Cyber Aurora Update

Cyber Aurora Episode 1 is now available to read on wavecrashstudios.com!!!

I’ll be honest, I was deathly nervous in this undertaking. I legit thought of delaying this comic for one more week to see what other things I could do to the pages.

However, I soon learned that it’s better to take the leap of faith and run with it to the best of my ability.

This comic is my major project, but I take solace in the fact that once I finish this comic, I can work on another comic idea out of the dozens I have on my notebook of ideas.

Also, I found this to be one hell of a learning experience, from the technical and artistic production to marketing.

With all that said, I need to tell you how the Update Schedule of this comic.

Update Schedule

Back in my previous updates, I alluded that the Update Schedule would consist of micro updates which could have been chunks taken from pages.

However, after mulling about it further, I realized that is a poor manner of audience engagement.

As such, I have decided to stick to a Bi-weekly Schedule. For this Episode in particular, I have released six pages. For Episode 2, I will release more pages for Cyber Aurora with a self-imposed minimum of 5 pages per update, and so on as the weeks go by.

This Schedule gives me enough leeway. I have other responsibilities aside from this comic, and this is the best I can come up with regarding my time management.

Conclusion

Now that we got all the formalities out of the way, I shall now employ theatrics in the following.

COME ONE, COME ALL AND READ UP ON CYBER AURORA!

It was the year 20XX on the decadent tropical island of Neo Port. A new technology known as Super Tech has been making the rounds in the island’s underworld. It is up to Aurora to hunt down the super powered technologies before the island’s way of life becomes extinct.

Main Comic Update

I am proud to say that I have now 6 pages of the main comic at the ready to be published on wavecrashstudios.com. Now, I can finally explain exactly the unorthodox trajectory I want to take with this comic.

Normally in the world of comic book publishing, a given serialized comic gets a new chapter/issue at a set time frequency. Most of the time, comic chapters/issue get published once per week or once per month. And that’s the typical system comic book publishers work with.

Since I am self-publishing however, the dynamic changes a lot. I considered publishing a comic chapter on a bi-weekly or monthly basis, but as of now I am juggling with life’s problems which would make the self-publishing process too rigid.

So, I came up with a much yielding publishing system that will work for me. The 6 pages that I have right now of this comic is my Buffer. From the Buffer, I can extract Episodes which can cover from about one quarter of a page to 3 pages. I must take into consideration if a given Episode has a sensible story flow to keep the audience engaged. Once I launch the first Episode, that’s when I will start making more comic pages at my own pace, always keeping the Buffer nonempty.

With all that said, MARK YOUR CALENDARS! STARTING ON MAY 30, 2026, CYBER AURORA WILL BREAK INTO THE SCENE!! SO SUBSCRIBE TO NOT MISS OUT!!

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Here’s the last sneak peek:

I am nearly complete at having 6 pages at the ready. Once that is done, I’ll start releasing episodes of the comic. Here’s another sneak peek:

As I worked on those pages, I kept meandering around with Krita to see what other forms of customization are available. Amazingly, Krita has it’s own plug-in system in which the plug-ins are Python scripts. That’ll surely be a hoot for me to use my programming skills to accelerate my art production! But for now, I need to get the comic out first.

Overthinking when drawing

If you’re an artist, chances are that you spent too long ruminating on a given art piece rather than actively working on it. While we want an art piece to turn out precisely as how you imagined it, those are rare occurrences. Overthinking about how an art piece must turn out creates nothing and consumes everything.

I spent time ruminating on how I want this comic to turn out. But I have to realize that this is one comic idea out of many. It’s a good thing I keep a notebook of ideas.

The trick to stop overthinking is to acknowledge the uselessness of it all. That’s one thing that has made it all the more clear to me. It ties in with that one article I wrote about The Curse of Knowledge:

Ain’t that a kick in the head?

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Main Comic Status

Yesterday, I have finished three pages in a span of two days for my upcoming comic. I want to build up a production step in my workflow wherein I work on three comic pages per day. And that’s after spending one to two days on the thumbnails for a large portion of a given story. I find that doing that particular production step not only saves me time, but it also allows me to look at how the story flows between the pages.

This particular method can work well on both traditional and digital workflows. Speaking of which…

Wrestling with digital bells and whistles

The more I work on digital, the more I discover a lot of the fancy stuff these digital art programs have to speed a process up. But there have been times where I was legitimately struggling in getting the artistic effect that I want.

