05-2024 Artist's Commentary (Patreon)

Chumi, has a red crush on Commander Karkat: Hello everyone, happy May! Let’s take a moment to discuss this juicy update… I know everyone on the team is dying to talk about one guy in particular…Hehe… 

James, Director: The Salamander

Andi, up to no good: Hi yall! Thanks for joining this month's artist commentary where I go into all the crazy STUFF that happened here and had the privilege of illustrating for! Let’s start with the Rebellion upd8! Also special thanks to Miles for writing this portion, he did amazing capturing these characters and took so much care!!!!! I laughed at so many moments.

Andi: Originally, I was going to have Karkat bust the door open, but I felt like I needed to extend some anticipation, so I made it more of a sliding door that’s opening part way. Displaying our favorite highly anticipated adult troll right away on the first page would have been meh impact, imo.

James: MEENAH HOLY FUCK

Shitpost by James Roach

James: I’m sorry.

Andi: Never be.

Andi: This was mainly testing colors and vibes.

James: I think it's amazing how good of a grasp of color you guys have. I like looking at your cool color blocking things.

Kim, guy who has an art degree: Let it be known coloring is just fucking around with the color wheel and hue sliders until something looks good. And color theory or whatever too, i GUESS. 🙄

Andi: AND NOW FOR THE MOST POPULAR PANEL OF THAT UPDATE!!!!!

Andi: This is a thumbnail I inserted in the script doc during production. Karkat looks a little lean and underwhelming in the thumb but that's because the real deal was still in my mind's eye. I had yet to fully display the masterpiece that is the sexy, rebellion leader, Commander Karkat Vantas.

Chumi: HOOTING AND HOLLERING!!! 

Andi: I am very appreciative that people enjoyed the full complete shot so much. I was really excited to hear what people thought after seeing this mature, grizzled looking Karkat.

James: It was really important internally that Commander Karkat is ripped. Just completely stacked. Huge as fuck.

Andi: Let’s play “spot the difference”.
Me and the art director, Kim, were on voice call screensharing my panel progress and we thought, what if-... what if we gave him stubble. Just to see!! Yknow, nothing crazy!!!

Kim: I look at the previous panel now and keep thinking he looks too smooth. Already, we both felt like he was missing something. Commander Karkat needs that extra GRIT. I remember we were so worried we would get pushback from the others against the stubble too LMFAO.

Andi: As soon as I drew it on, it was clear enough that this had to be done and locked in. It just looked WAY too good not to have. Plus, I am a stubble/beard enjoyer so perhaps my own bias slipped through. Anyway, I popped it in the work chat to see what others thought…. 

Andi: It was a no brainer! We kept it. 

Chumi: And the chat goes wild!!

Kim: And how could we deprive the people of this… We do it… for YOU guys.

Andi: I think I just really like to see a troll with facial hair. Majority of them have huge head hair, so I don’t see why that shouldn’t extend to facial hair when they are older. 

Kim: Makes you think when will we see the first troll with a full on viking beard…

James: For now, it's just me and Karkat.

Andi: Thumbing these was quite fun. You can probably notice that Karkats tablet was going to be see-through but I didn’t end up going for it. A lot of thumbs are going to look different from its final form so you can expect some cut details in the final.

Andi:  Since this is basically a version of the Condesce, I took major inspiration from a lot of the old Condy panels from HS1 for her smile and proportions.

Andi: Alright, let's bring in the LOBsTERs.

There was actually going to be rebellion sickle iconography here on the flag but I decided to keep it simpler and omit it. I think there is more we can do with that in a different place.

Kim: Let me just say I wanna take a second to appreciate how Andi does such a good job of capturing the goofy jitteriness and crunch of Homestuck gifs so well LOL. Not even with just this panel, but in prior updates they made as well. They capture the stupid absurdity of them just Perfectly.

Andi: I love homestuck-style gif animation, it’s got a charm to it that I feel is important to replicate and maintain its comedic snappiness.

Chumi: I remember seeing some comments about the carapace guy being naked! Woops!!!

Andi: They’re not naked!!! It's camo, if you can’t see it, it's working!

James: none of you are gonna be laughing at homies all white camo when it snows at The Point

Andi: Also, you may notice some non-trolls here. Many have joined forces to help take down the establishment, such as that random salamander (who is earnestly inspired by Karkats eyepatch). 

