Holiday Hugs (2019) - WITH PROCESS! (Patreon)

Happy Monday! And also Happy Hanukkah to those who celebrate. :)

Continuing down the happy holiday trail with every past Batgirl Supergirl Christmas comic. Don't worry, you didn't miss 2018. That was the first year I took a break from these in favor of meeting a deadline on my last (and very difficult) Cleo book. I had also just moved into a new house that same month and, to put it mildly, was exhausted. So here we are skipping ahead to 2019.

While going through all my files for these comics, I found that I saved a bunch of steps for this one. Thought it made a good opportunity to do a little process post. I know it's been a while! Busy week though, so I'll make it quick.

STEP 1: ROUGH LAYOUT

This entire comic was drawn digitally in Clip Studio Paint, including my rough layouts above. Here I'm working out the basic structure for the comic, character and word balloon placement, and general expressions for best readability and/or comedy. I recall this one being a little tough to layout as a single page strip because of all of the beats that had to be shown, but I was determined to try to make it work. Had to kind of cheat a bit to lead readers eyes correctly in that second-before-last panel. Not sure it entirely works, but hopefully most readers read Kara's dialog before Babs. Thankfully, I don't think it much matters in this case.

Speaking of dialog, I almost always type out all of it out first so I know how much space it's going to take up. I may edit some of it later though.

STEP 2: PENCIL PREP

After I'm satisfied with my roughs, I lighten them and turn them blue so it's easier to draw over.

STEP 3: "PENCILS"

Which is what I'm doing here. I stick with a blue line for my pencils to remind myself not to get too bogged down with details before final linework. In fact, my pencils have gotten rougher and sketchier as I've move to digital since I know I can do a lot of guess work in the digital inking stage now. If this page was intended to be inked traditionally (like the character sketches I've been posting a lot of lately) these pencils would be a LOT more refined as I know there's less room for error on paper. However, I sometimes feel a lot of energy gets lost in the artwork when I do that which is why I prefer working digitally these days.

STEP 4: "INKS"

Here I am digitally "inking" over those digital pencils. I draw my word balloons on a separate layer so as not to interfere with them and even be able to move them around in case I need to. I rarely complete any artwork behind them though; not really understanding taking the time to draw something no one ever sees.

STEP 5: FINAL LINEWORK

Ta-da! Finished linework.

You might have noticed that I did in fact change some of the dialog, particularly Harley's line about "family". It just felt both sweeter and funnier to me. I thought about tweaking Croc's dialog too but ended up keeping it as is.

INTERMISSION: COLOR REF

Since I have so many characters showing up in that last panel, I quickly mocked up the above reference sheet from some of my past comics. This made it a lot easier to pick and choose colors and more or less keep these holiday strips consistent looking. It didn't take very long and saved me from a lot of decision making.

STEP 6: COLOR FLATTING

Color reference sheet in tow, I got to work flatting the comic, choosing background colors that helped highlight that initial power hug from Kara.

STEP 7: COLOR SHADING

Then I got to work shading the comic with fictional light sources and shadows. I'm not too concerned with the accuracy of these two things, preferring rather the characters and expressions to be clear.

STEP 8: FINAL!

Lastly, I add a bit of color and highlight to some of the linework, include some additional shading so the characters pop out better (like panel one), pop on a "Merry Christmas" and post to the internet with a wish that everyone have a heartfelt holiday. :)

And here's two new wallpapers for you today because one crushing hug is not enough.