Hi! I'm a high school senior and this is a blog dedicated to my senior capstone project! Here I will post updates on the project in the form of learning logs! I will also have pictures and details on my project. Feel free to ask any questions or give me suggestions!
As you may know, I finally presented my senior project on Thursday, May 17th. This means I have mostly concluded the project, and await to be graded. Unfortunately, this does mean I may not be posting much on here anymore, unless I decided to continue worldbuild and bigger story, which I probably will, just not as often as before.
I would like to briefly address all my sources that helped me through this endeavor, and eased my pain even if it was in the slightest aspect.
The first and biggest help to me was the following article; https://www.advancedfictionwriting.com/articles/snowflake-method/
This article helped greatly with worldbuilding and writing the story. It introduced to me the Snowflake Method, which is basically when you take one object, be it a race of people, or species of animal, and build off of it. Adding layers until it is complex like a snowflake. This article is what really got me started back in september when I had begun brainstorming what I wanted for the story.
Another two of my sources were articles on Paneling and Manuscripting. Unfortunately, they are no longer available for unknown reasons, but these two aided in transferring a story to a manuscript format, and then to paneling the actual comic. I had never written a manuscript before, so I learned what to keep and what to cut from the written story. And while transferring the manuscript to storyboard and paneling came rather naturally, it was still good to see how to make certain parts in a comic stick-out or flow faster with smaller panels. They also explained how dialog box shapes are important to express emotion, and show the difference from narration to characters speaking. There was also a lot to learn about ‘bubble tails’ as I like to call them (they are actually called text balloons, though), which are the little spikes coming off dialog boxes that show which character is talking. Exclamation boxes don’t necessarily need bubble tails but adding one could be a stylistic choice.
Another big help was “The Mechanic of Comics” https://design.tutsplus.com/tutorials/the-mechanics-of-comics--vector-1463 This one also really helped with page layout and flow of the comic. Although I will admit I didn’t use it as much as I did with any of the others. It did provide more solid information on panel design and placement.
And as you all may know, I used SurveyMonkey as my survey provider. If you haven’t yet, go ahead and vote on the survey what you thought of the comic! Though it is no longer up, this survey helped me to grade myself on the storytelling and world build aspect of my project, and helped me see how much people enjoyed it.
And of course, I would like to just appreciate all of MyMangakaLife’s videos on YouTube, they were all a great help in getting me to understand the format of A5 paper, and that playlist can be found here; https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtA04Q6PRZaoIvNGhn_03exL3dc6m6dCr If you haven’t already, please go check them out, They are loaded with tips for new artists in the profession. I mainly watched the videos on full-bleed and trim, but like I said, they are a professional and have knowledge to share!
While on the topic of grading, lets address how I think I did on the project overall. So, my school grades on a 4-point system, 4 of course being a 100, 3 being 85-95, and so on. On my official rubric, I graded myself based on quality of comic artwork, story, dialogue, and reader enjoyment (hence the polls). And of course I graded myself on whether or not I even made the contest deadline, which I did. So that was an easy 4, but all the rest had to be graded with input from readers on my survey. On general artwork, I got mainly a 4, then on storytelling responses ranged from 3-4, dialogue ranged 2-3, and reader enjoyment was 3-4 again. On my rubric I graded as follows;
Artwork - 4
Storytelling - 3
Dialogue - 2.5
Reader Enjoyment - 3
On the project as a whole, I would probably give myself a 3.5. I feel like I might have been able to do better, but I am satisfied with the result, and would like to do something like this again in the future some time.
Again, thank you for following me on this journey, thank you to my evaluators and peers, and I do hope to revisit this project soon! The following pictures are ones I took at my table for expo with all my things set up. 12 hours before presenting I had decided it would be a neat idea to make little books of the comic (I only had time to make five). They are held together with hot glue and staples. I also drew individual pictures at the end of each book featuring different characters from the story, which I thought was also a good Idea. of course, that means I had spent literally the entire day working on these things, so.. Yeah.
Anyways, that’s all for now, friends! Thank you for reading!
Hey guys! I presented my project today! Thank you all for following me on this project, I may continue to post stuff about it or I may not, it all depends on what I'll be doing with my time now. Never the less, thank you! It's been grand!
