Oh my god, the ship has reached critical mass. They have a kid!! >:0 And she’s so cute and small. ;u; Sucks to hear that people are jerks in this universe as well, though. :/
Mentally jotting down all this ‘world tree’ stuff though, hmm. Definitely went back to the first couple of pages to get another look at that tree symbol. (Also yaaaay Merry’s back!)
Honestly, when I was first thinking up ways to just get content out, I was going to do a slice of life comic about Cerene, Morris and Mona while I built up assets. So I guess there’s a timeline out there where we’re chugging along with a story about a cute child in this setting rather than getting on with any plot stuff.
But given that I was contemplating such a series, there’s a lot going on in the background with this little family’s situation. I wonder if I’ll ever touch base with all of those ideas. Some of it is a given, but some of the finer details might be a bit more of a long shot.
As for people being jerks, you know those real life stories of fathers getting the cops called on them for being out with their own kids (ya know, cause abduction makes more sense than for a father to have an afternoon away from work)… just gonna put it out there that Morris gets that kind of crap, and as the “nearest Slayer” he’s the one getting sent to investigate himself. I was originally going to have Morris mention such an event in this page but it didn’t flow and was a pretty depressing thing to mention offhand.
Also yes… it’s time to update the plot spreadsheet with the term “World Tree.” Given that panel one of page one is a painting of a tree… yup that one’s gonna be a whole “thing.”
Honestly, I still wouldn’t mind seeing the cute slice of life stuff if a hiatus is ever needed- that sounds absolutely adorable.
As for how the family is treated- I unfortunately know what you mean. :c Poor Morris.
…Also I don’t actually have a real plot spreadsheet, I just try to remember things, but I probably should by this point considering how in depth I tend to think about it.
Great art as always. Though I’ve gotta admit “chubby Arrie” took me quite a bit off guard. When I’m over here pulling from Winry Rockbell (full metal alchemist AGAIN), a dash of Tracer (Overwatch) and Princess Zelda (Thank BoTW for how far she’s come from the other timeline) for her design… this is a bit of a departure I didn’t see coming.
That said if you really are going any animation with the two of them in this style and these designs that contrast would work well.
Sam is more Sam than even I’ve managed to convey up till now. Since I’ve listed off all the things I pulled from to make Arrie’s design I guess I should mention the same for Sam… which honestly just boils down to me turning to Splatoon for ideas for “trendy clothes” designs. Then I just threw on bracelets that looked like stitches and called it the coolest thing I’ve ever made. I will add though that her kid form from the preboot was inspired by out of context viewing of the opening of Disgaea which I saw on an old show Cinematech on G4 that would show out of context game cutscenes… I used to watch that with a sketchbook out, that show was so great for raw context-free inspiration. So Sam is super distantly inspired by half remembered Laharl. Which come to think of it makes it kinda funny that Arrie is the one with his cape.
Yeah, chubby Arrie didn’t come first for me either! However, I was doing brief sketch silhouettes for a bunch of different characters and realized that they were… pretty much ALL skinny on some level, which isn’t great when you’re trying to make unique silhouettes for animation purposes. So I had to change someone, and Arrie seemed pretty fitting, having a more sedentary lifestyle than other characters.
(I usually end up deciding which characters definitely HAVE to have a certain look to them based off of what’s important to and confirmed about their character- for example, Sally is definitely a beefy powerhouse, Charlie is (or was, idk what his backstory is in the reboot yet) emaciated, King Law is huge and terrifying, etc. And then I figure out what everyone else looks like based on what’s fitting for the character and what I haven’t used yet to avoid sameface syndrome. Of course, this is just my personal preference in character design, IDK how everyone else does it. XD)
I knew I had to draw Sam the way she is 1. To contrast with Arrie, as mentioned, and 2. Her position in the ‘four horsemen’ symbolism she and the other Wight siblings/cousins have is famine, so I thought it would be fitting and amusing to make her a stick. I do like the stitch jewelry though, its a nice repeating element to have in the design. It also makes her look pretty punk, which I think she’d appreciate. Though I do have to wonder- what are the spikes coming out of her boots? I depicted them as fluff from the ends of distressed/ripped jeans, though I also considered making it fluff from fur lined boots. I went and watched that video you used as inspiration too- I can certainly see the similarities! :0
So first off, I can confirm that Sam’s “boot spikes” have always been the lining of her boots.
