yellowhellion

ch 02 pg 34 sketch & thumbs

Here we have another page that went through a whole number of edits, even right up to the very last minute!

The first picture is the first thumbnail. I had written Min using her explosive to blow up the skeletons. I changed this pretty early on. It felt more sensible to show off a hint of t...

ch 02 pg 33 sketch & thumbs

The most important factor of this page was Alexander's grimace, so I wanted to make sure I nailed that down, and I think it turned out great! Drawing stairs is always intimidating, but I actually had a lot of fun with it this time lol

Sky Sea Saga 1st Anniversary

It's been one year since I started posting Sky Sea Saga! Time really flies!

Making this comic has been incredibly rewarding, I find I'm always excited to be working on it. Thank you to everyone who's been reading this far! I'm looking forward to all the anniversaries to come!

ch 02 pg 32 sketch & thumbs

The hardest part of this page was always going to be the skeleton gang looming over Alexander. I think it turned out decent! You may notice that the thumbs for this page included the stab reaction shot that was in last week's thumbnails. This was a late stage mixup really, shuffling around certai...

ch 02 pg 31 sketch & thumbs

This one was fun! The first panel looks a bit chaotic in the sketch since I kept iterating trying to land on the best pose I could. In the thumbs I had planned another panel between the two, but in practice I felt it was unnecessary, better to just nail that last panel for as much of a one-two pu...

ch 02 pg 30 sketch & thumbs

The pose in the last panel was so specific I had to take photo reference to understand how it worked and honestly I think it worked out pretty well! I now understand the utility of taking your own photo reference when you need it!

ch 02 pg 29 sketch & thumbs

A fun fact here, these past couple pages were given a bit of a last-minute makeover. The last image featured in this set is the original thumbnail for the page, but when I got to this page proper it felt as if I didn't give this moment of Alexander getting lost in the sauce the space it needed to...

ch 02 pg 28 sketch & thumbs

This is another instance in which I actually quite enjoyed drawing the backgrounds! I guess it helps that they're pretty simple all things considered, but it was fun establishing a space and putting the lighting from Min's staff down was pretty fun too!

ch 02 pg 27 sketch & thumbs

The sword action starts here! The most obvious change from the thumbs to the final sketch mainly just came from me actually figuring out the space they're in. Backgrounds can be rewarding!

ch 02 pg 26 sketch & thumbs

This one was pretty straightforward, with only a couple common sense edits made from the thumb to the sketch. It's common sense that Min would notice something toward the "camera" as opposed to off to the side somewhere, and it's common sense that the skeleton guy she notices is smaller, only jus...

ch 02 pg 25 sketch & thumbs

This is another instance where I let myself get a lil looser with the panel layout than what I had on the thumbs and every time I've done that I've been very glad lol. Also I tried to make the figure in the distance must less discernible, not only cuz I think it's good to keep some mystery to it,...

ch 02 pg 24 sketch & thumbs

Perspective grid, you were my salvation in my time of need, without you this page would have been impossible 🙏

The final effect for this page wasn't actually TOO hard to pull off, it just took some trial and error, referencing impact frames, and some time. Incredibly pleased with the res...

ch 02 pg 23 sketch & thumbs

This whole section of the comic really made me think about lighting in a way I hadn't before! Not gonna say I'm an expert at it or anything, but I think putting the thought in really pays off!

You'll notice in the thumbnail, I left a note for myself? To try swapping the first two panels? I ...

ch 02 pg 22 sketch & thumbs

One of the most important things I learned from this page is that keeping scale in mind is really important lmao!! You can see in the second panel that I wanted the mushroom to be the focal point of the panel, and I also wanted Min's hands to be in view. It wasn't until I was actually doing the s...

ch 02 pg 21 sketch & thumbs

I actually had a fun time with the backgrounds in this page! I needed to change the flow of the page a bit from the thumbs to fit the script better, I'm not sure how it was playing out in my head when I was doing the thumbnails lol

ch 02 pg 20 sketch & thumbs

I've been looking forward to this one for a while! This setting gave me the opportunity to play with color and lighting in a way I'd never really had to do before, and it was so cool to see the results!

ch 02 pg 19 sketch & thumbs

This page is ALL about those backgrounds! Sometimes backgrounds are a bit of a pain, but in this page I was really excited to draw them! Had a lot of fun with it! If you treat the environment as a character itself, with a mood, characteristic details, and some kind of story, it goes a long way in...

ch 02 pg 18 sketch & thumbs

The age old question, why waste three panels when the effect can be better communicated in one?? I also did some last minute changes to the look of the ruins, you can see how they look in this week's page! 😇

ch 02 pg 17 sketch & thumbs

Sorry that the sketch isn't very exciting this time around lol, but if anything I hope this illustrates that I am at least somewhat capable of working smarter not harder! Being able to copy/paste the background across panels made this page MUCH easier than it would have been otherwise. Technology...

ch 02 pg 16 sketch & thumbs

What a fun page!! I think this page really hinges on the first panel, and I really wanted to put the effort into making it as good as possible, and I think it paid off! 😇

ch 02 pg 15 sketches & thumbs

I want you all to rest assured that I'm gonna find ways to keep drawing Maeve in the comic lol, she's such a joy

ch 02 pg 14 sketch & thumbs

This one was fun to work on! But challenging in some ways, a lot of this page was dependent on the backgrounds so I had to nail those down as best I could.

ch 02 pg 13 sketch & thumbs

This page was the first time I got to deploy my favorite trick, and that trick is simply: Birds! 👏 For! 👏 Scale! 👏 Keep an eye out for me using this trick in the future, I'm sure it's gonna come up again lol

Also I ended up changing the layout from the thumbnails on the fly, I real...

ch 02 pg 12 sketch & thumbs

This page was a late addition. When I was reading through the Chapter 2 thumbnails, I felt like I needed to establish some character and motivation in regards to Min so we can better understand WHY they're going on this trek.

ch 02 pg 11 sketch & thumbs

Having lil illustrations in the dialogue balloons is just fun lmao, we like to have fun! I'm not too pleased with the first three panels, I feel like there would probably be a better way to handle them, but I think the message was communicated, and in the end, that's what's most important!

ch 02 pg 10 sketch & thumbs

This was a fun page to draw. 😇 Pretty straightforward too! Came together pretty much exactly how I expected!

ch 02 pg 09 sketch & thumbs

You can always tell the parts I've had the most trouble with by the density of the layers of the sketches lmao

Trying to portray motion is always a fun challenge, and it's one I ought to get used to cuz there's gonna be a lot more motion to come in this comic!

ch 02 pg 08 sketch & thumbs

The thing about this page was that the panel layout had an extremely last-minute edit made to it! As you can see here, the first panel was planned to be the widest one, but the more I sat with it, the less it made sense. The biggest moment of the page is Alexander's sword breaking, why was that m...

ch 01 pg 07 sketch & thumbs

Sometimes you nail a key expression in the thumbnail and then the sketches are used to preserve as much of that original essence as you possibly can. This page is another example of that.

pg 06 sketch & thumbs

I decided to rehaul the third panel from the thumbnails to the final sketch, since I had the feeling that seeing the windup is more exciting than seeing the payoff of Alexander stabbing the absolute hell out of a slime lol. I HOPE I made the right choice!