Hi friends, long time no post? Sort of? I’m here to resolve this posting drought by….posting about not posting. Hmm.
As you might have already read if you’re up to date with the goings-on on Follower, or via the Chio Club, I’m going through some kind of burnout and need to take a bit of a sabbatical from Follower itself. I don’t have a specific planned date for returning (although I am hoping it’ll be by summer) and I don’t have a specific plan for the meantime. But I do have plans.
The long and short of the story is that real-world happenings as well as at-home happenings are starting to affect my health, mentally and physically. The conditions I have are aggravated by stress, so when something “bad” happens, I feel the effects for days afterward in the form of pain and fatigue. It hasn’t been good.
With that out of the way: what am I doing now?
My current plan is to keep making art, but keep it loose. I got a new sketchbook where the whole point is just “draw anything and don’t be precious about it.” I’ve been doodling a few little autobio comics for fun and something alternative to the more in-depth work that is Follower. I might pick up some writing I’ve let sit for a long time, I might attempt to work on a game idea I’ve been picking at for half a decade. I want to make things and I don’t want to confine myself to a rigid schedule because right now, I don’t think I can do it.
So I find myself in the wilderness, a bit. There’re a few paths among the trees here, and maybe I’ll try them all. I want to revive the part of me that lives and breathes art. It’s been a long time, and things recently have been a crushing blow that makes it hard to keep that little spark alive. But I’m doing all I can. If I’m not making art and telling stories, I really don’t know what else I could visualize myself doing with my life.
Chio Club members have already gotten some small peeks at some things I’ve been doing, and I’m working on preparing more updates soon. I’ve been adding posts to the free tier on Patreon, as a kind of mini-update thing. Also, feel free to join the quiet-but-friendly Discord. It’s been….extremely slow… but I might start hanging around there more. I am also trying to put together some low-stress stream ideas, so if there’s anything you want to see me play or work on, feel free to pitch it and we’ll go from there!
Anyway, that’s about it for right now… I’ll likely be posting here more, both blog posts and art updates. I hope you’ll join me for my exploration!
P.S. While I have you here: Teepublic is doing yet another 35% off sale on everything in my shop, so if you’d like any comic merch or other stuff with my art on it, now’s a great time! This is also going into my savings for trying to move us into better housing, hopefully by the end of this year.
Well, I thought I was being silly making a graphic out of emojis but wow do those ever look goofy zoomed in that much. Anyway…
It’s harder than ever to be an artist online in this day and age. It’s a constant battle to be seen in a sea of other content, to make enough money to support at least making the art, if not staying alive in general, and to even get paid in the first place when payment platforms are constantly changing what’s allowed and what’s not, along with changing their basic features and fee structures on a whim. It’s rough out there.
But you, dear reader and art lover, can do more than you think to help your favorite artists, and a lot of it can even be done for free, costing you nothing at all! I’m posting some of the ways that I personally have found to be most helpful for my work, and I recognize that every artist is different, so take this all with a grain of salt. But some tips are universal, and I can guarantee that every artist you support will be thankful for your efforts and appreciation of their work.
1. Support their subscription sites
Yeah, I know, this is the thing that got me going on this topic in the first place. It seems like Patreon makes one really goofy change per year and makes everyone mad, and rules everywhere change wildly in general depending on what credit card company is dogging any given platform about its creators this week. NSFW content? Even harder. So if an artist links to a Patreon, Ko-Fi, itch.io, Kickstarter campaign, or other funding source, that’s probably one of the most direct ways of helping them. Everyone uses these funds differently, some of it is used for general income and survival, and some of it can fund merch or art-making, depending on the individual artist, but no matter what, this kind of thing puts money directly into the hands of the artist and helps to guarantee that you’ll see more of the comics or other creations you love.
2. Buy their merch
Merch can mean a lot of things in this day and age. It can be everything from stickers and buttons, to physical books and prints, to digital books, to private streams or custom commissions. And that’s the cool thing about supporting artists: you usually get some unique thing in return for your help. On my support sites, I give folks who pledge $5+ per month access to all of my digital books that would otherwise be for sale individually. I’ve also got a bunch of print on demand merch that usually makes me a buck or two every month. But the point is, even these little things add up and put money in the pocket of your favorite creator.
3. Follow their social media (and interact with it!)
All right, this one can be exceptionally fraught these days. If an artist you like is posting on social media, following them is a great first step. It shows them (and other people looking at their follower count) that they’re interesting and worth checking out. While numbers aren’t everything, it’s definitely a morale boost to see it go up. What’s even more of a morale boost is hearing from the audience when they post a new comic page or a new drawing. Knowing that it was seen, enjoyed, and appreciated in some way does a world of good. Better still is if you share that post with your own followers – reblog, repost (as in using the repost function of the site – most artists don’t like it if you just grab the image and post it again yourself because that can make it harder for people to find the original artist!) Interaction can also help posts be more visible on platforms with more stringent algorithms. It shows the algorithm that people are interested in whatever this thing is, and pushes it further to more people in a ripple effect. Algorithms are a pain to fight against, but you can help artists win that battle by boosting, reblogging, and replying. Show those robots who’s boss. All of this probably makes most creators sound like raging egotists, and some of those probably do exist, but mostly it’s more like watering a little plant that needs some encouragement and hydration to grow. Just, the hydration comes in the form of nice comments and shares. You get what I’m saying.
