2025 paintover of a 2021 painting | Work-in-progress
I’ve had this drawing of Arquel around for several years, that I first did during one of the days for “Paint-ober” in 2021. This was a daily painting challenge I made up for myself during October of that year (if it existed prior, I don’t think I saw anyone participating that year). I was inspired to try this challenge by the ubiquitous “Inktober” which used to be in vogue years back. Ironically, I decided to do my own, non-ink challenge at the time, because I didn’t have interest in doing line or “ink” drawings back then. Oh, how making comic pages has transformed me! Haha.
I’ll always adore painting, of course – it’s still what I am more comfortable with. Anyway, I always liked the concept behind this Paint-ober Arquel painting – I mainly thought the color palette turned out in a pleasing way. I intended to finish the painting after the month-long challenge, and I did fuss around with it here and there, afterward.
Below are the original and an earlier version:
2023 paintover – this is how the file looked when I opened it today
Original 2021 painting
My dilemma with this painting is it always felt like it was “almost there” to me, but never “there.” I felt that with the original drawing, and also with the 2023 version (this version is how the file looked when I opened it today). This caused me to set this painting aside for long stretches of time, and dabble with it infrequently – with years-long stretches, apparently!
I had the random urge to revisit it again today – from the filename, for the first time since 2023. And now, there’s the current 2025 version, at the top of this post.
I still don’t think it is “quite there,” but each time, I think it’s veering closer. These paintovers are fun for me, though rather self-indulgent, as it would probably make better sense for me to start a new painting of the same idea, at this point. But, I am enjoying fiddling with this painting now and again, because I enjoy seeing what I would do differently each time, compared to the last time I opened the painting. The 2023 version I started approaching faces differently – slightly more defined forms and shadows – which I think is further developed in the 2025 version today. Today’s version also had much higher contrast compared to how it looks now – I might update this post with that version to compare.
And here it is:
2025 paintover, earlier version with higher contrast
There are some things I think might work better in this version, but I’m leaning toward exploring more of the subtler, more atmospheric tone of the one at the top of the post.
Wider crop showing the hat-wearing six-eyed bird, who I think is a crow, though I’m not 100% certain.
Original post below:
Jinu WIP
Jinu sketch
Painting WIP of “Jinu” I may or may not finish. Friends convinced me to watch Kpop Demon Hunters over the weekend, and I didn’t expect to enjoy it as much as I did. Beautiful artistry and quite a wholesome flick. Jinu was my favorite character, and so I shouldn’t have been surprised by what became of him by the end of the movie, haha.
These are 100% zoom crops from a full-body painting, but if I finish it, I’ll probably keep it cropped (though a wider one than this), because this began as an unplanned sketch, and I’m not the biggest fan of the full composition .
Between Trahearne and Jinu, I seem to be partial to amber eyes, haha! Corveil as well, to some extent, though I imagine his eyes being tinted a bit more toward a darker orange than Trahearne’s or Jinu’s (and, I have been recently contemplating changing them).
The Harbinger’s Path | Chapter 2, page 2, panel crop
This page went through a number of changes and deliberations while I worked on it, and I wanted to share some of the process and thoughts that went into it.
First, some process steps below! The first 2 are fairly early on in the process, though further along than the “layout” step (which are barely above stick figures). This page’s ideation started with heavy silhouetting. When I initially drafted the layout for this page, Malyck was the only panel on it for a while. I went between leaving the rest of the page with negative space – either empty or filled with black – or with an establishing shot or something involving Trahearne to fill the space.
Ch2, page 2 | Early draft
Ch2, page 2 | Starting to refine the draft
My aim was that this part of the page should convey some time has passed since the final scene in Chapter 1.
I wasn’t decided initially, and left the rest of the page blank and went on to do the rest of Chapter 2’s layouts. When I came back to this page later on, the idea to show Trahearne most appealed to me. It would work both to reorient ourselves with where our main character is now, as well as also serve as a bit of an establishing shot. My hope is this would also convey how the previous page is a memory – though whether by Trahearne, Malyck, or someone else, is left to interpretation.
My other dilemma with this page involved Trahearne himself. It was important to me to convey his sense of desperation, but also his strength and resolve. The clawing vines are a visual representation of his capture, but I didn’t want to only represent his imprisonment – I want to represent his strength of will. The main question became, should I represent this visually, or through internal thoughts?
Ch2, page 2 | Test colors (didn’t like this initial test)
Ch2, page 2 | Color scheme chosen – the cooler tones were a better fit.
To thought balloon or not to thought balloon
This is an interesting question. My understanding is, displaying internal thoughts for characters is a bit more archaic (at least in western comics). It was very commonplace in the old Stan Lee and Jack Kirby Marvel comics (which of the few I’ve read, I quite adore). I personally really loved the style of those old comics – including the thought balloons. I don’t know if that’s a controversial or unpopular opinion or not, among comic fans today (I am woefully out of the loop). My understanding is this has fallen out of favor with modern comics (at least, again, with more western ones). The preference being to represent character thoughts externally, through visuals, instead of through thought balloons.
