We went there last year too, for Vol 1's release. It was really fun! I think there will probably be plenty of stickers left over, so I'll have to figure out if I can get them out there somehow after the event too...
SUPER OLD RAINBOW! ART THREAD!!! Open only if you are brave enough to face teen me's cringe art...
(mostly joking but fr white Mimi and skinny Boo jumpscare below)
Very first digital piece of Boo and Mimi circa 2011!! I was 14 when I drew this. Usually I'm able to look back fondly at super old art of mine but this one does make me cringe a liiiiittle bit. Mimi girl what are you wearing, why are you white. Boo also had pink eyes in the beginning, which she would continue to have for several years to come (even in the current iteration of RAINBOW! they were pink at first, I later recolored those pages) but it was only later that it was due to the color scheme of the comic and not because they were literally pink. I'm pretty sure they were meant to be contacts, because their hair is and always have been dyed rather than anime-esque natural colorful hair, so that was some crazy dedication from Boo back in the day.
More 2011 art showing off Mimi's goth/scene-ish style and green eyes. They were initially meant to have pastel and neon fashion senses, respectively. The story was already named at this point, only a few days or maybe weeks into its inception, which is impressive considering it has taken us literal years to name other stories (I'm looking at you, Phantom Pains)
this one is from super early 2012! Interesting to think that this was less than 9 months later since it feels completely different to me. The first version of the comic had started at this point, and the pink and green color scheme was just starting to develop. This lineup features some characters that would later be cut. Lucian and Lily were friends of Boo, and Cecilia was Mimi's ex girlfriend. Notably Clarice is not on this lineup, and frankly I'm not sure why.
A picture I drew to commemorate 50 fans on RAINBOW!'s smackjeeves page, mid 2012. Boo's outfit resembled a recolored version of her 2011 outfit, but I have no idea what Mimi is wearing. What. are. you. wearing.
Chibi-ish drawings of Boo and Mimi cosplaying various characters, from early 2013. Homura Mimi is very funny to me, I really don't know why I didn't draw her as Kyoko. I assume I was trying to keep them as paired characters, but I didn't do that with the Sailor Moon or Disney ones, so I who knows why I did it with PMMM. Mimi's hairstyle changes to a shaved cut somewhere around this time, but it is much more dramatic than her current undercut, and her hair is still pretty long. Boo is wearing a closet cosplay of Fluttershy that I myself wore once. These also resemble the chibi-ish drawings on the chapter intermission pages of RAINBOW! Vol 1.
A character study I did in late 2013, which would be shortly after I made a major style shift into the art style that would eventually develop into the one I currently have. At this point, Boo was meant to be fatter than Mimi, but the execution wasn't really there at all. There is also a doodle at the bottom of me and Sunny at the time (I am the one with long hair), expressing thanks for 300 fans on smackjeeves. Considering it had 50 in mid 2012, the readership was pretty slow growing back then.
outfit exploration for Mimi, circa 2014. At this point I started to expand the color scheme a little bit more so that not every character would be paper-white, though she is still very pale even though she is no longer meant to be white anymore. None of these outfits really resemble her current style, and I don't particularly like any of them either. It took me a very long time to settle on a fashion sense for her.
an Adventure Time-eqsue drawing of Mimi and Boo that I actually drew less than two weeks after the previous image despite the difference in things such as the way the hair was drawn. I had to include this one because it blew up overnight, which was a huge deal for highschool me, I remember checking my phone at school a lot because it was just getting hundreds or even thousands of notes over the span of the day. I think it has something like 16,000 notes. Still the post with the highest number of notes I have by far, so I guess I peaked in high school, whomp whomp
More fashion exploration, this time of Mimi and Boo, from early 2015. The color scheme is starting to approach what it currently is, but much more dull since I used to be afraid of bright colors. Mimi's fashion sense is starting to get closer to what it currently is, but the pastel goth influence that was popular in early-mid 2010s tumblr is apparent. In chapter 1, Boo wears an outfit that is extremely similar to the one with the bear shirt, except it's a rabbit instead. The dress that Mimi gives to Boo is also almost identical to the depiction of it here. This drawing implies that Mimi was originally going to be present in the film noir scene where Boo finds her mom, which is interesting...
Another cast lineup! This one is from late 2015-early 2016. Mimi is wearing an outfit pretty similar to what she wears in chapter 1 but with the colors altered. The execution of Boo's body type is starting to improve but she's still kind of pear-shaped. Mimi is also a little more square, and her hair finally looks like the style she has now. Clarice gets to be in the lineup this time and she is SUPER tall. I think she is still taller than Milo. And Mimi is around 5'7"-5'8", so Clarice must be around 6 foot by that logic.
The original version of chibi-ish Boo riding a bike in her Kiki outfit, from 2016. I think it was meant to be a banner of some kind, possibly for tapas or tumblr. A newer version of this drawing features as a chapter intermission drawing in the physical book.
The original cover for RAINBOW! from 2017. The color scheme is finally starting to get a little brighter! This is actually a redraw of an older drawing from 2014, I want to draw it again someday. Also, I was going by Rain at the time.
A drawing I did in late 2017 for a class in which we were meant to try digital painting and I went for a very simple approach. I like that Mimi's legs are a little noodle-y. This is also the first drawing where Mimi's eyes are no longer green, but dark pink instead. By the language of RAINBOW!'s color scheme, that means they are brown. Boo's eyes are still pink, however.
Another drawing for a class, this time from 2018. I can't remember the specifics of the assignment, but I used the opportunity to draw the playground and Max, the dog, for the first time. I like the way the trees look in this. That little snip of hair by Mimi's ear also made a reappearance here for some reason.