The art software that I use is Krita. I have dabbled with Clip Studio Paint before, but it’s not available on Linux OS’s. Yes, I did setup a compatibility suite by way of Wine and Bottles, but such setup divorces the files from my main file system on my laptop. It was such a hassle moving and accessing files. That’s partly why I have switched to Krita.

Compared to Clip Studio Paint, Krita has seemingly limited functionalities and other goodies for when making comics. It basically made me relearn the basic tools and how they can be applied for my endeavors.

Clip Studio Paint has a set of tools focused for comic production such as a Page Manager, Screentoning, Dialogue Balloon Tools, to name a few. Krita, on the other hand, does not have a dedicated tool for making Dialogue Balloons. The way adding Screentones on Krita is a bit counter-intuitive and not so straightforward. There are Screentone brushes, but those are mostly pressure sensitive, which is not exactly how Screentones are worked with in traditional formats.

Nevertheless, I found the workarounds that can cut down the time spent on finishing up the comic pages. Despite wanting to have little to no obstacles in my workflows, life will always throw a curve ball. It’s all in the adaptability.

Here’s another little sneak peek before I sign off.

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Comic Project Progress

So far, I have already committed 8 comic pages on my large comic project, all in rough sketches. All I need to do is to have at least 4 pages completed such that I can start uploading whilst keeping a buffer for me to work on. This type of publishing system I devised is intended for me to consistently output my comic predictably. The moment I post the first episode of the comic, then there shall be weekly episodic releases which will be found on my website Wavecrash Studios.

A change in workflow

In order for me to sustain the weekly releases, I have to make the compromise of fully going digital in order to make the comic. But worry not, once I have completed the comic, I will definitely go for print runs, so ye shall hath a book copy. And really, I look around and most people I see are on their smartphones. 😅

That’s all for this update. Short, sweet and to the point…

OK. OK. Here are some sketches I made of animals AND a sneak peek for The Comic.

Heyo! Captain Wavecrash is here with another Wavecrash Weekly Update!

New Website

I am proud to say that I have spun up my new website wavecrashstudios.com!! This choice was made after reflecting upon on how to have the most freedom. It turns out that having one’s own website gives him a strong hold on their creative output.

In my case, having my own website really plays to my strengths as a computer geek, so I know precisely the technical stuff that I need for Wavecrash Studios.

Henceforth, wavecrashstudios.com will be my central hub where I will post all of my comics and other artworks!

In my previous update, I had outlined the platforms I will be using to propel my art for the world to see. What changes is that I will not post my comics on GlobalComix anymore. The rest of the platform use remains unchanged.

The Upcoming Comics

I spent a lot more time working on the website than on my comics. I wanted to absolutely understand the technical stuff I put into the website that I created. It was to make damned sure I don’t let the technical stuff get in my way at the moment I upload my comics in the near future.

With practically everything in my workflow and system all sorted out, I am definitely ITCHING to grab my pencil and do my fun thing~!

I hope to write and draw the story ideas I have accumulated during my art journey and to never run out. So join me on this illustrious adevnture!

What I am currently doing

I am currently working on a tropical cyberpunk comic. This comes after I managed to resolve some workflow issues I was hung up on. As such, I settled for a hybrid workflow of digital and traditional art.

Why hybrid? It’s because I want to have originals on paper in case an EMP or some other electromagnetic phenomenon zaps all of our electronics. I would be devastated if I did all of my art digitally to then not being able to access them ever again.

As for the comic itself, I wrote a seemingly lengthy yet self-contained story. I didn’t want to have to stick with one story for a major part of my art journey because I have oodles of other story ideas I want to bring forth into the world.

Once I have a good enough amount of buffer, I will start releasing episodes of the comic, which will be posted on GlobalComix. I’m not going to set a strict deadline, so stay tuned to these weekly newsletters.

Speaking of which this brings us to the next topic.

Platforms I will be mainly using

After deliberating and mulling about on the different social media platforms among other avenues, I have compartmentalized a handful of platforms to get my stuff going.

Let’s start with this: Substack. I pondered about making blog posts about a couple times per week, but I realized I’m much better off using Substack as a newsletter once every Wednesday. There will come a time where I will monetize on this platform such that paying subscribers get the extra goodies such as some gratuitous risky art.

