Here is “Morning Canyon Discovery,” an illustration I did in Clip Studio Paint.
Originally, I drew this for a comics anthology. But the organizers said this wasn’t “comic-y” enough. I didn’t have the turnaround time to change it, so I just dropped out. At least now I can show you this.
I’m REALLY pleased with how this came together, too! I really wanted to play with dramatic angles and lighting in this one.
What do you think? Let me know in the comments.
That’s all for now. Thank you for tuning in!
You. Are. Awesome.
P.S. Here’s the sketch I did before doing the final piece.
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.
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.
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.
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.)
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.
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…
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…
…Up to the finished page.
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!
