Tag: my art

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LAST DAY to Support The Legend of Jamie Roberts, Volume 3 on KickStarter!

A young genderqueer person with blonde hair and glasses sits on the edge of a mesa. Two young men stand behind them, one with dark brown hair and the other with light blonde hair. All three wear a light green cape and are gazing out over the horizon. In the distance is a long, winding path leading to a mesa and a castle town sitting on top of it.

Today is the LAST DAY you can back The Legend of Jamie Roberts, volume 3 on KickStarter! This swashbuckling genderqueer adventure is about to sail over the digital horizon, so this is your last chance.

A lot has happened since we launched this campaign a month ago.

  • We’ve raised over $1400 for volume 3!
  • We’ve unlocked the first stretch goal, and are very close to unlocking the next one.
  • Volume 1 is under threat of being banned! (More on that in this post.)
Three comic panels sit wide, showing off desert landscapes as the characters traverse. Panel 1 shows early morning, panel 2 shows afternoon, and panel 3 shows evening. In panel 2, two young men sing, “I’ve been a while rover for many the year, and I’ve spent all me money on whiskey and beer…” Two other voice speak over the panel. “Basho?” “Hm?” Panel 3 shows the characters at camp, a young genderqueer person with glasses holding a sword and gazing up at the stars. Voiceover narration asks, “There are other spirits besides Mocktaw, right? Because…You remember Pim?”

We’re closing in on the finish line now.

If you have not backed this campaign yet, this is your last chance to do so. You have until 11:59 pm EDT tonight.

While there is a 24-hour grace period for pledges, all the prices go up in the grace window. So today’s the last day to claim rewards at a discounted price.

“But wait,” you might be thinking, “this is for volume 3, right? I haven’t read the comic yet!”

Well good news – volumes 1 and 2 are also available as rewards (in both digital and physical copies)! That’s not to mention the other rewards available, like commissions and even original art.

So, once again, if you haven’t backed this campaign yet, this is your last call to do so.

Check out the KickStarter

If you backed this campaign already – thank you so much for your support! (And feel free to forward this email to folks you know who like comics about pirates and dragons and magic treasure! Word of mouth has been my only method of spreading the word about this campaign, so every share helps more than you know).

Thank you for your patience during this month while this campaign ran. We’re just about done.

That’s all for now. Thank you for reading!

You. Are. Awesome.

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KickStarter Eve – Draw Comics With Me

We’re on the eave of a KickStarter launch, yo. Come join me in the livestream and draw comics with me. (Or have me play in the background as you work on stuff for yourself. I’m good either way.)

Get first dibs when the campaign launches.

Download the LIVE STREAM BINGO CARDS to mark what you hear on stream. If you get bingo I will include a special reward with your KickStarter package.

⭐ Join my email newsletter.

💜 Leave a tip!

💥 The Columbus Cartoon Coalition on YouTube.

Ben Wright-Heuman on YouTube.

🎨 Tools Used

  • Music: Kevin MacLeod, Streamyard, Louie Zong
  • Streaming: Streamyard
  • Drawing Program: Clip Studio Paint
  • Microphone: Blue Snowball

👏 THANK YOU TO MY CLUB SUBSCRIBERS! 👏

To get your name added to this list, join one of my clubs.

  • magicalgirlkyra
  • All Unka
  • Raiden
  • Ella Q
  • Andrew Balch
  • Adam Vazquez
  • Maya Smith
  • Pat Jade
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  • RPZ
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And thank YOU for watching!

You. Are. Awesome.

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What if Jamie Roberts Was NOT a Pirate??

a genderqueer human brandishes a sword with a dramatic sweep of the cape

You all know about Jamie Roberts, the genderqueer pirate who left the sea with their two best friends to go treasure-hunting in a land full of dragons.

But what if they weren’t pirates? Believe it or not, in very early drafts of this comic, Jamie and friends were not pirates at all!

In SUPER early drafts (we’re talking back in 2011 to 2013), they were students at a military school. In those versions of the story, they discover the top brass held an earth-shattering secret plan: to release a demon king and destroy their enemies. They would flee the military school and get refuge in the land where the demon king was sealed away.

In hashing out one draft, I had it that they were military school students, then turned pirate to escape. And the feedback I got was, “Why don’t you just…make them pirates?”

Honestly, storytelling 101: Keep It Simple, Stupid. Besides, I really wanted to get to the pirate bits more than the military school bits. People love pirates more than school, anyway.

So that’s how they became pirates!

Some of these concept sketches, though, will be making it into the bonus material of The Legend of Jamie Roberts, volume 3…Which is coming to KickStarter on October 14.

Be sure to sign up for my email newsletter to be the first to know! The newsletter is free and private, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

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That’s all for now. Stay tuned for more!

Thank you for reading.

You. Are. Awesome.

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The Sketchbooks Where the Magic Happens

three sketchbooks, their covers covered in notes and stickers, are laid on a yellow tablecloth

The top two books are the sketchbooks that contain The Legend of Jamie Roberts’ script. The bottom sketchbook contains the majority of the world-building notes. Not ~all~ of them (because many notes are scattered across other sketchbooks). But this one has the majority of the notes, from initial concept to current day. Many of the notes in that one are held in place by paperclips and tape, so it doesn’t leave the studio.

But what do the scripts look like? Well, in the top two books, the pages look a lot like this…

rough pencils of a comic page

They’re rough on purpose! I like doodling around to get the layouts right. As I work on pages, they go from script to a more refined sketch…

more polished pencil sketch of a comic page

…Up to the finished page.

in this page of The Legend of Jamie Roberts, Jamie leaves an offering for a spirit

But it all starts with those rough sketches in the sketchbooks. I’m not going for “perfect” (whatever that is), I’m going for “out of my head.”

Believe it or not, this has worked for me since 2018. Now, I’m going to need a THIRD sketchbook soon, because The Legend is still going, but I’m approaching the end of that second sketchbook. I’m excited to draw what comes next!

Speaking of which, The Legend of Jamie Roberts, volume 3 is coming to KickStarter on October 14. Be sure to subscribe to my newsletter to be the first to know!

That’s all for now. Stay tuned for more!

Thanks for reading.

You. Are. Awesome.

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Punk Pirates

a young man with brown hair and heterochromia wears a vest that shows off his chest muscles, as well as pants covered in patches. He smiles at the viewer
a blonde genderqueer person in punk gear swings a guitar back, grinning wildly at the viewer.
a blonde young man with muscles in a vest and patched-up jeans smiles at the viewer, a guitar on his back

Not gonna’ lie, I had a LOT of fun drawing Jamie, Thomas, and Daniel in these punk rock/Rockabilly-esque looks. I don’t draw them in modern outfits very much, so it was a treat to draw these!

When coloring them, I wanted to play with Copic markers again. In particular, I wanted to experiment with using different shades when coloring each one. If you look closely, you’ll notice that Jamie’s shadows have a blue-green hue, while Thomas has a red/burgundy hue to his shadows, and Daniel has a blue hue to his.

One of these days, I’ll put together a tutorial on how to use different colored shadows with Copic markers.

These characters are the main cast of my adventure webcomic, The Legend of Jamie Roberts! You can read it for free now on the official webcomic site.

I also shared this post a few days early with my email newsletter subscribers. To get the next post sooner than the rest of the internet, subscribe for free.

That’s all for now. Thank you for reading!

You. Are. Awesome.