One more panel preview! I’d say Chapter 2 is a little less than half-finished now. I might update this post again later today with more progress. I’ve kept much of the process saved in the files, but I’m finding it smoother to continue progressing the pages and sorting through what to share later on. I know I said this for Chapter 1, but I’m really excited to finish Chapter 2 so I can start working on Chapter 3, haha. Chapter 3 has some of my favorite scenes in the whole project.
Wanted to post a few panel previews from the current stage of Chapter 2! I have the majority of chapter 2 blocked out now – what feels like the bulk of the work for me. Progress is going smoothly, more than chapter 1, as I’ve been able to apply everything I learned from doing chapter 1 to chapter 2. Chapter 1 had sort of a haphazard workflow, because I didn’t really know what I was doing – the way I drew the pages was very inefficient. But necessary, I think, for figuring out a workflow that works for me and feels natural. I estimate new pages should be ready later this month.
Above and below are color tests from yesterday. Below was the initial color test. I liked the contrast of the warm colors, but comparing it with the cooler version (above), I thought the color version was a better fit for this page’s tone and dialogue.
I’m using a different method for coloring this chapter’s pages, which I tried on some practice pages for a different project alongside doing The Harbinger’s Path first chapter (Nightmare’s Embrace – a short side-comic about my personal sylvari characters, which I haven’t shown anywhere yet). I really like how the colors for those pages are turning out – they give me a little more control compared to the workflow I used in Chapter 1.
This is a panel early in Chapter 2 I like – the composition for this preview is the full panel.
Close-up of the previous panel.
The workflow I’m using right now is loosely: Layout >> Block-out >> Color or Refinements (order is interchangeable) >> Final Refinements
Layout = Very loose, messy sketches. Likely only understandable to me because they are incredibly loose (maybe I’ll post examples in the future, though they aren’t anything to look at because they likely won’t be very readable)
Block-out = Changing the loose layout sketches into readable forms and shapes. The color tests above are the block-out stage with very loose color just added, while the panel below is a little before I’d consider a block-out “complete,” because the shapes for Trahearne’s hair are not fully defined/decided on yet. But I also sometimes leave this to the “refinements” step, when they are smaller details like these, and if I think they will not take me too long to figure out during refining.
Color = Initial colors.
Refinements = Refining the block-out lines, as well as any color changes. Maybe this should be two steps, but I’ve been thinking of them as a combined step.
Final Refinements = Fix anything I’m dissatisfied with in the page at this stage. This is arguably the most important step, in some ways – Harbinger Chapter 1 hovered in the “Refinements” stage for a long time. It was “mostly presentable,” but there were many things on all the pages I saw I wanted to fix or improve. It wasn’t until doing a second “refinements” pass that the pages began to look more finished to me. They’re small changes, but ones that make an impact disproportional to what I’d expect (at least, it was surprising to me how much adding this step improved all the pages for chapter 1).
Above is just a personal favorite of mine – I really like how Trahearne’s expression is turning out. Doing these pages is forcing me to learn a lot of things about line weight which (to my detriment) I’ve never had a strong interest practicing with very much before, but which has become endlessly interesting to me for some reason this year.
Latest post to updates log: May 21, 2025
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The Harbinger’s Path officially launched today! :D
The entire first chapter can be read here.
Here’s the description from the site:
Pact Marshal Trahearne spent 43 days captured by the Elder Dragon Mordremoth. What happened to the Firstborn during this time?
Trahearne & Malyck fan comic set during the Heart of Thorns era of Guild Wars 2.
Rated PG-13
The main thing I learned from this launch is I need to schedule more buffer time than I think I will need, to account for unforeseen occurrences, haha. I had planned to take care of the majority of the comic over the weekend, and intended to upload the pages early this morning. I had existing (comic-unrelated) plans which I didn’t allocate enough time for, such that I lost about a day’s time. I managed to have the comic live at 2 pm PT, and started posting them to socials/RSS/email after, around 2:45 pm or so. I was originally hoping to post them at around 8-9 am PT, which is what I’ll aim for in the future if I do another bulk chapter like this.
