Note: Most posts won’t be this long. Since I’ve already drawn and posted chapter 1, I just wanted to get it all out of the way

I started writing Fortune’s Fancy in September and somewhere in October, where my posts about it got little attention, someone asked if it was a webocomic.

So I drew up the first page and I really enjoyed it. I recommend drawing main characters and the first few scenes a few dozen times before actually starting a webcomic. In the first few pages, how Drexel’s hair is drawn changes a few times. Drexel and Mira’s proportions change a little as well. My overall process has developed a lot through chapter 1.

So, I hate drawing backgrounds. But it would be a very boring story if everything was on gray. I used a lot of textured brushes and blur the background so the focus in on the characters yet I have interesting settings. Honestly in most scenes the background is slow to change. Most of the story takes place in Drexel’s house or in Northwick. I don’t need to draw a lot of different complex settings.

I really felt clever for the fire background, but Drexel looks too old. I meant for him to look extra sad and sort of aged, not about to turn to dust.

Drexel destroyed a large portion of a very large city with a single spell. It’s discussed more in chapter 3 (In which there are thunderstorms). It is the reason he lives alone. My plan is to draw a lot of flash back scenes in that chapter to break up the dialogue.

I love Drexel’s “what?” face. It’s only going to get better. The “what” face returns many times.

There’s a weird green line that magically appeared behind Drexel. I’m too lazy to go back and fix it, but it’s one of my favorite thumbnails from the chapter.

Is Drexel sad? Let’s see if there’s a close up of his eyes.. Yeah, he’s sad. I spent a long time getting Penta’s (Orterian Wine) eyebrows to look sort of angry, so drawing Drexel’s eyebrows was the opposite. But I’ve learned a lot about how to make someone look sad.

The magic is a lot of overlay layers and bright colors. Mira’s fireball was super fun to draw. I’m very excited for the fireballs in chapter two. Bigger, better, bluer?

Anytime Mira mentions being free or freedom, birds appear. This alludes to chapter two (In which Mira learns a lesson), where Drexel does her room in a bird motif. Later, Drexel gives her the nickname, Little Bird.

Mira says “Resultum wasn’t your fault.” Drexel replies “Were you even born yet?” She was not. Mira is 17 at their first meeting and Resultum was 22 years ago. Don’t worry, I explain why Mira knows these things and why she sought Drexel out.

Note on page 6: Mira’s hands were easy. Drexel looking over his shoulder gave me trouble, but it’s one of my favorites.

This page (page 8) was 9 panels. And they all had house backgrounds. I almost died. Most pages take around 4 to 6 hours, I think this one took over 6. However, I love the juxtaposition between Mira and Drexel entering Northwick. Drexel being nonchalant almost sad and Mira being super happy, especially since Drexel just agreed (sort of) to take her as an apprentice.

Can we agree that Rowan is adorable? I don’t know what 12 year olds look like.

Totally Penta and Belhear from Orterian Wine. After drawing the first panel of page nine with like 12 people in it, I ran out of faces. They would never be this mean to Drexel. Belhear doesn’t have a mean bone in is body.

On page 9, I didn’t add the ellipses until I had finished the entire page. And yes, that house took forever. I had to use some references of Victorian houses. I don’t like the idea that all fantasy is medieval. I used a brush to get the points on the fence. Probably would have been a good idea to work from back to front on the house, but I did not.

I could also have named this section “In which there are rats of unusual size.” There’s some big rats in there. I had a lot of fun doing the lighting in the last few pages. I started with the shadow color and added the normal base color as a highlight (usually the other way).

At this point, Drexel and Mira are pretty solid on appearance. I don’t think Mira evolved as much, but I haven’t noticed any derpy faces in chapter 2… yet.

The background through the Longbottom house is a lot of shapes with some quick vague shapes for paintings. Since they blur anyway, there portraits take maybe half an hour? I got those bad boys out pretty fast.

That water pump spout thing, right? It went pretty smooth too. I use the red in a lot of other places (the rooves, Mrs. Longbottom’s dress, everywhere). I used a low opacity brush with a light blue to make the water, then went over another time for the highlights.

If we feed Drexel pie all day, there’s no story. Technically, according to the prose, this is breakfast. Grown wizard license.

I just really loved the cherry pie closing out the chapter. Yeah, I’ll use the elliptical tool to make better plates and tables….