Origins: The webcomic came about after I did a fun strip and decided I wanted to try something more ambitious. The original premise was to combine 'Girls with Guns' of Noir and Madlax, my two favourite animes with a touch of an office setting like Dilbert and my own personality and twist while improving my drawing skills in the process. I think as the comic progressed I decided to do a more dramatic and serious themed comic. The Name: 'Pretty Risque' wasn't the first name that came to mind, however I really liked the name 'Questionable Content' and wanted to come up with something a little provocative. Pretty wasn't that hard, the four female protagonists were worked out by then and to me they were pretty. Far more interesting was the name 'Risque'. The word 'Risque' to me ws great because of the multiple meanings it gave; 'Risque' might mean sexually provocative in English but a very similar or same spelling in French means 'risky' or 'risk' in English which matches with the dual meaning of the first word well. Great as well since Noir being a French word is a source of my inspiration. This ties up perfectly for me personally becuase of my profession and the second reason I'll leave to those who know me. Character Design/Personalities: If you seen Noir/Madlax the similarities are so obvious. Milly pays homage to Mireille, Kathy to Kirika, Maggie to Madlax and Mary to Margaret. Why did I do this and changed the name? It's not a fan strip strictly speaking, it doesn't operate in their respective anime universes. Why the similarities, I guess I like them and it was easier for me to draw them as I can refer to character references and have done fanart for them before. In general I prefer to draw cute and pretty young women, so that's extra motivation. Character and personality wise I tried to fuse the existing characters with certain aspects I perceive to be my own personality. Milly tends to be more pragmatic, proactive, philosophical, aggressive, a little bitter and secretive. Kathy is generally quiet but can get aggressive too with her mind analytical but clashing a growing artistic side. She also is rather unaware or uncomfortable with social convention as well. Maggie is partially submissive like an assistant, empathetic, dreams of the quiet life but is a savant in the art and theory of combat and war. Mary is a little immature, childish, wants to have fun, overconfident, getting away with things due to her great ability overcompensating for her overconfidence and lazyness. Creative Process: I usually jot down ideas in a book and in preparation for a strip I would do rough sketches to test out on A4 paper. In terms of ideas, for art things such as lighting and perspective would have considerable inspiration from Noir/Madlax. The plot and the words too in some respects but there's also some of more painful inner parts of my life, thoughts and struggles in there. I found my best place to get new ideas is to lie in the dark in bed and think hard and then the words just pop up. A stroll is not a bad way to get ideas too. I think of the comic as a film and animation foremost in my mind and then taking certain frames. Everyone has their own different ways though, I'm just highlighting what works for me. Plot/Themes/Character Development: Introduction The plot for the first season is split into three sections each with a different emphasis and tone. I had a solid rough idea but I never kept a finished script which I stuck with till the very end. The general idea is to gradually increase the seriousness of the tone. I don't want to leave things too clear in some areas just in case this hurts my IRL career but here goes. Arc 1 The first story arc roughly (1-8) were introductory strips meant more for slapstick, gags and humour but also subtly build up each of the young women. The guns indicate things are a little different in the office in (strip 1) with the background indicating the sort of personality and thing they are doing. Milly is supposed to be serious and aggressive with a 'trader' like mentality (strip 2), Maggie is like a receptionist, a bit compliant and enjoys cooking (strip 2-4), Mary loves to slack off and is psychic with the screen a flash chat (strip 3-5) and Kathy is a rather analytical type with her equations on paper and code on the computer (strip 2, It's meant to be VBA actually). I was hoping the sillyness of the situation with the cake being shot also built up and released a bit of tension that they are preparing for a big hit and they are all armed (strip 3). I admit I was hoping the gags,humour and so forth would get people interested till the more serious part of the story but after some feedback and thought, it really helps if you watched Noir/Madlax otherwise you might not get some of the jokes, Strip 6 is a good example, it