10th Anniversary Retro Cover
skyangel on June 25, 2017
In the 10 years we've been doing this comic we've turned out 595 pages, and at an average of six panels per page that's a rough total of some 3,500 individual panels of art in all! I imagine every artist probably has their own particular favourite panel too where they feel they captured something more than they originally intended and the one above is mine.
From the earliest pages, I always felt the facial expressions were the most important part of the panel, as they not only express as much as words do but also help define character too. A simple smile or frown is easy enough, and pain and anger are also fairly straight forward for any artist but capturing the look of love is something else entirely challenging so I probably work harder on the romantic panels than I do anything else as I feel a strong desire to try and nail those feelings as best as I possibly can, and in this particular panel I felt I did.
Nikki so often wrestles with her love for Sarah and the rejection she feels in return, but in this moment I felt Sarah's awareness of Nikki's pain brought out much deeper feelings than she had ever expected to feel towards her best friend, and although not a look of love in the most romantic sense, it still feels like a look of very deep affection to me.
For this weeks normal update please click back a page!
moizmad at 3:24PM, June 25, 2017
Great, but how much is 6D?
skyangel at 4:41AM, July 1, 2017
Thanks Bear, cos I have no idea! :)
BearinOz at 8:21PM, June 25, 2017
Good old fashioned pennies, Mo' ! It would be 5P these days, or 10c in our currencies
DarkVisor at 12:11PM, June 25, 2017
By the way, if you ever decide to publish these (pdf or paper), will be one of the first to buy the full collection, plus posters and such stuff :D
skyangel at 4:42AM, July 1, 2017
If I could get three or four on a mug I'd buy one!
DarkVisor at 12:10PM, June 25, 2017
Yeah, 'deep affection' doesn't _have_ to mean 'romantic interest', which can cause confusion and heartbreak at times, but yes, that panel captured the feeling from _both_ nicely
Banes at 11:52AM, June 25, 2017
That's a fantastic panel with so much depth of feeling to it. Congratulations on ten years - wow!
skyangel at 4:45AM, July 1, 2017
Banes: Thanks. I do a lot of panels that make me cringe even after I've wrestled with them for several hours so often a panel that I'm really happy with is as much good luck as skill!
KimLuster at 6:36AM, June 25, 2017
Very true - this image speaks on so many levels!! I think you even made it feel (even though you haven't really expressed it) that Sarah sorta wishes she could return Nikki's feelings, but... just can't! It's a feeling I know, you know someone loves you, and you feel for them and wish you could love them the same way... but, when it's not there it's just not there!! Bonnie Raitt's song 'I can't make you love me' explains it perfectly!!
skyangel at 4:48AM, July 1, 2017
Kim: That's exactly how I felt her emotions to be. I can't even really explain how it works but it's rare for my own work to still touch me long after I've done it so I think that's what makes it so special to me.
tommym at 5:49AM, June 25, 2017
Dear Sky, I think you have been great at facial expressions for a long number of years now. All those pages and panels! Its an amazing amount of work. I truly wish SS would never end,that it would just go on and on forever:) tommym
skyangel at 4:51AM, July 1, 2017
Tommym: Way back in my teens I had a thing about capturing expressions and even now it always feels like the one thing I must get right over everything else. I will always be doing art because it's such a part of me, but making comics is pretty demanding so I probably won't do anything this adventurous again. They say everyone has one book in them, and for me this is mine.
BearinOz at 5:09AM, June 25, 2017
p.s. is Nikki on 'the pill' yet, or still just c.d. ? Enquiring minds want to know B-)
skyangel at 5:03AM, July 1, 2017
Bear: DV's actually right on this. In pages 4-5 of chapter six I had Nikki explain her dilemma about going forward with re-assignment. The woman whose post-op life I mostly based that outcome on did contact me to say she had read the page and thanked me for highlighting the problem of family attitude because for most, I think it has to be the most heartbreaking part of going forward if you don't have that acceptance and support from those who should be closest to you. This is why I felt it was better to hold Nikki back because she represents the large percentage of trans men and women who do not feel they can make that enormous step.
DarkVisor at 7:31AM, June 27, 2017
Exactly, and not all are gay, or even bi
BearinOz at 8:19PM, June 25, 2017
...as indeed Nikki would still be, if just on oestrogen. A lot like that IRL. They don't all get, or want, surgery, Dark' !
DarkVisor at 12:12PM, June 25, 2017
Fairly sure Nikki is still physically Nick