Christopher Robin

Heya Purrfekshawn welcome to the best part of the forums. So is this related to the story arc in your sig or a mod of some kind? I'm kind of curious.

Dragon. About 1½ hours of fast scribbling. Click the thumbnail to see the large version.

Something new for Inktober. Dragon? I can draw those.

Here's another before and after softbrushing, this time General Aayla Secura. Usually eyes are what I draw first but, as you can tell from the WIP stage above, they were the very last thing to go in. I couldn't decide what way I wanted her looking. In the end I went with "RIGHT AT YOU." She almost looks a bit haughty in the final image which fits well I guess since she was so aloof in the cartoon.

Some coolness.

@SirCowdog I went through all the faces with the Carnie masks/hood combo and couldn't find eyes that I liked so I ended up blanking them out, no eyes works pretty well I think. As for the glowing eye auras, some of those work great with goggles or even oversized sunglasses, there are lots of decent combinations to tinker with in that area.

More Caemgen artz or more pencil drawings that I used the softbrushing technique on? I'm guessing you meant the latter from your wording and yes I have several examples of each. The best softbrushed pieces IMHO aren't even CoH related but my Star Wars the Clone Wars series. Like this one of Asajj Ventress.

No problem Eirwen.

Oh you mean the cables that attach from the back of shoulders to the biceps? Those I just assume are hoses to carry fluid of some sort. Two of the mechanical arm sets have them. They can be found by going to "Upper Body" and under the first drop menu scroll all the way down and pick "Robotic Arm 1, 2 or 3" depending if you want the left arm, right arm or both arms to have it. Then go to "Upper Arm" and choose either "Tech" or "Steampunk" and you will have them. Cheers!

Nice start to your comic Ludot. For those who cannot read French let me save you the trip to Google Translate. What it says The literal translation from Google How I would read it SBLAM = SBLAM! = SBLAM (pretty universal lol) les vacances sont finies bande de crapules. = the holidays are over gang of scoundrels. = The party's over scumbags! Car revoila vigilance = Because here is vigilance = Because Vigilance is here! il est serieux? = it is serious? = Is he serious? les heros de vigilance reprennent du service. = heros of vigilance resume service. = The heroes of Vigilance are back! Pif Paf: I assume this is onomatopoeia for gettin beyotch slapped. If someone is fluent in both languages and has a better translation by all means post it.

Hello Ludots, welcome to the best part of the forums. I don't think your image link is working correctly. I am browsing in Waterfox and I don't see the image. Edit: Never mind I see it now, I backtracked the image to ImageShack and tried viewing it directly and it turns out they have a Data Tracker that won't let you see the image until you give them permission to track you.

Eirwen the swirlies on the face are a Carnie Mask. More specifically the Carnival of Light mask under head "detail2" there is also a Carnival of War (like I used on Violetta from page 15) and a Carnival of Vengeance mask. If you mean the grey and red half rings those are a shoulder piece called Cyborg cables. Cheers!

Sweeeeeet!

Sure sure BW. Glad someone read most of it.

