slr2moons | "If Only..." Vampirates Doujinshi, part 1 of 3

Here it is, minna! The first two pages of my 6-page practice doujinshi, done for the awesome webcomic Vampirates. I can find no more to obsess over in these pics....and I really need to stop obsessively tweaking anyway. It took me a year to make it this far. Even granting several bouts of Work Hell, and my 2,000 mile move, and giving the previous post's giftpic priority, it took me much too long to finish. I'm gonna have to work on my speed. T.T *headdesk* Another goal to meet!

The more I used Deleter ComicWorks, the easier it became. Of course. But more than that, I can appreciate its qualities now more than when I wrote the Deleter vs. Photoshop review. The inability to zoom to any magnification,for example. That prevents me from my aforementioned obsessing over tiny details that no one will be able to see in the final product anyway. The Deleter veteran who commented on that same entry said the pencil tool in the proggie was wonderful, and I admit I had my doubts. But having to redraw several things to correct errors while in Deleter, I came to appreciate that pencil tool. The veteran was right, it IS wonderful. =D And so much faster to sketch with than the pencil or brush in Photoshop. I'm also now spoiled by the ability to rotate the pic without changing its orientation in Deleter to allow me to find the best angle for drawing those long swooshy lines. I don't have to use it all the time, but when I do, it's great.

I was delighted to discover that--OMG YAY--Deleter will allow me to save my finished file in Photoshop format and preserve the layers!!!! This is a wonderful thing, believe me! For example, that lets me place white stroke around small FX with no effort at all--something I was worried about. (This means I don't have to tone around small FX since I can white stroke over the tone later. YEAH!) XD

I have found, however, that Deleter can crash spectacularly. It only did it three times and didn't cost me any work--but only because it unfroze long enough the 2nd time to let me save. Then promptly crashed again. :B Thus, I am reminded that it is best to save whenever I accomplish anything major or time-consuming that I really don't want to do again. *pained expression*

The spark of inspiration for this doujinshi hit me almost a year ago when I had Vampirates on the brain and tried to take a nap. Obviously this was before the truth about a certain character was revealed, which thoroughly Jossed my idea. T.T But I liked my story too much to change it, so my doujinshi is officially AU. Ah well!!!

Title: If Only...
Rating: PG-13 for suggestive themes and (in-character) use of the F-bomb.
Genre: gender switch AU, comedy BL/slash. The first page is safe for any who might want to see my stuff but want to avoid teh gay.
Length: first two pages of 6-page set.
NOTE: reads right to left, like manga from Japan, 'cuz I like it that way. ^^

That guy dancing in my icon?? He's in this. X3

These pages can also be viewed at my Deviant Art account: page 1 and page 2

Technical info: Sketched in Photoshop, then inked and toned in Deleter ComicWorks. Back to Photoshop for type and final tweaks. Originals are at 600 dpi. Artistic influences are Jones (the creator of Vampirates), Nakamura Yoshiki, Yazawa Ai, and Tanemura Arina.

Page 1 notes: I am especially proud of Clyde in panels 1 and 3. Chibi Clyde on panel 4 was so much fun to draw! :3 The sheet in panel 2 gave me a great deal of trouble. I had to redraw it about 5 times before I could be satisfied. Also I had a difficult time choosing the background tone in panel 1. For all the tones that came with Deleter, they didn't have the one I wanted, so I had to improvise. I'm thinking I'll be buying a set of tones soon. (I wonder if Deleter ComicWorks can use tones made by other companies...)

Page 2 notes: I'm still amazed I drew this. *^^* You can see my love of big manly hands on this page. I rendered them with much ~~drooling~~ caring detail. *happy sigh* And ohhhhhhh!!! Hassan's hair!!!! *swoons* It took four tries for me to get the shine to work, and once I figured it out it took forever to actually finish, but I did it! XD Nakamura-sensei of Skip was my guide for the hair shine and for everyone's eyes. :3 Shading the sheet was a definite problem that took me hours to solve. If I tried a dot tone, it didn't stand out enough from the guys. If I made it a pattern sheet, it just looked tacky. But left bare of shading, it was obviously naked. Go with a dark sheet and it blended with Hassan's skin and caused technical with the backgrounds. I finally latched on to using a line tone for shading thanks to Tanemura-sensei, so I tip my hat to her.

And now, time for me to get busy on page 3! Those who know Vampirates can likely guess who the main feature of that page will be, based on that last word bubble on page 2. X3