Summertime Sadness
I don’t like Summer - I know, I know, but my body just doesn’t deal well with hot temperatures! So I got that summertime, summertime sadness.
Anyway.
One of the things about publishing is that sometimes nothing happens for a while… And then everything happens all at once. I’m working on some very cool comics projects that I still can’t talk about, but hopefully I’ll be able to announce them soon!
Here’s where we’re at so far:
Critical Role: The Mighty Nein Origins: Beauregard Lionett - The last of my Mighty Nein graphic novels is out!
The first issue of Critical Role: Vox Machina Origins IV is also out, and the second one comes out tomorrow, July 10th!
I finished working on a graphic novel earlier this year and the cover has been revealed! You can see it below;
I have 3 other projects I’ll be working on for the rest of the year - none have been announced so far;
I also need to work on my own writing! But I’ve been so tired, it’s hard to have time and energy to work on personal projects after I finish the rest of my work. But slowly, slowly, I’ll get there!
I colored Ilustra, a graphic novel written and illustrated by Tori Tadiar, which comes out next year from Disney Hyperion! I’ll hopefully be able to share more about it soon, but in the meanwhile here’s a description from the Publisher’s Weekly announcement:
In this series inspired by Philippine folklore and mythology, 12-year-old Mika tries to undo a curse she accidentally cast on two classmates - but when she wakens ancient gods and a sun-devouring beast set on plunging the world into darkness, she must team up with her former bullies to save the world and all she holds dear.
I can’t wait to be able to show Tori’s beautiful artwork!
In other news, with Meta trying to use artists’ work for their AI doom engines, I’ve created an account on Cara. There’s such a lovely community there, and it’s so inspiring to see a feed with just art!
I’m not moving away from Instagram - at least not yet - but hey, at least this is already set up if it all crashes and burns.
I feel like everyone I follow has already watched Scavengers Reign, but if you haven’t, please do! It’s such a weird and wonderful animation series! It’s like if Ghibli Studios delved into sci-fi, and made it even stranger. It’s really good, and I’m hoping there’s enough new viewers that Netflix gives it a second season.
I asked people on my social media platforms if they had any questions for me. Here’s what I got!
What artists have been or are your models?
There are so many, in so many different mediums and industries, but let me try and mention some of them.
The Classics: Technically not really "classical" in terms of their historical era, but anyway. Alphonse Mucha, J. C. Leyendecker, John Williams Waterhouse, and Johannes Vermeer.
Comics and Illustration: I'll try to be brief, because I would just keep on going. There's so many people I admire! But here are some: Djamila Knopf, Jen Bartel, Couple of Kooks, Katarzyna Ulvar Bekus, Lucas Werneck, Jamie McKelvie, Kris Anka, Nick Robles, Viktoriia Petrovksa, Charlie Bowater, Yuumei, Phobs, Becky Cloonan, Karl Kerschl, Becca Farrow, Fiona Staples, Iain McCaig, Tony DiTerlizzi, Sam Hogg, Nikki Dawes, Mona Finden, and Stephanie Hans.
Colorists: Of course I've got a section just for colorists! Tríona Tree Farrell, Michele Assarasakorn (Msassyk), Matt Wilson, Miquel Muerto, Tamra Bonvillain, Jordie Bellaire, and Eren Angiolini.
What is the colour that sparks the most joy for you?
BLUE! And purple.* People who know me also know that I have a thing for blue and orange lighting, but that's mostly in movies and TV shows.
(*stay tuned for some covers I colored... Let's just say they're almost exclusively these two colors!)
How did you get into coloring?
Part of it was... luck. I'd always loved comics, but I had no idea how to "break in". I wasn't even sure that was a thing I could do, being so far away from most of the industry.
But in 2019 Triona Farrell made a post on Twitter asking if anyone had any questions about coloring comics. I reached out, and she ended up offering to mentor me! So for several months we went back and forth as I built a portfolio with examples of what I could do. Without Triona's wisdom and time, I'm not sure I'd be where I am professionally!
Then 2020 came, and everything closed down. At first I thought that was going to make it even harder to reach people in the industry, but everyone moved online, so there were some opportunities there. At one point there was a conversation on Twitter about cold emailing editors - I'd always thought that they might not like that, which is weird (coming from me), seeing as I'm used to doing just that with literary agents! So I had a chat with people who were already in the industry, and they said that it's fine to email editors as long as you don't spam them. So that's what I did! I emailed my portfolio to a few editors who had worked on some projects I loved, and then I waited.
A few months later I got a reply from one of them going "actually, we do have a couple of Critical Role projects... Would you be interested?". And reader... For like 20 minutes I just stared at that email and semi hyperventilated. It had to be a prank, right?? But... It was a direct reply to my email, so who'd even know to prank me? So instead, maybe the editor had made a mistake and emailed the wrong person. But surely they wouldn't do that... After going through all those options, and panicking a little bit more - I mean, being offered one of my dream jobs as my first job in the industry?? Still sounds fake to this day! - I said yes!
Those were two of the Critical Role graphic novels. A few months later they also asked if I wanted to work on Volume 3 of Vox Machina Origins, and once my work started getting published, I could use those pages in my portfolio to show that I could indeed color professionally.
So that part was a bit of being in the right "place" at the right time. But obviously the editor also had to like my portfolio. That's my advice for people who want to get into comics: work on what you can control, which is your portfolio. Only one editor replied to my emails at the time, but that was enough! All it takes is one person liking your work and reaching out - but that part is out of your hands. All you can do is focus on your work, keep learning and getting better, and put it out there. Have patience, and keep trying.
Do you make the coloring decisions yourself?
Depends on the project, but for the most part, yes! With projects like Critical Role, the characters already have a set look, so I have to stick to that. But if the character hasn't been described in the show, or in the script, I get to be creative!
Sometimes the script will have a description of the setting, or references for a certain in-world culture, or maybe just a mood, but even then I still have some freedom to make my own choices.
But comics is (or it should always be) a collaborative medium, so often there'll be some conversation between me and the editors, sometimes with the artists, or the writers will have specific requests.
That’s all for now! Hopefully I’ll have more to announce soon. Maybe… At the end of the month, around SDCC? 😉