#nextlvl rambles

[nights-at-crystarium]

on authenticity

My mood in the recent months keeps going from bad to worse. Today I randomly fell into the rabbit hole of checking out other patreon artists, which always grounds me in reality and cheers me up, perhaps in a weird way. Essay incoming \o/

Authenticity is a blob of a word that sounds almost pretentious nowadays. It gets sneered at. You either sell your soul, or you don't earn with your art.

What's authentic, being true to yourself, will vary from person to person. It's like a sliding scale of suffering that you will tolerate in exchange for a coin, while convincing yourself that you have fun.

The harsh truth of modern world is that if your art pays for your living, you've already reached success, no matter how you may feel about the type of content you actually make for that money. Insert the meme furry nsfw art here. Or not furry. Or even sfw, but comms, lots of comms every month. Or merch. Anything that sells. Products first, art second.

Marrying passion and profession is virtually impossible, yet I'm doing it, only thanks to your support. I'm acutely aware that, even as I choose to be "real" and talk about an artist's money-making in a raw way, it's still patreon talk, and yes, I'll plug the link as well, so technically this entire post is an ad *fingerguns*

I just feel so privileged being able to create whatever the fuck I want, literally, I take no comms/requests/guidance on what and how should I draw/write, I post experimental, sometimes provocative stuff, and still make enough to survive. This sole fact should get me through the day, whatever other struggles I may be facing currently (I am. I don't wanna talk about it rn, instead I distract myself with this text), I should always remember the unique place in life I managed to carve for myself.

There are madmen (gender-neutral) who toss $10-20 at me every month. The majority "only" pledges $1, the notorious tier that gets treated as a tip jar with no rewards by many other creators. All of my rewards are the same at $1 and $20 (save for the one-time digital artbook download at $10, just to be perfectly clear), it's a conscious choice and a risk I continue taking because it's how I am. I used to split rewards between tiers in the past, before xiv, and it was a lot of busy work while it made me treat my art less as art and more as product. This pic goes into the cheap box, this pic goes into the expensive box. Every month. It's. Definitely not for every artist.

Logistic hell of splitting and delivering rewards, different posts with less comments per post, also my discord roles/channels would have to be split, nowadays it's just patron, whether you give me $1 or $20, there's no visual disparity, you're hanging out in the same cool kids' club, and collectively making happy noises on Fragments Fridays.

Could I be making more money if I got rid of the $1 tier? Yeah. But, mercifully, after 2 years I don't need to. I legit make enough currently, my only worry is to keep what I have. Patrons don't stay forever, 2-5 people would leave every month, about the same number would join (hence my patreon ads, I need to keep people reminded of it, even if it makes me feel guilty every damn time). I did Research (tm) in the past to find out that my "bleeding" numbers are below average, i.e. it's good, people generally tend to stick around.

I put a lot of emphasis on the $1 because I'm kinda proud of what I managed to accomplish while staying self-detrimentally humble. Literally doing an impossible thing in a world that keeps burning down. So yeah if you've been feeling bad for only giving me $1, what matters is that there's enough $1s to make a difference. Together you're creating a phenomenon, and you should be proud.

There are many stupid little principles, hills that I'll die on, that make up my authenticity. I chose to speak of it here and now in order to sorta sell myself, so it feels hypocritical x'D But if I don't shine a spotlight on this, who will. I'm old and jaded and increasingly terrified of how insincere the internet's becoming. Everything's fake, sugarcoated, polished for sale. My art's always been a scream of defiance against all that, now that I'm more or less established, I wanna scream louder. Thanks for hearing my screams. You can scream with me too if you want.

#personal #text post #nextlvl rambles

[next-lvl]

How I’ve been ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

#personal #nextlvl rambles #photo

[panic-in-tarir]

THANKS TO MY WONDERFUL WVW GUILD I finally broke into raids today. Still overwhelmed with feelings two hours later. I’m not complete garbage and I probably owe it to my wvw experience :D

#nextlvl rambles #raids #text post

[nights-at-crystarium]

I chew on the most eminent Emet-Selch so hard in Fragments that I begin to feel like a terrible person. Tho he's also a terrible person, so that kinda cancels out?

