snail's microblog

I've been working on slowly editing moon jellyfish kiss act 1 recently, after having read through it with fresher eyes and noticing a lot of layout issues and style inconsistencies... I'd like to get the 1st act printed soon, so I can take it to prideCAF for real this year!

I'm very close to finishing the redraw and I want it to be as good as I can make it before I have it printed! so I keep alternating between drawing and editing ^^

a new panel I drew while editing (so far, the only new one), and the two panels I ended up scrapping :')

I've also started compiling the outtakes to archive them in a couple different ways haha. suffice to say, when I do a itch.io release of the comic there's going to be a big ole outtakes/behind the scenes bonus pdf ^^'

some more thoughts on learning japanese/a second language...

as a native english speaker, I guess the inevitable question is "why should I bother learning a second language at all?" to have learnt english as my first language puts me in a position of privilege in a lot of ways.

but the answer for me lies in a simple broadening of understanding, I guess? a lot of the media I consume in my downtime is in japanese, to the point that it's the obvious choice for a second language. I guess if I were to consider candidates for a 3rd language, maybe spanish, chinese, thai, french or german?

I think language has a big influence on the way a person expresses things... unless I'm making a concious effort to be understood, I don't think, or feel, I guess? in words? "understanding" is more abstract and intuitive than that. it's in translating those thoughts and feelings to words or images that they gain a structure and expression.

to learn a second language is to open myself up to new understandings and expressions. it's not unlike learning music, in some ways.

I've been studying japanese lately. I'm not very good at it yet, but I am getting somewhere, I think? I'm really good at falling down rabbitholes and learning random stuff and that's more or less how I got here... I learned hiragana so I'd have a better time doing UTAU stuff and then was like... why not just keep going? learning hiragana is already the first hurdle in terms of learning japanese as an english speaker, so like? bit of a waste if I only used it on UTAU stuff ^^'

I started in duolingo, but eventually decided I don't really like it - I don't like how "specific" my answers have to be... for example, typing in an answer only to find that they wanted me to give them the other translation of the phrase when there's more than one way of saying it. or making a typo even if the answer I gave indicates that I understood. I think these would be less of a problem if I was willing to pay for the subscription version, where you can make mistakes without being penalised.

it was ultimately an anki deck that was most effective at teaching me hiragana, so I ended up trying a sentence-based N5 anki deck I found and am slowly slowly working my way through it.

that said, it'd be silly to try and learn a language without listening to it, so I try to listen to something every day even if I don't understand much. if I'm feeling braver I'll try reading, either from a free/online graded reader, or by looking more closely at the lyrics of songs I like, depending on the mood I'm in.

saw a slow worm in the garden today! they are so cute, I love slow worms so much.

so much of the media I consume is american that I actually get some sort of weird culture shock when I find something that's british,,

for example - I know, hypothetically, that 7/11 is a chain of american convenience shops, but I've never been to one. for all I know they don't exist beyond the media that references them. but tesco? I have stepped foot in many a tesco. tesco feels real.

I have updates on moon jellyfish kiss! in hopes of having act 1 ready for an event I'm tabling at in september, I made some decisions I regretted... I've got a video planned where I'll hopefully talk more about it but tl:dr; I sacrificed sketch layers for colour layers, didn't like the results, and am redrawing most of the 18 pages :'-)

but hey, sometimes you gotta learn things the hard way.... RIP 2 weeks of work on the comic. (I'd taken those weeks off of work-work so when I say 2 weeks... we're talking 80+ hours here)

work on jellyfish has slowed down a lot since, mostly bc of prep for aforementioned event (might have a short zine about gender in the works), but I should be able to focus on it a bit better after the event.

I picked up my mjk script again today though... writing act 2 and it's been challenging! I feel like the beginning of a story is the easiest to write. then, I think the end is slightly easier than the middle? the middle is hard.

rambles aside, here's a cute lil illustration I did for my business cards:

if you are reading this and will be in the south-west of england on 3rd september... come to pridecaf (bristol pride comic art festival) and say hi? it's the event I mentioned tabling at above... I'm very nervous but also. excited!

so I've finished my act 1 thumbnails!! (for now, it's still an early draft)

my next step is asking other people to read them + give me feedback.. I think I have some ideas for how I could improve the comic, but at this point some fresh eyes would be very helpful!

I do feel kinda anxious about it though! this comic is very precious to me and very rough in its current form.. showing it to other people at this stage requires a type of vulnerability I'm not used to and so it's a little scary.

but I shouldn't let that stop me!! I really do want this comic to be the best that I can make it, and I think soliciting some concrit would help a lot!

on that note, if you're reading this and would be interested in giving me some feedback on my act 1 thumbs please contact me! I'm snail-legs#0188 on discord, or alex@snail-legs.co.uk via email

I've been continuing to thumbnail the first act of moon jellyfish kiss, and this one kept making me sympathy yawn!

I'm about 4 pages away from finishing this round of thumbnails now, and it's been really surreal seeing the script I've spent about 3 months working on in comic form! I have a lot of work ahead of me yet, but still.

