Page 42 of my Undertale fan comic, Just Cause, is finally ready! You can read the comic from the beginning here.
 

Poor kid. Video game logic is confusing and cruel when it suddenly applies in real life.
 
Fun fact: I actually completely rewrote the script for this scene before I started drawing it. The first version felt too much like a cross between filler and an overview, and didn't reveal enough about the world for my taste.
 
I think this version does a better job of introducing Frisk to parts of the world they hadn't previously known about, and revealing bits of their mindset and past.
 
It also introduced me to the dilemma of how to show that a character is holding their breath, haha. *Resorts to spelling it out*

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Page 40 of Just Cause is here! *Party blower noises*
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​Poor Frisk. They're not the most optimistic of emotionally battered little kids, so Toriel's motherly behavior confuses them deeply, and it's all to easy for them to jump to the worst possible conclusions.

When I was first writing this scene, I ran into a bit of a dilemma: if they'd been left to their own devices, Frisk's fear and desire not to upset Toriel would've kept them in that room until she returned, which would have brought the plot to a standstill and prevented some key scenes.

That being the case, I needed to give them a bit of a push, so... Flowey to the rescue!

(Seriously, Toriel, was it really worth leaving them alone?)

To support me as an artist, and to get exclusive access to the prose version of page 41 and other cool rewards, please consider pledging $1/month or more on Patreon.

As promised, here's the second round of Inktober art!

Today's picture is a stranded starfish trying to make its way home. As with the previous one, this was drawn in pen while my sister and I were driving to a family reunion.
 
It was inspired partly by the ongoing analogy in My Fugitive, whose protagonist based her mindset and values heavily on the story of a man who, upon finding thousands of starfish stranded on the beach, started throwing them into the sea.
 
Another man saw him doing this and commented, "You know, it doesn't matter how many you throw; you'll never be able to save them all."
 
The first man smiled at him, picked up another starfish, and tossed it into the ocean. "It mattered to that one."

Today's Inktober drawing was inspired by the Willow Maid in this gorgeous song, and is brought to you by the HUGE FREAKING KUDOS I give to people who can draw in marker and not end up with a bunch of unwanted lines and colors overlapping in the wrong places.

Sadly, I didn't have time to add a background before I had to run out the door - the whole thing was kind of a rush job - but when/if the mood strikes me, I might make a better version of this, probably digitally. ​

​I was planning to draw something dramatic, complex and touching for today's Inktober theme, but then I got let down twice in just a few hours, so here's this silly piece of TMI-ish vent art instead.

I'll draw my other idea another day, when I have time to do it justice instead of having to rush out the door like I did after drawing this.

​The clock keeps turning backward, and Sans just wants it to stop. But the power to stop it will always be in someone else's hands.

​Today's Inktober is a quickly-drawn ode to my weak time management, the lack of an "undo" button on markers, the fact that I have a steadier hand while drawing digitally than traditionally, and my apparent capacity to forget the presence of collarbones and thus put the neck tendons in the wrong place when I'm distracted by my minor cheekbone disaster. :P

On the upside, drawing traditionally DOES force me to tone down on the nitpicking, adapt to my mistakes instead of simply undoing them (the striped shirt hides the fact that one shoulder's line was in the wrong place), and finish the picture in a more reasonable amount of time than I would if I had an undo button to enable the perfectionism I'm working to overcome.

It also gives me this chance to internally chuckle at the fact that the panel with the difficult perspective turned out better than the one in an easy pose, haha. Granted, I did the latter without a sketch, because I was deliberately trying to get this one done quickly so I'd have time to work on Just Cause.

I'm participating in Inktober this month! Here are my first seven entries:

This is a scene from my novel, Catgirl Roommate, in which Nyla the catgirl was not allowed to steal Sam's mint because she'd already had hers, so she decided to take her mint-acquiring needs into her own hands... by chewing the lid off of Sam's mouthwash.

It did not end well.

For that matter, neither did drawing this picture; it didn't quite turn out the way I wanted it to. I guess that's what I get for trying to hand-draw something at print resolution.

​Photoshop hardcore SUCKS at drawing long, smooth lines without a pen tool, and I had to zoom in so far just to get a smooth line that I couldn't properly see what it would look like zoomed-out while I was drawing. I used the pen tool for some of the lines, but having to use it for almost ALL the lines really kills the fun, at least for me.