I received a few messages throughout the morning from people anticipating the comic’s launch, and I feel bad I kept you waiting. D: I hope the wait will be worth it, and I may even have a chance to do a few touch-ups tonight before you perhaps see it when you awake next morning … though from what I’ve gathered through the years, excessive revisions for the first chapter of a comic can be a potential pitfall. Maybe I should make a personal rule to not revise chapter 1 until I finish chapter 2. But I will probably end up revising a few small things, before then. :p
I was still touching up pages this morning! In my defense, I think adhering to a launch date personally helps me a great deal. The reason I was still touching-up pages was because I didn’t notice many things until it became closer and closer to the launch. Suddenly, the realization of, “Oh man! People will actually see this! I can’t show it in this state!” And that happened even to pages which I had previously checked off as “finished” last week. Funny how that is – it’s probably some psychological trickery. But I think the pages turn out better for it, than if I had allowed myself infinite time to work on them. They probably would never have been completed if I had done that – more for that pile of WIP’s we all seem to have.
The main thing I have remaining for the first chapter is the digital PDF I wanted to put together. In the end, my ambitions to complete the PDF to coincide with launch day proved a bit lofty, haha. I think I might have struggled to finish it even if I had not had less time this weekend than I was intending. On the bright side, with the extra time (my new ETA is for this Friday, May 16), I’m hopeful I can perhaps add some flourishes I wouldn’t have had time for, had I posted it today.
At the very least, it should be a bit neater than if I had tried to fit it in for today.
Chapter 2 is also well under way! I have the layouts done, and have started refining. I’ve found that layouts of initial refinement are some of my favorite steps of the process – I have layouts for a lot of ideas, some Guild Wars, some with original stories with my characters – it’s so fun to note down these ideas in sketch form.
Anyway, I’m going to list Chapter 1 launch day updates below – mainly for myself, to have a record for the things I had to fix, haha – and then have some longer thoughts/likely rambling in the full post afterward.
Updates: May 12, 2025
Add-on Updates: May 13, 2025
Add-on Update: May 17, 2025
Add-on Updates: May 18, 2025
Add-on Updates: May 21, 2025
“Malyck is no one. He comes from no where. On one hand, I am sorry for him. He has no roots. On the other, I am envious. He can become whatever he chooses. I hope he chooses well.”
– Excerpt from “The Nightmare Harbinger” by Amaranda the Lonesome
(Source: The official Guild Wars 2 wiki)
Some weekend progress for The Harbinger’s Path! This previews a panel from the prologue for the comic. I’ve always loved the character “Amaranda the Lonesome” from the Guild Wars 2 personal story, and really enjoyed depicting her penning her book, “The Nightmare Harbinger,” here. The comic shows the final (and my personal favorite) line from her book, which is quoted above.
I have always loved this final line from Amaranda the Lonesome’s musings about Malyck. I remember when I first read it (I believe several months before Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorn’s launch), my mind was lit ablaze with speculations for what might have happened to him, and what we might find out when we saw him again in the expansion. Months and months of excited speculation and theories to ponder!
(At the time, it was generally accepted there was a high chance we’d see the character again in this expansion, and find out what happened to him after his sylvari personal story arc.)
It was a lot of fun attempting to transcribe this line to New Krytan! I have done this once or twice before in past GW2-related projects (it might have even been partial transcriptions of this same line), but never one this long. It took me a while to write every letter, but it was satisfying to do! I tried my best, but there might be errors. If anyone more familiar with New Krytan notices any errors with my transcription, please feel free to let me know. :)
Note: This post may contain spoilers for the story in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns.
Here are the first previews for some of the panels from The Harbinger’s Path, and a little more about my thought process behind what inspired this project.
Two questions I always wished Guild Wars 2, and Heart of Thorns specifically, could have explored are:
Two questions we have never received (canonical) answers for. One question has a chance of being answered again, while the other’s chances are exceedingly slim (though not impossible). Despite this, the possibilities for how these two questions could have been answered – especially during or just before the launch of Heart of Thorns – continued tickling my mind for years.
For whichever reasons, these two questions continued piquing my interest, long after the official canon had (seemingly) moved on from these story threads. I didn’t ponder them continuously, but every now and then, invariably, idle ideas for how these two questions might have been answered bubbled to the surface.
Most of all, I found the ideas which arose from attempting to answer these two questions endlessly inspiring – which I credit entirely to the brilliant writers who first created these wonderful characters, and set up their initial backstories and lore. These two characters were written with such care and nuance, that it made their placement in the world’s setting feel uniquely rich and alive.
I always wanted to see these two characters again – and especially for them to interact. That’s part of the inspiration behind starting The Harbinger’s Path – I hope I can capture some of that inspiration, and convey it to you in the form of this short comic.