July˚*❀Secret Sketches❀*˚Batch 2!

Hello and happy mid-to-late-July! Maybe I should just stick with saying mid-July because saying it's late July feels like we're rushing things (and we certainly don't need that). I've got a smaller batch of secret sketches to share today, mostly because ARDEN HIGH: King Cheer (and moving stuff, and tattooing....and trying to live my life a little before I leave the Appalachia area) has been keeping me busy. And yes, the second image is not a SECRET but I wanted to share it again here on patreon because it's a fun little thing! So let's get into the gallery.

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Image 1: Playing around on looom with only two colors (but it's four layers--two red and two white, alternating) which was 100% inspired by these album covers: 

I haven't been using looom as much lately but when I do use it again to relax and wind down, I remember why I love it so much. 

Image 2: If you follow me on instagram, you've already seen this image but I did want to remind you that if you pre-order ARDEN HIGH: Twelfth Grade Night (which was the queer shakespearian graphic novel I worked on for all of last year) you can get SIX FREE STICKERS if you follow these instuctions. It's super quick, and you get fun free stuff!! 

Image 3: Just a screenshot of my procreate, specifically the page I'm currently working on lining and coloring for ARDEN HIGH: King Cheer. This is to give you an idea of my fairly unorganized layers, how I have reference of past pages up for color reference, and to show you that I don't necessarily go in panel-order when it comes to completing the page. 

Image 4: Oyyyyy. I have been feeling very excited about, but very exhausted over these full-page montage scenes. I wanted to show you one in progress. With pages like these that have a background in every shot, crowds of people sitting at gym bleachers, and tons of basketball players, I have to start to take my time & pay in mind. If I had endless time to work on pages like these, I would spend days coloring every panel with full color, complicated backgrounds which were fully fleshed out, etc. But because of the pay I received, I can't afford to spend more than a day on a page. So, in these moments, I have to bite the bullet and do simpler coloring--whether it be monochrome, one highlight color, or only full-coloring a couple panels. I'm having trouble deciding what simple color scheme to go with for this page, so I think I need to do some research (watch some anime, look at some colored graphic novels) and then come back to it. 

Image 5: some demon tattoo design explorations for my friend and fellow tattoo artist Payne, which I'll be giving the top-left demon to in August. Also a sea snail tat for my friend and fellow illustrator Wren also in August! 

Image 6: Drawings of my past-roommates-still-best-friends-and-future-roommates, plus Vernon the cat (also my best friend and future roommate)

Image 7: King Cheer cover sketch options! Designing the cover is my favorite part of the whole graphic novel process (...yikes, uhhh that sounds pretty bad doesn't it?) and I'm especially excited to be designing this one because there's so many characters to play with, and the *tension* is such a fun thing to portray. I do think I want to change the expression of the main character, Leah, to something less stern or angry--I believe this might turn viewers off. 

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So that's it for today's secret sketches, but I'll have a podcast coming your way very soon, all about "dream jobs", discovering what you like/don't like, and what it's like to have multiple streams of income...because all of that has been very relevant in my life lately. 

See you very soon!

-JG