He gets royally shafted, in more ways than one <w<;;;;;

#whose ass misses having a twitter for rambling #i don't miss it for all else tho #nextlvl rambles #text post

[nights-at-crystarium]

Look, there's a common sentiment that likes are worthless, but having posted dozens of comic episodes, author notes and other side content, has granted me a unique perspective on this. You can't possibly expect someone to share allllll of my comic posts, hence the emotional value of a like, especially binge-likes, only grows over time. There's nothing quite as sweet as seeing someone diligently go through all episodes and smack a like on each of them. Two people did this today, and even continued to like some standalone art posts as well, and made this user so, so happy. Thank you. ;w; <3

#personal #nextlvl rambles #text post

[nights-at-crystarium]

There's this one user (you know who you are 👉👉) that would come back every week or so and binge-like several dozens of my posts, I can see them digging down to the oldest doodles and unmodded vivifaces and other stuff that I normally don't bring back, you have to be a really dedicated and interested Consumer of My Content to find those, and you bet I'm sitting here like

I try and keep my blog clean but I've accumulated 900+ posts over these 2 years, that's a fuckload of cool stuff to see if I'm being honest. This isn't twitter, it's not weird at all to interact with older posts. In fact it makes me really really happy, that my work and thoughts aren't ephemeral. So kindly thank you for the good feels.

#personal #nextlvl rambles

[nights-at-crystarium]

What's the opposite for existential crisis? Existential euphoria? Well, I might be having that right now, overviewing the artbook that I've just finished putting together. It's ready to be released on August 5, the first anniversary of Fragments.

You're looking at 200+ pages, idk if I can count the separate pics. Everything xiv I've drawn over the 1.5 years, with commentary. I've never made an artbook before, finally I have something worth showing off, as well as a loving audience to present it to ;w;

#nextlvl rambles

[nights-at-crystarium]

Both haurchexarch/haurcheraha and haurchewolgraha (ship spelling is HELL in this fandom) are finest quality food but you’ll only see me doing the first one because - Vivi is monogamous, he hasn’t even had a threesome in his life full of, uh, fun and adventure - Therefore I need a completely new WoL for this throuple. No can do this because I tend to fixate on my ocs deeply, I get consumed by them. I’m dedicated to Fragments nowadays, which eventually introduces more ocs, I treat their development as a slowburn as well just because literal years will pass until they make their official appearance.

But even without a WoL, haurchexarch good, so good.... A knight for a king. A flirt for a hero who needs it so badly. Ultimate babygirl ship.

#sorry for all the spam these days #head full many thoughts #ffxiv #haurchefant greystone #haurchefant de fortemps #haurchexarch #haurchewolgraha #crystal exarch #g'raha tia #nextlvl rambles #text post

[nights-at-crystarium]

I also hope people don’t think “is this a haurchefucker main blog out of sudden”, he just needed help in the tournament and I happened to be the one willing to unleash my simp cannons for him at this given time. The tournament also inspired me to draw more haurchexarch that I already shipped since last year as a fun sidething. Their chemistry’s just going brrrrr and making me weak.

As for my personal relationship with Haurche as a character, I love him as much as I love Feo Ul, Alisaie and, drumroll, Aymeric. I think a lot about them since they’re all prominent in Fragments, even if they take years to fully blossom. The main plot’s all figured out, I’m just refining it at my leisure and bursting with secrets untold. I might have gone too hard on avoiding any comic spoilers at all though, with how I never drew Aymeric and let him lose that round 1 in favor of Haurche (I voted with my brain, not heart! I thought Haurche’s meme power could carry him further in the poll and, look, it really did), but he’s my fav chew toy. You’re in on a secret now :3c

The two elezen are an extremely popular wolnpc choice, so it shouldn’t even sound that shocking, especially with Vivi and his *waves vaguely* preferred pastime before the ShB events. However, I’m putting a lil spin on the way Vivi interacts with them, that will leave you feeling horrible and hating him and possibly me as well. Or maybe being impressed. Up to you. ShB is his redemption arc, stuff that happened before built him up as a person, and there’s quite a bit to cringe at. I like to say that I’ll always explain why he acts the way he does, but never excuse.

