Sketchbook Mar17-Oct17 + Commentary (Patreon)

I've got another old sketchbook for you all! This one was from March 2017 to October 2017. I used to tear through these things so fast! I take at least a year to fill up a book nowadays but I think that's because I've been so locked into my comic making that drawing in my sketchbook just gets pushed to the side. Let's take a look through and talk about some noteworthy pages.

Ignoring the Mary Berry drawings up top (lol), this page here has the beginning of me working on Red Muscle Ch1! You can see me still having trouble figuring out the layouts and skipping specifics if I couldn't visualize a panel but overall it's very recognizable. Here's the final first version of page 1:

And here's the redrawn one from 2019:

much better but I still had some body weight consistency issues, look at her little scrawny legs!!

Every once in a while I copy some photos or illustrations to try to get a better understanding of composition. I don't think it's that effective without properly analyzing what's happening but the pages always look cool when I look back.

This sketchbook is also the first instance of my little ninja/samurai girl that I still want to use for something. She was inspired by watching gameplay of Shiren the Wanderer and I wanted to make a game similar to it which eventually evolved into a more proper zelda-clone idea that I still think could be worth pursuing. She was pretty inconsistent proportion-wise but I found myself drawing her very small with big meaty legs kind of early, even though I would bounce back and forth between sizes a bit later. I also wanted to repurpose her for my smash game like Rasbi and here's the sketch for her design along with some more modern drawings of what she looks like now:

Her colors changed and she has a sister that's part of the tentative story thats too undercooked to share details of, but I'm pretty happy with how she's changed! I wanted her design to be a little less on the nose with the japanese influence but she might still need some costume updating in the future depending on where I take it.

On these two pages are where I wanted to take my space girl drawing and turn her into a fully fledged character. I've written about her on patreon before in my post about her current design, but the basics were all put in place here. She doesn't really have the gun anymore but shes's still got those robotic arm prosthetics. Here's a few draws of what she looks like now:

And lastly, we have a page of Ami. I've always felt that she is incredibly underdeveloped and I don't use much of what Mariel and I have thought up for her in her little joke comics. She usually is too busy playing straight man to Frankie's antics that I don't get to show that she is just as wild. I've drawn her a tiny bit again in my new sketchbook but for now here's a digital sketch of her and Frankie that you've seen:

I've changed the shape and detail of her hair so many times in the past and I'm sure I will tweak it a bit more, but this is what she looks like at the moment.

Thanks for looking through this old sketchbook with me! You can view the full 120 page PDF down below. Another sketchbook will be on the way soon along with more WWY pages. I've also started doing layouts for Red Muscle Ch8, but nothing to show quite yet. It's all in motion though! Shouldn't be too long before SOMETHING new comes out lol.

Anyways, see you next update!