Comic Report #113.1 - High Fidelity (Patreon)

Last week I focused mostly on gamedev stuff so this week I set my attention on completing the next comic page.  I got myself within sight of the end goal so I'm expecting I can have this page finished up over the weekend, I'll likely be posting another update within the coming days so please look forward to that.  Today I have sort of an abstract topic in mind to talk about, so I hope that might be interesting to read.  

I've been juggling a few projects lately, mostly out of necessity, and working on those projects has had a nice impact on my comic-making process.  In addition to working on the Dead Winter arcade game I have been working on Kitsune Tails- a colorful classic platformer- and I'm contributing designs to a Puppytruck game. On top of this I've been making time to work on a little sci-fi side project on my cohost, something that is low-effort and easy to draw, building a setting we can use to make the game after Dead Winter, or a tabletop RPG in the meantime.  I've been feeling for a while like I can't make art for fun anymore when I make art for work, so I started making art for fun, and it's helped alleviate feelings of burnout with all my other projects stacked on my plate, but it's actually had an interesting impact on my main work painting these comics.

Dead Winter came about in the style it is in largely because I studied oil painting and watermedia in college, but also the sort of highly-rendered painterly aesthetic helps lend it a tone that doesn't hit quite the same without all the 3D shape rendering and the heavy dark shapes.  Over the years I've worked on a lot of different things, but working on Dead Winter has always kind of been my main workshop, my lab to keep experimenting and refining my art process, allowing me to improve my skills enough to branch out and try other, newer things- animating this comic is a big reason I can animate in videogames now, since I never had any formal training to do that.  Making this comic has honestly been the backbone of my entire creative journey, and I'm glad for the support I receive in following this road where it leads.  It's hard work, but it's still fun to do.

A lot of my other projects have, comparatively, been way, way less work to finish.  Kitsune Tails is a classic sprite-based game with a limited color palette, Dead Winter Arcade Game is vaguely comic-like but all the coloring is bright and simplified.  My sci-fi secret menu project is extremely simple, meant to be fun and low-effort in a way that doesn't compete with my comic work while still looking good.  Something that's just for the pleasure of making it.  It's been a bunch of work that has been really low-fidelity, it's been almost therapeutic, and when I come back to work on comics again I feel excited to try some new things.

Swinging back to the high-fidelity work on Dead Winter after doing much lower-intensity work makes the daunting tasks feel less daunting, like I "get to" really flex my creative ability and show what I can do for a couple panels compared to the other things I'm working on.  I get to really amp up the lighting, the modeling, the contrast, the motion, the camera perspectives.  With more low-impact work, approaching the high-impact work of making this comic feels a lot easier by comparison.  I think this habit is healthy?  My workload is overwhelming but the work isn't all crushingly difficult, there's a weird sort of balance between the light tasks and the heavy tasks that makes the whole load easier to shoulder.

One of the other effects of switching between the low-impact and high-impact tasks on my plate has been feeling a lot more efficient in completing the high-impact tasks.  I think I have mentioned this a few times but my painting work on the Dead Winter comic has gotten a lot more efficient mostly because I've been working on much simpler projects with much more limited scopes, which is helping me learn to make smarter choices and, when I swap back to my high-effort project, I can apply that experience without the limitations of the lighter work.  I'm feeling overworked at times but I feel really happy with how my art is progressing, and I am excited to keep moving forward.

That's it for now.  I figure this might be a more interesting writeup than "I painted the figures this week", since it's been something on my mind lately.  I'm in a weird place of being overworked but hopeful, so I'm happy to keep moving forward toward my goals.  As mentioned, you can expect another update sooner than later, since this comic shouldn't take much longer to wrap up.  Until then, have a nice weekend!