Talking about Daisy x peach minicomic pg1-2,

1-2: Daisy x Peach minicomic p1-2
2-3: Daisies zine WIP page layouts with unfinished drawings
4-5: Daisy x Peach minicomic sketches and unused drawings.

Part of the process for the Peaches Zine was to make a bunch of sketches when I was just kinda chilling out in the evenings or needed a brain break during the day, and then pick them up and put a little polish on them when I was at my desk.

This time I just waited too long and I've collected a lot of individual drawings I forgot about along the way. It seems a shame not to include them so I guess the page count is just going to creep up.

Because the art zines get printed a little bit bigger, 7"x10"-- I'm hoping to use the space to make this minicomic really dense with drawings and forget about words.

The first page is meant to be just set up and then the next three just become a tumbling sprawl of vignettes.

I'm hoping to approach the comic the same ways as the Garden Witch minicomic where it's very limited color and I start by collaging different drawings I've already made to build out a sequence that I patch and fill the gaps with unique drawings.

Reference & Inspirations

I usually gather as few references as I feel like I can get away with because I hate the feeling of realizing I've been stuck on pinterest for an hour instead of drawing 🫠 Sometimes when I feel the reference urge I try to challenge myself to just make it up and "fix it in post" if it doesn't have the authentic historical feel I want.

One thing I didn't expect as a part of this project was to find inspiration in package design. My whole mood board is leaning toward 70s with lots of vintage nightie references but wow the panty hose packaging of this era just looks incredible.

Part of it's just the colors but I also saw this Beauty Mist package on the lower right and really loved how the figure just falls into sepia tone.

I had been looking for a kind of limited color technique that would feel nice and polished but still kind of simple and graphic and when I saw that I realized oh that's what I need to do with Daisy's hair. To me it feels like a very print media/lithograph aesthetic, but also like a blown out photograph in some moments.

I just now realized I didn't finish drawing the bra on that sideways Daisy. Whoops

As much as I love drawing voluminous, line-filled locks, that kinda decadent drawing was a better fit for a blonde like Peach anyways :)

My other new favorite thing is letting the design elements encroach into the page. I dunno what it is about this yellow border but it feels real good to me.

There are two books on my desk right now that are infecting my brain big time:

Masahisa Suzuki - Ariel Illustrations
Hiromi Matsuo - Rondo Illustration Book (Kitt🐰 pressured me to get this one)

It's the layouts and use of colored/monochromatic printing that really get to me baout the Suzuki book. I love these monochrome blue drawings, that also influenced the orange daisies.

Hiromi Matsuo is on another level when it comes to beautiful, retro vibes comics about elegant ladies, but what's really striking about the book is the decadent page layouts. The illustrations are beautiful of course but then type treatments like THIS show up? 😭

I hope you don't mind me gushing about some books I love right now!

I'm doing my best to stay positive and productive this month because it's genuinely better for my mental well-being to spend some days thoroughly embedded in drawing, but I think my mental landscape is a bit more scattered then it's been, so please pardon the rambling, run-on sentences.

Happy Sunday

🖤Winton