Wilfrith and Grwn - Roughs - Pages 24-25 (Patreon)

Wilfrith’s turn! I wanted to make Grwn seem rough and tender. Goal-oriented, with low patience when he can just do it himself. Wilfrith needs to get clean, and he’s going to show him how it’s done. Tapping into that daddy appeal. I also wanted Wilfrith to be some combination of embarrassed and appraising for this whole scene since everything about this is new to him. It’s a lot to take in.

(Pages 24-25, digital roughs from Wilfrith and Grwn)

My fantasy comics are an interesting writing challenge because the worldbuilding is like 12 years of chaotic, rambling notes spread across a dozen documents and notebooks. It makes it hard to choose what bits of information are necessary for each comic—this page is one where Grwn explains why Wilfrith’s jawline cut won’t fully heal: werewolves are weak to silver weapons (revolutionary, I know, but a lot of the time you just have to confirm what the reader already assumes to be true). It seemed like the correct time in Wilfrith’s timeline to insert a somewhat cute lesson.

Plus, I think his wild hair design is actually starting to come together. Once I figure out a silhouette and shape language for the hair cards it should self-assemble in future drawings.

Most of the faces on page 25 started out with me sloppily drawing faces I’ve already drawn. I find that just pasting an old drawing I liked is a fantastic shortcut to getting my facial proportions right much faster. You can lower the opacity on the old drawing, do a sloppy trace job with a thicker brush, hide/delete the original drawing and then do more finished lines on top of your sloppy sketch. It’ll leave you with a new, mostly distinct drawing and a lot of saved time. Yeah, so, hot tip: trace yourself.