FYI Wall of text incoming! BW posted a query about Patreon rewards as he is thinking of doing an erotic comic and having it supported on a monthly basis. I didn't want to overwhelm his art thread so I am putting the bulk of it here. Here are some of my (extensive) thoughts on that narrow slice of the Patreon puzzle: The smartest rewards from the artist's standpoint are the ones that require little to no additional time and ideally can be automated by Patreon or a complimentary support service (i.e. you post it up one time to the appropriate tier and the service will handle the repetitive distribution. These would be things like 1. High resolution files of the individual images that make up a page of the comic. Everyone gets the pages but those that pay a little more get the individual pieces in a high rez format. 2. .PSD (or other software) files. Things that let people "peek" behind the scenes and see what your process is like. 3.Your custom brushes. I'm not sure why these are so very popular but they are. Perhaps it's a bit of arm chair quarterbacking (if I had his set up and his tools I could totally do what he does) or they just want to play around with something you created. i.e. On today's page all the armor was textured with this brush and I am including it for all subscribing at the $7 dollar level or higher. 4. Autographed copies. Yep just plunk your hand-drawn sig prominently on a completed piece and with that 10 seconds of effort it is now an acceptable tier reward. Make sure it is a "limited number" exclusivity, privilege and access to you are all desirable things. 5. Access to you. This one you need to be careful with as it could quickly become a time sink. The best implementations of it I've seen are where the artist establishes clearly up from that you have my attention for this amount of time (usually ½hour to an hour) one time only this month. Also it is generally set at one of the highest tiers (what your statistics tell you will be no more than 5-10 subscribers a month). Set a timer and stick to it. 6. Polls! These are great for the middle tiers, everyone wants to have a say so it encourages those in the $1-3 range to consider moving up into the $5-10 range. Obviously not something that will alter the plot you have in mind but something like outfits. Put up 3-5 copies of a quick sketch with different outfits on and let the fans choose whether she starts the scene in a one piece swim suit or a bikini for example. 7. Past rewards. As new people find your comic they may have missed out on stuff from prior months so let them pick from your past offerings as a current months reward. The obvious benefit is you don't have to generate any new content and you can satisfy the FOMO element of the crowd. Think of it like Ouroboros. 8. Streaming. You've done this before IIRC BW right? Have a Patreon only stream where the highest tier members get to sit in on an "exclusive" stream only available to themz what is payin ya the most. 9. Interviews. Potentially moderated depending on what type of crowd you attract but think of it as an AMA on Reddit. People post their most burning questions and you have someone go through the list and pic the best 10 and you answer them live and upon hearing them for the first time spontaneously. People love these. Obviously these are better when you have dozens or even hundreds of Patrons so you are not just answering the top question asked this month by Garry. (Garry always asks the same question ) 10. Long form Audio. This one surprised me but in my research this was incredibly popular. Artists tend to want to put up a short and polished presentation set to killer tunes and often the audience (also) wants the opposite. Unedited, raw, just you talking aloud and describing your process and your thoughts on tangental subjects etc. I've seen an artist take a 3 hour recorded session and sum up all the relevant bits in a quick and to the point 20 minute video only to have the fans demand the three hour version, and some will listen to it repeatedly. This can depend on a few factors as some people are naturally more entertaining on the mic (funnily it's often the ones who think they are not and are surprised that anyone wants to listen to them go on) than others. Seek the opinions of those you trust to give it to you straight if unsure but this definitely counts as access and fans always want access to the subject of their admiration. By way of example the Because Science "Live" are often among the most popular videos on Kyle Hill's youtube channel even though they are much longer unedited and he sometimes goofs up during them (and then turns to camera "hey it's live whaddya want?"). 11. Ask! Fans will tell you what they want if you just ask them to put suggestions in a special section or what have you. Say you cannot promise anything but you will look them over and see if there is something you can do quickly and easily each month you might add it as a reward and give the suggester a shout out. This one so often gets overlooked but yeah let your fans tell you what they want and then if it's feasible give it to them. Guaranteed happy fans. 12. Shout outs! Draw attention to your super fans, highest tier subscriber and or the person who was most helpful on your forums. Takes almost no time to quickly add to the end of a post/video/stream/audio I couldn't do what I do if not for the help and support of people like CR thanks for all the yadda yadda yadda. 13. Early access! You get to see the next pages 2 days sooner than everyone else, no spoilers though or you lose the privilege... and I keeel ju! 14. Sneak preview A little hint of what is coming next. Nothing to big or central to the plot but just enough that people feel special because they are entrusted with knowing stuff everyone else won't know about for a while. 15. Name your fans. SlanFans, Frozen Death's Followers, the Battle Worthy or whatever. It's corny I know but if you develop a sizable following be sure to name them (or perhaps have a poll where they self name eh? eh?) because it makes them feel like they are a part of something, it also tempts others into wanting to be part of the group. Don't worry if it's a little bit silly I took a poll and people called my art send off of City of Heroes "coXso" lol. Felicia Day has Team Hooman (human) and they actually have IRL meetups and go to conventions to look for other Hoomans to hang out with cuz they are all wearing the shirt (from her merch store cha-ching! see #16). Benedict Cumberbatch has the Cumberbitches. Yes they actually chose that themselves. Sakimichan calls her fans "bunnies." No really, and she will draw little cartoons with a bunny representing her fans getting a box of carrots (her monthly rewards) from time to time... she is one of the biggest fish in the pond on Patreon (millionaire many many times over) and you can learn a lot by watching how she interacts with her fans. 16. Merch! This is more of a down the road option but if you got a good size group of fans and they have chosen a name they are proud of put it on a shirt and sell it to them. You only have to make it once but it can keep paying you for months or years to come. Heck make a couple designs. 17. Fan Artz Once a month pick from the pool of your highest $ tier Patrons and do a quick sketch of their OC if you have time. This does take time away from the comic but can be incredibly popular if you start to get a sizable following. Doesn't have to be an always thing, sprinkle it in on special occasions or randomly from time to time. 18. Omigurd No one is still reading this are they? Seriously? Like this post and leave the comment "Who's your Bone-Daddy!" below if you are one of the champions still reading! Be one of the first 5 to like and say the phrase and I will give you a thank you trophy. 19. Variations. Quick and easy and crowd pleasers. You don't have to do a whole new piece just a quick modification of an existing one. With hair or without, wearing a hat or not, bottomless or topless etc some people will love a particular piece but if only you had done XYZ instead. You can even let the highest tiers suggest a small variation to an existing piece. Privilege indeed. 20. Games and contests. Quick little things you can throw together to give someone a "win" and give them a trophy icon they can wear next to their name for a month or a badge they can keep. This can be something easy like 5 trivia questions based on the events of your comic and first to get all 5 right in the comic "wins." Think how many badge hunters or "badgers" City of Heroes has... yeah. 21. I'm in UR comikz bro! Doesn't have to be a central character or even prominent (unless it works with the story) but maybe take your top subscriber's OC and make them a "face in the crowd" or someone the main hero bumps into. Treat it like Dr. Evazan and Ponda Baba in Rogue one a StarWars story. Some of these might be pretty obvious but several were a surprise when I learned of them so hopefully people thinking of trying Patreon or a similar service find something useful. There is a lot more I could add to this list but this should be more than enough to get it started. Anyone else have ideas or variations or know of a popular reward not mentioned above?