Second: GlobalComix. For now, GlobalComix will be the go-to platform for you to go and read my comics. You can read a casual comic I made here. I will then eventually drum up a website where I can not only post my comics online, but I can also set up a store to sell merchandise from.

Third: YouTube. This one will more so work as a vlog channel where I will post time-lapse videos whilst I yap about musings among other topics.

Fourth: Instagram. I’m not particularly too fond with this platform because it does not seem to yield much benefits to artists. However, I’ll keep it around as I use it as another source to gather references and to keep track of cool events. As far as posting content there goes, it will mainly be: previews of my comics, really short comics, sketches, etc. Though, I will not be too particularly active on that platform.

And that’s all the platforms I will be working with from herein.

Closing

That’s all for this week’s updates. I hope to keep trucking along and devote myself into this artistic journey. It’s the one journey I feel wholly satisfied with doing forevermore.

Until then, keep on wavecrashing!!

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Now, while I was reading through the list of word prompts, my intention was to create a cohesive story using the word prompts. However, as the list goes on, a significant portion of the word prompts have annoying contextual jumps that would tarnish the rhythm I have managed to start with.

That said, I will aim to continue with the small story I have born from the challenge. Here’s what I have so far:

As you can see, all of my artwork here is done traditionally: from pencils to ink, including the lettering. Why I am doing it all traditionally? That’s for another article. ;)

About Art Challenges

Around 2022, I completed the Inktober challenge: create thirty-one ink illustrations. I completed the challenge with two conditions:

1. The illustrations must be spooky/Halloween themed.

2. The illustrations must be inked with a brush.

I’ll showcase here some of what I consider my best works from the whole challenge.

That challenge was actually worth it because I had no experience inking with a brush, and it was fun.

Therein comes my point regarding art challenges: if you are not having fun doing the challenge, you are free to throw in the towel, no drama.

That Inktober 2022 challenge is likely going to be my one and only because the rest of the Inktober from that point onwards had crummy word prompts which did not fit into the spooky theme of October. And with this February Comic Panel challenge, I was not having fun trying to come up with a cohesive story using strictly the word prompts.

Frankly, I am at a point in my artistic journey where I want to create comics in my own way shape and form. And it’s only getting started.

Now, art challenges are great for those who want to hone specific skills and earn experience. The important takeaway here is to not let such challenges and similar exercises get in the way of what you truly want to create. If a list of word prompts are not doing it justice for you, you are free to make your own list of word prompts and/or improvise.

Artistic freedom thrives when there are limits that have a proper purpose.

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And yet despite all of that, knowledge is not enough to get through the chaotic realm we all collectively call life. One can amass knowledge until their minds become an organic encyclopedia: buying and reading books here, taking out exorbitant loans to finance diplomas and certifications there, hiring mentors to extract their knowledge for other ends…

But such knowledge hoarding will stricken you with analysis paralysis and fear, leaving you stuck and unable to take action. Consuming too much knowledge puts your brain in endless loops of thinking a myriad of possibilities while people around you go their merry way and act upon their desires.

Of course, knowledge by itself is not inherently bad. It’s more so how you act upon it. You would be a retroactive fool if you think reading textbooks on how to draw and/or consuming Udemy courses will make you a kick-ass artist. You’re not an artist until you put the pencil to paper and draw a mermaid riding on a dragon in outer space. You’re not a lover until you ask someone out for a date strolling at a hospital.

All in all, the ideal manner of living is to live and learn. Don’t bother digging through the libraries and/or surf the Internet aimlessly thinking the answers to your life’s troubles will magically appear. Live out the experiences through practice, and learn from the outcomes. Would you rather board a commercial plane flown by a pilot who has flown planes for 35 years but was a college flunkie or by a pilot fresh out of MIT with a PhD in Aeronautics who flew for 2 years?

My mistake in life is thinking that knowledge would pull most of the weight and get me through in life, neglecting other life aspects where knowledge simply does not suffice. Like with all problems in life, there are solutions. It’s a matter of practical application of solutions and adjusting based on real time feedback.

So… What now? Where shall I, Captain Wavecrash, continue in this chaotic merriment of life?

I’ll simply act upon my desires and practice my craft forevermore until my regrets are nevermore, without the Curse of Knowledge binding me down.

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