WORK STAGES for my first illo depicting the assembled cast of fantasy comic THE LAST PARTY! (Patreon)

Behold my latest digital-art experiment and my first time drawing the complete cast of fantasy project The Last Party, which combines the protagonists from previous, now-defunct fantasy comics Party of Two and Hushed Half-Elf:

Below, a closer-up view of the Half-Orc Healer and Dwarf Barbarian, formerly from Party of Two:

..and a closer-up view of the Human Mage and Half-Elf Knight ("of a Thousand Armors"), formerly from "damsel-in-distress" Patreon project Hushed Half-Elf:

I used this illo to see if I could render high-contrast, "harsh B&W" imagery in Clip Studio Paint, which is not something I've tried very often in digital media, mainly because I hadn't found a halfway viable inking brush until quite recently. With my recent discovery of the Frenden "Pigman Mycon" digital tool, however, the time seemed right for an inking test carried out on the ol' Wacom Cintiq. (Note that my Cintiq work experience has improved roughly a thousandfold since I hooked it up to a handy-dandy Flex Arm mount.)

Going backwards in Work Stages, here's a view of the inks with the "blue pencil"-formatted roughs still visible:

...and a view of the rough sketches, before I turned 'em blue in CSP:

Wellp, not surprisingly the illo proved immensely time-consuming and in fact is still unfinished, as I'll likely add a mockup logo and a few more art tweaks in the future. The experience was quite educational, though, as I learned a few very helpful new things about working in CSP; alas, the piece was also educational in that I quickly realized that I don't care to work in such a brutally slow and meticulously detailed manner in the future.

I had thought that working "high contrast" might have been a time-saving graphic technique but that's clearly not the case, at least when I'm drawing in such a "crisp 'n' clean" art style. A looser, more flexible and less grindingly "fussy" art approach to the ol' "harsh B&W" might still be worth considering, at least as a sporadic visual riff in my future comics work.

Anyhoo, progress was made, folks, even if in a manner skewing towards "one step forward, two steps back." Further digital-art tests and further exploration of The Last Party's cast will continue, never fear!

NEXT TIME ON THIS HERE PATREON: No idea, TBH, but something should be coming up in the next M/W/F slot. Let's find out together, shall we?