I find as much as I may write my scripts panel-by-panel and page-by-page, I almost always end up changing things and smoothing them over with my thumbnails! it's very difficult to figure out how well a script will translate into a comic before I start, y'know. translating it.

I also ended up using blender to 3D model lilac's bedroom! mostly because I know juuust enough 3D modelling to make something simple like this, and I didn't want to draw proper thumbnails for it (was drawing a lot of environment thumbnails for work)

I later decided I didn't like the materials I'd managed to hack together because they look a bit tacky, but took the render above before removing them. (it took long enough to make them that I felt a keepsake of some kind was necessary)

concentric circles are THE WORST shape to draw by hand :'-)

my notes on last night's DND session were 100% doodles, so I figured I'd share them here!

the campaign I'm in is actually streamed, vods are here if you'd like to take a peek hehe

some recent moon jellyfish kiss concept art!

not to get too ahead of myself, but I might be looking for beta readers soon 👀

I'm at a point where I want some outside feeback on act 1, so I've started thumbnailing it out! the first scene is fully thumbnailed, but there's an environment I have to design before I can start thumbnailing the other two scenes.

I wasn't expecting body hair to be my favourite change on HRT, but I think it might be? idk, something about seeing my hair start to grow in darker and thicker feels like a reclaimation of my own body. it's oddly healing.

I feel like webtoon is the instagram of webcomics...

some little doodles from my notebook that I liked!

I've switched over to writing my comic scripts in the standard comic script format, and it's very nice. Super legible, and once I figured out how I was going to adapt it to markdown, reasonably seamless for me to write in.

This is more-or-less the markdown I write:

And this is roughly how that ends up looking:

It's not shown in the example above, but I'm also using a h1 for the document title, a h2 to mark new scenes, and a hr to create a page-break after each page.

I use a little css snippet to format the blockquotes I'm using for dialogue/sfx - it removes the default formatting and centers the text.

All that to say that I think the standard comic script is a really good tool. While it may take a little time + thought to integrate it into your workflow, I'd reccomend giving it a go! (and thought I'd share how I'm using it, as someone who scripts his comics in markdown)

I really thought that comics would be what got me drawing environments but nope, it's been concept art!

Comics have definately helped me a bit, but yeah. I've been doing a lot of environment art for work these past ~5 months, and I'm a lot more confident drawing environments as a result!

this is the first time I've gotten so invested in a story/ocs that I'm coming up with AUs in my head for them...

considering actually writing them down & making them as like. little tests/practices for the real thing

thinking about a human/cat cafe AU...

pomodoro technique is useful but always ends up with me just sitting there, waiting for the breaks to end lol

getting to the point of my comic script where the document is getting real long and intimidating to work on aha

thinking it might be smart to split the 3 acts into their own documents... will give it a go after I'm done with the current draft.

I'm usually super tired after work, so I don't often have the brainpower left to write! I took a nap after work today though, and it really helped :)

I was able to enjoy doing a little bit of writing before bed, and it feels nice!

it helps that I'm fairly excited for the comic I'm writing at the moment, too!! this one has a similar tone to the dragon knights, which was a bit of a breakthrough in discovering the type of story I enjoy telling :-)

some little doodles of genshin impact characters I made to sate my desire to draw fanart! these were drawn in pen from memory, so they're not super accurate to any of the actual character designs lol

started my second draft of moon jellyfish kiss!

it's looking like it'll be longer than I'd initially planned lol, but I think I've almost got the structure/pacing down now

I learnt a lot about the story from my first draft, and I'm looking forwards to learning more with this draft! :-)

just moved all of my moon jellyfish kiss stuff over to obsidian and man. I really like this editor, it feels so much better to write in!

notion was nice but it felt a little clunky to me? obsidian feels a little closer to writing in a code editor, and for whatever reason I find that a lot more intuitive lol

started editing my first draft today, and there's A LOT to rewrite but. progress is being made!

made some clip studio paint brushes! [download link]

they're based on pens I have irl and it took a bit of faffing but they feel really nice to draw with :-)

it's interesting to think about the phases I've gone through with my taste in brushes. I've used soft brushes, hard brushes, textured brushes, untextured brushes... a lot of it is about striking a balance that feels good to me, and what "feels good" is often mood-dependant!

I went on a walk today and I'm feeling a lot better :-)

starting to feel a lil burnt-out on drawing,,, I have a long weekend this week though, so hopefully that'll give me some time to recharge :)

it may also be that I need to get better sleep or go outside. maybe I'll go on a walk tomorrow.

cute lil doodle from my physical notebook~

really enjoying the microblog lately :)

it's been such a nice lil outlet! I can ramble about whatever I want with none of the anxieties I get from social media hehe

another study :)

finished the first draft of moon jellyfish kiss the other day! 🎉

gonna let it marinate for a bit while I do some world and character building. I'll come back to it later to figure out how I wanna restructure/rewrite things for the next draft :)

a lunchtime study - painted digitally from direct observation, with a focus on light + colour. I'm especially pleased with how the water in the vase came out :-)

Happy trans day of visibility!

