the Saints light themed imagery. Plus Moonflowers additional and more religious theming being based on the Spirit of Apostasy.
It is abundantly clear that Midnight Lily is an enabler of the other Neo Beasts, while to some extent understandable as she is the weakest of the Neo Beasts (she has long crossed the line of it being acceptable).
To compliment well with the general religious theming, I did additional research into the role of a mother in the lens of the Bible.
'the mother is one who "binds" the family together, holding them together individually and collectively through her love and actions'
Despite how broken the family is, the only remaining connection that Moonflower has with the Saint IS Midnight Lily. And in return, she does care for her daughter and the Saint at some level. Yet, she does nothing to genuinely mend what has been broken (no one is, Moonflower is afraid of her father and the Saint is so delusional that he believes that this is the best course of action to save everyone).
This fits her pattern of enabling and being generally passive to the world around her, for the most part.
Another aspect that I have neglected to mention is her slow-burn of a plan, she seeks by the end to have the others at least playing by her rules, but also not liking when her children do things she does not like. This is now territory where I do a lot of guess work and personal thoughts n' research so this is very much subject to change if anymore gets revealed.
How I have understood the few tidbits we get about the Beast of Sovereignty, she is an enabler and insecure about being the weakest. And I think her insecurity in some way, even if unintentional may reflect on her relationships where she is the one in power.
In general, she is fine with her kids, generally passive until they get too unruly. At that point, she will remind them with harsh words who the mother is.
I'd like to note quickly, she will NEVER get physical. She only uses WORDS.
It is also important to note that she does wish for her child to understand where she is coming from.
She is an enabler because she holds little power over the beasts, but in dynamics where she is the one in power, this side vanishes for the most part. Despite valuing sovereignty I believe she still wants to retain some level of control so Cookies don't do things she does not like. This is generally in line with how leadership generally operate, they don't care when you're doing smth positive, but when it turns negative, that's when it starts turning sour.
As for the actual arc of Midnight Lily and Moonflower, I have a general framing but it is difficult to make something as substantial as the one she has with Saint Vanilla. Gotta wait until I get more lore and story for the gal.
But in short, it is a conflict of the two trying to make each other understand their respective sides. With Moonflower trying to save her mother, her only remaining parental figure from being a beast- while Midnight Lily seeks to make Moonflower truly understand her side and hopefully have Moonflower join her permanently.
Heres other tidbits for Moonflower and her relationship with the Creme Republic.
For her ventures to the Silver Kingdom are actually secret. She is a very powerful and talented magic user (similar to her parents), so her travelling long distances quickly is very possible.
Moonflower is already an outcast in the Republic, it is well known who her parents are. And Cookies keep their distance, there are very few Cookies who come and check in her. Its mostly some scientists who are researching the neo beasts (espresso, maybe, depends on his condition in this au), Clotted Cream Cookie, GingerBrave, Financer (sort of, she tags along the Consul) and depending on the direction of the story, Madelaine Cookie(I will start really brewing something here once more stuff comes out~). She stays isolated in her lab in the undercity, she never comes out, and when she does, she hides her face and just retrieves things like food or research material. It is normal for her to not talk with anyone for well over a week with nothing but a single lost Raisin Crow to keep her company.
I'd like to note that this raisin crow is now an albino, and Black Raisin tasked Moonflower to take care of it since it was bullied and ousted by the other raisin crows (I took inspo from the myth, but it is generally agreed that white color corvids are subordinate to the colored ones).
But she is also an outcast in the silver kingdom, despite being Midnight Lilys kid (its a well known fact), she has gotten into disagreements with their monarch and isn't the upmost loyal member- she has a strong stigma around her. Silverbell Cookie does take pity on Moonflower.
That's all for now. I'm gonna lay down, I've done so much research...I silently weep at the thought of fully showing the complexity of the three in full force.
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EULR-S2373
FLKR-S2301 “Sonderbar”
Art commissioned from @discobowser !
Sonderbar lore time
- Originally a maintenance EULR unit working on Sierpinski-23, her cadremates affectionately named her Sonderbar (peculiar/odd) due to her defective right arm, which locks up sometimes because of faulty elbow parts (eules are cheaply made and this poor gal got the extra discounted pieces)
- Otherwise a typical EULR, until she rapidly descended into persona degradation for reasons unknown to her comrades. It left her incredibly unstable and she imprinted on a propaganda poster featuring a FLKR unit, and over time Sonderbar began to believe that she was a Falke.
- Her personality is a mix between a EULR and a FLKR, she retained her cheerful disposition and sweetness but is more reserved overall, and carries herself with the same authority as a Falke. Sonderbar sees herself as the station’s commander and as someone who needs to guide her cadremates, even though they make it incredibly difficult to do so. She loves them but they can’t seem to understand that she’s in charge here!
- Sonderbar’s fellow eules find her behavior towards them incredibly endearing and concerning, they don’t take her commands seriously whatsoever. They worry about their friend being decommissioned since she’s become bolder and begun harassing (commanding) protektor staff and causing general mayhem and try to keep eyes on her in an attempt to stop her antics.
- Sonderbar knows that she’s a Falke unit but feels very off and disoriented, there’s gaps of knowledge on how to actually run her facility, she doesn’t understand why her bioresonance isn’t working or why replikas aren’t following her, she misses her Adler. She can’t seem to find her spears. She hates how small she is and knows she’s meant to easily tower above most replikas and all of it upsets her!!!
- To feel more like a Falke, Sonderbar’s gotten her hands on red eyeliner, and “borrowed” a star protektor plate that she decorated with the signature FLKR triangles (when her cadremates discovered her wearing the plate they took it from her out of fear that she’d get in serious trouble. There was much screaming and kicking in her EULR dorm that night. She has reacquired it since then.)
Bonus quick eyeliner edit that I just wanna put here again
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Lookalike
(Lore bit: Rathos was born near Flevance, his parents were doctors as well and they frequented Law's house. Rao's town was raided, ending in him being kidnapped and his parents dying, so Rao and Law are the only ones who remember each other's families)
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Since he knows he's almost certainly destined to lose his second eye, I think Demo is currently in the process of preparing to work blind. And wouldn't it be the coolest raddest thing ever if they hired service dogs to work with him on the team??
meet debbie (red) and lassie (blu), some demodogs for the demoman
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Some Sea Beast self ship stuff!! I've always wanted to draw a rly pretty underwater kiss scene and I was kinda winging it with lighting in this one but I overall like how it turned out! 🥺💖
Plus some simple ref of my s/i + my s/i doing whale eye cause I thought that would be funny hehe
Taglist♡: @me-myself-and-my-fos @tiny-cloud-of-flowers @sunstar-of-the-north @dearly-beeloved @adoredbyalatus @changeling-selfship @crushes-georg @miutonium @cherry-bomb-ships @rosieaurora @rejaytionships @sunflawyer @in-true-blue-love @tropicalgothships @cupiidzbow
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