Weekly Update - 173 (Patreon)

The updates keep on coming! If I ever miss a Monday, you are free to hit me. As long as we aren't travelling, it takes like the minimum amount of effort to keep you all up to date every week.

Though unfortunately as I get closer to actually finishing Volume #1, I've started losing momentum on it. As it turns out, updating old pages is BORING. And more and more as I'm working on finishing them up my mind keeps drifting to what's next? What's after this? Once I'm done, what do I get to do next? THOSE things are exciting to me. Hopefully for you too!

So in the midst of updating an old page for Volume #1 I inevitably open a new page and start doodling on it instead. >.> I've probably done more random drawings this past week than any other. Stuff that's all in various states of completeness. Stuff you'll all get to see eventually.

That's why Riley #8 is done and waiting to post, and why Riley #9 is in progress so that I don't leave you all hanging on a depressing note for too long.

That's why last night I was working on a design for a new character that's going to show up for the first time in Kiva's story, Chapter 10. Featured above. I'm still playing with this design, and their colors and outfit, but I like this idea that they use their tail to try and help keep their braid from dragging on the ground. Is that braid a problem for them? Probably. It's probably about a six-foot-something braid on a four-foot-something character. But it's no more of a problem than Kiva's tail might be for him. These are the silly things that come to me when I start pushing the limits of character design.

Anyway, I think their name might be Taisuko (pronounced Tie-skoh, because the u in the character "Su" is often silent when it appears in the middle or at the end of words), unless I discover there's any problems with calling them that. I'm trying to be clever in my choice of kana for creating an entirely new name, and I think it's okay. Taisuko is not a pre-existing name or word that appears in any dictionaries as far as I can tell, and it doesn't seem to have any overt meanings, negative or otherwise, but language is complicated and there are almost certainly subtleties and implications I cannot possibly derive without in-depth knowledge of Japanese language history, dialect and culture. Hooray for words.

It's hard to tell in this reference-less reference, but evidenced by the bright slit eyes, relatively shorter stature, and the intended-to-be more cat-like shape, they are an Undergrounder. Some of you may know, but some of you may not, undergrounders are ultra-sensitive to light, physically shorter, narrower, and far more flexible than the more vulpine and above-ground species that live on the surface, because survival in the Underground depends upon seeing in almost total darkness and squeezing through nearly impossibly tight spaces. Taisuko is a true Undergrounder, unlike Riley who is only half-Undergrounder, and though it's a pretty dominant half, she's never spent much time in the actual Underground. Taisuko might only be a tertiary character in Kiva's story, but like all my characters they have their own story and life. The Undergrounders are definitely a faction that I'm hoping to explore more in the future, and I could envision a time where that exploration is possibly done through Taisuko.

SO ANYWAY, this SHOULD be the last week for me to be working on Volume #1. I just need to focus, finish it, and send it off. If I'm not done with Volume #1 by the first of July, I will feel bad. So it's this week or bust!!! Oooor... it's this week or next week for sure if not this week. But seriously, I'm really really hoping to get Volume#1 done THIS week. Wish me all the whatever artists need to get all the shit they need to do done!