In this day and age, it can be difficult to figure out who is posting where anymore, but I’ve personally found that Bluesky seems to have the most staying power of all the newer platforms I’ve tried in the past year or so. The vast majority of artists I was following on other sites are there now, and there are quite a lot of nice features. Custom feeds take the place of the algorithm, and actually let you see things you’re interested in seeing. The art and comics community is growing every day, and just needs more audience to make it sustainable long-term. If you aren’t yet on Bluesky and want to give it a try, you can join using my Starter Pack so you’ll automatically be following me and a bunch of other creators I’ve curated to make your new experience fun and interesting! Use this link to join: https://go.bsky.app/6bkkLyZ
Of course, who knows what’s going to happen month to month these days, so making sure you bookmark your favorite artists’ websites is a good way to make sure you never lose track of them. Then again, there are two more great options for that which are my next two points below.
4. Use RSS for their websites if it’s available
RSS is a really useful and not-well-known-enough feature that lets you keep track of your favorite artists and websites. Most (but not all) websites automatically have RSS feeds available. If you know how to use social media or save a bookmark, it’s not much more difficult to use than that. I wrote a post on it a while back, and there are other good explainer posts by Kiriska and Jay Pawlik that can help you get it set up on your device. RSS is sort of like having your own personal feed of just website updates. It’s always in chronological order, and you always get it when there’s a fresh new post. RSS unfortunately fell out of fashion when Google killed Google Reader, but there are a lot of up and coming new reader apps and sites, in addition to old open source favorites that have been around for ages.
Read my how-to guide on using RSS to get your favorite comics (and other web content) delivered to you!
My current favorite reader app is Omnivore, which I discovered recently. It works on mobile devices as well as through a web interface, and it’s free to use. You can add RSS feeds to it and get notified when there’s new stuff to read, and you can also save individual posts or articles that you want to come back and read later. I use this feature because when I’m reading books I tend to highlight and make notes like a fiend, and this lets me do the same thing with web articles. Finding out that RSS was a feature was an unexpected delight. But, there are many, many apps and readers out there – there’s bound to be something that fits your needs and use habits!
How does this help artists? It lets them show off the things they really want you to see on their website, in the way they were intended to be seen or read. They also won’t get lost in the shuffle of social media, and you don’t have to remember to come back and check a bookmark. RSS stands for really simple syndication, and that’s the truth. It’s really, really simple.
5. Sign up for their newsletters
Not every artist has a newsletter, but a lot do, these days. Signing up for a newsletter is easy, generally costs nothing (unless it’s through a subscription site sometimes) and helps an artist gauge their audience’s interest. Who is interested enough to directly follow them? How many people? Sometimes it’s hard to get an accurate read on audience size and interest, so this is one way to help show creators you love that you love their work: you love it so much that you want to get it right in your inbox when they’re ready to tell you all about it. One of the nice things about newsletters is that depending on the style, it’s sometimes like receiving a little personal letter from someone. A lot of folks talk a bit about what they’re working on, what they’re doing, how their life is going, and so on. It feels a bit more personal than other types of notifications, and it’s kind of pleasant. I use my newsletter as a cross between a little update about what’s going on in my world lately, what new things I’ve made, what merch of mine is on sale, and what’s going on in the community.
Subscribe to the Radio Chio newsletter!
6. Once you’ve done steps 4 and 5, share it with friends.
Word of mouth is truly one of the best ways to help spread the word about artists and creators and help them get out there. Chances are, if you like something, you probably have at least a couple of friends with similar interests, right? Pass along a link to something cool your favorite artist has made, or forward their newsletter to a friend who might find it interesting! It’s super difficult to find readers in a specific niche, especially in an area like webcomics, so if you know someone who might also enjoy a creator’s work that you already love, you’re doing a huge favor to the creator by sending them to a friend. There’s a chance that your friend will love them, too, and continue to get the word out, or support the creator in other ways. It seems obvious, but grabbing a link to a comic page, art portfolio, or other content and sharing it via whatever social media you use helps to reach new people who might never see it otherwise. Audience building is tricky work, but it definitely helps if you hype up your favorites.
7. What else are they making? Follow that, too.
Does one of your favorite creators also make Youtube videos, TikToks, or post to sites like Webtoons and Tapas? Do they stream on Twitch or other platforms? A lot of these sites specifically reward creators for higher subscriber counts. This means they’ll literally get paid for making the stuff they already love making in some cases. It costs you nothing other than a minute or two to make an account if you don’t already have one and hit the follow button, and getting their numbers up helps show the platform that their content is well-received. Sometimes this comes in the form of an ad revenue share, or a direct payment based on views, but in any case, it helps!
8. Request their books from your local library.
Okay, this one requires a few steps, and I’m not totally sure about the process outside of how it works in most of the US, but you can request books through your local library, and they will buy it, and usually you get first dibs on it if they do. The vast majority of authors and creators love this, because it’s a free and easy way to get their work in front of new eyes, and since the library is buying at least one copy (often more than one copy, especially if it’s a popular title) they get paid for it. And, when those copies are worn out from circulation, they often buy more new copies. Libraries are major book buyers, and you can work that to your advantage if your favorite creator has a book out. There may be some caveats if it’s a small press or self-published title, but that depends on the individual library. Again, I’m no expert, but I’ve also heard that at least in Canada (and possibly other countries) authors are paid again when their books are checked out of the library. So, bonus if you live in one of those places!
