When I was in high school I used to love reading web comics. I dreamt of making one of my own, but was held back by, among others, lack of skill and focus.
During the first couple of months of Covid lockdown, I suddenly found myself with a lot of time on my hands. I have two friends who decided to start a comic together, and my childhood dream was reignited.
So I just started.
I was honest with myself from the beginning, however: I wasn’t shooting for the stars. I wanted to see what I could make if I laid the bar on the ground, essentially. I barely did any concept work. I’d draw one concept for a character and just sort of go “that’ll work”. Every script started and ended with draft number 1. I wasn’t planning to make my best work here. What I really wanted to do was the following:
1. Actually start a big project, one where I knew with 99% certainty that I wouldn’t finish it;
2. Start a project that would help me track how much I’ve improved at art, by drawing the same characters over the span of a longer time.
Since then, I’ve started over completely. For the new comic I have planned out the full story, and done some more concept art for my characters. As a result, it’s a much more enjoyable experience.
“Phreia – the comic” follows the story of my former D&D character Phreia. Dreadful as I am with D&D characters, she didn’t originally have a backstory. It wasn’t until we were a year or so into the campaign that I spent some time thinking about who she really was.
Phreia is the tale of a 23 year old girl who grew up as the princess of a kingdom called Ry’Ellen. The day before her fairytale wedding, she realises that she was never actually a princess and her entire life is a lie.
You can read the first (and currently only) three pages of the original comic here! Be aware: the quality of the art vastly improves around page 10. Some of chapter zero is… rough.
All of this has been redone in the rebooted comic, which can be found linked above. It features much better art and better designs!
Before picking this project back up again, I wanted to do some concept art to get a better idea of the world and the characters.