Okay sorry for all the rambling, my anxious ass just wanted to clarify that, if a character other than cat appears in my art, it’s not random and that I deeply care about them, ‘s all. 🖤

#vivien rell #nextlvl rambles #own: next lvl #text post #haurchefant greystone #haurchefant de fortemps #aymeric de borel

[nights-at-crystarium]

catboy thoughts

Staying in the ARR zone for months let me appreciate ARRRaha even more. Not like I didn’t before, but, hear me out. Essay time :>

Even with all the controversy he’s getting, he’s already a damn well written character. If someone genuinely doesn’t like him, they should keep in mind that it’s intended. The annoying ingame mechanics (seemingly pointless wild dodo chase), paired with G’raha making fun of WoL, nudge you in the right direction as a player. The whole situation’s supposed to aggravate you. The game succeeds at making you feel. Good or bad things, no matter, you already care.

And if you’re fond of him, if you appreciate the unconventional character introduction and silliness, the writer’s got you as well. Comedy has a spooky power of amplifying tragedy. A lovable idiot that you probably want to have as a new Scion ally basically throws his life away. The impact wouldn’t have been the same if G’raha didn’t stand out as a character.

No matter what you think about him during his intro, the end of the Crystal Tower quest series has you feeling something. “Oh no” or “good riddance”, whatever, the goal’s met, you care.

#ffxiv #g'raha tia #text post #nextlvl rambles

[nights-at-crystarium]

Desktop theme update!! I’ve stuck with minimalistic looks for ages, time to go back to my ancient roots and embrace the cringe.

Can’t believe I’ve never looked up That Sparkle Cursor, turns out it’s super easy to add. While I’m at it I’ve also slightly edited the background from this pic (the original doesn’t work because Vivi hides behind the posts) and added the cheebs because I can. Eventually I wanna draw a dedicated background but this’ll do for now. And oh, if you hover over the red elements they turn blue. Just because, you know :3c

✧ ✦ ✧ Take my hand, let’s go back to 00s ✧ ✦ ✧

#personal #nextlvl rambles

[nights-at-crystarium]

Haurchexarch is the first npc x npc ship I’m deeply emotionally invested in, they just click so well together? Haurchie has so much love to give and Exarch honestly needs that much and more. Also he’s kinda become a hero on his own, hasn’t he <w<

#haurchexarch #haurchexarch au #text post #nextlvl rambles

[nights-at-crystarium]

*claps and rubs hands together*

It’s an oldschool art and blogging site, still functioning in this form. Hey, maybe I can even bring some attention to it :9

Tegaki means literally “hand-drawn” in japanese. Everything you see, posts, comments, avatars, is made by hand, using either tablet or mouse.

The tools themselves may remind you of mspaint or similar ancient art programs, still they’re quite powerful once you get some practice. I personally find tegaki cozy and liberating: limited resolution and tools bring back the joy of doodling without worrying about polishing your work (although, must remark, some tegaki users do go crazy just to flex).

People create art, comics, oc profiles, personal blogs, even roleplays using the comment chains. This whole tegaki phenomenon isn’t as big as it used to be 10+ years ago, still alive enough to find cool artists and possibly make friends. Here’s a few of my personal favs: one, two, three.

As for my own corner, it’s not too active but I keep returning every few months. Feel free to look around C: And I hope this was informative, who knows, maybe someone will unlock a memory, or a brand new user will join.

#replies #tegaki #nextlvl rambles

[nights-at-crystarium]

Rambling about Vivi and my relationship with the game

Okay the response to my previous post was bigger than I anticipated, you guys are making me feel supported and valid and thank you so much for that ;o; <3

I’m an anxious person and an overthinker. Should I just make art posts and occasional headcanons/analyses/observations? Should I be more personal? I made this blog with this specific purpose to be openly cringe about my new obsession, so I guess there’s no point in trying to moderate myself, worst case scenario people will just scroll past something that doesn’t interest them, right?

