Wait and Listen

I'm an artist. I'm an author. I'm an analyzer. I'm currently working on a long Tokka fan comic, so right now I'm mostly posting behind the scenes stuff for that project. For Avatar or other fanworks, take a look at my fandom blog.

[maivry]

Maybe this scene is a little dark. We'll see how it turns out when I add lighting...

Doing flats is a fairly time-consuming process, but at least it's not mentally taxing. I'm finding it harder to make time for, however, and am trying to find a new rhythm for my free time so I can make sure I do it consistently. That's the key, really - a little each day or week.

[maivry]

Since this project has been going on for so long, and because a lot of it was quite sloppy in the first draft... well, you can see that sometimes I struggled a lot to even get one expression right. Makes me amazed when I find sketches that I got right the first time.

[maivry]

This week's Tokka comic preview snippets!

The current phase is flat colors - for the characters, that is. And I'm 1/3 done! Backgrounds will be a different step, but I made some progress establishing the environments and filling in the gutters. Not sure if I want to leave the gutters colored. Maybe I'll just do black or white?

[maivry]

Doing some background style testing. Reference photo courtesy of fuguestock!

My unspoken wish that I will magically be good at detailed, colored backgrounds has been dashed. I just don't have the patience for that sort of thing. But I'm pretty happy with the lines, so I'm definitely decided on lined vs lineless backgrounds.

Anyone want to weigh in on how I should do backgrounds? Do you like one of these tests over the other?

[maivry]

Tokka comic preview snippets!

I'm pleased with a lot of the art I've done for this project, although I've got to keep a lot of it under wraps until launch... I'm a bit nervous about some upcoming decisions (BACKGROUNDS) but I'm getting closer and closer to the end goal!

[maivry]

Another mini comic I made years ago. This was right after I finished the layout phase of my comic and before I started lineart. (In reality it was more like "Now for step five!")

It seems rather appropriate to share it now because I'M DONE!

I finally finished the lineart phase! I did it! I got past the hurdle that paralyzed this project for years! I'M SO EXCITED!

[maivry]

Sokka's thinking hard about something.

I'm almost done with the lineart for my comic! It's taking a smidge longer than I wanted, but it's definitely going to get done soon. And then the biggest hurdle left is making sure I can do backgrounds well enough. Everything else is within my comfort zone.

I'm making tentative plans for launching in a couple months! *Throws confetti* Because I'm doing a bunch of work up front, I'm planning to have a reliable update schedule a few times a week. This is gonna happen! Anyone else excited?!

[maivry]

I found a mini comic I made while I was working on the layout phase of my comic! Many of my original sketches were, ah, quite bad.

In other news, not much to report other than progress. :)

[maivry]

where can i read your stories?

I have several oneshots, all of which can be found directly on my FF.net profile.

All of them are linked here on Tumblr and tagged as fanfic, which has the bonus of accompanying illustrations, basic info about each fic, and even some exclusive minifics.

2014 and earlier is on this blog Also see minifics. Maifandom has some from 2015 and is where I may link new fanfic in the future.

Happy reading!

[maivry]

Above is a reconstruction of a panel I drew in 2020 (featured in a back-from-hiatus post on this blog) and the same panel redrawn last month.

One of the bummers about working on a project for a long time is that it's subject to neglect... and I mean of the digital maintenance kind. Last year my main hard drive died, affecting about 20 pages of lineart I drew in 2020. Thankfully, I had an older backup for the work that had been done previously, but those 20 pages of lost lineart included the tough part that originally made this project grind to a halt... and I still haven't redrawn that part.

It's hard to let go of the idea of recovering that data, but today I confirmed that there's almost no chance of recovering them without coughing up a lot of money. Even if I were getting paid for this comic (ha!) it'd be more cost effective to just redo it. It's a major setback, but in all honesty it's not as bad as doing nothing.

Some good news is that I finished doing flats for Part 1 while I waited for the verdict, so now I'm ready to get Part 2 caught up to that stage.

[maivry]

It's amusing to see how torn I was about the cover for my comic project early on. It would probably also be amusing to hear people's predictions based on these thumbnails.

[maivry]

Isn't it amazing how our eyes process color based on context? Sokka was a bit terrifying in this sequence.

[maivry]

Fifteen years ago, in 2008, I wrote half of a Tokka short story. It was cute, but I couldn't really figure out how it should end, so it stayed unfinished. Life got busy and I wasn't very interested in ATLA after the show ended.

In 2012, I rewatched the show and got involved in the fandom again. I had long been interested in making a webcomic, and I thought a fan comic would be a wonderful way to practice. I worked out the wrinkles in the story and came up with a doable plan.

In 2014, I had a lot of free time and enough inspiration to really get this project going. Pretty quickly I put 250 hours into it, but unfortunately I burnt out when I got to a part of the story that was difficult to draw.

In the interim I've thought about it often and even picked it up a time or two, but time was always an issue. I think it's safe to say there have been a lot of ebbs and flows in the last 15 years - both with my place in the fandom and my life.

I'm at a point now where I don't just want to exercise my creativity again, but need to. Of all the projects I've dreamed up before, this one has long been the one that stood out as being entirely doable and worthwhile. It may just be a fun and sweet fan comic, but it's still close to my heart, and I know others would enjoy it.

The good news? I have the time to continue this. So... stay tuned!

[maivry]

Wow, it’s been a while.

Anyone remember me?

[maivry]

I bought a Cintiq last year AND I HAVEN’T USED IT.

[maivry]

A WIP for an original piece???

I don't know, it's been a while so I have to teach myself to paint again.

[maivry]

~HAPPY HOLIDAYS~ When you get this you have to post five things from your holiday wishlist. Then pass this on to your ten favorite followers!

I was tagged by Loopy. And while my normal response to this sort of thing is, "But I don't really want anything!" the truth is I do want things but they are such that I never think to place my expectations on anyone. I've gotten extremely difficult to shop for over the years... :P

So here are my top five, in order of relative price.

1. A Cintiq

2. A professional camera

3. A bike (and the know-how to use and maintain it well)

4. A dress (or better yet a source for good dresses)

5. Brick by Brick by Stephen McCranie

But really, all I want for Christmas is you tasty treats and meaningful conversation.

I'm going to be a cheater, as I often am with memes... if after LOK you don't ship Tokka any less, you're my favorite, and I'm tagging you. :D