Hahaha awesome! You know it hadn't occurred to me until just now but this might be her form of sunbathing. Most people will lie out on a beach and let the sun irradiate them to get a nice tan and that "healthy glow" Since Chloe got her powers from the radiation of the Bloody Bay meteors and the Shivans are born of the same effect it would make sense for her to summon a bunch of them and lay out on them any time she wanted to top off her powers or get her skin a nice healthy green glow but didn't feel like running all the way back to BB. They could act as her oversized portable sun lamps. Also it's very cool you remember something of her backstory (or you checked DA ) as I don't recall having posted it in the forums. Thanks man, oh and out of curiosity are you planning to do anything more with her? As for Patreon, where to start. I have researched it quite extensively as I have, on more than one occasion, considered joining it myself and I could probably write a small-ish book about the subject by now. More specifically what separates the Patreon millionaires (yes they exist, multi millionaires even) from those locked into something that resembles a full time job as they have committed to producing a full spate of content without having the numbers of followers to make it worth their time and where on the spectrum I could reasonably expect to end up. It's not always artistic ability even though that is of course important. Since this is getting long already I will just touch on a couple things you ask and post it over in "Art Talk."

I took the design one step further too as this was also around the time I discovered soft-brushing. Which when combined with a quick color tint almost made it feel like you had a whole new piece of artwork. It could be kind of hit or miss sometimes but it took hardly any time or effort to apply so it was worth a shot to see what effect it had. This was the effect on the above sketch. I also lengthened his face to add back some years.

Thanks Healix, I had several more years practice under my belt and had drawn him a few times in between and so was more familiar. I had also grilled... err I mean gotten some good feedback from Caemgen. There was this 20 minute quick sketch I did which he dubbed Kid Caemgen. I liked it enough to rework and spend time detailing it. So about 1¾ hours later it had turned into this.

Is that bat she's holding a... vampire bat?

Even more collaborative fun. This was another birthday artz for Caemgen. Back on live he was probably the most consistent commenter in my art thread and he kept coming up with these compelling hero concepts that I wish I had thought of so I found myself drawing his heroes quite often. The guy can write really riveting stories too, if only he weren't so lazy about it. This is his petite witch Fenian in pencils. A colorist on DA named Vrykon colored her up, I made a few adjustments and then added my own quick and scribbly 30 second background. I don't have Vrykon's stage contribution handy but I'll see if I can dig it up later. This was the branching result with my finishing touches and background. This one goes far enough back I was still using my old sig.

@QueenBethari Thank you kindly. I thought about maybe just doing a bunch of corn husking but I wasn't really inspired by that idea so I thought what if it was a dog doing the husking, that made me smile so I started in on a Husky dog and then I mentioned what I was doing in passing to a friend and they said "wasn't there an old car called a Husky?" Sure enough there was. The rest is history. @Darth Delicious Indeed. Covered and smothered. Thanks!

I suppose if I had been thinking of "husk" in CoH terms I would've drawn one of the Banished Pantheon minions, there is a sub category called husks as well. Feel free to steal that idea anyone that still wants in on Inktober but doesn't have anything in mind for that day. Dang that's technically a twofer as it works for Mindless too! lol

Husky. Clicking the thumbnail leads to larger versions of the 3 component images in my thread.

Here are the component images of Corn, Dog, and Car for those that want to see more detail. The inside of the dog's mouth is unfinished since I knew there would be a corn husk in it. The corn took about 6 minutes the Husky took about 25 minutes and the car an hour. Good boy! Clearly I don't get much call to draw classic cars... or any cars for that matter.

Couldn't decide on something for the husky category of Inktober so I went with a Husky (dog breed) named Husky (his tag) who is busy corn-husking (in his mouth) while riding in a Hillman Husky (the vintage car)... ...with a Husky vanity license plate.