As far as donating copies of books, that can be more challenging. Not all libraries accept donations that will end up on the shelves. These books can frequently end up in the book sale pile, or worse, trashed. Why? Because they often don’t fit the needs of the library’s collection. That’s why the best way to get a book into the library is to request it. By asking, you’re demonstrating an interest of the public at large, and librarians always want to be able to pull in more patrons by keeping the collection useful, modern, and relevant. Requesting a book shows that one, if not more, people are genuinely interested in reading this item, and more people might come in to check it (and other books) out.
I mean, it’s true.
9. Join their community.
Having a community is more important than you’d believe to keeping things like a webcomic alive. Not only does it provide much-needed motivation for the creator to know their work is being read and enjoyed, but you can benefit from it, too. If you’re looking for like-minded people to hang out with online, that’s one way to find them. As if I need to put this out there in this day and age, but a lot of creators either run or are part of fan-run Discord or Telegram servers, which are only as active as the community around them. (Mine’s a little sleepy…) But more active servers often run group activities and do stuff together, including but not limited to, creating memes of the webcomic the server is for. Stuff like this can help them reach new people because it naturally makes them curious about where it came from and who these weird characters are. It’s just another way of helping get the word out and making your favorite comic or artist more visible to the rest of the world.
Join us. Join us!!
10. Tell them how much you enjoy what they do.
Look, okay, I get that I’ve kind of implied this already in other bullet points on this list, but I can’t explain well enough how much it means to hear a nice word about whatever you’re making now and again. I keep a secret folder of nice comments I’ve received so when I’m feeling down about my work, I can remind myself that people are interested in it and do like what I make and I’m not the world’s biggest failure and… you see where I’m going with this. As long as you’re not like, sending creepy messages and stalking your favorite creator, they’re probably really going to appreciate hearing what you liked about the latest thing they made. That’s why they shared it online in the first place, and it can be hard to keep going sometimes when you feel like you’re throwing your work into an echoing void. A little kindness goes a long, long way, and knowing that readers have resonated with your work can be like a a rope thrown down a deep hole to pull you back up.
11. (Bonus!) Sign up for their Backerkit/Zoop/Kickstarter Projects-to-be!
This one didn’t hit me until I was almost done writing all this, but since one of the biggest ways lots of creative projects (especially comics) get made these days is through crowdfunding, it seemed important to share this one, too.
In a lot of cases, creators using sites like Backerkit and Zoop need to collect emails of prospective backers to help demonstrate that their project is viable. If you’re considering supporting your favorite artist’s new graphic novel or other project, you should add your email to their list. As much as we all grumble about it, numbers matter (sometimes). Pre-launch numbers show the creator how many people are actually interested, the site hosting them that the concept floats with the audience, and can also get even more backers on board by proving that you won’t be the only one who signs up. It’s an important snowball effect that can make a project successful even before it’s officially started.
Of course, I wouldn’t suggest signing up if you have no intention of backing just to inflate the numbers. That could actually hurt the creator in the long run, if people falsely claim interest and then don’t make good on it. Projects like this only become real with proper funding, and while showing interest helps, it’s just one step toward success in the long run, but it’s one you can contribute to if you have genuine interest!
Thank you for reading!
Thank you so much for reading this ramble of an article, and I hope I’ve shared an idea or two you haven’t thought of before.
So, once again, Patreon has Done Something, or Patreon and Apple have Done Something, but either way, it’s the kind of thing that affects basically every creator using the Patreon platform, and yet again, here I am, having to say something as a result.
Before I proceed much further: if you are a current subscriber to our Patreon, or a prospective one, make sure you are subscribing through a browser on your computer or using the Safari browser if you use an iPhone/iPad. Because it’s not using the official Patreon app, you won’t get hit with the extra 30% fee.
The short version is, because Patreon decided they needed an app in the iOS store, Apple is subjecting them to the same rules they use for every other app, which means that they require a fee of 30% of whatever purchases are made through the app. I think this is stupid on their part, because the app doesn’t offer much extra in terms of features or functions that the website doesn’t already do, but their choice, I guess. Their explanation is quoted from their post on the subject below:
“As we first announced last year, Apple is requiring that Patreon use their in-app purchasing system and remove all other billing systems from the Patreon iOS app by November 2024.
This has two major consequences for creators:
Apple will be applying their 30% App Store fee to all new memberships purchased in the Patreon iOS app, in addition to anything bought in your Patreon shop.
Any creator currently on first-of-the-month or per-creation billing plans will have to switch over to subscription billing to continue earning in the iOS app, because that’s the only billing type Apple’s in-app purchase system supports.
Before we go any further, we want to be crystal clear about one thing: Apple’s fee will not impact your existing members. It will only affect new memberships purchased in the iOS app from November onward.”
What does this mean? If you subscribed through your computer or web browser, nothing. If you subscribed using the iOS app, maybe something. I am planning to take the option Patreon has given to increase iOS in-app subscription prices by 30%, because I can’t really afford to let a couple of multi million (and trillion) dollar companies eat into the little bit I’m able to make. Money from Patreon covers web hosting, domain name costs, software subscriptions, not to mention my increasing medical costs due to my disability, and other general survival. Ugh. I’m pretty annoyed by this turn of events, because all it does is smear Patreon even further and turn away potential new subscribers because it sounds like unnecessary complication and stuff that people just don’t want to deal with. Can you blame them?
In addition to all of this, I learned yet another ridiculous detail while checking Bluesky as I’m writing this right now, which is that purchases made through the iOS app don’t translate to immediate payments to the creator. It can take up to 75 days. Why? Who knows! That’s just Apple’s policy! (Thanks to @jendrawscomics.bsky.social for sharing this info.)