helps if you understand the Noir yuri subtext. Strip 5 is another, although you might get the punchline even if you don't know the bullet lines is from the Madlax opening sequence. By strip 7 or 8, the tone becomes more serious. Strip 7 comes from personal experiences and motivations at work and there is also a little subtle swipe at the world of finance at how little people know about the numbers behind things. Let's just say I'm where I am cause I'm a little too scared to try something else and I get away with not working as long as others partly due to performing when it counts. Strip 8 is serious and sets up the second arc, Maggie's words have a tinge of Sun Tzu about them. Maggie may seem like a ditzy blonde but I wouldn't be surprised if she's read Clausewitz. She also hints at her partial job dissatisfaction while Milly's is kind of morally relativistic and philosophical which is intentional. I want to believe 'good' people suffer less but I'm afraid I can't convince myself that's the case I guess. It's also a subtle attack on the amount of resources and fear about terrorism from a 'risk' perspective when Kathy talks about statistics but it also shows she can be rather analytical. Arc 2 The second arc isn't heavy laden with plot (9-17). I want to experiment and practice difficult perspective and 'Noir' style angles,lighting and shots here for the assassination. Strip 9 and 10 are more to create a sense of combat and danger till they encounter Williams. Notice the subway is inspired from the Tube and the painting is inspired from St Paul's Cathedral. It's a "Londonesque/Britishesque" place or setting throughout the comic to let you in on a little secret. The agents are a combination of local thugs and Russian Mafia as the weapons carried are either Browning Hi-Power and Markarov which was specifically chosen to match the men. Strip 11-14 has Maria Popescu which I hope was of good entertainment value to readers who understand where I'm coming from. Maria is a character made from the combination of 1. Mary Poppins, 2. The umbrella assassin who killed a Bulgarian dissident in the 1970s, 3. A host of Noir and Madlax characters mainly Limelda and Chloe but also a little Shaoli and Intoccabile. She serves a purpose plot wise too, she has a history with Maggie (Limelda stalking Madlax premise to it) and explains her fear of cooking for 'real' a bit. Her umbrella sniper rifle with bullet protection is a really novel weapon if it was real. A rather mysterious and eccentric woman and I'm most likely to have her come up. I guess she'd be someone some of my readers will like to keep. I like to elaborate on Strip 15, 16 and 17 more for the plot. Strip 15 is the death of Williams and his words I hoped provoke a bit of thought. To give you an idea what I'm thinking, I think the creators of Noir and Madlax highlight the values they reject via the deaths of antagonists with those values. In a way I'm doing the same with myself, rejecting seeing the world only as 'winners and losers'. Note the wording 'Beyond good and evil' is a reference to Nietszche's book. Strip 16 and 17 are in preparation for the third arc of the story. I hoped to build the plot a bit and the character development here. In strip 16, Milly is seen here to be rather unforgiving, a little secretive and reluctantly grateful and Kathy seeing a rather odd thing. I hope Kathy's quote provokes a bit of thought and demonstrates the intuitive/introspective person she is. Strip 17 starts with two cryptic messages transmitted psychically. It's meant to be a little conspiratorial like the book of Noir, like a strategic positional move in a piece of chess, I'm hoping to position this one for future use. The other two panels get the third Arc going. Milly has gambled the fortunes of herself and her colleagues here, highlighting a bit of possible desperation. The women have decided to try to recover the money from a likely trap out of their own free will. It also shows a bit of the bond between the group to me. Arc 3 The serious business end of the season is in Arc 3, Milly and Kathy spend sometime with the antagonist Alan O'Connor. I hoped the mansion and all the men in the background felt slightly intimadating. In Strip 18, I do comment on the world of business a little bit, I do think in the Anglo-American world at least if not the rest of the world, business and especially finance are built around relationships with alcohol at say a bar. Strip 19, I felt I rushed the historical background and story a bit but this is more about the worldview of O'Connor than anything else. O'Connor is built on some middle aged people I observed and people who seemed to have a certain pragmatism and cynicism. The exchange for the last panels are meant to be provoking, highlighting O'Connor's belief in religion for utility