Andi: The human there in the group is just an earth C guy who got radicalized and that “naked” carapacian is a trigger happy gone-commando rambo. The troll front and center is just a lobster themed troll donning the lobster claw horns. Someone mentioned that the human reminded them a lot of Percy from Pyscholonials. I had actually just finished playing it during the making of these panels and his stupid face was definitely an inspiration LOL. This group deeply cares about the cause and are willing to risk their lives for their commanders, whom they deeply cherish and idolize. I will mention, these are just a few of many LOBsTERs we are able to see. These select few just happened to be the top dogs.

There isn’t really much of a huge lore story with these guys other than some citizens of earth C choosing to partake in the cause, except the sniper on the top left is actually our art director's trollsona (Who has been seen frequently throughout many Beyond Canon scenes).

Kim: I think it’s so funny to just keep inserting my trollsona everywhere. The last we saw of it was back during The Funeral chapter.

Kim: I like to think this display radicalized me so much I turned to the Resistance LMFAO.

Andi: Yiffy’s existence and defiance against the batter bitch 2.0 changed everything.

James: Keep putting him in there and just never explaining it.

Chumi: I’m hoping everyone in the team will show up in the comic at least once!

Andi: “not like dave huh?” SMH, Meenah. I fucking love them both individually and as partners. I drew a silly comic about it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cYr2OCqXxs (Reference)

Anyway, do not mistake it. They are snogging it up red-style. They are all over each other flushed-ways. Do not get it twisted!!

Andi: I was so excited for this Sollux and Karkat moment. When I first read the script, I was so stoked to see our gamer nerd return and interact with one of the OGs. It had been… what? At least 15 years since the last on-screen interaction between them???? It’s so crazy.

Chumi: The “are we still friends” line… Aww!

Andi: Sometimes when youre thumbing scenes you just kinda throw shit down and go “is this anything?” and work off of it. Lol Thumbs aren’t meant to look pretty, just sell the main idea.

Andi: And now for the Jane + Jake update…

James: oh boy!!

Andi: Special thanks to Floral for writing this absolutely phenomenal conversation with these two. Floral, you did amazing!!!!!!! You actually made me like Jake?? How many have the power to do that…
Floral also did a bit of thumbing as well to help stage this.

Thumbnail by Floralmarsupial

Andi: Floral started off the thumbs with Jane having a meltdown! Yippee, this Jane panel was the first I started focusing on as far as setting the tone and colors. I made sure to animate it so that the pen and monitor would jump and the glass of water was splashing at every desk slam. Jane tantrums are always fun.

Thumbnail by Floralmarsupial

Andi: Cripes.

Chumi: Standing there… menacingly.

Andi:  Ah yes, the Felt returns. These guys have a lot of work cut out for them!!

Funniest fact about this sketch is that we hadn’t designed the laser yet at that time so I just wrote “Needs visdev” 

Chumi: It was really nice seeing the Felt fans out there who were so happy for this one panel!

Andi:  We must continue the tradition.

Chumi: I have to admit, I felt very ambivalent about Jake before this update. That has changed!! You guys are making me feel emotions about Jake English!!!

Andi: Seeing Jake angry is so crazy to me, this guy hardly gets argumentative, let alone visibly explosive. This man has been holding so much in for the past decade, at some point, the pressure has to release. (It was also very satisfying seeing him stand up to Jane. I was clapping!)

Thumbnail by Floralmarsupial

Andi:  When doing this panel, I was thinking to myself “What more can we do with this scene?” This is an extremely traumatic and significant event for father and son. What additional insanity can I include in this image to enhance the chaos? Then I thought… who else none other than MotherFucking Gamzee.

Andi: Okay, I did not intend for him to look so scary LMAO! I tried to make him look blissful and oafish but I think the angle sorta forced the sinisterness LOL I think it worked out though. I remember showing the team and there were visceral and fearful reactions. I was like “IS IT THAT OMINOUS?” It was a very funny response. Gamzee enjoyers seemed to have been happy to see this freak again, so that's good. Jesus christ though, I’d be so terrified if I was ever near the vicinity of this deranged clown man. Poor Tavvy, you were toast before you were even born. 