Regardless of all of this, I’m sort of stuck with Patreon because it has the most brand recognition of similar platforms and I currently have more supporters there than in other places. I could close it and suggest that everyone move to Ko-Fi, but I don’t realistically see that happening, because, again, who wants to deal with the complexity of changing entire platforms? This change is hostile to both creators and patrons.
I’ll be updating the Chio Club website with more information soon. I use that as the hub for anyone who wants to subscribe anywhere or support my comics in any fashion, so this little asterisk needs to go up there soon. But I’m also planning to clarify any other information about supporting Follower and our other comics in other ways, too.
In any case, I will keep you updated on any changes that I am making, and any silly thing that Patreon is doing and how it affects me. I am endlessly grateful for our Patreon supporters; in many instances you’ve literally helped keep me alive and functioning by funding my medication, and you keep my art alive online by paying for the tools to do that.
I think one of my next pieces is going to be about supporting artists online in general, both through financial and free means, so please look forward to it! As part of this, I’m also working on assembling a little Bluesky Starter Pack of comic artists, sci-fi/fantasy indie authors, and other creators, so if you’d like to be part of that please please jump on Bluesky and let me know! I’d love to showcase more creators who aren’t necessarily the same big names that get added to other packs, and hopefully draw in some more folks to Bluesky.
I had the opportunity recently to try out an Apple Pencil alternative from SPGUARD.
Full disclosure: I received the product for free in exchange for making a video about it. If you buy one through my TikTok shop link, I receive a commission. I was not asked to make a positive review or to make any specific statements about the product; this is all based on my experience and opinion.
I’ve seen folks posting about alternative styluses (styli?) for use with the iPad for some time, since the official Apple Pencil can be pretty expensive, and even some of the big brand name alternatives like the Logitech Crayon are also kind of pricey. Since I’ve really only used the Apple Pencil with my iPad (aside from a non-smart stylus on my ancient gen 2 iPad years ago for sketching only) I was curious about how well these kinds of devices work. It would be great if there were cheaper alternatives out there that work decently well. I get most of my art tools on a budget; they’re either gifted to me by family, something I can afford because it’s usually student grade, or I grab it while it’s discounted, especially in the case of software. I know a lot of other artists work on a similar tight budget, so I jumped on the opportunity to give this cheap alternative a try and share the results with you all.
An important note before I get too far into this: this pencil only works with iPads from 2018 or newer. My personal iPad is from 2017, and it definitely doesn’t work with this. So just be careful before buying to make sure your device is one that will work! I had to borrow a newer iPad to do this review.
The SPGUARD Pencil charges with USB-C, so you’ll need a cable and a place to plug it in. It does have a magnetic strip to stick to newer iPads, but it doesn’t charge this way. It comes with a cable and of course, the Pencil itself. I opened it up and was surprised to find the battery at full charge, which was great because I didn’t have to do anything special to get going.
Does it do what it claims? Here’s my test.
What’s in the box?
Here’s the USB cable included with the device, along with the box it came in in the background, and the Pencil still in the inner packaging.
Upon opening the box, I found all the listed items along with an instruction sheet. The Pencil itself feels like a decent quality and weight; relatively solid and with a matte surface. It’s flat on one side to stick magnetically to the iPad, and this seems to work well. In all, it feels very similar to a genuine Apple Pencil.
Using the pencil is simple; just double tap on the “eraser” end of the pencil to turn it on or off. (There is no eraser function; I simply mean that in a descriptive way.) Indicator lights come on to show that the device is powered, and what the charge level is. This is handy and sort of a nice feature that the genuine Apple Pencil doesn’t have. I can’t tell how charged my Apple Pencil is without opening up my iPad and checking the battery widget. Here, I can tell how charged it is before I even get started. Nice!
Just double tap on the end of the Pencil until the indicator lights come on. Easy and convenient.
Does it work?
A small bit of magic happens here: aside from turning the Pencil on, you don’t have to pair it with Bluetooth or do any other kind of setup in software. It simply works as long as it’s turned on. I realize this is just a simple trick using the capacitative properties of the iPad screen, but it works surprisingly well.
I decided to put the pencil through its paces starting with Procreate, a pretty typical piece of art software used by a lot of artists. Procreate recognizes the Pencil without issue, although a caveat is revealed here; the Pencil has no pressure sensitivity, a major feature of official Apple devices. While that is lacking, the Pencil works smoothly and and produces a nice continuous line without “choppy” line breaks that can sometimes happen with digital styluses. I didn’t try it, but I imagine it would be possible to adjust some brushes in Procreate to taper at the start and end to create the illusion of pressure sensitivity. I suppose it depends on what you’re planning to do.
I doodled a simple drawing of a duck just to try and make something from start to finish with the device, and I found it perfectly fine for this purpose. I wasn’t necessarily able to do everything I’d do with my Apple Pencil, but if this is all I was left with, I feel like I’d still be able to create art, I’d just have to find some simple workarounds or alternate techniques for certain features, like line width.
Importantly, the palm rejection the device claims it has does work. I did have one moment where it glitched, but I think it was more due to how I was holding the pencil. Easily undone and fixed.
I also tried the Pencil out in Apple Notes, which seems more like what this device is really geared for; students taking notes, or folks who primarily work with text and simple drawings. It worked perfectly fine here for this purpose. It kept up with my handwriting, no lag that I could notice. It worked fine drawing the automatic shapes (i.e., draw a freehand circle and hold the pencil at the end of the line to generate a perfect circle) in Apple Notes, so that was a pleasant surprise, too.