more than anything else. However it's a little more abstract than that for me, I can extend that idea in general. I once went on a management course and the trainer said you should believe what is useful. Even though he made distinctions between beliefs and values, a part of me just hated this idea because it felt inauthentic and like a lie even if it was useful and that inspired this panel. Strip 20 has a dash of O'Connor's Sartrean 'bad faith' and his old photo with his family tied up the early reference to Milly as similar to his wife and was setup as a plot device. He's a person who's virtually resigned himself to his world. Anyone who's seen the early episodes of Noir will understand what I mean with regards to the picture frame. Milly and Kathy were held at gunpoint, if I had more panels or strips I drag out the tension there. I really tried to have packed a lot of action and drama into Strip 21 and 22 with the combat scene, Mary being hit being her overconfident and Milly chasing O'Connor aggressively up the stairs. Strip 23 highlights O'Connors utilitarian attitude as he points out the futility of doing something with no tangible gain. Milly rejects this and shoots but her choices have consequences. Strip 24 shows us the little girl who calls O'Connor 'daddy'. There's a few subtle little things; first she resembles the little girl in the photo and the girl in Kathy's thoughts in Strip 17, second she is inspired from Laetitia and little Mireille, third she has a Kathy looking doll and lastly she has a little pendant on her neck. Strip 25 links Kathy's thought back on Stip 17 and O'Connor begins his cryptic last words and we learn the little girl's name is Emma. I like to think Emma is a metaphor for an inncocent inner child but I haven't developed that idea much. Strip 26 is preparation for a possible Season 2 and allows me to put in hopefully the more memorable quotes "Take a chance with truth" and "The prison with no walls". In a way the latter quote sums up many things that are in this comic so far, that's my interpretation. Artwork: The artwork is a major part of the series, It's more crucial than some comics where writing is more their emphasis. I found through this whole experience the key for me is to be willing for things to go wrong and yet willing to ensure things don't go wrong. Before I began I did make up my mind on my style and how much detail to go for. I don't have a tablet so artwork was drawn on paper, scanned, traced digitally and coloured with a mouse so I took that into consideration. I decided to have 4 panels per strip, fully coloured but with minimal cel shading. The intention is to 'learn' to draw new things and things I don't usually draw, different poses of the body, different expressions of the face and challenging perspective with quite a bit of foreshortening (I can't avoid this if I want to draw inspiration from Noir anyway) without too many bells and whistles of accurate shading and lighting. The other main goal is to make me draw faster; especially fewer erases and especially drawing simple things quicker. The art style gradually changed as the story went on and I found a few core challenges. The first is to draw a character and an area consistently viewed from different angles. This includes keeping the general features of the body, face and hair in the right place from frontal, 3/4 and side views. Certain things help, the standard character drawings are fairly useful. Mine aren't too sophisticated at all. For example roughly Milly and Maggie are about a four to one (maybe slightly less) body (including head) to head length ratio, Kathy about three and a half to one and Mary about three and a third to one. Also one head is about half away to the breast for Milly and Maggie. Referring to your previous drawings I found was a great help. The full size mirror in the room, stick model really helped in this regard too. The challenge is magnified when you have foreshortening and other poses about and I really struggled. However the challenge isn't just the foreground, the background can be a challenge too. The furniture, mug on the desk, pieces of shattered glass and outdoor buildings are an example. I was greatful I had sketched a rough layout of certain areas, it really helped. The second main challenge was transforming the pencil drawings onto the finished product on screen. The first process in this process was the scanning and tracing process. The drawing on A5 paper is scanned on 300DPI and then cropped and resized to a certain size (1236 x 866) on my 1280 x 720 screen. Often the rough outline is fine but most of the times I make adjustments to the original pencil sketch and have to work out exactly which one is a rough line and which is the 'production' lines. If I make adjustments here it could be I