Comics and the Making of...

Although all my comics vary, the process of creating them has reached a point of standardization for me. I always expect to have a written draft before I put in too much time drawing background art or characters, to ensure that the story I have is the story I want to tell. I prepare backgrounds and character designs far in advance before I even draw one page of the comic.

This page is intended to showcase the best and the most interesting pages of my comics and parts of my process. Thus, spoilers ahead! To read the whole comic, just head over to its individual page.

Click on the image to view a larger version.

Jump to a specific comic: Cocoon || Incantation : Letters to Toast, Diora, Pepper the Potion Witch || Phantasma || Le Vol

Cocoon

As Part 2 begins, I can show off some of the work I spent on preparing for Part 1, as well as some of the best pages of the 220 total pages. This art includes location set-up and character designs for multiple seasons. It works alongside written documents to build the world of Valley Forest through natural elements, architecture, and fashion.

a dome house made of stone, with a dining room, a kitchen, and doors leading to other rooms

Occitainie's home: main room. 2018.

a greenhouse full of plants in vases and boxes with a wood floor and glass walls

The greenhouse in autumn. 2018.

many different characters in different outfits depending on seasonal changes

Character outfits, part 1. 2018.

many more different characters in different outfits depending on seasonal changes

Character outfits, part 2. 2018.

page 71 of Cocoon, showing multiple characters crowded around a low table as they eat and talk

Page 71. 2018.

page 90 of Cocoon, a character walking through a valley near snow-capped mountains and a forest

Page 90. 2019.

page 156 of Cocoon, a character in bed, holding up an arm covered in bracelets, snow outside

Page 156. 2019.

page 175 of Cocoon, one character crouching in the snow and touching her nose, another in spring surrounded by new plant life

Page 175. 2019.

page 206 of Cocoon, one character floats above the mud, they argue with another character near a yellow wall

Page 206 2019.

page 217 of Cocoon, everything is yellow as a character runs through wheat fields under storm clouds

Page 217 2019.

Incantation

Letters to Toast

The challenge with Letters to Toast was to show Cereal and Yogurt in the same scene as something that took place months ago, in entirely different seasons. I chose to alter their colors to a scheme that was essentially complementary to the main color scheme.
The other challenge was that in drawing the comic, I used a more painterly style to color in the characters. This grew a bit tedious but allowed me to develop new ways of using adjustment layers to make interesting color palettes.

comic characters on top of a foggy autumn forest with a small triangular cabin

Outside Toast's cabin. 2018. Since the forest is mostly orange with a bit of green, it made the most sense to put Cereal and Yogurt in blue tones.

characters from a comic on top of a snowy town background with color schemes prepared for drawing

Winter Town. 2018. While the town, villagers, and Toast are in blue, Cereal and Yogurt remain in red and orange.

Page 21. 2018. The bottom panel has Cereal and Yogurt changing colors, back to the regular forest color palette, but remaining a bit in their vision of the past.

Diora

Having just watched the phenomenal anime Made in Abyss, I wanted to write a story that would take place in the mountains. Different elevations have certain trees and flowers, like the abyss, and the fog could prevent anyone from leaving, not unlike the curse of the abyss at lower levels.

flowers and grasses in three categories-for the tree line, midlevel, and lowland

Grasses and Flowers of Diora. 2017.

a mountainous and forested area with a thin path leading to a house

2nd level of Diora. 2017.

3rd level of Diora. 2017.

Page 57. 2017. While Flan and Tarte-Tatin are above the tree line, Clafourtis and Choux are heading from the second to the first regions.

Pepper the Potion Witch

I challenged myself to follow Andrew Loomis's guides to setting up interiors using perspective to draw Pepper's house. I used a single-point persepective and put my floor plans and elevations to place every piece of furniture. I even did it in the comic for some of the larger panels. To balance out that extra work, Pepper the Potion Witch has no shading besides the confrontation between Anise and Clove.

a corner of a room with a paper lantern, a red chair, and large bookshelves

Pepper's corner. 2017. Pepper's apartment had one big room that used one floor plan. This comfy chair was in one corner.

a yellow and teal galley kitchen with a cauldron

Pepper's kitchen. 2017. The kitchen needed two sides: a witch side for brewing potions, and a normal side for food.

a dining room with a big window, tall chairs, and a table covered in plants growing in pots

Pepper's dining room. 2017. Since Pepper would be growing her own plants for convenience, she has two tables: one for eating and one for growing.

Page 25. 2017. The bottom panel is one that required extra time to properly lay out.

Phantasma

The bulk of preparation for drawing Phantasma was to wander around Paris and take pictures. But beginning with chapters in the second half, I spent a great deal of time developing locations and proper lighting. Phantasma also used over 120 outfits for all the characters, changing by the season.

But the best part of Phantasma was mastering drawing the architecture of Paris.

Indigo and Olive walk into the main dome room of Napoleon's tomb in Paris

Chapter 15, page 10.

the Carnavalet Museum, Place des Vosges, and Petit Palais in Paris

Chapter 32, page 9. 2017. Chapters 32 and 33 required going back to draw everywhere the characters had been in two different styles.

Violet in the illusion form of the Sainte-Chappelle of Paris

Chapter 29, page 9. 2017. The scenes in the Blue Star's court (a version of the Sainte-Chappelle of Paris) required an enormous amount of effort in designing the stained glass and putting it in perspective.

Indigo and Olive in the Jardin du Luxembourg

Chapter 24, page 5. 2017. Just as the green leaves take over as the story enters the spring, it also took over the city while I was there.

the front hall of the Petit Palais museum in Paris

Chapter 19, page 1. 2017. Even though its name is "small palace," the Petit Palais is so large.

Le Vol

a pen and ink drawing of a plane at a gate, waiting in heavy rain

Le Vol is a short comic I wrote for a comic-making class while studying abroad in France. The comic can be read with French in the images and an English translation below it.

Read Le Vol comic