I’ve never really told you how I got into the fandom and how Vivi was born, although it’s a peculiar story. Maybe I’ll talk about my ✧content plan✧ too if there’s still post space left. So if you wanna know more about that, I invite you under the cut!

The background’s a bit depressing, a fair warning. I’ve been an mmo and oc nerd since 2012, my first game was Wakfu: quit in 2015-2016 but kept the ocs, about a dozen of them, still hoping to tell their stories one day, then GW2: another dozen characters that never really got the chance to grow into ocs. By the time I started poking around in ARR in 2021 I felt listless and fandom-homeless so to say. Both Wakfu and GW2 are pretty obscure to begin with, then the games themselves strayed too far from my standards and expectations, that on itself is worth a huge rant but this isn’t the place and time. Games do fail, fandoms do die down. I still play GW2 to this day since I find its mechanical aspect, a loud word fully deserved: perfect, it’s plain fun.

But in late 2021, when I still slogged through ARR on my own, I also watched WoodenPotatoes, my fav GW2 youtuber, play all the way up to 5.5. I share a lot of common traits with that guy, namely the cynicism :’D I was like, show me what you’ve got, convince me why you’re such a critically acclaimed game. GW2 and FFXIV are polar opposites in several ways, I won’t derail into comparisons either, just wanna say that I had my standards and a lot of criticism for the mechanical side of FFXIV (spoiler: I still do, but there are other empty niches that FFXIV fills for me!). I was in a full cynic mode, and even that didn’t stop me from being completely blown away, wiped from the surface of Earth when I saw the aforementioned guy play and comment on ShB.

Turns out there was one box unticked for me, I didn’t only feel unwelcome in my old games/fandoms, I also missed the safety and trust you have in FFXIV concerning the lore/story. Despite being an artist with a knack for oc development and interactions, I thought of myself as a mechanical mmo player. You know, raids, pvp, tryharding. I still find great joy in that, geez, I play GW1 (one) which regularly hands me my ass on a plate and I LOVE that, but yeah, I didn’t realize I also needed the comfort of knowing that I can emotionally invest in a game’s story and characters without worrying about the immediate future.

*claps hands together* Here comes the catboy!!!!

I’ll drop the highly specific and personal details for now since those are worth a full essay on their own, just gotta emphasize how much I needed this story and this character right then and there, at the end of 2021. The more I thought about him, the more at home I felt. That I could still survive into my thirties, go through everything in my life, feel nearly drained of will to live and create, and then meet a character that’d bring me back up to 100 within months, if not weeks.

My personal life’s still a mess too big to even mention it, so I won’t. I’m just aggressively burying my head in the sand and hyperfocusing on the new comfort zone. You can tell I’m being productive, each art on this blog is like, me actively trying to comfort myself, luckily it works every time.

So, new game, new passion, what about the character I experience that passion through? My WoL was a lala.

My WoL was a lala.

Look I didn’t even glam her properly..... I just loved the hilarity of the dragoon class flavor + pink potato, I farmed those sweet commendations because of that. I also had a catgirl on another account, I actively tried to find a character that’d click with me, that’d ground me in the game world.

I’d just watched WoodenPotatoes’ complete playthrough up to 5.5, my own progress was still at ARR, these two lovely lasses were.. Lovely, but I didn’t vibe with them. Bluntly speaking with the privilege of hindsight: my gay ass wasn’t at peace. I tend to gravitate towards male ocs.

Third time’s the charm, eh?

I was going into my own playthrough knowing that ShB isn’t only a storytelling masterpiece, but a vicious dating sim as well. My only braincell was already fixated on Raha and I needed a character for him.