My thoughts overall?
This is a perfectly usable (and cheap!) alternative to an Apple Pencil. It lacks quite a few of the features of the official device, but depending on what you’re willing to forego, it might be usable in your situation.
Who is this device for?
Students, people who take lots of notes, possibly beginner or intermediate artists just dipping their toes into digital art. It currently retails for about $16.99 (with discounts available) through the TikTok shop, and if you buy it through my affiliate link, I’ll get a small commission.(You may need the TikTok app to access it!)
It’s #webcomicday, a day all about celebrating and promoting your favorite webcomics! As part of this year’s celebration, I’ve made a little image breaking down how I make a Follower page. I decided to use page 25 from chapter seven of Follower, because those are some of my favorite pages in the comic (at the moment.)
Let’s take a look at a little x-ray of the comic, shall we?
Breaking it down into steps, a page is made like this:
Step 1: Script and thumbnails
Delade and I spend a while working out ideas for the chapter. We discuss everything that’s happened so far, and everything that’s going to happen eventually, and where this chapter needs to fall in that timeline. Then we discuss the important bits about what’s going to happen: who’s the focus? Where is it taking place? What absolutely has to get in in order to support future parts of the story? It can get complicated! We hash it out and then Delade gets to work scripting. (Chio Club members can get access to full copies of some of our scripts, and I’m planning to release more in the future, if you want to see our process in more detail!) We plop the script into a program called Superscript, which is just for comic script writing. It makes everything into a nice format. Then I take this script and sketch little thumbnails alongside each page, to rough out what I think it’ll look like. The thumbnails are basically unreadable to anyone but me, but it gives me a better idea of what’s going to happen with the art. I also build in space in the design of each page for whatever text needs to fit. This is easy to forget, but can be a huge pain if you don’t do it. Delade and I discuss the thumbnails, and when we agree, it’s basically done. The last part of this process is coming up with a chapter title and cover image.
Step 2: Pencils and inks
In this step, I enlarge my thumbnails to fit the size of a page and then draw on top of them. Pencils are usually more detailed versions of the rough stuff in the thumbnails, but sometimes not much more detailed than that. I’m just refining what the actual characters are going to look like, capturing expressions and important details that have to be right. At this point I usually also drop in dialogue balloons, so no matter what there’ll be space for them. Then I move on to ink the outlines.
Step 3: Flat colors
In this step, I drop in the base colors for everything. Characters get their own layers, and backgrounds on another. I have a pallette built and saved for Follower that includes colors for just about everything that appears regularly so I can keep it all consistent. This part usually goes pretty quickly because I have everything set up to be efficient; without having my standardized color pallette at hand, and my CSP fill bucket set up the way I want, it would take forever and be really tedious.
Step 4: Final shading & details
The last step! I apply several layers of shading and lighting depending on the environment. I use a lot of textured brushes here because I feel like it adds a little more depth and tangibility to the backgrounds. I give the ink outlines some subtle color; they look black, but they’re usually actually a very dark purplish or bluish color, or similar, whatever fits the scene. I used to color all of the outlines individually, but this took forever, and I don’t necessarily think it looked better. At this point I also add in a layer on top of everything with a paper texture. I didn’t always do this, but after some experimentation a couple of chapters in, I decided I liked the feel it gave the pages. Everything in this world is a little bit gritty, and it accentuates that a bit.
You can also support Follower and get early access to work in progress, sample scripts with commentary and thumbnails, and more, when you join the Chio Club via Patreon or Ko-Fi for just $1 per month or more.
I’m a physically disabled artist with a lot of medical issues, and the Chio Club helps keep me properly cared for as well as helping keep the lights on around here, so we’re endlessly grateful for all our supporters.
You can find out about all the available reward tiers and more on the Chio Club website: http://chio.club
You may have noticed by now that Follower is back to updating somewhat regularly! It’s taken me a long time recovering and adapting my processes to get here, but I’m doing my best to keep up with new pages. There’s a chance I’ll need to delay a page now and again due to health issues, but overall I’m doing much better than I was this time last year, or even just a few months ago. In general, I’ll post updates about comic delays on social media (find all of them on this page) or in Discord (https://discord.gg/jxCYAeePZ4). I’m currently most active on Bluesky (https://bsky.app/profile/radiochio.bsky.social), which is now open to everyone. It’s been a nice experience and kind of refreshing from the Twitter rat race, so I encourage you to join if you’re curious!
Part of my reason for writing this post is to talk a little about what it takes to keep Follower going, by which I mean, what it takes to keep me going. Right now, I’m both too disabled to handle a regular job, and at the same time the government can’t decide if I’m disabled enough to get any kind of assistance. It’s been more than two years since I’ve been able to work regularly, and we’re beyond strained, financially, as a result. This is kind of a terrifying position to be in, and even more terrifying to talk about publicly, but here I am anyway. Doing my best!
Follower itself costs a bit in fees for hosting, software subscriptions, and other odds and ends each year. By and large, Patreon/Ko-Fi help to cover a lot of that, but it doesn’t leave me with much in terms of money to survive on and take care of necessary bills and medical costs. Right now, we have to hold out until my disability appeal winds its way through a really hostile system, which will take an unknown amount of time. Right now, Delade and I are in a temporary situation staying with family, but this can’t be permanent. It’s sort of an impossible task, where we can’t really save any money to get out on our own, and are kind of stuck in waiting limbo. It’s awful.