Before I came out, I spent a lot of time feeling alone and afraid and monstrous because of my gender. I still struggle with lingering fears from that time.

Since going on T, I've felt a lot more like myself, and it's been terrifying!

For the majority of my life so far, my gender was my most closely-guarded secret. To be open about who I am puts me in a vulnerable position that I'm very much still adjusting to.

I was fully convinced, for a long time, that noone would recognise me as myself. that they would hate me, for being a stranger to them. it's a specific and difficult type of fear to explain.

I don't know how to properly articulate how much transmasculine visibility would've meant to me then.

All I had at the time were my daydreams, and even those would often turn sour.

I'm doing a lot better now, though I'm still working through some baggage. In part, that's thanks to proud and visible trans men/transmasculine folks.

They showed me that I can be trans and happy. I didn't know that was a possiblility for me, for the longest time.

wanna get back into the habit of doing art for myself again... done lots of art for other people in my free time lately!

time to make stuff for me.

been messing with the format of this page,,, now the lil tag in the top right of each entry is a link to that entry!

also tryna give this place a cosier vibe :-)

accidentally started bullet journalling again and now my notebook is running out of pages :'-)

it has proved really good for keeping my thoughts organised though!

I know a lot of people have really aesthetically-pleasing journals but I think I like mine being a bit of a hot mess - it's gotta be function > form for me, thank you very much

(as much as I love cute stationary, the idea of keeping my notebooks neat and tidy is intimidating... best not make things harder than they need to be!)

sometimes self-care is hiding all your unnamed layers in named folders... if I can't see the layer management nightmare, does it really exist?

started writing another comic... after having made a number of comics with strong gay undertones I feel like it's time. time to write something that is Overtly Gay.

the working title is Moon Jellyfish Kiss, which I think is a really cute name!! it's a romance/fantasy and I am trying very hard to finish my first draft of it,,

I want my script to feel real solid before I start drawing, so I have a lot of work ahead of me writing-wise haha

I really wanna draw this one.. I am prepared for it to take A While though - I draw all day everyday for work, so I'm happy enough to chip away at the comic bit by bit as&when I feel like doing so.

been researching deserts for work and the third youtube search result for them is a minecraft video?? please. youtube. I know I watch a lot of minecraft videos but this is not what I was asking for when I searched "desert" hsdkfgjshg

note to self that linear-burn is a really nice layer blending mode actually and I should use it more often.

so! I got a full-time job as a games artist!! :D

I started Monday last week and it's been great so far! I don't have much leftover art energy for personal work but I think I'm fine with that actually. I need to learn how to rest anyways.

but yeahh, comic/personal art is gonna slow down a fair bit! can't say much about the game I'm working on because NDA, but it's a real fun project :-)

a baby:

I wake up every morning and apply my t gel, shirtless in the bathroom mirror. and in the process of slowly, slowly, becoming, I learn to like my body a little more.

(1 month on T!!)

ok ok so I touched on it in the changelog, but today I woke up and went "hmm. let's get rid of the javascript on my comic pages."

but the trouble with this is that the HTML alternative is to create individual .html files for each page of each comic. and I have a lot of comics on this site- factory town alone has 57 pages!! I did not want to edit all these by hand.

luckily for me, I remembered that I know Python! so I decided some automation was in order.

I haven't programmed anything in like at least two years though?

it took a little trial and error, but in the end I came up with a script that looped through all of the comic images and created a HTML page for each one, adding the correct first/prev/next/last links and other info into a template file using .replace()

it's not perfect and I still had to edit some things manually, but it definately saved some time and was much more entertaining than writing all the .html files by hand would've been.

anyways now I wanna program some more because I'd forgotten how fun it is!!

and for my last drawing of the year, I present to you some more character concept art for the graphic novel I started writing by accident!

I'm still writing it! it's going well. yesterday I worked on fleshing out the characters a bit more, and they all have names now :-)

I've also been putting a lil more thought into each character's background and some of the worldbuilding.

I'll make a proper page for this story at some point, but for now I'll most likely just be sharing bits of concept art here and there.

we had a traditional Belizean christmas dinner this year (chimole for spice-lovers and wonton soup for me) and man. why we've been eating turkey roast all these years when the family recipes are so much tastier I have no idea,,

happy holidays to people who celebrate!

I knitted a cardigan!* I'm super happy with it, though the tension is a little uneven in places.

*I did not make the cardigan in one day, I made it over a couple months! I think I started it in October? also I haven't blocked it yet

also today is my second day on T, feels good, feels good :-)

so I may have accidentally started writing a graphic novel... here is some concept art.

long story summarised, I was going through old sketchbooks the other day and discovered some old OCs I'd forgotten about:

this sketchbook is from 2019-2020, and I have no idea who these characters were, only the name of the story they were attatched to: RIFT.

I thought they were kinda neat though, so I started writing about them. and also redesigned them a bit. and now we're here,,

I've been officially prescribed Testosterone!! Puberty 2, I'm coming for you.