City of Cards: Blog

City of Cards C3.22-23: HERE!

And with that, we will be leaving the girls for a bit. They'll be back, but for now it's time to check back in with Ace and Plato and see what's up with them.

Speaking of which, one thing I'd been wanting to do is to finish this three page interlude from Plato's perspective. I wanted to make this part to help explain a little bit more about the world that Ace and Plato live in and the impact this has on their relationship.

I also wanted to do something that clarified the eventual nature of their relationship because even though I was pretty sure I wasn't being subtle, I'm also not trying to pull any surprises here. I know I've labeled this comic mature content, and it'll still probably be another chapter or so until any real mature content shows up, but the story will progressively get darker with each chapter.

So I've decided to continue my creepypasta sketch thing going by drawing something from one of the more well known and possibly one of my favorite stories: Candlecove

Skintaker

Skintaker Static

Seeing as Candle Cove is a story about a lost children's show I figured I'd play around a little bit in Photoshop on this one, even though I think I still like the original better because the static washes out the details. Still, there's a lot I love about this story and this was a lot of fun to draw.

And because I'm trying to force myself to get into good habits, I've started doing character sheets for my upcoming side story based on an Aesop's fable but that still takes place in the City of Cards universe. There are ten characters total and I'm hoping to do one sheet a month while starting the script process.

First up is Coal, who I decided to completely redesign from any of my previous versions of him.

CoC BBB Model Sheet 1: Coal

I still have to design his tattoos which take up half his torso and are an important element to the story and his character. I also want to do to a couple of different outfit designs as well, but this gives me something to work off of.

And you know what, I've got to say it feels damn good to be this productive. Not only have I am really happy with how this weeks comic pages came out but I've managed to keep up on pretty much all of my side work while dealing with home stuff. I still have a lot more I want to get done, but giving myself weekly/monthly goals makes a huge difference. After October I'm going to figure out a new weekly drawing exercise to replace the creepypasta images. I'm thinking I should probably do some color work and I really should do some fanart.

Also, speaking of accomplishments, I've briefly mentioned him before but Dakota recently drew his 1,000th daily comic strip. Even though I take a pretty different approach to my own work, he has amazing perspective on what it takes to grow as an artist and it's really worth a read.