On the note of everyone being thin… it’s easier to work with thin characters in 3d. The larger something is, the more pronounced the quirks of how it moves. Somebody like Charlie I could get away with pretty sloppy skinning and nobody would notice, but a character with actual meat on them would look awful if I did the same.
I’d say canonically Arrie’s certainly no athlete, but she did have that training with Phylo, even if she didn’t enjoy it. And I’d say she’s a bit too responsible to let herself eat unhealthy. And there might just be a plot point in a few pages that I would be mentioning in this list if that page was out… And plot points even further out that probably aren’t directly related, but make me sad so I wanted to mention them. But all that might just be me teasing you at this point.
On the note of character design process, I should share a little trick I use. The way I keep people distinct is to stack them against the people the interact with regularly and draw out the variation from there. Mind you I’ve generally kept everyone the same build from the preboot, except for Arrie becoming much shorter (she was one of the tallest characters before). So for example Victus and Bael were deliberately made to look similar as if Victus was a beefed up version of Bael. Alaster and Jericho were practically twins but nobody really notices when Jericho has the hazmat cowboy outfit switching up the silhouette completely. But all this boiled down to stuff like “X is taller than Y but shorter than Z” most of the time.
The point I’m getting at is that the way I see designing a cast is to build the puzzle one piece at a time. Finding what fits in based on the pieces beside it. And maybe, just maybe… that analogy made some sense.
Oh my god, the ship has reached critical mass. They have a kid!! >:0 And she’s so cute and small. ;u; Sucks to hear that people are jerks in this universe as well, though. :/
Mentally jotting down all this ‘world tree’ stuff though, hmm. Definitely went back to the first couple of pages to get another look at that tree symbol. (Also yaaaay Merry’s back!)
Honestly, when I was first thinking up ways to just get content out, I was going to do a slice of life comic about Cerene, Morris and Mona while I built up assets. So I guess there’s a timeline out there where we’re chugging along with a story about a cute child in this setting rather than getting on with any plot stuff.
But given that I was contemplating such a series, there’s a lot going on in the background with this little family’s situation. I wonder if I’ll ever touch base with all of those ideas. Some of it is a given, but some of the finer details might be a bit more of a long shot.
As for people being jerks, you know those real life stories of fathers getting the cops called on them for being out with their own kids (ya know, cause abduction makes more sense than for a father to have an afternoon away from work)… just gonna put it out there that Morris gets that kind of crap, and as the “nearest Slayer” he’s the one getting sent to investigate himself. I was originally going to have Morris mention such an event in this page but it didn’t flow and was a pretty depressing thing to mention offhand.
Also yes… it’s time to update the plot spreadsheet with the term “World Tree.” Given that panel one of page one is a painting of a tree… yup that one’s gonna be a whole “thing.”
Honestly, I still wouldn’t mind seeing the cute slice of life stuff if a hiatus is ever needed- that sounds absolutely adorable.
As for how the family is treated- I unfortunately know what you mean. :c Poor Morris.
…Also I don’t actually have a real plot spreadsheet, I just try to remember things, but I probably should by this point considering how in depth I tend to think about it.
https://greetingsfromeboncreek.tumblr.com/post/189160363523/i-noticed-that-after-a-long-while-of-drawing-these
Oh, and some fanart. My art style just keeps getting more cartoony. Whoops!