I’m putting this out there, because there are a handful of ways that you can help without directly spending money (unless you absolutely want to), so here goes:
Subscribe to Follower on Webtoons and/or Tapas and read my comics: I have a love-hate relationship with these sites, but both of them do offer ad revenue sharing if we can reach 100 subs on Tapas, and 1,000 on Webtoons. Webtoons has a few more stipulations, like monthly view counts, so it’s the more difficult thing to reach, but since we’re sitting at around 282 subscribers, it’s not completely impossible. I know that whatever ad revenue share I do get is going to be pretty small, but with the situation we’re in, every little bit helps in the long run. You can sub to Webtoons here and Tapas here!
Subscribe to my video content on Youtube and/or TikTok and watch it: Much the same as with Tapas and Webtoons, I can become eligible for monetization if I can reach 500 subs on YouTube and 1000 on TikTok. I’m currently sitting at 166/500 subs on Youtube and 712/1000 on TikTok. Both of these have requirements for average view times in addition to subscriber counts, so even just leaving one of my playlists running in the background while you do other stuff (as long as it’s not completely muted) will help out a lot. Subscribing or following my Twitch channel will also help although I’m still working on a plan to come back to streaming – right now it’s tough for me to sit upright for longer streams. I need to find a way to invest in things like a longer ethernet cable so I can set up somewhere comfortable for me to both draw and stay connected at a high enough speed. It’s a challenge. Find me on YouTube here and TikTok here, or on Twitch over here!
Spread the word: Do you know anyone who might be interested in Follower? Just getting eyes on the comic helps, and word of mouth is still the best way to spread webcomics around. I do my best to get it out there on my own, but my reach is only as wide as I can make it. I need to find a way to break out of my regular circles.
All of these are free to sign up for and the subscriber and view numbers will really help me out a lot. Also, if there’s any kind of behind the scenes video content you’d like to see, please suggest it in a comment! Videos are fairly easy for me to make while I’m doing other comic work, and I’m always happy to talk about how I make things, especially if it helps someone else.
On the other hand, if you want to directly support me, I have both a Patreon and a Ko-Fi which I’ve started calling the Chio Club. For $1 a month, you get access to things I’m currently working on before they’re live for everyone, and other tiers come with other rewards. I do my best to come up with extras as I can.
Anyway, thank you for taking the time to read this. I feel like I’ve spent the past year trying to dig myself out of a pit of health problems, and I’m finally getting to where I can start working a little more and thinking a little more clearly. I appreciate the patience our readers have had in waiting for new updates, because it’s been pretty hard not to work on things as I normally would for so long. I still can’t, but I’m working on getting there.
I’ve been making art for… essentially my whole life at this point, let’s be honest. When I hit college, I started collecting books about making and understanding art, both as requirements for class and out of personal interest, because for some reason up to that point it had never occurred to me to look at books on the subject. Most of my learning was done online, which in the late 90s – early 2000s was pretty different to what it is now. That said, even though we live in an age of tons of free information (another topic I’ll cover in another post!) there are still a lot of books I stand by and still refer to. This series of posts is going to be a list of suggestions and recommendations, especially if you’re new to art making, or looking to improve your skills.
Art & Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking by David Bayles & Ted Orland
Art & Fear is a book I was required to read in my first year, first semester of college drawing class, and it’s a book that’s stuck with me. I re-read it from time to time pretty regularly because it gently takes you step by step through the anxieties of making art and sharing art with an audience. My copy is pretty beaten at this point, with dog-eared sections and underlines everywhere, and I have the digital version just because. I recommend this book to essentially everyone I know, simply because I’ve personally found it so helpful in my long-term career as an artist.
This book is really useful when you’re starting out making art, or just starting out posting your art online or otherwise sharing in a public setting. One of the most important lessons in the book is that it’s necessary to learn to separate your art from yourself, at least on a moral level. If you make something and it isn’t as well-received as you hoped, that isn’t a reflection on you as a person, which is a totally reasonable fear to have with something as personal as artwork. For me, this is doubly true when it comes to things like comics. With webcomics especially, it’s tough to grind out page after page and learn to accept that not every page will be perfect; it’s simply an issue of time. Add to that the fact that the average reader will probably only spend a minute at most on any given page, and it becomes imperative to balance working speed with the realities of comic reading. Knowing that not every page will be your own idea of a masterpiece can be difficult to feel good about, but it’s an important skill to learn. And it is a skill, in a way, to be able to look at your work constructively, as separate from yourself.
Anyway, if I had to reduce my praise for this book to just a few words, I’d say that it’s a great tool for strengthening yourself for hearing what others think about your work, especially if the thought of that gives you anxiety. It provides an excellent route to having confidence about what you do, especially for something as personal as art. The book is a quick read and its ideas can be applied to most forms of art, including writing, in my opinion. It’s an excellent read for anyone who makes art of any kind.
Perspective! For Comic Book Artists by David Chelsea
Perspective! For Comic Book Artists is a book about perspective in comics…told through comics. (This will become a running theme here.) I’m gonna let you in on a secret: I have a problem with my eyes that makes it difficult sometimes to judge depth, and drawing in perspective can be a literal hell in some instances. I’ve had criticism pointed at me for my imperfect perspective, not wrongly, and it stung a bit — I won’t lie. So I decided to double down and look for resources on perspective drawing, because ultimately it’s just a mathematical thing; once you learn where to set up your vanishing points, and why they work that way, the entire process becomes much clearer.
