Knifin' in Character (Patreon)

Big part of my comics process - especially if it's a really big book that requires a lot of commitment - is drawing these character expression sketches, sometimes laying the foundation for some actual big character moments in the future comic. I often scribble these while watching movies or browsing some photos online, so sometimes character take on appearance of people I see or think about. This is a natural process that helps me deepen my understanding of characters and what I actually want them to be (which now has even more gravitas, since I'm actually co-writing FK II), and it's much better than just cooking up a couple of characters sheets before you start #1 and then trying to never go "off model" when you work on the actual comic until #6. To me, this is not a preparation stage, but something that I continue doing until the very end of the book - for example, in the first First Knife a few of these drawing sessions really helped me broaden my understanding of both Knife himself and his commander in arms Luo, making a lot of their stronger "acting" moments happen in the second half of the book.