Your Honor I'm Literally Just A Boy

Creator Spotlight: @velinxi​

Hello! I’m Xiao Tong Kong, better known as “Velinxi.” I’m the creator of the webcomic Countdown to Countdown and have been doing freelance artwork since I was a teenager. I love telling stories with my illustrations! Tumblr was where I first got my start as an artist, specifically a small fandom artist as a hobby… and now I’m somehow here! When I’m not trying my best to stay awake in front of my tablets, I’m usually cooking, gaming, or sleeping. Sometimes all three, in my dreams.

Check out our interview with Velinxi below!

Did you originally have a background in art? If not, how did you start?

Yeah! I’ve basically been on track to become an artist since I was a child. I went to a middle school with an emphasis on arts and a high school specializing in it. I went to SVA briefly for computer arts but dropped out to pursue freelance and webcomics after my first year.

Over the years as an artist, what or who were your biggest inspirations behind your creativity?

My biggest inspirations growing up were Yuumei and Shilin Huang, two titans on DeviantArt back in the day. They still inspire me today, but the list of inspirations has grown exponentially over the years, including artists, movies, entire art movements, etc.

What was your thought process behind the creation of your webcomic, Countdown to Countdown?

Well, Countdown to Countdown started as a passion project back when I was 15, in high school, and pretty depressed. I just wanted to draw whatever story I thought was cool, inspired by my favorite media at the time. There was a very loose beginning and outline, but I was truly just writing as I drew the story. That’s why I had to stop the comic in 2018 and restart from scratch the year after. Now, the story has a set story and a clear outline. It still has similar roots, characters, and themes of neglect, abuse, and escape—but I think the story is a lot easier to follow now. It’s got an artstyle I can actually keep up with in the long run. The origin of why CTC exists also remains the same: I simply wanted to make a story I wanted to read for myself. Which happens to be about two dumb boys with superpowers navigating a hostile world that wants them dead or caged—together.

Have you ever had an art block? If so, how did you overcome it?

Oh, all the time. It’s part of the process. Personally, though—I just have to draw through it. Every month on my Patreon, I have my patrons vote on a theme I have to draw by the end of the month, and I try my best to make it as interesting as possible. I draw quite a few—tens even, of doodles or compositions for each of these themes to try to make something that tells a story while still being aesthetically pleasing and clear. I think pushing myself like this helps with art block, really. I also do remember to take breaks and simply consume other media I like! It gets the inspiration juices flowing.

Advice you would give to an aspiring creator?

If you do one—your first webcomic should be a short, fun, messy thing. It’s not often you can get it right the first time, but you’ll certainly learn a lot through sheer experience. This goes for a lot of things in art, to be honest.

What is a medium that you have always been intrigued by but would never use yourself?

3D Animation. I briefly learned it at SVA, and I think that’s enough of that tech for me. I accept that there are some things that are truly beautiful if done right, and I am too simple and lazy for it.

What is your goal for the rest of this year?

Get Countdown to Countdown book 2 finished! And live HAHA

Who on Tumblr inspires you and why?

@yuumei-art on Tumblr, still! They’ve been a huge inspiration for digital artists and storytellers online for years. I have no doubt that many digital artists of my generation have been influenced by them, and they’re still here, making beautiful art and stories. It’s a thing to behold.

tutorial for drawing characters with cleft lip! sorry that it's mostly unilateral-centric but it makes up the vast majority of resources and photos. still tried to get tips for drawing bilateral clefts in though.

please keep in mind that this is an introductory drawing tutorial and has some generalizations in it, so not every “X is Z” statement will be true for Actual People : )

One of the things I swear by as an artist is my artistic routine. That’s basically the time I set aside to draw, learn, and replenish my creativity.

I've had this little idea in my head for a while now, so I decided to sit down and plot it out.

Disclaimer: This isn't meant to be some sort of One-Worksheet-Fits-All situation. This is meant to be a visual representation of some type of story planning you could be doing in order to develop a plot!

