Work notes: More progress on the new comic. Defining colors and finishing the first panels, which is always the slower part. I knew from the start that, with this story, I would miss an ideal deadline of around 2 weeks for short comics, simply because it’s not that short. But the upcoming panels of dialogue will be quicker to finish than the establishing shots, as usual. It’s a ‘period’ comic in a way, so the wide shots require a little more work and research for backgrounds and objects.
On Patreon
New Patreon post with the portraits’ gallery. This was an interesting game, fun to research and draw. The New Wave inspired looks are very close to many fantasy and sci-fi genre concepts, something that is a bit of a two-way street when you hear that some synth bands from the first eighties were in turn inspired by Science fiction works.
The problem with the new wave look (still) embedded in cyberpunk fantasies of the now, is that the web search for references and images requires filtering the fake retro, and vaporware illusions: a world of chromed headings and neon stripe crossed skies. On the other hand, I found amazing photos of Gary Numan in the early 80s, and lovely fliers from clubs, mostly on Tumblr.
Work notes: Secret Knot’s process this week consisted mainly of struggling with the script for the next comic, which I really like up to the mid-point, and then, the final portion has been changed so much that it looks like a ‘choose your adventure’ branching entry. I’ve made storyboards for different endings, and I’m still trying to land properly the one that seems to work the best. I think all this fiddling will be a bit surprising, dear reader, when you see how nonsensical the story is, but even non-traditional stories require a seeming of conventional structure, something that has a lot to do, I believe, with pacing and intensities. One can notice this in David Lynch movies, for instance: even when the viewer loses track of the causalities in the narrative, the why’s and who’s and how’s, movies like Lost Highway or Mulholland Drive still feel like a story in a conventional way, because all the punches, accents, tension and consequences are in the right places. (I’m aware that other Lynch works may stretch out even further the conventional narratives, such as some parts of the new Twin Peaks, but it’s arguable that in the grand scheme of the series those digressions work as accents as well)
The main characters in my story are XX century surrealists, so the research has been very interesting, and it’s already giving me a lot of material for the comic dossier on Patreon. Speaking of which…
On Patreon
I’ve been sending out some Patreon portraits from the 80s STARS challenge. It’s been much fun:
In this one, partly inspire by Siouxsie’s look, the phone in the reference became a Polaroid in the context of this game.This one was of course inspired by the look of Kajagoogoo’s singer Limahl. (who also sang the hit song from The NeverEnding Story movie, by Giorgio Moroder). Very complex hairstyle.This one is based on a spacey suit I found in some Gary Numan photos, with a bit of geometric New Wave makeup. I thought a picture of 80s Tokyo was a suitable background for it.
Work notes: On thursday I posted the new comic, called ‘It’s Not’. I’d say it’s a nonsensical escalation from being disturbed by the loud vibration in TV fiction phones, or at least that’s just what happened when I first scribbled the idea for this one. I had some doubts about making the ending more explicit, and avoiding the notion that the Mom character had gone inside the TV somehow, so I made some small changes to the first version posted on Patreon to that effect. In the end, I listened to Discord members who said it wasn’t necessary, so I pedaled back some changes. In any case, I hope it’s an intriguing little tale, a bit more cartoonish than most of my comics.
I’ve been getting used to a new drawing setup, working for the first time on a pen display tablet. (A Huion Kamvas 13, sort of an alternative to a Wacom One). Up to this point, I had worked on a Wacom Intuos, or with real pens and paper. It’s been a long process of finding the right drawing position and using more plugs and cables now, a general downside of pen display tablets, that need power-up connection, besides the use of HDMI. Another downside for a new user coming from non display tablets is that you cover parts of the drawing with your hands at times, which is a non-issue when you draw looking up front into a different screen. Of course, the process in order to feel comfortable with a non-display tablet in the first place was probably harder in its day. Another novelty is the need for a more complex physical setup: I had to buy stands to lift the notebook, and incline the drawing tablet. Still, drawing directly on the screen feels nice, even with the cursor lag. I had to switch off the size-display cursors in Clip Studio to avoid getting distracted by the circle that takes some time to catch up with your pen when you move your hand quickly, like a sentient shadow that’s bad at imitating the movements of the person. For what I’ve seen in drawing videos, artists get used to the lag, apparently. Maybe I will too.