Great art as always. Though I’ve gotta admit “chubby Arrie” took me quite a bit off guard. When I’m over here pulling from Winry Rockbell (full metal alchemist AGAIN), a dash of Tracer (Overwatch) and Princess Zelda (Thank BoTW for how far she’s come from the other timeline) for her design… this is a bit of a departure I didn’t see coming.
That said if you really are going any animation with the two of them in this style and these designs that contrast would work well.
Sam is more Sam than even I’ve managed to convey up till now. Since I’ve listed off all the things I pulled from to make Arrie’s design I guess I should mention the same for Sam… which honestly just boils down to me turning to Splatoon for ideas for “trendy clothes” designs. Then I just threw on bracelets that looked like stitches and called it the coolest thing I’ve ever made. I will add though that her kid form from the preboot was inspired by out of context viewing of the opening of Disgaea which I saw on an old show Cinematech on G4 that would show out of context game cutscenes… I used to watch that with a sketchbook out, that show was so great for raw context-free inspiration. So Sam is super distantly inspired by half remembered Laharl. Which come to think of it makes it kinda funny that Arrie is the one with his cape.
Yeah, chubby Arrie didn’t come first for me either! However, I was doing brief sketch silhouettes for a bunch of different characters and realized that they were… pretty much ALL skinny on some level, which isn’t great when you’re trying to make unique silhouettes for animation purposes. So I had to change someone, and Arrie seemed pretty fitting, having a more sedentary lifestyle than other characters.
(I usually end up deciding which characters definitely HAVE to have a certain look to them based off of what’s important to and confirmed about their character- for example, Sally is definitely a beefy powerhouse, Charlie is (or was, idk what his backstory is in the reboot yet) emaciated, King Law is huge and terrifying, etc. And then I figure out what everyone else looks like based on what’s fitting for the character and what I haven’t used yet to avoid sameface syndrome. Of course, this is just my personal preference in character design, IDK how everyone else does it. XD)
I knew I had to draw Sam the way she is 1. To contrast with Arrie, as mentioned, and 2. Her position in the ‘four horsemen’ symbolism she and the other Wight siblings/cousins have is famine, so I thought it would be fitting and amusing to make her a stick. I do like the stitch jewelry though, its a nice repeating element to have in the design. It also makes her look pretty punk, which I think she’d appreciate. Though I do have to wonder- what are the spikes coming out of her boots? I depicted them as fluff from the ends of distressed/ripped jeans, though I also considered making it fluff from fur lined boots. I went and watched that video you used as inspiration too- I can certainly see the similarities! :0
So first off, I can confirm that Sam’s “boot spikes” have always been the lining of her boots.
On the note of everyone being thin… it’s easier to work with thin characters in 3d. The larger something is, the more pronounced the quirks of how it moves. Somebody like Charlie I could get away with pretty sloppy skinning and nobody would notice, but a character with actual meat on them would look awful if I did the same.
I’d say canonically Arrie’s certainly no athlete, but she did have that training with Phylo, even if she didn’t enjoy it. And I’d say she’s a bit too responsible to let herself eat unhealthy. And there might just be a plot point in a few pages that I would be mentioning in this list if that page was out… And plot points even further out that probably aren’t directly related, but make me sad so I wanted to mention them. But all that might just be me teasing you at this point.
On the note of character design process, I should share a little trick I use. The way I keep people distinct is to stack them against the people the interact with regularly and draw out the variation from there. Mind you I’ve generally kept everyone the same build from the preboot, except for Arrie becoming much shorter (she was one of the tallest characters before). So for example Victus and Bael were deliberately made to look similar as if Victus was a beefed up version of Bael. Alaster and Jericho were practically twins but nobody really notices when Jericho has the hazmat cowboy outfit switching up the silhouette completely. But all this boiled down to stuff like “X is taller than Y but shorter than Z” most of the time.
The point I’m getting at is that the way I see designing a cast is to build the puzzle one piece at a time. Finding what fits in based on the pieces beside it. And maybe, just maybe… that analogy made some sense.