In my searching, I found a recommendation for this book, and it’s helped immensely, alongside digital tools like the perspective rulers in most drawing programs these days. Perspective! For Comic Book Artists literally walks you through the way that perspective works, examining all aspects of the process almost as if you’re walking around a 3D object. The writing is simple and light, and what can be tricky to understand (especially if you’re like me with a slight vision issue) becomes more of a mechanical process than the guesswork it can feel like at times. I have certain sections of this book permanently bookmarked, simply because I know they’re types of perspective I struggle with and I can quickly refer to them again if my brain can’t wrap around where the points and lines need to be.
This book is great for anyone just learning the fundamentals of perspective for the first time, or if you struggle with understanding more complex perspective setups, like 3-points and beyond. It’s a handy reference to keep around, and walks steps by step through the reasons why perspective works the way it does, so there’s no wondering “how did that happen?” in between steps of the process.
Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art by Scott McCloud
Thus begins the first of three Scott McCloud recommendations from me. Yes, they’re frequently recommended for new comic artists, but there’s a good reason for that. Again, we delve into a book about comics told in comic form, which just serves to strengthen the arguments made within for interpreting comics as art. This book is a classic, and an outstanding breakdown of all the little bits and pieces you don’t notice while you’re reading a comic, but which cause you to read it the way you do. Comics are a magical medium, where perhaps nothing moves on the page, but using clever design tricks and illusions, one can manipulate the imagination into viewing the page the same way it might watch a movie.
Understanding Comics is a highly accessible way to understand not only comics, but visual art as a whole. This book is essential for gaining a basic knowledge of the visual language of comics, and learning to create comics using this language in your own voice.
Since I’m already recommending this trio of books by McCloud, let me go one step further and recommend that you read Understanding Comics first, and then Making Comics after. This is because Making Comics functions more as a how-to from the creative aspect of the process where Understanding Comics provides a basic grounding in visual storytelling tropes and functions. Making Comics builds on this foundation to create a set of tools to add to your personal kit by examining many ways to apply these ideas via not only things like character design and expression, but also understanding where you exist in the greater pantheon of comic artists and creators throughout history.
The book is, again, extremely accessible and entertaining in its methods, bringing together an enormous amount of history, technical details, and means to apply this information to your own work. Making Comics is a book I’ve read multiple times, with multiple sticky notes inside for my continued reference. If I could only choose one of McCloud’s books to recommend to a beginning comics creator, I’d likely choose this one, although it benefits from following Understanding Comics.Making Comics is an excellent course in telling your story visually, and will strengthen your existing skills while pointing out details you’ve never considered before.
Rounding out the trio of books by Scott McCloud, I recommend Reinventing Comics to anyone who makes webcomics or webtoons specifically. If you’re making comics mostly for an online audience, this is the book for you. Although it is on the older side, and certain pieces of information may be dated by today’s standards, it still contains a wealth of information about publishing your work online, and the many considerations involved in doing so. It includes major discussions about copyrights and rights ownership in comics, as well as business models for comics. It also breaks into the more unique aspects of publishing digitally, more specifically concepts like the infinite canvas, which seems especially relevant to creators using Webtoon Canvas or similar platforms with vertical scroll comics today. Particularly useful in my opinion is the information about publishing online. I’ve always maintained my own domain name and hosting for my comics, and I’m a strong believer in this method, especially in the current day and age of social platforms behaving wildly on a constant basis. Overall, Reinventing Comics is a strong starting point if you’re interested in breaking away from the big comics platforms and going it on your own.
There are many advantages to maintaining your own web home for your comic or art portfolio work, despite the slight learning curve, and it’s something I plan on writing about specifically in more detail in the future. Reinventing Comics discusses many of these points, again in comic form, and in an entertaining and encouraging voice. If you’re starting from scratch with publishing online and want to do something more custom with your work and website, while taking care to look after your rights, this book will get you on the right track.
This is merely the start of what I hope to be a longer series on books about art and comics, so let me know if you’d like to see more! I’m planning to group them by topic if possible… Most of my books are currently stuck in box purgatory after a move with nowhere to put them, so it might be a minute before I get to the next edition, but I’d love to hear your feedback if you have any! I’d also love to know if you pick up any of these books and what you think about them. Most are available from your local library, and I’ve also included Amazon links if you’re so inclined.
(Disclosure: these are Amazon affiliate links and I will receive a percentage from any sales from these links, but the price will remain the same for you. This helps support the creation of my comics and helps keep all of us at Chio HQ alive!)
Hey folks! It’s definitely been a minute since I’ve made a proper newsletter, let alone a news post. It’s been a rough summer so far for me — I thought I was dealing pretty well with the health issues I’ve been having, but a series of coincidental problems coupled with the summer heat have really knocked me flat. I summoned the energy to make a goofy little doodle comic about it, which you can check out here if you like. It might turn into an ongoing series, because sometimes all I can do is laugh at the situation.
I am (as usual) doing my best to get back on track with things like Follower updates, but it’s been difficult. A major part of my problem is joint issues, which can vary wildly from day to day, so sometimes drawing is rough. I’ve been trying to at least put my creative energy into other projects when I can’t draw, like some Tiny Art Vlogs from time to time. You can view those on my Youtube channel here!
Mostly, I am trying to figure out how to work with a body that’s kind of unreliable, when I’m trying to do something that requires a certain amount of regularity, like posting a comic update every week. I haven’t figured it out just yet, but I’m doing my best. I may need to eventually move to a monthly update of a few pages at a time rather than work under the pressure of weekly updates, but I haven’t decided that for sure just yet.
