-old comic archive-

Hey, thanks for checking this out!
Be warned of cringe and old art ♡

WHAT IS THAT?

You are looking at the third comic, ever done by me. This project lasted 2 years and its goal was to learn as much as possible about making comics by well, making them!
Story-wise, it's a comic about the anthro cat getting loaded on a cargo ship. (Don't bully, it's an old script :p)

WHY HERE?

Initially, deviant art was my spawn point. With its gallery systems and option to keep comics under specific folders it was perfect for comic making.Unfortunately, the site shot itself with AI and betrayed artists' trust.
I still host those pages on Twitter, but this site is less than ideal for comics. And Weebtoons or other comic sites don't exactly support comic/gif hybrid (I'm not even sure if I want this project to land there). So yes, in the end, I have decided to take action in my own hands and do this page!I'm also attaching changelogs that have been posted between pages, explaining what has changed or what I have learned!

DESTINATION MARS
COVER ART

This the entry page to the comic I've been working on for quite some time.Action is set in the world I'm building which could be described as hard sci-fi populated with anthro races and humans.
The goal is to post a new page with a max of 2 weeks delay. (failed misserably)I'm still learning a lot of new stuff so details and characters can slightly change as time goes. (Scroll down and judge by yourself how much it has changed)

DESTINATION MARS P1

DESTINATION MARS P2

DESTINATION MARS P3

DESTINATION MARS P4

DESTINATION MARS P5

DESTINATION MARS P6

DESTINATION MARS P7

DESTINATION MARS P8

A lot of new decisions have been made on this page.
To keep track of the stuff I tried and changed, I'm gonna add a changelog to some pages, so I and you can track my experiments on this test comic series.Still a long way ahead of me but I think that I'm slowly getting the necessary knowledge to start a webcomic.changelog:1- Much smaller font - I started from the size of 12 and moved to the size of 6 so I can put more text on the page, while still keeping it readable.2- Removed borders - I studied other comics and discovered that I need much more space to draw characters so they won't change into pixel art. It will also help me in drawing better backgrounds.3- Resigned from whole characters on small panels - Same as above, I need more space to draw a character not to make them pixel art. Tho I still need to find a way to draw multiple, whole characters. Maybe some small body, big head version of characters?4- Panel construction - Changes are rather easy to spot when compared to the first pages, still need to find a way to make them clear. Maybe white stripes to help separate important panels on the page?5- Smaller lineart - I want to make my lineart smaller and less attention-grabbing and with a smaller lineart I will unlock more space for more colors.6- Highlights and other light tricks - I discovered that I can use lineart as another medium to show the light effects on the characters. It's a first but definitely not the last page with colored lineart.7- Shadows - This is a hard topic and you can see on previous pages that background is my biggest test field for this. I want to keep characters with simple shadows so they can contrast with the background. Still testing.8- Make it into a gif or maybe another format? - gif has a bad quality and has a limited color pallet but is replaying constantly. Other formats can keep the whole color palette but they are basically small films.9- New software - So far I have worked on Krita but now I have moved to CSP. I will need to get used to the new software but I can already see a lot of new useful tricks and options. Another great thing is that it offers much better support for the comic format.

DESTINATION MARS P9

I will have to redesign my color palette so gif won't change it so much. But for now, let's focus on trying to make well-working gif/comic hybrid work.

DESTINATION MARS P10

DESTINATION MARS P11

DESTINATION MARS P12

Hurray! Page 12 has been completed. Since the last changelog on page 8 a lot has changed and I want to share it with you guys.changelog v2:1- New font - I found the old font rather boring and decided to go with one of the fonts I found at blambot.com/
However, I will keep looking for the perfect font.2- Removed borders - I decided to remove the bottom border from page 11. I found this grey to be an unnecessary distraction from the main comic page3- Panel construction - I read "Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art" and it opened a whole new world of comic art. Due to this, I decided to go with white stripes to help in separating panels on the page. For now at least.
This book has also impacted the whole comic structure, from, dialogs to structure and characters. A great read for anyone interested in comic art.4- Smaller lineart - Further lineart size reduction. Currently, I have a lineart brush at a size of 3px. I found it to help me in putting more content onto one page.5- Highlights and other light tricks - Gif format limits me with colors and effects but I can still pull out imitations of light with colored lineart and lineweight.
I found this video on Lineart very helpful www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzgrOM…6- Shadows - Shapes and simplicity are kings! I discovered a nice trick with multiplay layer and color theory allowing me to shade the entire character much faster. Base shadow is made with one multiply layer on the entire character and a bit of design theory magic.
I found Sinix videos of design theory to explain it quite well: www.youtube.com/playlist?list=…7- I decided to stay with the gif format. I seek a way to do simple and fast gifs but with still pleasing end effects. It does reduce my color pallet so I can't use soft brushes but this allows me to focus more on shape designs.8- Outlines - I discovered them on page 11 and I think that they help a lot with contrast in certain panels.9- Background - On page 11 I started to play with a colored background. It can save my time and help in the better showing of character emotions. I can even animate it for extra punch!Big thanks to all my friends who helped me with discovering the world of comics and art! Also thank you to all the people who like my work, it keeps me motivated to keep going...
This progress wouldn't be possible without you.

DESTINATION MARS P13

A lot of things have changed during those 2 years and I have learned a lot from page 13.
So much so that I have decided to document it and share it with you!
Let's break the latest page down together, shall we?PS
This is in no way a tutorial. Treat it more like loose notes.

DESTINATION MARS P14

The last page has been finished!Story-wise, everyone, right now is on a space voyage to Mars.Art-wise, this project took me 2 years and I have learned so much from it! I basically moved from 0 to whenever I'm now. There is so much more to learn... But I can definitely see progress with time and I plan to keep learning art and bringing animation and comics together.Now I want to start from a clean slate and move to a new project, see what I can use from what I have learned on something fresh!

Thank you for your time!