This is a comic based on the life story of Nikki who grows up trying to deal with her own confusion and frustration at having gender dysphoria in the face of widespread resentment of people who don't understand or accept it.
Dear Sky,I Pray Goddess SAPPHO through the intercession of Sky Angel I implore you please to forgive me, for I have sinned. I confess I so could not bear to see the end of Simply Sarah My thinking was that if I did not comment on the last 4 pages or so Sarah and Janey would still exist, I would always have them in my heart,I no longer wanted to cry tommym
Dear Tommym, I half wondered if it was something like that as you were always so supportive and I did put it down to you being upset. Maybe once you have read Nikki's story you will understand me better and I promise you we will see Sarah and Janey again eventually when this story catches up with them. *hugs*
Like Ironscarf said, this cover is simply magical. The soft rim lighting (or is it edge lighting? I never remember the terms) gives her a bit of an ethereal quality, as well as making it look like she's walking away from the dark shadow behind her (walking away from the darker parts of her past, maybe?), while her expression looks somber, as if she's unsure if she's almost afraid to leave everything behind her. And then the butterflies (which look fantastic by the way, it's very hard to believe they're the same 12 repeated and modified!) symbolizing rebirth, oh man, there's just so much here. It looks fantastic!
(As an aside, I'm so glad that your skills in analog methods translated so well to digital on your first go! I know the adjustment period can be an absolute pain but you did splendidly!)
Thank you for this lovely post! I'm not a very technical person anyway but when things happen that look nice I try to preserve those parts as much as possible! I was pretty lucky with this a s it's the first time I've used a digital pen and I was able to do it in three layers; background/figure/and butterflies When I merged the figure I had a slightly bitty edge so I went round with a lighter line to just tidy things up and it created this nice glow you mention which just seemed to work so well with the background lighting. Not all the butterflies are clones btw just the ones I felt came out the best as I kept doing a lot the same way and wanted more variety.
I hadn't intended to do this as a digital picture but when I started painting the picture in acrylics I found at least half of my tubes of paint had gone hard so I think I was destined to use my tablet!
Very lovely cover art! I believe I hadn't seen such a realistic digital painting from you before, it's very well done! Love the lighting and the colors. (How did you paint so many butterflies??)
I'm waiting in excitement for Nikki's first page!
You found it before I even linked to it! You must be keen! XD You're quite right, I've done about five digital paintings in the past using a mouse pad which as you can imagine is not easy but this is the very first on my new tablet, using a proper pen. This took me a week but it was a great practice piece to get used to the art program I'm using and all the different brushes. I actually only did about 12 butterflies in greater detail then copy pasted them like transfers on separate layers; I then touched up a few to make them look different or just altered the hue before flattening.
First page will be going live next Saturday for sure! :)
tommym at 11:45AM, Feb. 15, 2024
Dear Sky,I Pray Goddess SAPPHO through the intercession of Sky Angel I implore you please to forgive me, for I have sinned. I confess I so could not bear to see the end of Simply Sarah My thinking was that if I did not comment on the last 4 pages or so Sarah and Janey would still exist, I would always have them in my heart,I no longer wanted to cry tommym
skyangel at 10:49AM, Feb. 16, 2024
Dear Tommym, I half wondered if it was something like that as you were always so supportive and I did put it down to you being upset. Maybe once you have read Nikki's story you will understand me better and I promise you we will see Sarah and Janey again eventually when this story catches up with them. *hugs*
bexlicious at 2:19PM, Feb. 9, 2024
Absolutely stunning cover my friend!
skyangel at 5:46AM, Feb. 10, 2024
Thank you Becky :)
Othosmops at 2:50PM, Jan. 11, 2024
Amazing cover!
skyangel at 5:50AM, Jan. 12, 2024
Thank you! :)
celestially_crowned at 8:42AM, Jan. 10, 2024
Like Ironscarf said, this cover is simply magical. The soft rim lighting (or is it edge lighting? I never remember the terms) gives her a bit of an ethereal quality, as well as making it look like she's walking away from the dark shadow behind her (walking away from the darker parts of her past, maybe?), while her expression looks somber, as if she's unsure if she's almost afraid to leave everything behind her. And then the butterflies (which look fantastic by the way, it's very hard to believe they're the same 12 repeated and modified!) symbolizing rebirth, oh man, there's just so much here. It looks fantastic! (As an aside, I'm so glad that your skills in analog methods translated so well to digital on your first go! I know the adjustment period can be an absolute pain but you did splendidly!)
skyangel at 11:54AM, Jan. 10, 2024
Thank you for this lovely post! I'm not a very technical person anyway but when things happen that look nice I try to preserve those parts as much as possible! I was pretty lucky with this a s it's the first time I've used a digital pen and I was able to do it in three layers; background/figure/and butterflies When I merged the figure I had a slightly bitty edge so I went round with a lighter line to just tidy things up and it created this nice glow you mention which just seemed to work so well with the background lighting. Not all the butterflies are clones btw just the ones I felt came out the best as I kept doing a lot the same way and wanted more variety.
Ironscarf at 5:52AM, Jan. 10, 2024
Great to read about the process in your reply to edniz. The finished piece has a really magical quality to it.
skyangel at 11:38AM, Jan. 10, 2024
I hadn't intended to do this as a digital picture but when I started painting the picture in acrylics I found at least half of my tubes of paint had gone hard so I think I was destined to use my tablet!
edniz at 5:55AM, Jan. 6, 2024
Very lovely cover art! I believe I hadn't seen such a realistic digital painting from you before, it's very well done! Love the lighting and the colors. (How did you paint so many butterflies??) I'm waiting in excitement for Nikki's first page!
skyangel at 12:43PM, Jan. 7, 2024
You found it before I even linked to it! You must be keen! XD You're quite right, I've done about five digital paintings in the past using a mouse pad which as you can imagine is not easy but this is the very first on my new tablet, using a proper pen. This took me a week but it was a great practice piece to get used to the art program I'm using and all the different brushes. I actually only did about 12 butterflies in greater detail then copy pasted them like transfers on separate layers; I then touched up a few to make them look different or just altered the hue before flattening. First page will be going live next Saturday for sure! :)