Here’s what I’ve got on the table for upcoming projects, roughly in order of priority:
Follower updates! I can’t believe it’s been as long as it has since my last update. I’ve been slowly working at the next pages while doing my best not to overdo it with my hands. It’s a difficult balance.
Follower Volume 1: I’ve made it into edits for chapter 2, and I’m finishing off the last few drawn revisions for chapter one. Those’ll get posted for Chio Club folks first. Once I get through chapter 2, things will move a lot faster on this project.
Community News
There hasn’t been much new lately in the community, but the Discord is always open and new folks are always welcome! It’s a slow-paced, quiet chat, but we keep it friendly. Click here to join!
Thanks For Reading!
Thanks so much for checking out the latest news from us this month! Here’s hoping the next one will be more comic-heavy. 🤞
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I use Clip Studio Paint to make about 99% of all my comics and comic-related work. Occasionally I’ll use something else, but there’s really nothing comparable to the specialized features Clip Studio has when it comes to making comics.
One of the best features of the software is not really directly part of the software itself, but part of the related services provided by Celsys: the Clip Studio assets site. You can find downloadable materials you can use in your art and comics, from brushes to 3D models to patterns and textures. Some of these assets cost money, but there are a LOT of free assets available, and there are some really great ones out there.
Here are a few of my favorites, some of which are complete lifesavers.
1. The Only Perspective Grid You Need by OutlawEric
The Only Perspective Grid You Need (TOPGYN) is a tool made by OutlawEric (@0utlaweric on Twitter) that helps you more easily adjust your perspective grids. I can never get my vanishing points placed exactly the way I want, and this asset helps immensely. You just drag both parts into your canvas, and then move the target around until the perspective looks like way you want. More detailed instructions are available on the Clip Studio Assets site.
Theoretically, this is something I could have made myself, but sometimes I’m lazy and this is convenient. These height scales allow you to set up 3D models so you can make them scaled properly with one another. For example, I recently set up a batch of 3D models customized to match the heights and builds of most of my comic characters. I used these backgrounds to get them all looking like the correct height when stood together in a lineup.
This is a super useful reference when I’m putting a bunch of characters in a scene together, to make sure every character stays more or less “on model.” I’m not usually super concerned about that, but it really makes a difference when you need several characters to look consistent across several pages or an entire chapter. This has been especially useful in the past few chapters of Follower, where I’ve got multiple adult humans of different shapes and sizes, plus Leah, a kid, among them.
There are several of these tools made by K96 and they all sort of work in a similar way. You make lineart, you put a layer underneath it, you use the lasso to select around the lines you want to fill, as casually as you like, and it automatically fills the layer. Super simple for doing quick fills.
They also have these cute ice cream cone icons so they’re very easy to identify in your toolbar.
Seriously, a lifesaver. Set your lineart as reference, select the color layer beneath, use this eraser and it’ll erase everything outside of the lines. Nice for doing quick, easy cleanup. Made by @pharanbrush on Twitter!
This blur tool is set up just right for making parts of your drawing look like they’re receding into the background. Use it to draw your focus to parts of the scene you want viewers to, well, focus on.
If you’ve never used Clip Studio Paint before, and want to try it out yourself, you can get a 30 day free trial by clicking the link below. If you buy a standalone (desktop) version of the software, or a subscription (mobile) version, I’ll receive a commission, so it’s a win-win for everybody. I recommend CSP to basically everyone I talk to digital art about, and I come from a long Adobe-using background. The price is unbeatable, and the features are constantly improving. I can’t say enough good things about it.
Maybe my next article will be about my favorite brushes! There are so many….
If you found this article useful, you can also help support future content like this by joining the Chio Club as an ongoing member or as a one-time tip! Check out these options!
I made a video about how I color comics! Someone asked about this a while ago, and while I lost the original question, I did take the time to record some clips while I worked on the latest Follower page.
Here’s the transcript of this video:
Hey, I’m Bug and I’ve been making webcomics since 2004! Let me share my knowledge with you!
When I’m coloring a comic, my goal is to work as quickly and efficiently as possible, so I’ve found a lot of useful tricks to speed up the process. This is a basic version of how I color.
I color in Clip Studio Paint, but most of these tricks will work in any drawing software.
First, I take my lineart and set it as a reference layer using the little lighthouse button in the layers panel. That means I can color under it, and the fill bucket will act like the lines are on the same layer.
Under the fill bucket’s tool properties window, make sure that “refer multiple” is also checked and set to the lighthouse icon. Play around with the other settings to get a fill style that you like, but here’s what my settings look like.
Now I can use the custom color palette I made for my comic and quickly zip around to fill everything in the panel. Flat colors: done!
Next, I make a new layer above my flat colors. Set this to multiply. Click the icon on the far left of the layers tab that looks like two squares. This will make the multiply layer “clip” to the layer below, so you can only paint where there’s already color.
This is going to be my shading layer. It’s kind of cheating, but I usually pick a shadow color that’s opposite my light color on the color wheel. If that doesn’t look right, I cheat some more and pick something that looks “right.” I use the lasso tool to quickly fill big sections of shadow. The lasso works in combination with the ink layer, so it won’t fill past the lines! Then I use a pen to color in smaller detailed areas of shadow.
Next, make a new layer the same way you made the multiply layer, but instead set the blending mode to overlay, screen, or glow dodge, depending on the effect you want. Pick the color of your light and paint in your highlights.
You can keep adding more layers this way to refine your highlights and shadows, but that’s the simplest version of what I do!
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