Update #16 - August 2020

Hello, Patrons! 

Before I start, thank you to everyone who has continued to support me, and thank you to my newest supporters: Josephine Blum and Briana.

Thank you all so much; it really means a lot to me to have your support! 

WHAT HAVE I BEEN UP TO?

At the beginning of August, my partner, Aidan, was exposed to COVID-19. Neither of us ended up contracting it, but we did have to quarantine for two weeks. I used the time to start on a new short comic project, which I’ll talk a bit more about below.

Other than that, things have been proceeding fairly uneventfully. I still work my two jobs, I’ve continued to rollerskate, and our new housemate has settled in well. 

WHAT HAVE I BEEN WORKING ON?

This month, as always, I’ve continued with my daily diary comics. 

I’ve also started collaborating with Aidan to put out Youtube videos more regularly! With them doing the editing work, we’ve put out two different videos this past month. They're currently working on editing a flip-through of the sketchbook in which I first started drawing my diary comics! It's one I've been wanting to share for a long time now, and I'm very excited for it. 

Oh, and the website I was working on last month is finished! You can visit it here.

Finally, I’ve been working on a new short comic! I haven’t gotten as far in it as I would have liked (I was struck down by a lethal combination of being distracted by other projects and running out of certain art supplies that I needed), but I’ve made quite a bit of progress in only a month!

It's no secret to anyone who's interacted with me for an extended period that I'm obsessed with Judas Iscariot. At the end of July I read this fanfic, which awakened something in me; an idea for a story between Jesus and Judas that I'd been wanting to draw for a long time finally crystalized, and I decided to see how much progress I could make during my two week quarantine. 

I started by writing out a rough outline of the events, which I then refined into a script with action descriptions and dialog.

Once I had my script, I did two passes of thumbnails, first to nail down the flow and general content of each page, then to fine-tune the composition of each panel.

Next, I refined the character designs. This is both my favorite part and the most nerve-wracking for me. 

Jesus Christ, Judas Iscariot, and John the Apostle's designs came together fairly quickly; I'm very happy with them.

I had a bit more trouble with Mary Magdalene and Big Jim (James the Greater); their designs remained nebulous until I reached the second page of the comic and was forced to decide.

The pages themselves have been measured out onto my usual sketchbook paper (which I later removed from the sketchbook itself to be able to more easily access), and sketched in my trusty purple col-erase pencil.

Then, I do the lines in my usual purple gel pen.

Currently, I've sketched three out of ten pages, and inked two. I foolishly did not reorder my usual pens in time, and they've run out of ink; this has stymied my progress a bit.

(This has also made the process of drawing my diary comics slower, as all I have at the moment are micron pens, which smear when paired with alcohol-based markers, which means I have to color before inking, rather than after.)

I haven't decided how I want to apply color to the pages yet. I haven't found a solution I like, though I've been doing various color thumbnails to try and decide. I've even considered scanning them and coloring them digitally, but I think people have come to expect traditional color from me.

If you have any input, I'd love to hear it! I'm very uncertain about what looks best.

I hope to have this comic finished in the next month, since I want to devote October to Lampmeeting's Kloktober event. We'll see how I do, though! I also hope to expand on these characters in future short comics (for which I already have ideas), but that's a tangent for another day...

WHAT HAVE I BEEN CONSUMING?

Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen

According to one of my friends, who is a big Bruce Springsteen fan, he is quite long winded. His autobiography is no exception; this is a long long audiobook. I've gotten about 40% of the way through at current count.

Springsteen is an excellent storyteller, and the cultural landscape he describes is very different from today's. Although I've been needing to take breaks and listen to other stories, I find this book very entertaining and informative! It's also fun to discuss with my housemate, who is also reading it (and is another big fan)!

A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

I took a break in the middle of listening to Born to Run to listen to this, as I had placed a hold on it on a whim a while back and it had just come in.

There are certain books I like to reread over and over and this is one of them. My favorite chapter is definitely Great Rock and Roll Pauses by Alison Blake. Although the entire book is full of exquisitely executed concepts, this chapter in particular is laid out in a way that is so beautiful and innovative to me. 

Something That May Shock And Discredit You by Daniel M. Lavery

This book was fantastic. There were parts that resonated deeply, and parts that made me pause to think how many different ways of being a trans man there are. I really really enjoyed it. As with every book I deeply enjoy, I've immediately turned around to start rereading this one (and have dragged my partner along for the ride)!

It also made me realize, I barely ever read books by transmasculine authors? Part of that is the fault of the publishing industry not valuing their voices, of course, but I want to fix that as much as possible. If you have any suggestions, please send them my way! 

THAT'S ALL FOR NOW!

If you have any questions or stuff you've wanted to talk about to me, do leave a comment below! 

Hope you're doing well!

<3,

Dave