Had time to sketch a little today. Here is Zeph and another character named Sacha. She hasn't been introduced in the story yet, but she is a halfling (half Brehnon half regular horse). While she does not have the ability to speak Nordic or elvish (or any other comprehensible humanic languages) she can understand it. She is very intelligent and full of spunky personality. She also retained some healing magic from her Brehnon blood.
I'll also take this time to explain how the Brehnon race is regarded throughout the lands of Coiyia.
Brehnon horses are not very common anywhere that's not in an elvish land. The further north you go, the more sparse in numbers they are. While they are not necessarily considered a "people" or civilization, they are acknowledged as intelligent beings, like dragons and unicorns are. In elvish religion, a prominent figure known as The Guide was a Brehnon horse. The Guide's role was to lead Aultosh (basically elven Jesus) along her godly quest to liberate the Elves from Sairith reign (Sairiths were an ancient race that have long since mysteriously disappeared). Needless to say, Brehnons are very highly regarded by the elves. Traditional families even go as far as to 'bond' their children with a Brehnon foal. This happens once the elvish child has reached the age of 15 years (be mindful that Elves have very elongated lives, the equivillant in human age would be about 5-6). Once the bond is struck, the Brehnon and the Elf are companions for life.
Elven law strictly states that Brehnons are not to be used as battle mounts, and to ride an unwilling Brehnon is punishable by execution. These beings are very highly respected by the Elven lands. It is not uncommon in southern cities to see open street taverns that invite traveling Brehnons for some food and drink. Most southern travel ships are constructed with cabins designed to harbor Brehnons, and even the doorways to buildings are made big enough and easy enough for the big creatures to maneuver through.
However, the farther north in the lands, the more Brehnon horses become mere fairytale. The average Nordic farmers from the far northern mountains may have only heard of such creatures in stories their mothers once told to urge them to sleep. Imagine how their surprise might be if a traveling Brehnon walks into town and asks for directions. The north does not have any accommodations to suit the Brehnons, this and the fact that they are simply regarded as normal horses by northern people's. Until they start talking of course. And don't get me wrong, these creatures are very humble and kind, they generally don't think they are above any other living being, but I don't think you would like it if someone decided to lock you up in a barn and pretend like you weren't on the same intellectual level.
That being said, Brehnons can commune with ordinary horses, and while cross breeding is pretty rare, it does happen. Unfortunately, 95% of foals born due to cross breeding perish. This happens because there is a high conflict in mental and magical ability. And while their magical attributes focus on healing, the power alone is enough to cause a normal horses brain to fail. It is considered a miracle if a halfling is successfully bred, and survives into maturity, but they will always have some sort of handicap, such as Sacha here, who cannot speak.
I think that concludes now what I have to say about Brehnon horses. There's probably a lot I'm not saying but more will be posted in the days to come. Thank you for reading.
•her hair is the natural sunbleached ombré of a northern nord
•red battle tattoos symbolize her lower warrior ranking. She was part of the more vigorously trained and meant for the front lines
• the animal tattooed on her arm is an image of a Klorna, a big cat species found in the highlands, a very fierce creature. This tattoo also symbolizes her wing in the regiment. •it is Zhalabar tradition to wear to the the glove of ones master of the master was terminated in a battle.
• all Zhalabar wear short black and green kilts, and they all make their own weaponry
• Pandora's blue eyes are a traitor of mixed blood, since pure nords only have brown and green eyes.
• although not often used, the braid off ones left side of the head is a universal sign to let other know that the wearer is not interested in a significant other. The meaning changes further south, however, to signify one's sexual orientation. Overall, the braid is worn to keep unwanted courters away.
Here is Pandora, a character to The Legend that was not introduced in the short story.
She is a warrior woman from the Zhalabar tribe, which was a tribe of noble and battle ready nords. These people trained for war their whole lives, it being part of their religion. Story goes, the founder of the tribe formed it on the strong belief that the world was going to end, and soon demons would rise and attack. He gathered people to prepare for the impending "underrealm and overrealm war". That was 2,000 years before The Legend of Nym takes place. While their prophecy never came to pass, they did fall victim to a tragic Dragon Raid. The few that survived decided to disband the tribe and go off on their own, but they will forever have their homelands in their hearts.
