Elvira Axén

I'm Elvira and I'm a 2D animator located in Malmö, Sweden. My pronouns are she/they and I use ToonBoom Harmony to animate.

Read my comic Felt World >> Here! <<

Thank you for stopping by~

My other socials:

shoot me y’all I have wrist pain so I may or may not defend/attack depending on when it goes away, but I’ll do my best!!

When you get to create your comic strips/stories, how do you plan your backgrounds?

I've been wanting to make my own stories for the longest time but I never know when to start with sceneries. I've tried to look for possible tutorials out there but I never find ones that are clear enough on actually "teaching how to plan for them" or "how to think when making them" (for lack of better explanation). The closest guidence I've find that helps a bit is composition tutorials, but they're not really what I'm looking for qwqUu, I mostly struggle to imagine and plan "where my characters are supposed to be in scenery wise. I mustered up the courage to ask for some tips from you today since I come by on Tumblr from time to time, and I saw that you were gonna start over with your "Felt World" comic and was really curious on what was your process ●0● ✨️

If there's any misspellings I apologize, my main language is Spanish qwqUu

HII Sorry for the late reply, I haven't been online much! I think what you're referring to is staging! Basically staging is where do you place things for most clarity and interest, like a stage or set.

I'll be the first to admit that I'm not a very experienced comic book reader or artist, BUT I do use a lot of my animation knowledge when making comics; I keep in mind where characters stand in relation to each other so readers don't get confused, I vary the camera angle so it's not all static, straight ahead angles (although that might be what you want, it depends on the style) and I use the shape of the panel to convey mood.

I will say, a lot of it is just experimentation! What conveys the mood I want, how do I tell that the most clearly and with as little room for confusion as possible?

For example, let's use a prompt; Albin, Donna, Ricky, Lune, and Myra are sitting around a dinner table in Ricky's family home, and they're having a lively conversation about something lighthearted.

That's usually enough text to fill one page, and I'm gonna use my knowledge of the characters to tell as much as I can using just visual storytelling.

Here's and example of what I'd make based on the prompt:

This is a really rough doodle of what my sketches usually looks like, and as you can see I added notes to show my thought process :)!

Basically, I like to answer these questions in the following hierarchy:

Do we know where we are? What time of day? What weather? (choose weather relevant to the story, i.e. if it rains it has to be for a reason) - you don't need to reestablish the setting on every page but if the setting is unclear, this is priority nr 1!

who is where and what are they doing? - once you've established where everyone relevant is, you don't need to show them in every panel. Only for visual interest or when their dialogue or reaction is important.

What do the readers need to observe and what are they supposed to feel about it? - This is a bit more vague but also the most relevant, if you can't answer this question, you have made an unnecessary filler page! As an example, the answer here is "the characters are enjoying each others company in a safe setting. Donna is comfortable enough to cackle loudly and the rest look like they are laughing at something Albin said/did and playfully teasing him about it. Lune drinks out of a champagne coupe while the rest uses regular drinking glasses because she's fancy, Myra needs cushions to reach the table because Ricky's family has large furniture, Albin has picked a spot not close to Donna (what is so special about this spot?), and Ricky sits where he can get up and serve people quickly (he never relaxes)"

I realize this is more about character staging than backgrounds in general, but I think backgrounds are kind of complementary to what the characters are doing rather than the opposite. The characters drive the story, the backgrounds are there to give the context!

One day! 🗣️

Like you can actually decide for yourself how the creators' past racist transgressions (that have affected black people) should dictate your enjoyment of the show without dismissing and shutting down black people's voices in the process-- and you should stand by your choices regardless of what you think people may insist it says about you, as long as you believe you've given it serious thought and consideration through an empathetic and informed lens.

However, if your attachment to the show and your own comfort takes priority over real people's real issues, then I fear you are part of the exact problem you insist isn't real. It is a racist micro-aggression to tell black people what they should or shouldn't feel hurt by and then shame them for bringing attention to it, just because it makes you feel like a bad person by association. Point blank period.

We need to question our knee-jerk reaction to defend ourselves as non-racists in the context of racism that doesn't affect us, always, and we also need to learn how to take a step back while we let those affected take center stage as we listen and reflect on ourselves before we decide to share our opinions about it-- lest we continue the cycle of exclusionary bigotry, even if it seems minor in the grand scheme of things.

I'm not here to tell anyone what to think, do, or say. I'm not even gonna share what I've chosen to do as of now. That's still up to you at the end of the day, but I do think it was worth bringing up because I found the "backslash of the backlash" to be very disappointing, albeit not surprising, and I encourage you to reflect on it as dismissing it and holding no room for nuance is unfortunately very telling.

I dieded

No but on a more serious note I've been through a rough patch and I'm not very motivated to return to social media, period. People are weird and I kinda hate them.

I've also officially canceled felt world because I just don't like it anymore and I can't force myself to work on something I feel so much pressure and shame around. People who have followed me for a long time know I struggle with committing to things.