Guess who remembered Patreon posts exist again?
While I try to figure out the end of Octransfur and my end-of-year plans, here are the full-resolution Octransfur pieces (split into four posts like the last time I did this). I might loop back around and do a 2024 retrospective as well, but I might just save that for the Octransfur book instead (assuming I end up going with that idea instead of one of the dozens of others I have bouncing around my head).
But anyhow, enough preamble, let's do a spot of reflection~
Day 1 - Showtime - I opened the month on a commission this year, and I'll be honest: I'm genuinely surprised at how long I managed to stay on schedule this year. It really felt like I was riding by the seat of my pants for most of it. But let's talk about this particular picture! The opening act sets the tone, and naturally that was a post-TF picture with my usual sparkly magic effects. I suppose I stick to what I know best when I'm in a rush.
Day 2 - Clean - On the subject of things I know best: plushies! I also snuck in a dash of inanimate TF with the washing machine cameo. I'm particularly happy with the waterlogged fabric effect I achieved here. It's just a very light blue multiply layer (essentially an extra shading layer), but it gets the idea across well. This is one of many ideas I'd love to revisit now that I'm looking back at it.
Day 3 - Watch - Oh hey would you look at that: another idea I want to revisit later. This has future YCH written all over it. Might even turn it into a jigsaw puzzle once I finally get over my nervousness about contacting a manufacturer for the Pokétopian jigsaws. But anyhow, not all that much to say about this one apart from the inherent joy of doing style imitations. Analyzing a style and breaking it down to its most distinctive elements is such a fun exercise.
Day 4 - Four - Yes, I did pick Four for the fourth day's theme word. I thought it would be funny. Anyhow, the detail I'm most proud of on this picture is the hoofprints. If you zoom in closely you might realize I just used a pencil brush to make them, but at a normal viewing size the illusion holds and that's what's important.
Day 5 - Storm - Oh, the ambition I had at the start of Octransfur. I tried to make this one in a clever fashion though, using a fact I learned from watching other artists. You don't need to make every panel of a comic a full-body image. Once you realize that, you can really trim down the work you need to do in a page (and make everything punchier) by focusing on just a few important close-ups.
Day 6 - Potion - I was really on a roll by this point, it seems. Today's innovation was using the shape of the comic panels themselves to get information across. I'm really happy with this one, and I definitely plan to use it in my comic once I get back to it (assuming I don't change it into something else entirely). Also, I definitely need to draw Mewtwo more often.
Day 7 - Stuffed - I nodded to how I started getting carried away in the description of this picture, but that's just how it seems to go for Octransfur with me. It's very hard to force myself to keep things simple, especially after pulling off some relatively impressive pieces in the days before. Moods come and go, too, but inanimate TF is admittedly a useful mood to have. After all, objects are easier than full characters, usually.
Day 8 - Pair - Inanimate TF combo! The character-shaped speech bubbles are an idea I'd been meaning to use for quite a while after seeing it on Tumblr (screenshot of a character doing a Batman impression in one of the comics). I'm a sucker for ways of getting information across efficiently like that. Other than that, this is another relatively standard piece with a dash of inanimate TF.
That's all for the first quarter of Octransfur this year. Here's a link to the timelapse playlist if you'd like to check those out before I write up the rest of the Octransfur posts. If you're reading this as it came out, that'll likely be in a day or three.