One of the few survivors was Pandora. In the raid she lost everything, and has chosen to start a new. When she is wandering the country, she comes across Nym and his trio gains a member.
As a character, Pandora is quiet and serious, giving off the vibe of a brute with no brain, but that couldn't be further from the truth. While she does lack the experience to have wisdom, Pandora is easily one of the most intelligent of the crew. She always makes decisions based on her logical thinking, and rarely takes action based on raw emotion. She has the mind of a battle strategist, always finding the best course to take, be it in an actual battle, or when she is trying to get Nym to cooperate (he is a very sassy young man). She is also quite the forester, and knows a whole bunch of extremely useful survival skills that the other three just don't. And when something pops up that she doesn't know how to do, she learns it. And quickly too.
Pandora is also one of the characters in the group who doesn't use magic. She thinks that when a non-magic born learns the craft, it's a form of cheating. She is very big on "everybody has a fixed fate" and stuff like that, therefore making her rare spiritual rants either very annoying or very inspiring.
She also has a heavy accent, so heavy in fact that when the trio first meets her, they misunderstand her and it almost leads to a (very onesided) fight.
Hey guys! Super super sorry for inactivity! I've been working non-stop ever since the day after Christmas. I've never pulled so many all-nighters in my life!
Anyways, I would like to announce that I have finished the comic and it is now uploaded into the contest tag!! I'm super excited! If you would like, you can read it here; The Legend of Nym: The Dragon Kings Curse
I would like to thank you all for the wonderful support, and even though I've finished the comic, that is only half my project! I will be sure to update you all more as I work on the world around the characters in my manga. Thank you again, and I hope you all had a happy New Years!
One more page guys! It's almost finished!! And well before the deadline, too! I'm so happy!
also, oof I havent been clocking my hours. Oh well, I’m pretty sure I have over 100 so far anyways. Just know that I have never stayed up an entire week straight before this project lol I am D E A D
Took a long break to make a Christmas gift for my friend. Jumping back into making the comic now! Got a busy week ahead of me! I plan to finish at least two pages a day, and hopefully I only have about ten pages left or so. I might cut a lot out of the end just so I can get it all in. I'm hoping I can submit everything to the contest! I'm having the pages scanned in tomorrow, and I'll spend most that day drafting the final pages of the story. All that's really left is the rest of the fight scene, and then a talk between Nym and Ao, which will probably only be about two pages. I'm going a little over my panel limit for the fight scenes just so I can make it seem fast paced. And to save on pages haha ^^'
Quickly sketched out Ao's Dragon form (when he's not affected by the crystal). Thought that now I was going to be drawing this form for the next several pages, might as well draw a bit of a reference seeing as though I had absolutely no clue how I wanted him to look. I had to make him look different from the world's actual dragons though, because Dragons and Draconians are two completely separate species. Main differences are that Draconian 'final' forms are very eastern in appearance. They are quite small, as well. They look more like flying serpents, whereas the actual dragons are massive, and look much more like.. monitor lizards really, or Komodo dragons. Less snaky and less furry. I definitely take inspiration from western dragons for these guys, using species from books like Harry Potter to kinda get a grasp on what I want.
Deep apologies for lack of learning logs and updates in general! Much to my disappointment, I'm realizing that I probably won't be able to finish the comic by the deadline. But it's okay, even though I know I will be terribly disappointed. I don't know how many pages I'll be able to get scanned by the 4th, but it probably won't be all of them :/
Hey everyone! I've been busy working on the comic all weekend. I discovered that the contest deadline has been pushed back, and now it is on the 4th of January, and not the 13th.
Also I have discovered the usefulness of sharpies, seeing as though most of my microns have begun to die. (Though I do credit the tip to some instructional videos on YouTube :P )
Wow! I haven’t posted in a few days, so sorry guys! I’ve been really busy with pages and couldn’t really find ways to intergrate a learning log (haven’t clocked hours for the past few days either, WHOOPs), and I haven’t really had time to actually write stuff about Arlain Crystals or Nym’s Sharded Areows ^^; so sorry again!
