soushiyo

August newsletter

Hello happy month 8. Also known as LEO/VIRGO SEASON which is a blessed event because ya boy is a leo/virgo cusp. I'm sure you are all very surprised by this.

Familiar news roundup:

Thumbnails for 09 are.... done. ???

July was rough for me for personal reasons. Nothing devastating or really worth complaining about, but I was woefully unproductive and barely got the thumbnails for 09 done. They're.... done. It'...

August calendar

This is my fave calendar to date. 

ETA Wep Ronpet on 5 Aug!

industry experience

From 09. Wonder what Sybil's designing for Diana?

colins

I'm having a kind of art block week so I've been spending my time organizing folders and Patreon tags and while I was going through my scrap folder I found this: a Colin O'Donoghue face study thing I did for when I was working on Jack's design early on.

Which begs the question... Jack with stubble... hmmm....

Housekeeping

Hi. Hello. Howdy.

Just an update on that thing I said I was going to do, which is to go through all my posts and update/fix the tags. I've been notoriously disorganized (henceforth known as "notorganized") with tagging. And then Patreon makes post management/tag management so cumbersome every time I sat down to do it, I would start getting timeouts and so on. 

Anyway, this morning I sat down and did it! I removed about 15 redu...

August calendar poll

Happy 1-week-before-the-end-of-the-month! (?) 

Time for the August calendar poll. Who should feature? The theme will continue to be summer, this time with an emphasis on Lammas, maybe something with orchards/produce gardens. 

Poll will run through Tuesday to give me time to complete the wallpaper before August 1.

Desk Job cover

Thought y'all might like to see this before the cover goes up end of the month. H aha ha hahahahhhah

THANK YOU

Ahhh! Woke up to see y'all brought me to over $400/month here on Patreon dot com. I know some people think it's tacky to talk about money but like, literally that's what we're doing here, and I want to thank you all for this. This is a point at which the utilities in my household are covered by this Patreon. Like, that's something I can't fully express gratitude for. So just, thank you, thank you, thank you!

Desk Job - thumb preview

Thank the Influencers for this one. The final page thumbnail for 1X Desk Job. :)

catnip

I think someone asked bout this on curiouscat. But here's a panel preview from Elixir. 

WIP - Diana & Rosey

Pushing my comfort zone a little with.... perspective.... Ewwwwwwwww, perspective ewwww

July newsletter

Ahoy, mateys. It's time for the July newsletter.

Right so first of all, some Patreon tomfoolery. 

I don't know what's going on with Patreon lately, but it's annoying and disruptive. This morning I believe it was down for a couple hours, which prevented a lot of people from updating their payment info on expired credit cards and so on. It also prevented me from writing this newsletter, AND when I try to send DM...

July calendar!

Freddi feat. chub

There's only one mobile version since his junk is not visible in it. You will have to imagine it on your own :0

ETA I GUESS I SHOULD ATTACH THE WALLPAPERS

Old-ass concept art

I just updated the website with artwork and while I was doing so I FOUND THIS LMAO

This is one of the first colored pics I worked on while developing this series. Why does Jack look like a werewolf? Why does Diana look like Anastasia from 50 Shades? Who can really say.

Still I thought it was funny so I'm sharing it. Happy Friday.

2020-06-26 16:56:11 +0000 UTC View Post

Thirsty Thursday

Just an update on this one.

July pinup calendar poll

Since we've cycled through Diana, Jack, and Rosemary, I think we should do Freddi for July. (frankly we should all do Freddi every month) So instead for the poll, let's vote on the theme. July's overall theme will be summer. I guess National Bikini Day (USA) is July 5 which I'd rather celebrate than the 4th this year because reasons. 

Anyway, for Freddi's calendar, let's pick a theme:

Chapter 07 CENTER - Advanced Access

Hi.

Not a lot to say. Speaks for itself. Thanks so much for your patronage... can't believe we're actually out of the flashback. Here we go!

https://familiar.soushiyo.com/comic/07-00/ 

password: bzzzzt

Updated the character page

 https://familiar.soushiyo.com/characters/ 

New profile images! Ahhhh! and...

NEW CHAPTER TOMORROW!

