The Water Phoenix King

Happiness is not having to perform calculus with a fistful of shiny rocks and a wooden bucket.

Not too happy with the faces on this page, but the detritus of Anthem’s job–well, jobs, since she’s both an accountant and a priestess-in-training–turned out okay.

One of the interesting things I’ve noticed about drawing as opposed to writing a story is the different types of details one needs to apprehend. While I’m no equestrian, I’ve read enough about about riding to feel like I won’t make a fool of myself writing about horses. (Or near-horses, in the case of this story.) But drawing is a different matter: the details of how every part of the tack attaches to every other part, the way a saddle is stored, the shape and geometry of a soldier’s saddle as opposed to one intended for general riding, all these things, in a comic, require a sort of visual expertise that I have yet to acquire and that goes beyond the need simply to understand the terminology and how the pieces fit together.

Working harder to get a feel for environments. I’ve been re-watching Futurama, and they have excellent environments, as does one of my favorite comics, Transmetropolitan, which shares an aesthetic with the cartoon.

Not thrilled with this page. Not happy with the background effects, which are more “messy” than “pleasantly abstract,” and not happy with people’s expressions and gestures. Can’t win ‘em all.

Women love it when you cower behind them.

Women don’t love infodumps. No one loves infodumps. So I try to make sure entertaining characters give them. I’m a bit concerned that as I draw him more and more, Naksuanan increasingly resembles a Moochava from my previous comic. In fact Maheti didn’t look like rodents even when they had skin.

Had a lot of fun drawing the steam on this page. Of course I keep hearing Glen from Wayne’s World. “You know, if you stab a man in the dead of winter, steam will rise up from the wounds. Indians believed it was his soul escaping from his body.”

Other fantasy authors study Orlando Furioso and The Faerie Queene. I get Wayne’s World.

We are in the middle of an oppressive heat wave here and I am working late into the night because mid-day lassitude prevents me from drawing, at least with any of the meager skill I have accumulated over the years.

My miserable state is unfortunate, since really exciting things are going on. We’re getting a blast of Yig culture and a lot about Vish, whose authority has grown at the price of his subtlety. Only Hokta Threng, the blue-skinned Yig who is currently directing his belligerence toward Momba Kawunei, the fellow with the glasses, does not see Vish–Kawunei is not reacting to “superstition” but to a very obvious god. This, incidentally, is an unusual state of affairs, whether in Vasgol or Yig. Most gods would never do this, and we can partially see why: Sergeant Deemo would never mouth off to an armed and dangerous Yig without a god hovering between them.

I have some tricky “special effects”-related art coming up for the next page–Kawunei’s Three Element Sword–so I’m going to get some sleep and hopefully it’ll be less than 95° out tomorrow so I can draw without my brain melting.