That probably separates Vivi from many other WoLs. He was born for ShB, for Raha, with a specific purpose. Why elezen? Because, firstly, I’ve already been drawing elf people since 2012, it’s my comfort zone, secondly, by the time I dove into ShB I was acutely aware of the catboy WoL army, other races just never clicked with me, elezen however is the obscure cool kid among this bustling party of cat and bunny people. *shrugs* I just can’t help myself! I told you about Wakfu and GW2 specifically to point out that I’m drawn to obscurity, to niches, hell, hardly related but to prove the point: I’m also a rhythm game addict and I have an obscure anime rec blog. A vocaloid fan since 2008? Listening mostly to voca metal, alternative, all those nerdy niche things.

So I join a popular game, become obsessed with a popular character, and, being myself, choose an obscure race for my WoL \o/

Just to clarify, there’s no self-deprecation, only statements. I’m confident in my tastes and choices, whatever they may be, I’m only liking the good stuff >:D

Next part of the story you can already see if you scroll down to my first posts here. Knowing his destination, I started working on Vivi’s character, picking glams for him, slowly figuring out how to draw him (I’d say his visual development’s 80% complete by now). Fortunately for him, not only I’ve made 30+ ocs over the last 10 years, I also make adopts for a living. I’ve got the skills needed to develop a cool and happy character. Look, happy character =/= character without some kinda issues and angst, I mean happy as in relatable, believeable, alive.

Alive, that he sure is. If thinking about Raha as a separate character brought me back to life, looking at him through Vivi’s eyes made me feel like I’m in love too. Another thing to make clear: Vivi isn’t me, both him and Raha are my kin to a degree but I’m trying my best to stay aware and away from projecting. It’s just inevitable that you as a creator become some kinda medium/proxy for your character’s thoughts and feelings, and it’s beautiful. Even if I find myself in pain and wailing sometimes on their behalf, ha.

I don’t have much good going on in my own life so I live through my characters. It’s hard to explain how exactly I know things about them, of course it doesn’t come all at once. Vivi’s been around for 5 months now. I started working on his story early on, however I’d say my vision of him and Raha only fleshed out in the past 2 month-ish.

Can’t believe a weeb game made me write fics again. I’ve published one over on AO3 already, a few more are slowly cooking still, mentioning them only because they actually complemented my creative process behind art and comics, helped me get that elusive “feel” for the characters, and generally, surprisingly, approaching writing on a serious level did good things to my mental state, previously disastrous. My head feels like a much more orderly place now. Well, it’s also brimming with the catboy and elf feels, which is ever welcome.

So, I’m going about my business, then something clicks, I get an idea, a scene, an interaction, and rush to write it down. There’s a 20k+ words main document for my comic, several side-documents for later chapters and random unordered stuff, fics that fit into the main storyline and should be published within context. Soon I’ll be ready to start telling their story.

This post’s already too huge and waffly and wow if you’re still here, wow. You’re just as crazy as myself, but sincerely thanks for sticking with me :’>

I promised to talk about the so-called content plan, well, I sort of already did, mentioning the comic. If you’re observant, you may have noticed the name Fragments and some numbers floating around my tags. Fragments is the cheeky name of the comic, there IS a deeper explanation but I’ll leave it for another post. Whatever bits and pieces I’ve published under that name so far are “canon” and DO belong to the main story, however, I haven’t officially introduced the comic yet, there’ll be a launch and all that. Someday. Sometime soon.

It’s big and promising and exciting, still it’s just my personal project that I wanna be thorough with. Sorry for possibly being too vague about it, I take the “ship it when it’s ready” approach, I don’t rush things because they’re first and foremost for my own enjoyment.

For now thanks for looking at the random pics and comics I’m posting, I treat them as character flavor samples, as promo illustrations so to speak, while I’m chipping away at the main comic in the background.

Okay I spoke my heart out just like yesterday, feels nice. Thanks for all your support once again ;/////; <3

#text post #personal #nextlvl rambles

[nights-at-crystarium]

You know, I wanna be brutally honest for a moment. Every time I post anything involving non-canon characters (aka my WoL) I’m paralyzed by fear because it feels like throwing your stuff into a cold ocean. Like who’s even gonna care. I’ve had this blog for a few months, I’m gonna stay a devoted grahafucker for years, I’m working on comics and fics, but I’m still at the beginning of everything and it’s daunting.