Lay down groundwork! (Backstory integral to the beginning of your story.) Build hinges. (Events that hinge on other events and fall down like dominoes) Suspend structures. (Withhold just enough information to make the reader curious, and keep them guessing.)

The Mysterious Eastern Swordsman

HII my character & shape design tips PDF is now available! ^_^ hope you enjoy !!

We're somehow down to 8 weeks left until TAZGN6: The Suffering Game is out in the world, so I wanted to share a little process writeup! I'll probably share a couple more peeks at some of the panels where the layouts were especially fun as we get closer to the date itself. There's still time to submit your preorder receipt to get an acrylic keychain from First Second!

Layout: This is basically my first VERY TINY pass through the entire book! Each page is about 1" tall, so this panel would've been about 1/4". Nobody else usually sees these drawings, so this is a very special horrible little treat!

Pencils: I'm skipping over thumbnails, since I ended up reusing the bulk of them to pencils- but the entire team reviews the whole book at both the thumbnail and pencil stages, which is why I separate them out. This is where I'm trying to get the big gestures and expressions in (again, so the team can review them!); inking is for locking in details and using line weight to convey volume info.

Inks: I ink in clip studio using a couple different brushes; what's important to me is having some good line weight variation with pressure! I try to have the stability aid turned down as low as possible.

Colors: Fun! I care more about colors as a way to convey emotion or tone than """accurate""" local color, so these often get silly. It's comics!! Have fun with it!!

SIX WEEKS LEFT until tazgn6 is out (7/16/24)! I wanted to share a writeup about the process of making the cover for this one, which was a really fun challenge. Apologies and thank you to Nozaki-kun.

There's still time to submit your preorder receipt here and get a free acrylic keychain from :01 (US/Can)! I think it runs until they run out of keychains? It's cute, I had fun designing it, go snag one!

FIVE WEEKS LEFT until TAZGN6 is out in the world (7/16/24)! I'm back with another process post for a page from early in the book.

layouts are the very first thing I draw! this is where I'm thinking about page and panel breakdowns, whether we need additional beats to help with pacing, and where the text will go. You can see that in my very rough balloons! nobody else usually gets to see this, so enjoy the sneak peek at the messy first stage. as long as I can understand it, it's all good.

thumbnails- at this point the overall page composition is locked in & I'm working on strengthening the overall poses/gestures. You can see I decided to open up the panel for magnus getting a spell refresh and that merle's pose changed to account for more text elements.

pencils- here's where I start thinking more about likenesses & detail! I'm still tweaking some sizes to make sure there's enough room for text… but you can see I pretty much copied magnus over from thumbnails. Sometimes it just works!

inks- at the inking stage I'm thinking about using line weights to emphasize depth/ important elements and strengthen the overall composition, as well as making small fixes to sell expressions and flesh out outfit details.

And finally, colors- I use color much more as a way to heighten tone/ establish emotion than to be literal about local colors! In this case, going monochrome for magnus helped sell that something magical was happening AND helped his exhausted face stand out a little bit better.

and that's it! the pages go off to the letterer after pencils are locked, but I keep the rough text layer visible at every stage as I'm working so I make sure to leave enough room for all text elements.

Here is a page for premodern weapons, broken down into a ton of subcategories, with the weapon’s region of origin. 

Here is a page of medieval weapons.

Here is a page of just about every conceived superpower.

Here is a page for legendary creatures and their regions of origin.

Here are some gemstones.

Here is a bunch of Greek legends, including monsters, gods, nymphs, heroes, and so on. 

Here is a website with a ton of (legally attained, don’t worry) information about the black market.

Here is a website with information about forensic science and cases of death. Discretion advised. 

Here is every religion in the world. 

Here is every language in the world.

Here are methods of torture. Discretion advised.

Here are descriptions of the various methods used for the death penalty. Discretion advised.

Here are poisonous plants.

Here are plants in general.

And, guys...