SketchShelf

Holy crap it's been a long time. Nice to kick some rust off.

As for this, not sure why I drew it. I hate baseball.

I'm a bit behind schedule, but the first draft is nearly finished.

Over the course of working on it I've had some more time to consider how I want this story to be released. After taking some time to think it over, I decided that I'd like to take this opportunity to try something I haven't done before - weekly releases.

I've only every done one-shots, since I'm not really in a position to handle really long stories at the moment. However, given that this story was designed from the start to have a low number of pages per chapter to potentially allow for a Swordtember release schedule, this is the perfect opportunity to push myself.

It is gonna take a some more preparation to do it this way and I'd like to make some tweaks to my layouts to make sure I'm taking full advantage of this new format, so the release date will be pushed back again. I'll be back with updates whenever that date is more concrete. I've got a list of preparations to complete so it'll be while longer.

Well, this didn't go quite as well as I'd hoped. Always make sure you have enough prep time for your projects kids.

When I heard about Swordtember I hoped to make a comic based on the prompt list, releasing a few pages each day based on the relevant prompt.

The problem was that I only found out about Swordtember a few days before the end of August. Despite this I liked the idea I'd come up with enough that I decided to jump in headfirst. While I managed to complete a full outline and finish enough rough pages for week one before September 1st, unfortunately a few logistical issues threw the whole plan outta wack, and my already difficult daily deadlines out of reach.

I still wanna finish this comic though, so right now I'm just continuing to plug away at the rough pages at a more reasonable pace. My current goal is to have all the rough pages (with finished pencils and color layouts) completed by the end of September, which is definitely achievable. If I manage to do that then I should be able to ink and release the pages over the course of Inktober.

Sorry for the delay y'all. It's coming.

Well let me say first of all Snarky that this is the first ask I've ever gotten, so you've absolutely made my day 🥰

As for your question, I'd say there were two major factors in my approach.

The first was that there were a few minor details that the show presented and didn't really expand on, and I wanted to play around with that stuff. We know that the Tri-School area has managed to opposed being taken over by Revocs and that Nudist Beach was working with them undercover. Were there prior conflicts? What'd they look like? And that ends up being the backdrop for the story.

And with Kinue like you mentioned. I actually made a few different versions of this story before I eventually drew this one, and I'm pretty sure they all included her in some significant role. We know she was like Ryuko, insofar as she had faith in the relationship between people and their clothes, and we know she died testing a Kamui - so within the setting of the raid and meeting Nui there was an opportunity to play around with the history there and I thought it'd be pretty cool.

The second factor was that I was really interested in the way that the family dynamic was presented in the show. You almost miss it at first, but family is really important to Ryuko and Satsuki. Ryuko's on a quest to avenge a father that she admittedly hardly saw and didn't get along with. On the other hand you've got Satsuki. Satsuki shoots her mouth off alot about humans not being subject to their clothing and destroying Ragyo's empire, but at the Cultural and Sports Festival, when she's finally 1-on-1 with Ragyo what does she say? What's it all for? To avenge my father and my sister who was never given a name. A sister she probably never got to meet. A noble cause born from personal feelings. To this day my favorite scene in that show is stoic Satsuki, panicked and screaming her lungs out, dashing to catch Ryuko, the sister she's been battling for half the show. Despite all that Nui is, despite all Nui was created to be, I have to think that there's some love in Satsuki's heart for Nui as her sister, despite her better judgement. And Nui (who I do LOVE) is the perfect person to explore that with. Nui was literally born to be a tailor, and can't wear her own best creations. I can't imagine that doesn't kill her inside, and so it was easy to imagine that the smile that's constantly plastered on her face when we meet her in the show wasn't always there. Exploring the dynamic between these two, Nui who has this burden and Satsuki who has her own burden but is also this shining fortress who changes peoples lives just by interacting with them, I thought would be an interesting angle to take.