"Verona" from script to pictures (Patreon)

(Images include thumbnails up to page 16, and roughs up to page 4)

EDIT: forgot to include content warnings for the script and the thumbnails (if they're legible, lmao) -- these 16 pages include violence and some very brief dubious explicit content...Trying not to get flagged by patreon.

I finally wrapped up the script (and my very rough scripting thumbnails) last week! Like with "When Death Comes", I've decided not to do another round of cleaner thumbnails. I liked the spontaneity that afforded me.

When I ended up changing things from script to final in "I am of Two Hearts" and even "Délicatesse" , both projects I had very tight thumbnails for, it left me feeling frantic and aimless towards the end of both projects. Ironically I think relinquishing some control earlier on helps take some of that pressure away. I'm trying to be less of a control freak in several areas of my life....comics should probably be one of them.

Still...I felt a lot of trepidation jumping into drawing this comic on a canvas. I always have lofty ideas for what I want something to look like -- a "style" board on pinterest filled with the ink drawings of master illustrators that I most definitely am not. This comic is shorter than my previous two ShortBox entries, plus I'm starting on it earlier than I did for either, so I definitely do want to focus more on the art. That being said, wanting something to be artistically beautiful often makes me afraid to touch the canvas. I've been trying to get over that, too.

As I was writing up this post I decided to take a quick look at my roughs for "When Death Comes", a comic I still feel reasonably okay about the art for, so I could compare with the roughs I've drawn so far for "Verona".

...oh yeah. That's what my roughs usually look like. I think I've been freaking myself out.

I want to get looser with these rough pages going forward. For me, roughing a page out has kind of taken the role of the refined thumbnail. I figure out where I want everything to be on the page. Then, for the sketch, I actually figure out how to draw it. I think refining the rough too much might actually make it harder to sketch over it -- it creates pressure to commit to one idea. What did I say earlier about learning to relinquish control...

That's all I have art-wise for now. I have been thinking a lot about a title, but I've never come up with a good title by trying to have a brain blast. "I am of Two Hearts" came from a song that bg3 has made a lot funnier, "When Death Comes, I Will Follow" was a phrase I came up with while cooking dinner with my husband (it was almost "When Death Calls", it's thanks to Oscar that it is not, lol).
Music is always a big influence on my comics. I've been listening to React or Die for years and years, and it's been especially impactful on how I think about the mood of this story. Because of this "You are Anything Other Than Kind" has been a potential title, but I don't want the title to tell the reader how to feel about the story before they even read it. "In Fair Verona" is another my husband likes more, but it feels too on the nose for me. I'm sure it'll come to me eventually....

I've included a PDF of the script up to page 16. The script in full is 44 pages (for now), but I'll only show full process for the first 16 pages. For those that have been here a while, you know I usually cut off sharing process right before A Big Reveal. This time it's a little different...Maybe you'll understand my decision when the full comic is released in October ;^)

Thanks for reading this far. I'll be back next week with some process talk for AMPLE chapter 2!