#creating black magic

[mbrainspaz]

Should I spend 50% of the income I made with my 2nd job (Illustration & Comics) this year on the cintiq tablet I've wanted for 16 years?

more context:

my current drawing setup uses a 5 year old ipad and a 70$ annual subscription to software that pairs it with my mac to let me draw directly on the screen. I chose this setup because it was as close as I could get to a cintiq without having a cintiq.

In the last year I've realized that the screen resolution on the ipad is so small/poor that I'm unable to see flaws in my work that I could otherwise fix. Even when I project it onto my 24" monitor... my monitor is also too cheap to really show enough detail.

So a third, cheaper option could be buying a better secondary monitor, but that feels like a stop-gap solution at 1/3 the price of the cintiq.

An annoying feature of the ipad is that it heats up after about half an hour and I have to give it breaks.

Financially, buying a cintiq could also save me 50% on my freelance taxes.

No, I don't want a Huion. I tried one of their tablets last year and it broke within 3 months.

No, I don't think buying a used/older model is the best investment with tech.

Uh... I'm also considering buying a house next year, if I can find one cheap enough, so I may actually need my money for that. Or not! Life is chaos, I roll with the punches.

As a millennial I have a hard time believing in 'savings' because, let's be real, money exists to be extorted from you and even if you hold on to it, it doesn't hold value. I turn a profit selling shit I bought on marketplace for the same price I bought it for 2 years earlier.

Should I...

Save up. Tough it out. Build client list to warrant the tech upgrade.

Cintiq time. Spend that money while you can. "Build and they will come"?

Just buy the nice monitor ig. Nice middle ground.

Voting ended onDec 29, 2025

art samples: drawing just on the ipad (no monitor) - good for quick doodles

everyday - ipad + low res monitor setup - thought I was cooking with this, but on a high res screen it looks unfinished ☹️

main job setup that I'm not supposed to use for personal work 😬 - wacom intuos (m) + high res monitor (the intuos gives me hand cramps because of the extra control it takes to draw off screen)

ps - the last two are available as full size wallpapers on my patreon

[mbrainspazart]

It's been a rough 13 pages for Dagon.

He's gonna need that 12 year narrative break.

[mbrainspaz]

An Urban Fantasy Webcomic

it's a real webcomic now 😎

I'm learning wordpress on the fly and it's going... good enough. I spent the last 48 hours getting everything uploaded, so you can finally read the entire comic (so far) in a traditional full page format in one place. As a bonus, I updated the dialogue and fixed a few faces.

Head on over to the new site and leave some likes if you like. 👉👉

I haven't set up comments on the site yet but feel free to leave 'em here or on Patreon

[mbrainspaz]

I don't choose the songs that actually help me write. I would never have chosen to listen to this song on repeat for 2 hours while writing a magical duel and a character getting abducted by a mob of children and thrown into a crevasse. This song has neither wizard duel nor murderous child mob energy.

but it did the trick.

[mbrainspaz]

It's funny knowing exactly what scene I've wanted to add to my story for several years but being unable to add it because I write so discovery style that going back and adding in an entirely new scene that I actually want is nearly impossible for me. I've finally created a gap for it, but in trying to write it so far I have added TWO totally different scenes that I had zero plans to add, and I still haven't gotten close to adding the scene I wanted.

No, 'cause to get to the duel scene I had to relocate the ambush scene, add a different transition where they talk about glowing mushrooms, hold a conversation about 'the journey so far' that the ambush scene had previously prevented (because it's really hard to catch a new character up to speed on something the reader was there for without being boring), and now they're in a library. And nobody is tired because they slept all day but it's nighttime and I've still got to get them to at least lunchtime tomorrow before I FINALLY get the scene I want.

THEN I have to loop it back in to the freaking ambush. I tell ya, there's stuff I want to happen, but once these characters start doing stuff I'm along for the ride.

(this scene from 2018 hasn't existed since 2023)

[mbrainspaz]

trying to describe Black Magic's place on the spectrum of YA edginess like, "well... it's not as dark as Hunger Games but it's not as cheery as Percy Jackson either. Hmmm... Pendragon! It's like Pendragon with dragons. And no... pens."

[mbrainspaz]

For anyone just tuning in, Black Magic is a long form urban fantasy webcomic about a high school senior from Virginia who suddenly finds herself trapped between rebel dragons and her family's dark past.

Black Magic will always be free to read. Right now it's on Webtoon and the Black Magic website. On youtube I've got videos showing my process for every page. Sometimes (rarely) I stream on Twitch. This comic is exclusively supported by wonderful patrons on Patreon.

[mbrainspaz]

I’m gonna add one chapter to Black Magic.

Narrator voice: he added two chapters to Black Magic.