Blue Horizon comics' sketch form. [Current focus - Blue Horizon Bright Days, Sad Days. CONTAINS SPOILERS.]
I have a habit of chatting about the sketch form of the Blue Horizon: BDSD comic on social media, so here's some highlights for here, too:
02/23/2025: I will never quite be able to explain how I went on the struggle bus to struggle town with this set of now (freshly) old Hibiscus game artwork (soon enough just old Hibiscus game artwork). Not only does it not follow Antonio's character design sense enough (breaking too many character design focuses for certain characters is a huge NO for me), I feel like I barely paid attention to everything I learned or subconsciously absorbed in regards to drawing just to rush these pieces out. My art is evolving, and I can note that even with these artworks, but they really don't match up to what I want, what I can do, and what I was trying to go for...! This is specifically in regards to Antonio and Alejandro, both of whom will be re-drawn. So leaving these in sketch dump for the commemoration of it and to remember my struggles.
Extra note about two hours later: Essentially, if your brain is saying "just start over," sometimes it's best just to do so instead of try to barely adjust (due to fear of changing the design even more) and color over a cell-shade type of artwork (though I've fixed art that way before). Also, keep looking at references. Never assume you're done glancing at references.
Again, my main issue is lack of expressiveness and character design not matching enough due to my ignoring my own decisions like I've done once or twice before (though I remembered enough to try to fix the issues prior, e.g. for Blue Horizon BDSD: comic 2).
08/17/2024: I'll likely slowly add to this in the next few days. Going to put this one under a button For Reasons (specifically to delete later more easily).
06/21/2024: Recent highlights! I'm working on comic 3 right now. :3c Making Comicfury my main site got me excited enough, plus I'm taking a break from editing by drawing.
First is 15-year-old Alejandro's danmei boyfriend era! Though I'll often utilize a ponytail to imply Alejandro is 15, I feel like he'd still wear a ponytail at random even after his teens.
Alejandro's adjustments wound up wild due to my realizing that my eyeing a Unsplash ref wasn't working. This was me slowly figuring out how to draw his form in the angle I wound up using. The final version looks nice, but I'll leave it for people to see in the actual comic (i.e., it's not shown among the progress sketches):
alejandro with a long falling ponytail (implying he's 15 here, though he can wear a ponytail in any era) looking downward with drawn eyebrows, a frown, and a serious expression. he's wearing the protector's class uniform which i am making up on the fly. next to him is clip studio paint brush settings and marquee settings.
alejandro with a long falling violet ponytail (implying he's 15 here, though he can wear a ponytail in any era) and red eyes looking downward with drawn eyebrows, a frown, and a serious and sweating stressed expression. he's wearing the silvery protector's class uniform which i am making up on the fly. part of it is unfilled because i'm changing the pose. next to him is clip studio paint brush settings and marquee settings.
previous art but with neck and shoulder outline shown and colors filled in more. however, that neckline doesn't make enough sense, which is why there are final edits.
previous art but with neck and shoulder outline shown and colors filled in more. however, i fix the neck. alejandro's body needs re-aligning though, which isn't shown here. will be in the comic thoughAgain, the final form of Alejandro in that middle panel isn't uploaded here.
Here's me starting to change Antonio's hair into something more dynamic!
sketch of a grinning antonio with flow-y hair and blue eyebrows. below it says "my brothers" in comic form
super sketchy raj with long hair and with messy lines for his eyes that look very simplified frowny anime boy--And then the initial Raj sketch, which I think looks dorky and cute. (When Raj is 15 he doesn't have the undercut.)
Short explanation is that I lay down very sketchy eyes before I start drawing the actual eyes I want in the comic. Since these are prelimenary sketch layers for comic 3, a lot will change by the time I drop it!
Beyond that, I always find my initial idea for Comic 1 versus what wound up canon funny (I do think the latter is more in-line with how these two disasters would interact):
ultra sketchy emote version of antonio looking to the side with a smile and a bubble face with blush implying alejandro
art of antonio flying in at alejandro's face with brown skin wearing blue panjabi and with worried red eyes and a blush asking alejandro with falling violet hair and pink hair dyed tips and pink tunic and huge blush and wide-eyed look as antonio asks seriously "you wanna learn our family history? why (cut off "really" "marry" "in our")I dropped the above on 03/01/2024 on Bluesky (not gonna acknowledge the hellion previous microblogging site). More to come whenver I feel chatty while drawing the comics and am not lazy about updating the Neocities too.