#rapscallions

So Samara Orlov was the newest member of the rapscallions.. on accident. While group just got don scamming a gambler out of his money, Samara caught them in the act and immediately wanted to join their group. For reasons that only concern her. Despite Warren being hesitant about it, Stevie happily agree but if she passes a test… she needed to earn Rupert’s trust. Though Samara HATED “mutts,” she puts on her lost innocent smile and tries to take the bone from Rupert’s mouth without getting bit. Luckily, Rupert allowed her to and she was in the clear for the time being! So Samara is a bit of a risk taker. She always puts herself in situations and easily took on the role of the face, aka, using her charm, she’d easily get the adults to do what she wants by acting sweet and innocent. Warren gets jealous from this as it looks like she’s taking his job from him, but Samara emphasizes that she’s not an actor. Wherever she goes, she gets attention as it’s just “her natural charm.” Except that attention is never enough for her. In fact, she sees it as bothersome and as waste. She only cares about the attention of one person and one person only. Her mother. As it turns out, Samara isn’t being very truthful with her “friends.” She sees them as replaceable and ditches them as soon as they aren’t useful to her anymore (Though she does leave the group officially after Stevie threatens them but that’s a different pov teehee). Samara held onto the idea that, if she joins this group, she can catch the attention of her absent mother. Samara hates her mom, but also treats her like a god. Since she is the only person that Samara has left, she tries ever so desperately to make her mom look at her as something to fix since she believes she already exhausted her chances of being something her mother could love (this isn’t the truth, but Samara can’t see it that way). Damn this is getting long, let me timeskip already. So after Samara leaves, 4 years has past and the group has broken up. Warren met Samara’s old “friend” Teal and she brings him to her waiting at the principle’s office with her mom. Samara has cut and re-dyed her hair, as she tried to get away from her former self, like she always had.

Warren finds out through Teal that 1. Samara was lying about her name, with her real name being Sasha, and 2. She was lying about everything. That she only used the rapscallions to get what she wanted. A reaction. And she got it. Her mom was taking her out of school, to be flown back to Russia, so they can start again. Though Samara tries to avoid the topic, stating that Samara is her real name, at least, the nickname her father gave her. In her mind, she was still in denial about her decisions and still believes that her mother doesn’t care about her (which is complicated, but not true).

Samara is a very reluctant person, and struggles with being honest and open about herself to others. Ever since she lost her father, her mother has become busier and busier to the point where she starts to neglect Samara’s feelings and person. So, Sam acts out. First, by dying her hair pink.

Now Samara is backed into a corner and has to face reality. She fucked up. Her mother, past relationships, actions, consequences, are all here in the room with her and she needs to reevaluate herself. First with her mom, then Teal, and rapscallions. So that’s her journey throughout the rest of the story. And um, her relationship with Warren is a whole different story so I’ll just keep it brief: secret third thing (the reason she realized she actually cares about this group).

I'll just go ahead and toot my own horn - I think this month's worth of pages are some of the best-looking I've put out so far. I've wondered since the beginning if this project whether I would notice a considerable change in my drawings or quality of work - especially when drawing the same character over and over for an entire year.

While I'm still working on perfecting my line quality, I'm happy that I've become more confident with the brush pen. Adding little details and textures to make things feel less neat and stiff, and more organic and expressive, while still maintaining clear silhouettes and forms is pretty much the goal I went for from the outset. My pencils are still some of my favorite bits from this project, in part to their looseness. Even in ink, not everything has to be clearly defined or outlined, and in fact variation is where things can shine.