I’ve spent my entire life in obscure fandoms, having my art overlooked because of that, especially when I posted oc stuff. It’s much nicer here in the degen weeb (affectionate) land but it’ll be a while until I’m confident enough in my work. So.. Thank you kindly if you’re interacting, especially if you’re making some cute tags/comments. I cherish all and every single one of them.

#text post #personal #nextlvl rambles

[nights-at-crystarium]

Talking about THE comic!

I yelled about it randomly on my personal twitter or in the tags here but probably it’s a better idea to write the first “official” post C:

So, the two idiots I’ve been drawing for half a year now. Mostly self-indulgence, but also a slow preparation for THE comic. At first I merely wanted to tell what atrocities Vivi did in Norvrandt and how that affected their relationship, giving it, I dare fucking say, a rather unique angsty spice.

I’ve never written before, in late January/February I started scripting the Vivi-flavored ShB+5.x story to casually drop it maybe in several releases. A month or two forward, I’ve gone completely mental practiced writing fics (one published, a few more ready, a few more cookin’ but I’ll keep them until the corresponding Fragments are released), spent every day thinking about them so obsessively that the planned comic script got remade with slighly more finesse on my end as a writer, more depth as ViviRaha completely went out of control as characters, and their story started expanding in all directions at once.

I Wrote A Lot and I still keep adding a bit here, a bit there at least once a week. By now the broad concept is fleshed out, just as the characters, everything’s ripe and juicy and ready for consumption. Only one lil thing: now I’ve actually gotta draw it :’D

When am I actually starting? How will it look? Will it be free? And other questions that you guys might have, I’ll try to cover under the cut.

“Fragments” is a wolgraha-centered (duh!) comic that’ll be published here on tumblr for free. I’ll be crossposting it to twitter but the format’s oriented for this hellsite first and foremost. Not sure about the actual webcomic platforms, too much hassle for now. I’m still thinking how to handle the early access and whatnot, I MUST think about it since my art is the only source of my income. Likely I’ll have one release up on tumblr and two next ones on Patreon and Kofi to support my further work on the comic.

I AM anxious about it. My life currently is a huge unstable mess, mildly put, so I’m extra worried about starting the comic, announcing the release schedule, then getting blindsided by something new irl (so far 2022 had 3 major events that left me crippled for weeks - speaking of the personal scale events ofc) and having to go on a break that’d last for who knows how long, and how it’d impact my art style (yeah my mental state, my productivity and the very way I draw are unfortunately linked). There’s no guarantee of a safe and stable life for me atm, the best I can do is to start the comic regardlessly and hope shit doesn’t get worse.

So far the plan is to post every Friday (because Fragments Friday, ha!), anywhere between 2 and 10 pages (2 horizontal frames per page like in the early Tamen De Gushi), depending on the script. Max 10 pages because that’s how much a tumblr photopost can have. I call this “release”. Some scenes will be short and sweet and easily contained within one release, the others will span over multiple releases.

I’m NOT sure I can handle the weekly release schedule. I’ll try and see. I still have to dedicate most of my art juices to the stuff that pays for my rent and food, unfortunately. If I can’t keep up, I’ll dial it down to every other Friday, i.e. 2 releases a month.

Why “Fragments”? The releases won’t always be tightly connected between each other by the plot, yes they vaguely follow the canon timeline, yet many of them will be like glimpses into their everyday life, hence Fragments. I’m aware it’s cheeky, considering the Shards and all that. So, getting that out of the way: Vivi and Raha are NOT fragments of each other! They’re two separate entities, yes, mirrors and missing puzzle pieces of each other, but only that :>

The pages won’t be numbered, but each release I’ll number and put in a comic masterpost for the easy permanent access.