Work journal: Made some progress in concepts for a series, but I’m also trying to finish a new short comic as soon as possible, so that’s priority now. During the next week, I’ll be sending out Patreon portraits.
Looking for inspiration concerning specific elements of the series, I re-watched Dario Argento’s Suspiria. This time I enjoyed particularly the way it adds elements in the final portion of the story, changing the nature of the menace and closing with a strong ending. It’s a very interesting relation between pacing and intensity, one that’s often missed in mainstream horror movies with their either forced, or indecisive endings.
On Patreon
I shared the dossier for the comic The Move. For every comic I make a long post with sketches, concepts, photo references and even extra scenes. These are some character sketches included:
Work journal: This week I shared the new Lydia Ray comic, which took me a long time to make. The first half of the year was a bit bumpy for me, now I look to a more organized landscape ahead regarding the Secret Knots. In that spirit, I decided to use this blog, following a weekly template. It looks like a nice time to start blogging again, in the yard of my own website.
Speaking of which, I worked on some areas of the site which were in need of a long due update. Fixed some compatibility issues with mobile reading and opted for a more minimal look. These two facts are related. I also rewrote the About page, since half of the review and praise links were broken at this point. Tried not to make this fact into a melancholy spot to brood on.
Worked a bit on commissions and the concepts for one of my next comics, and came up with an idea for a new ‘List’ style comics.
On Patreon
I launched a new Portrait reward for pledge tiers $3 and up, called 80s STARS. This is the call text:
Fashion from the 80s, pretty much ridiculed from the 90s to well into mid 00s, and kind-of reevaluated at different times during the latest years, is a source of many outstanding looks that also inspire concepts in sci-fi (think cyberpunk esthetic, hmmm another idea) and other genres, specially when they are in need of something unusual, slightly unreal and memorable. From the many styles (that, admittedly, in time tend to fuse with each other as happens with most trends) from the 80s music heroes styles I’m particularly fond of the looks in the beginning of that decade, inherited from Glam Rock, into New Wave and Synth Pop.
(I’m aware I’m beginning to sound like a YouTube top ten list presenter. I’ll stop now with the intro)
SO, the for the new thematic portrait reward, I’ve compiled 5 different New Wave inspired styles to suit up your portraits. You may think of this like a costume party if you want. This new game is called 80s STARS, and I’m borrowing the “character classes” system from rpgs, in order to make your choices (and mine) easier.
These are the Character Classes for the 80 STARS portrait reward
I’ve been reading The Affirmation, by Christopher Priest. Unknowingly, I started a few months ago, by the exit of his Dream Archipelago books, with The Gradual; now at last I’m in the starting point of the trip to the many islands of his curious mirror world. Recommended.
I’ve been watching the Clone Wars series. Besides being entertaining, brief episodes to watch during lunch, I love the painted skies and the color work in general. It’s very pretty.
On the other hand, this week I watched the movie The Kill List (2011). I was unprepared for it. It delves into folk horror territory, although in the first minutes you can’t tell. You’ll think you got the wrong recommendation, but pretty soon things begin to take their strange form. I enjoyed how it lays the pieces of what’s going on for the viewer to assemble, I wish mainstream movies would take at least a fraction of this example.
Be warned that it has a couple of really disturbing moments.
A full dossier for the Comic ‘Outside – A Lydia Ray Story’ is available on Patreon. As usual, it includes process, references and ideas behind the comic, also a section called ´headcanon´with further answers or mysteries.
Also: a reminder of the Secret Knots Discord, where there’s a channel for further commentary on the latest comics, and much more.
For those of you who are following the Secret Knots feed: here’s an invitation to the Secret Knots Discord server. People are talking, sharing bread recipes and odd facts about the world with the same intensity. Come say Hi.