I admire this aspiration. There is incredible merit to it. My favorite webcomic, Unsounded by Ashley Cope (which has, incidentally, just launched the pre-campaign on Kickstarter for the Iron Circus Comics publication of volumes 1 & 2 – which you should very definitely consider checking out & giving the campaign a follow!), adheres to this methodology. I believe I read it in an interview Ashley gave many years ago (or it might have also been a reply to someone on Tumblr), where she explained more about her reasoning behind this. I’m going to paraphrase (forgive me), but the general sentiment I took away from it is that, if you forgo thought balloons, it very often results in much more visually interesting, impactful pages.
For me, the easiest example to show are pages 16 and 17 from Unsounded’s first chapter. It makes more sense in-context if you read from the beginning of the chapter (which I highly recommend!), but even so, these pages are excellent examples about visually representing the internal turmoil within a character’s thoughts and mind, without any use of thought balloons. I love these pages because of how well the concept is executed here. From what I recall (and again, forgive me if I’m misremembering), Ashley is such a strong proponent of this, that I think she has mentioned before that she doesn’t use thought balloons anywhere in Unsounded – which currently sits at over 2,000+ pages in length! A mightily impressive feat, if you ask me.
Ch2, page 2 | Final version of the page
Now, all that said and all my praise for this methodology – why did I decide to use thought balloons, in the end? I also used them in The Harbinger’s Path’s first chapter, also for Trahearne. I’m sorry to say I don’t have a deep reasoning for my decision other than – despite both my awareness and admiration (and enjoyment!) for eschewing thought balloons – it’s a personal preference that I also highly enjoy them. If I had to guess, I think it may be because I grew up reading comics that used them a lot. I read mostly Japanese manga, which makes liberal use of thought balloons (at least, in the ones I read). I enjoy how it can make the character feel closer to the reader, or more intimate. It is true it’s an “easier” technique – it is far more ambitious to represent a character’s thoughts visually, and it is something I would like to attempt in the future. However, I do also think it is a more advanced way of making comics.
So! With my comic project being a “pilot” project of sorts for helping me learn how to make comics in general – combined with how I personally love the intimacy thought balloons can add – I decided to make use of them in The Harbinger’s Path. Maybe this will change in future pages, but for now, I think this was the right choice for me, and for the pages so far.
“Varré” from Elden Ring | Current work-in-progress
I realized while typing the title for this post that it’s been exactly a month since I posted with the first time I drew Varré, haha.
I did the sketch for this last week while working on the comic pages, and I’d like to finish it sometime after the second chapter is a little more finalized.
“Varré” from Elden Ring | Initial sketch
The initial sketch from last week. The colors you see in this post were added quickly this morning, as a little break from the current comic for today.
The drawing at a slightly earlier stage from the top of this post, as I figured out which color scheme I wanted to use.
This is an earlier work-in-progress i think is less interesting. But I happened to save it, so here it is!
Initial thumbnail sketches.
I forgot I also saved the thumbnail sketches in the file – starts from left-to-right. The left idea was the initial idea, which is different from how the drawing ended up going. The middle thumbnail is trying out a variation of the first, as the first thumbnail wasn’t matching the idea I was imagining. (I might try that one again another time, as it’s a more difficult idea for me because it has more foreshortening).
The third thumbnail is the second one duplicated and then worked on further – lately, I’ve noticed I tend to concept my initial ideas this way. With a very messy thumbnail/sketch/silhouette, then duplicating it and dragging it to another part of the canvas. I might repeat this process a few times until I decide whether I like the idea or not. Then I’ll take the most recent version, hide the rest, and resize the “concept sketch” larger, and work on it that way.
It feels convoluted to me, but something about those extra steps seems to help me a lot with concepting.
“The Harbinger’s Path” | Trahaerne panel preview (in-progress / artwork not final)
Wanted to do an update post! Chapter 2 for The Harbinger’s Path is about 85% complete now. I finished the first “refinement” pass for all the pages last Thursday, and began doing the “final refinement” pass for the first half of the chapter (if you’re confused about what I’m talking about here, I go into my rough process in this post).
While working on them last night, I realized that because the files themselves are spreads – with 2 pages per file – I thought I had done half as much progress of the “final pass” as I’ve made so far. I realized I had double the amount of progress as what it had been feeling like for the past few days. I feel very silly, but this means I am confident I can begin posting new pages for chapter 2 next Monday, June 23rd!
“The Harbinger’s Path” | Malyck & Trahearne panel preview (in-progress / artwork not final)
I’m going back and forth as to whether adding Malyck’s luminescence here adds or not – for the scene itself, I think it could work either way in terms of what it says about the character.
“The Harbinger’s Path” | Malyck & Trahearne panel preview (in-progress / artwork not final)
About 80% refined.
“The Harbinger’s Path” | Malyck & Trahearne panel preview (in-progress / artwork not final) | Black-and-white version
This a small panel in the comic itself, but one of my personal favorites. I really like the contrast it has in black and white (though it will be in color in the comic itself). I feel like it’s working better in the black-and-white version – still working out how to convey a similar feeling when color is added.