The script’s 20k+ words, some of those are my technical notes, some parts could be dropped, rewritten etc. The major beats are set, the rest’s still a wip. I don’t worry too much about polishing the text right now, I’ll have time for that during the storyboarding. Some scenes will have to be adapted for the visual format anyway. Here’s how my comic folder looks so far.

*screams in terror because chapter 1 INDEED HAS NO NAME YET*

The story itself still mostly takes place in ShB+5.x, save for the chapter 1 which is ARR. I carved out two “time pockets” for ViviRaha to rest and breathe and be happy or angsty in, post-5.0 and post-5.3, chapter 6 and chapters 9 and onward, respectively. Chapter 11 is my personal ShB epilogue. Chapter 12 still happens during the post-5.3 time pocket and focuses on Vivi’s background, by then you should be invested enough to care about that :> Chapter 13 is still tentative, an even deeper dive into Vivi’s past, showing his, gasp, old flames! A bunch of them. And chapter 14, if there’s ever such a thing, would finally move on to Endwalker. But for now I’m staying in my ShB bubble. There’s an in-character reason why I don’t wanna subject Vivi to the Endwalker events just yet. We’ll see. We’re speaking of a behemoth of a story that’ll take several years to get out. I have ample time to think about the later chapters.

Characters? Mostly ViviRaha (what? NO WAY), Alisaie’s the second most visible canon character, followed by Thancred, Lyna and Feo Ul. The Chais, Ardbert, Emet, Alphinaud, Tataru, Y’shtola, Estinien and Urianger have just a few lines. I’d LOVE to have more Urianger, who knows, maybe I can train my writing muscles and wedge more of his scenes in. Ryne and Krile as decorations (sorry!). Cid and Rammbroes in chapter 1. More ocs will appear in chapter 12. Chapter 13 has.... Drumroll...... Aymeric and Haurchefant as Vivi’s old flames. They were important. But you’ll have to survive until THAT late point in time to see them <w< There are some more ocs/npcs as well.

Since I’m looking at the weekly amount of (not always, but often) 10 pages each with 2 frames, I need to think about optimization. I’m not used to monochrome and I LOVE colors, so I wanna try doing something like this. Color is the quick and fun part for me, however, I still need time to train my hand in the lineart department. It won’t be super polished just because I’m not about that, but I wanna be personally happy with my sketchy style. I’d say I’m 70% there.

Drawing them nearly every day, figuring out their proportions and outfits, practicing general anatomy, all is the preparation work. I admit being absolutely lost and terrified in the background department. I’m rather comfy and chill about the natural landscapes, THAT I have no problem with, however, I’m still unsure about the buildings and interiors that I’ll wanna avoid, but I’ll have to draw at least SOME of those. So, yet another slowing down factor. I need more practice.

Fragments will be character- and feels-centric with little to no action/combat since it’d only detract from the story. I’m trying to stay as close to the main point of this comic’s existence as possible. Just feels, lots of them. Various flavors.

More about the technical stuff: ✓ finding/making textures (the slight overlay to avoid the flat, "digital” look) ✓ making and testing a storyboard template ✓ doodling cover ideas (atm 8 or so chapters have a cover that I’m happy with) - picking a font (or making own) - making frame and bubble templates (normal speech, screaming, thoughts, etc) - finalizing character designs (proportions that I’ll stick with to avoid awkward wobbly style) - finalizing character outfits for the same purpose as above

I’ll never be ultra-completely-ready but this checklist is vital. I’m doodling like crazy to make sure the main characters look exactly how I want them to. Vivi’s more or less complete, but lately I’ve realized that I still can’t draw our beefcake cat bf like I see him in my head, so I’m working on that.

Still no deadlines, I HOPE to start before August but who fucking knows. I’ll talk some more and make a lil countdown once I have at least 3 releases ready to go. Fragments is still my self-indulgence but it’ll span over the next few years. I’ll just start it when I’ve figured out the bare minimum and flail my way from there on :’D

Fragments already has its own tag where you can see some standalone comics and illustrations that I deem fully canon. Those posts also have a chapter tag, which should help situating each event on the broader timeline.

#ffxiv: fragments #text post #nextlvl rambles