Kim: I remember when Andi showed me the polished version of this panel, I audibly went “oh my god?” when I saw Gamzee’s looming figure. When I saw the initial sketch of this and the suggestion of Gamzee in the chat, I imagined he was just gonna be a funny little guy in the corner. To my shock and surprise he was a whole ass man watching down at them like a malevolent god LMFAO.

Andi: It was suggested that BGD puts a comforting hand on Jake's shoulder when Jane implies that she had forgiven Jake for Dirks death (Which is so utterly fucked!) but I felt that there wasn’t enough lead up to something intimate like that yet? It ended up being saved for the eye reveal!

Thumbnail by Floralmarsupial

Andi: Floral had suggested a comical bonk, which I did like! And I even drew it! But it didn’t feel like he was freaking out enough. So I ended up cutting it and making it a lot more dramatic and Jake visibly a lot more panicked. I still really like this gif though, I like how Dirk looked here. I was kinda indecisive about many panels here I was sketching up, honestly. So there is some cut content. However, I think the message still delivers, and you lucky patrons get to see the unseen.

Chumi: Actually a huge fan of this change! As much as I love calling back to old panels, I love that the new one just keeps piling on the stress! Poor Jake!!!

Floral: I adore this panel so much, the subtle animation of it, the red. This more serious shot was exactly what the scene needed.

Andi: God, now onto the Dirk eye reveal. I’ll admit this part was very difficult. I re-did this about a hundred times. I really really wanted to nail it and do it justice. If I have a chance to do a strider eye moment, then by god I am going to put my all into it.

Long before this, I actually drew some “fan art” before the actual art was even done.

Andi: I felt like the two panels weren't enough, I needed to add more anticipation, but at this point I was in a huge rut. I ended up asking for help from Kim and he saved my ass!! Thank you, Kim!! 

Kim: I’m all about that Building Anticipation when it comes to boards… Teasing Just Enough context with every panel to put audiences at the edge of their seat, wondering what’s supposed to be shown next 🫣

Andi: Not only did we get a Strider eye moment, but we got an English eye moment as well! It is so rare to see detailed eyes in Homestuck but the times we do, it is very impactful. I referenced a little bit of John's eye in HS1. Of course, I’m not trying to draw these scenes identically. But I hope I managed to make things feel a little nostalgic.

Thumbnail by Floralmarsupial

Chumi: AHHHHH HE’S SCARING ME… STOP LOOKING AT ME LIKE THAT…

Andi: I remember when the idea of Dirk showing his eyes was first pitched to us and we were all like “YESSSSSS” it was an amazing and compelling decision. Our writers are so awesome. It was a total hit!

Andi: I think this is the first time we’ve seen “Dirk’s” eyes ever. It’s not Dirk, but it is a faded echo of Jake’s remembrance of Dirk. I’m sure when they dated, he had to experience this intense and cold gaze before which was retained in BGD, except this time, to Jake's utter shock, it was his own eyes looking back at him. 

Kim: A subtle foreshadowing that I like about this particular update is that even before the reveal, Andi tinted the shine of Dirk’s shades with green as well… huhuhu the little hints!

Chumi: This panel made me go bonanas!! Dirk’s gone!! 

Andi:  Wait. Actually no, this isn’t the first time we’ve seen Dirks eyes.

Andi:  THIS is the first time.

Chumi: He’s really cute…

Thumbnail by Floralmarsupial

Andi:  Tavvy… (shakes head sadly)

Thumbnail by Floralmarsupial

Andi:  I thought it was a very genius thing to have the last panel just be the closet door hanging open, implying that Jake had left. And it leaves us with ourselves to reflect and soak in what happened with Jane and BGD leaving. Very moving scene. Props to Floral again for being able to write and draw out amazing visuals!

Andi:  I think that concludes the artist's commentary! See you next month!! Once again, thank you for all the thoughts and comments you’ve all shared. We read all your responses and we always welcome discussions here and all across the net. It’s just exciting to see people engaged and invested. I very much appreciate everyone here, still listening and reading what we have to share. Some of you are real troopers for sticking as far long as you have, and I can’t appreciate that enough. Your support on our patreon makes this happen and we could not have done it without you.

James: Thanks for comin! BYE