This is really just to update everyone on how everything is going! So I just finished Page 11, Nym and Zeph have just entered the forest and at off to find the mysterious ‘curse’! There have been a couple panels recently that I had been struggling to draw, and one panel featured a crowd. I’m not use to drawing so many characters in one image, and I had about ten different faces to draw, and I wanted to make them all look unique and sorta memorable. But then again, I didn’t want to take too long on it. So I decided to reference a manga that I remember to have a bunch of crowds and random people; Karneval! I grabbed one of the three volumes I own and began to look through it. I may or may not have gotten sidetracked and read a few chapters genuinely.. but I did find some good and very helpful examples of what I was looking for! Thank you for being a wonderful artist, Toya Mikanagi!!
Another thing was just today when I was drawing a very important panel that I wanted to make KEY to getting the feel of the moment across! This one features Zeph and Nym first entering the forest. I wanted to make the impact of the atmosphere evident through dramatic perspective. But drawing horses normally isn’t my thing, I hadn’t actually drawn a horse for about 4-5 years until I designed Zeph just this summer. But I do love horses! And luckily enough, I have a whole bunch or horse models! I have a draft horse model that fits Zeph’s build perfectly, and I took a picture of it to reference while drawing the panel. I will admit, and it’s a bad thing to admit, that I rarely use references. Before this project that is. Before I just never really saw a need to improve myself through using actual images (unless it was with hands. I have always struggled in that area). But this project has shown me the importance and usefulness of references, and I’m super glad that, while reviewing some of my research articles, I decided to use as many references as I could while drawing these panels!
Thats about all ive got for now, thank you all so so much for reading! If you want more frequent updates, be sure to check out my Instagram
Okay so I really didn't do much learning today, other than the fact that I've been legitimately working for nearly twelve hours now on these pages (of course a few breaks in between, but over all, non stop). I've almost gotten four pages done withong a 24 hour time span and hell, I do not mind it one bit. These past two pages I've drawn a bunch of pretty woman and old people so I'm pretty set now, and ready to start drawing Zeph again (because he's absent in this scene). I'm about to actually draw Reighlies first reveal and I'm pretty excited, don't wanna mess her up haha. I also realized today that I have to be listening to chillstep music to actually focus, or else I just won't. Which is kinda bothersome but at least it gets me into that Zone. Anyways, tonight I'm probably gonna post some information on Arlain Crystals and some more things on magic in this realm, so stay tuned!
Aw man. I've already got four pages nearly complete and I'm like, dying. I've been working non-stop on these since I got home today at around 3:30 (it's 1:36 am). I haven't researched much but I plan to look up efficient ways to get pages done and now I have about a month to do that. So I'm scrambling right now haha
I also drafted two more pages which is also good because I haven't fully finished drafts. Or even the manuscript. I think I'm gonna leave that to do for when I have short amounts of free time.
Anyways, that's all I have for today! Thank you for reading!
Behold; the first two pages are finished! These turned out so much better than I had hoped! I can't wait to start the next two tomorrow! I plan to sketch out at least two pages per day, tat way I can get to the end very very quickly. Deadline for the contest is January 13th (going by my time zone) and I'm planning to get hella busy. I still have to make a reference sheet for Zeph and Ao, the two characters I'll have the most difficult time drawing. I really do hope to finish before the deadline, but I'm starting to think that it will be okay even if I don't finish it completely by then. I'll still be proud of the story I've created, and could probably use it in my college portfolio! Ahh, I'm so excited and happy, it's coming along smoothly. I plan to work my ass off this weekend! But I think I'll turn in early for tonight! Thank you all for reading!
Zeph (the horse) and Nym have known eachother for a very very long time. Zeph is Nym's mentor and friend. He is a Brehnon horse, which is a sacred breed to the elves. They are intelligent and magic-bearing creatures. Seeing as though they are bonded through an elven tradition known as ODOKEH, in which a young elf spiritually connects with a brehnon horse, these two will always be able to rely on each other. Zeph is the only other character that Nym places complete trust in for a while. I also made it so Nym and Zeph were kinda good cop bad cop, whereas Nym is sort of impulsive and temperamental. He can hold his own but that doesn't mean he won't get set off or angry. Meanwhile Zeph is rather serene and collected. He often acts as Nym's voice of reason when he goes off on a tangent. Zeph is also a lot more mature than Nym. Brehnon horses do have unusually long lives but they mature at the same rate as a normal horse. So while both are the same age, Nym still has childlike tendencies