Process: Writing fake books

One of the things I set myself up for without really realizing it in the beginning was all the fake books I was going to have to write if Diana is an editor. I do actually write all this stuff and then warp it/integrate it into the pages -- sometimes beyond legibility. (So why do I write it even if it's not going to be legible, and then tell everyone about it? Because I'm A LEO/VIRGO CUSP BABY)

So for this week's process post, here's som...

bonus preview

Happy Friday

Jack is so cute in this panel I had to share it.

ETA ALSO THIS. Chapter 00 vs Chapter ELIXIR wow

Process: Production!

This is REALLY boring, but here we go: A list of things I do after the script is cleaned up and the pages are more or less ready to go:

• Make sure the items from the poll are properly implemented. For example, the poll for Chapter 07 was about Diana's outfit, and I had put that off until... this week. Above is how I did the original thumbnail to leave room for whatever outfit the Influencers picked. 
• Check Diana's dots...
  2020-06-11 18:43:46 +0000 UTC View Post

Process: Diana's wardrobe

I meant for this to go out yesterday.

When I originally started thinking about what kind of comic I wanted Familiar to be, I decided I wanted to go full slice of life about New York and aesthetic. I wanted to try to show real life things like characters who wear different outfits, cityscapes and stuff like that. It's been an ambitious goal and I'm not really where I want to be yet, but I'm getting there.

One thing that really helps...

June

Boy. 

This will probably be short, but here's your June newsletter.

Chapter 2X ELIXIR

I didn't finish the thumbnails for this chapter but I did pick a title (I was going back and forth between SALVE and POTION but I actually love ELIXIR the best). I'm about 2 pages off of finishing it so I am pretty sure I'll be able to wrap up the thumbnails this month, if not still manage to finish the chapter. Good ne...

June calendar pinup

This wasn't really the pinup art I meant to draw for the calendar, but it is the only thing that feels right at the moment. So here's Jack honoring the legacy of Marsha PAY IT NO MIND Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, Stonewall, and the many other trans women of color who brought us Pride. 

More in the newsletter which I think I'll have up today or tomorrow. In the meantime I wanted to make sure you all got this.

Stay strong.

J 2020-06-01 16:11:48 +0000 UTC View Post

update

Hi,

This is a message to let you know that I am running late with the June calendar art (Jack). I meant to do it this weekend but I have been preoccupied in my community.  I just haven't had a chance to draw. My feet are sore from pavement, my voice is sore from screaming, and my heart is sore from grief. I am furious and exhausted and deeply saddened. I have been diverting all of my energy toward and on behalf of my community of co...

Process: thumbnails into finals

Here's a look at sort of when stuff happens from the page planning level between thumbnails and my finals, using a page from 07 CENTER. Familiar is basically my first and only sequential project so I'm nowhere near saying my layouts are GOOD, but I can describe my process. Ha ha ha!

During thumbnails, I'm basically trying to lay the tracks for the comic so I can get a sense of what happens on each page. I do all my thumbnails for a chapt...

June calendar pinup poll

Hey there! Last week of May so it's time for the pinup calendar poll. June's calendar will be themed around the summer solstice. Who should we feature?

(side note: June celebrates the Hawthorn and Oak, which are Jack trees, so uh. Just a side thing. Yanno. Cough.)

Patreon's new tax thing

Hey,

As you may have heard, either from other creators or Patreon itself, there are some tax rules changing that are out of my control. I'm configuring my Patreon settings in the hopes I can minimize the amount of tax you are charged, but I am not sure exactly what is going to be taxed, to whom, or how much. It depends on where you live and what is considered taxable there.

Here's the form letter Patreon suggested I send to Patrons...

Process: moving text bubbles

Hi!

I'm going to try to post more frequently. I really want to, and I'm working on Familiar every day, but I feel like most of the stuff I have to talk about is really boring. But it occurs to me that maybe I just think it's boring, and other people like this kind of stuff. 

SO, I'm going to start trying some little process posts. At least once a week, maybe more. It keeps me motivated because interest and excitement to share ...

thirsty as hell

Trying out a new thing where I don't even draw the text bubbles on the thumbnail

Efficient, or lazy?!