Hello. My past two months have been full of invisible progress - without much to actually show. However, I did some digging and found the old 'novel' draft that paved the way for 'Heroine Rises'!
I'd like to spent this post discussing what the progress on new Heroine Rises is looking like, reflecting on what this comic once was, and how I really stunted my progress by putting too much on my plate.
Heroine Rises: A New Style
Back in June, I said that Heroine Rises would be making a shift from it's real world production to a digital workflow. I expected that the switch would take some time to get used to. It did. However, my own pickiness made this transition unbearably long. I got used to the idea of penciling digitally and enjoyed the tools that enabled me to work faster. Where I really got stuck was everything beyond pencils. Inking and toning.
Inking was difficult because I couldn't find a way to make the digital process feel or look similar to the original style. I tried everything but in the end it was simplicity that won out. I thought back to what equipment I used when working traditionally. The main tools consisted of:
Wide brush pen for dark areas and hair
G-Pen Nib for outlines and big details
Fine-liner pens for minute details, crosshatching, and non-natural structures
At the start of my digital journey, I was using over eight different brushes just because they existed. Now, I only use 3 brushes of varying sizes and I feel so much more in my zone. These brushes feel like the ones I used and the digital style, while still looking different, is really similar to the original style. I finally found a balance two months later!
Toning was also difficult. I still don't feel too comfortable on this one and it plans to change. I can't seem to find a toning style I like. However, this is less of a concern than the inking for me.
The first 12 or so pages of the remastered Chapter 1 will be out by next week. I just need to finish a few background inks and work out some details. I'm sorry that I don't have more to show but I really don't think it'll ever take this long to churn out pages now that I've gotten comfortable working digitally. I plan to release the next part of this Chapter before October 15th! Can you guess why that's a special day? Anyway, to keep you busy until then, I've decided to release a certain work that's been sitting abandoned for too long.
Harbour: The Full Texts
Before Heroine Rises, there was Harbour. Harbour was the name for a series of five novels that would chronicle the adventures of Madeline Harbour. Obviously, this idea was scrapped as I wanted to go for the comic route instead. The elements I played with in Harbour would eventually be scrapped or reworked to fit the more 'action-adventure' story of Heroine Rises.
Before calling it quits on the project, I managed to get a rough draft of the first novel in the series and a (very) rough draft of the first half of the second novel. The other three novels never grew beyond very basic summaries and a handful of disjointed scenes here and there. If the project reached it's end the novel's would be titles are listed below.
Harbour: The Ring of Deceit
Harbour: The Heroic Villainess
Harbour: Catalyst
Harbour: Rise of the Cavalry
Harbour: The Fate of Serenity
Heroine Rises's first three sagas (collections of Arcs) are named after the first three Harbour titles. As you will see, Harbour and Heroine Rises share plot elements like the Ada's Ring storyline. As Heroine Rises progresses, some more plot elements inspired by Harbour will appear. It should be noted that while these elements might be shared, the way they appear in Harbour does not mean that it will appear that way in Heroine Rises.
The characters are also different from their appearance in Harbour. Madeline and Julian are closer to their 'Maddie and Jules!' characters (caricatures of themselves) than they are to the ones that appear in Heroine Rises. Other characters don't even appear! Irene, Maeve, Lorena, and Jamie are critical characters in Heroine Rises but here they play no or a minor role! Everything in Harbour should not be seen as canon for Heroine Rises. Think of it as an alternate universe where terrible writing gets popular!
Final note before the links: This is not good writing. This was my first attempt at writing anything beyond a school paper and despite my efforts to learn creative writing, it still falls miles from my standards now - and worlds away from actual publishable work! There are lots of exposition dumps along with bad pacing and dull characters. I won't blame you if you can't get past the first chapter. (In fact, I almost expect it!) Not to mention the confusing mystery elements I tried to juggle! It was a bit ambitious to try such a big project right off the bat but Harbour dragged itself through mud so Heroine Rises could walk. I will no longer work on this project anymore but in order to keep this site's 'A creative archive' sub tag, I believe that logging a majority of my creative works (good and bad) will be better for me than just pretending they don't exist. Plus, it will be fun to look back at where this all started several years from now! Out with the old and in with the new! Click below to read the mammoth draft (enhanced with comments from yours truly)
Until next week!