I tried a couple of my other art programs, but they kept on failing at basic tasks until I got heartily sick of working on this picture, haha.

At least day 2 turned out better; I drew that one at a more reasonable size.

Inktober's kind of been holding up the production of the next page of Just Cause, so I decided it was time to kill two birds with one stone and use today's entry to do the lineart for one of the panels.

Today's theme is "spell", so... Undyne's magic energy spears count as a spell, right?

​The monster towers over her, ready to impale her on its icy claws... and Wigfrid is already drooling over the small butcher's shop worth of meat she's about to carve out of this thing.

This piece was very experimental in several ways:

1. Drawing in white on a black background.

2. Using the same color for both the outlines and the highlights, and trying not to give Wigfrid a mustache and beard in the process.

3. Using a 1 pixel brush for most of the picture, as opposed to my usual 2 or 3 pixels. Photoshop doesn't have very good anti-aliasing (the thing that stops lines from looking jagged) for 1 pixel brushes, so the lines were rougher than usual as a result.

4. Foregoing some of my usual artistic crutches, such as the Zoom In tool and the Pen tool. Once again, this resulted in rougher lines, but it was also more fun and hands-on, and it forced me to give myself some leeway not to make all the lines perfectly smooth. I think I'm going to do this more often in my side projects, though I'll stick with smooth lines for Just Cause.

5. Using widely-spaced lines for weaker shading as opposed to low-opacity brushes. This is an area where I definitely have room for improvement, since I have next to no experience with it, but it was interesting to stretch myself that way for this picture.

There are more Inktober entries coming, so stay tuned!

In the meantime, if you want to be the first to see my completed art, and to get exclusive access to works in progress, please consider supporting me on Patreon.
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If you want me to draw something specific for you, visit this page to get the pricing and details for my commissions.

And if you want to get my art on your pillows, mugs, blankets, clothing and more, go here to see my physical merch.

 
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I recently saw a picture in which the artist was trying to use glow effects, but ran into a problem because the shining soul that was casting the light was darker than the shirt it was casting that light on.

I gave them a couple tips, and decided to share those tips here, too.

1. When a dark-colored light source is casting light on a non-black object, especially one with a lighter shade than the light source, make the color of the glow slightly lighter than the color of its source.
 
​When the light source's color is darker than the object on which it's casting light (like the soul compared to the shirt), it makes it look like the soul is casting pure color or even darkness on the object it's glowing on.

2. Add a lighter shade of the base color to the center of the soul, so it looks more like a light source.

Here's a quick demo of what the abovementioned glow effects look like in total darkness and on clothing the color of the shirt they drew, so you can see the difference.
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The two souls on the top are both casting light the same shade as their base color, albeit not at full opacity. Notice how the shirt seems darkened.
 
The souls on the bottom are glowing their base color in the dark, but on the shirt, the glow is lighter than the base color, so they aren't darkening the shirt. 
 
I hope that quick art tip helps!

As you could probably guess, there's a story behind this one.

A few days ago, my dear friend, Mica Kole, sent me two pieces of great news:

One was that her short story had won second place in the Sapiens Plurum contest.

The other was that her boyfriend had proposed to her, and she'd enthusiastically said "yes" - by throwing him in the lake and then jumping in after him.

As the icing on the cake, all this happened just in time for her birthday. And what better way to celebrate her birthday, her engagement, and her literary victory than with a piece of fan art that includes an in-joke from her proposal story?

To my delight, she enjoyed the picture, and gave me permission to share her birthday gift and her great news with my readers.

Here's a version without the dialogue, in case you prefer that:
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If you want to get the context behind this picture, you can read the 3,000-word short story for free here: http://sapiensplurum.org/2018-2nd-place-winner.html

It's about a man whose inability to make basic day-to-day decisions wreaks havoc on his personal life, until he buys a flying robot named Tempest to make those decisions for him. The robot's good at her job, but even she can't do everything for him. Eventually, he's going to face choices that he has to make on his own.

How much of this picture is based on the story and how much is based on the proposal, I won't say right now, because SPOILERS. Just go read the story. Go do it. Shoo.

And if you want to get early access to stories like that, as well as useful writing tips, don't forget to support Mica on Patreon!