The original version of the drawing that would become the cover of RAINBOW! Vol 1, from mid 2019! I believe I drew it to be a banner on Tapas, but I used it for tumblr as well.
And lastly, Boo and Mimi outfit sheets from 2019-2020. I messed with them for a while, hence the timeframe. Boo's eyes are finally green, which I changed since I liked the idea of Mimi having green hair and pink eyes, and Boo having pink hair and green eyes, as if they are reflected a bit in each other. Outside of RAINBOW!'s color scheme, Boo's eyes are actually blue though. It took about a decade, but I finally settled on a fashion sense for Mimi.
BONUS ART!!! ๐๐โจโจ I thought these would be better grouped together rather than chronologically with the rest.
RAINBOW!'s banners from its era on smackjeeves! Smackjeeves didn't have square/circular icons but rather these thin long banners which could also be animated. I thought that was so fun, so I always animated them at least a little, even though one doesn't seem to work. It was customary to write girls love/boys love on the banner of mlm/wlw romance stories then, so almost all of them say that. I still see that trend on some comics on webtoon and tapas nowadays. They are from 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2017. I don't believe the 2017 one was ever used.
And RAINBOW!'s icon throughout the years! I always refused to change it, only update it, because I thought it was really cute. They are from (approximately) 2017, 2018, 2020, and 2021.
And finally, art from 2021 of Mimi with her cousin August, who will be the protagonist of our next comic, Phantom Pains. Weird to think that we'll be on that comic in foreseeable future, since it is also over 10 years old now. Bit of a passing the torch type drawing to end on. ๐ If you made it all the way here, thanks for reading! Hopefully it was fun and didn't hurt your eyes.
There is another giveaway for RAINBOW! Vol 1 for anyone who wants to try for a free copy!! Here on insta or here on Twitter ๐๐ ends in a few days!
Reminder that our book event in NJ is coming up this weekend!!! My lovely friend @mxbloodybooart also graciously helped make me some stickers that we'll be giving away at the event!! Featuring three different designs
To celebrate RAINBOW!'s release today, I'm going to go over all the daydream references that have been made so far, since it's fun for me to sneak them in ๐ there's a lot of them though, so it's gonna be under the cut!
Episode 1-- Kiki's Delivery Service and E.T.! People focus on the Kiki reference so much that the other seemed to be missed.
Episode 2-- Princess Serenity and Prince Endymion, Sailor Moon. Another one obvious enough to be called out in some comments. It was referenced again in episode 54, where this panel was taken from.
Episode 5-- Marceline, Adventure time. One of the few reference that isn't an outfit specifically, but a character.
Episode 11-- Revolutionary Girl Utena. Not necessarily supposed to be the characters themselves, just the outfits.
Episode 11-- Minako Aino, Sailor Moon. In hindsight, I don't remember why I chose this specific dress to reference and not the maid outfits from Sailor Stars or the fruits maid outfits from the manga... especially since I think the fruits maid outfits are adorable.
Episode 11-- Catra, She-Ra reboot. I kind of regretted this one immediately just because like 80% of the comments on the episode were "CATRA SUIT!!!" as a result...
Episode 18-- Sailor Moon manga. I was always intrigued by the way characters would be dressed in dreamlike/ethereal sequences in the manga, so this reference was a must for me. I went with the version that is a full dress with straps rather than the dresses from other moments in the manga that have no discernible top half.
Episode 30 and 31-- Not a reference to any specific film or character, but just film noir in general. I do remember referencing a female character specifically for this but sadly I couldn't find it again.
Episode 40-- Pomeranian scene, IT Chapter Two. Surely you saw this coming (or maybe not?) I don't think I got the camera angle good enough to really sell this reference, but I couldn't resist it anyways.
Episode 43-- Adult Losers, IT Chapter Two. The only reference besides Marceline that references the characters themselves, since I normally use our other characters for background character purposes. Also one of the only references that isn't a daydream.
Episode 54-- Disney's Snow White and Cinderella. I couldn't decide which to reference, so I ended up leaning mostly into Cinderella, but referenced the Evil Queen's crown as well. Boo's dress is also somewhat referenced from the the live action Cinderella dress instead of the animated version, just because I liked it.
Episode 54-- Treasure Planet and Treasure Planet 2 concept art. Treasure planet is one of my favorite movies, so there was no way I was missing out on referencing it. A few people brought up some wlw pirate webcomic(s?) in the comments of this episode, but the actual reference seemed to be mostly missed. The sash around Boo's waist is also meant to be fabric from her princess dress in the previous panels.
Episode 54-- Revolutionary Girl Utena. Another one I was kind of surprised wasn't called out just because of how iconic the whole clothed shadow/silhouette thing is.
Episode 55-- Saint Tail. I couldn't reference this one as closely as I would have liked since it probably wouldn't have been very readable as a magician's costume to someone who didn't know it, so it mostly references the brooch from the anime and her hat.
Episode 61-- Jane Fonda in Spirits of the Dead. A super random and out there reference, especially to end on, but I liked the outfit so much that I couldn't help it. Maybe Boo used to fall asleep to old movie channels, lol.
That's it, at least for now! We'll have to see what shows up in future episodes~
New RAINBOW! Update on Webtoon and Tapas! You can read 3 episodes ahead on Tapas~ and now on Patreon, too! Also, RAINBOW! Vol 1 is out and available for purchase starting today!!! ๐๐
Webtoon | Tapas | Patreon
Also, preview for the most recent episode available on Patreon and Tapas Early Access ๐
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