forgot a minor detail in the clothing or reviewing the angle because it didn't feel right or the character proportions need to be readjusted to fit more with previous representations of the character. Usually I use a 3 pixel line for this. The second process was to colour the drawing, I usually took the outline and painted but the program I used never covered it cleanly with the fill tool, so there was a lot of effort in cleaning the colouring of the edges. Depending on which arc it is, I sometimes painted the background or took a cut and paste of some digital artwork I had in a painting in the background. The last process is the limited shading process which primarily consisted of lighting the hair and depending on which arc adding brightness/contrast, effects and lighting as well as speech bubbles. Sometimes I hid weaker parts of the drawings with the lighting and bubbles, so it served that purpose as well. Finally I resized the panel to 567 x 400 and placed it on the strip template. Not all my panels were like that though, I had four painted ones in Strip 16, Strip 9 and Strip 25. Those were done differently and was a welcome change. I particularly liked the ones in Strip 16 with the first panel a derivative of a digital painting I was trying. Finally drawing all those different things! There was a lot of things I didn't draw at all or hardly had any practice prior to my comic. This include everything from tables, chairs, cooktops, computer screens, coathangers, tiramisu, couches, stairs and men! I like to highlight men, guns and hands as things I found as unique challenges out of the different things. For guys, I never really drew many males, muscles and chiselled faces was something that took a little practice. I found O'Connor the most challenging but worth the effort. The first guy I had to draw in many different angles and try to keep it right. Guns was another thing, it wasn't that I never drew guns before; but never in such quantity and variety. Originally I was going to be generic but my brother suggested I be more realistic so I took that on. The guns for Milly, Maggie and Kathy are the same as their Noir/Madlax counterparts but the guns for their enemies are based on real models too. The second arc was primarily Browning Hi-Power for Willam's men and the Russian Makarov pistol for their mafia partners. In the O'Connor arc, the guns were Uzis, Glocks and a Remington shotgun I think. The drawing of hands in the latter stages were also a challenge especially expressions with hands or grips of the gun from an odd angle. Drawing hands and feet was always difficult for me but I think I might have made some inroads here. There are some things I like to mention a bit further per strip. I liked the art for the first two strips, they were quite sophisticated and I like the Milly one (Strip 1 Panel 4 (abbrev S1P4). Panel 1 is top left, Panel 2 is top right, Panel 3 bottom left, Panel 4 bottom right). S2P3 with Kathy was great with It's unique angle and computer. Strip 3 was the first time I drew any character from about head to toe and viewing Mary from the back I remember was a little difficult. S4P1 was interesting with bullets and tiramisu while S4P4 was tricky at the time. Strip 5 was generally easy but keeping the Strip 6 had a lot of good poses and detail. S7P1 was tricky drawing the table and seating arrangement. I attempted to draw the appliances at the right angle but the bigger challenge was making sure the seat was consistent in terms of height and angle for Strip 7.S8P1 I thought was done pretty well although S8P4 felt off in retrospect. Strip 9 was a decent attempt to do a change of style and scene, the painting wasn't bad either. It's an attempt to do St Paul's cathedral in London from a photo I found online. I did a little research on the tube for Strips 9-15. S10P1 was a good attempt to get the shot men fall down the stairs in perspective, I felt the S10P2 and S10P3 were a little off but the lighting worked in my opinion. S11P1 and S11P2 were a little tricky, with S11P1 I had to do a kicking motion which was sort of new to me while the aim of the gun on S11P2 was probably a little off. The perspective in Strip 12 was tricky, S12P3 was about when I started moving from an HB to a 3B pencil and there was a lot of rubbing trying to get the view of Milly from the top to seem believable. Strip 13 was fun, S13P1 looked cute, getting the hair to fly in roughly the right direction was enjoyable as well as trying to get the bullet effect. S13P2 was funny in terms of the exaggerated looks, making sure the girls arms were overlapping in the right position was the major challenge there. S14P1 had a finger close-up which was a little more challenging than I thought it would be. S15P1 was nicely done but S15P3 was tricky as it was looking down. S16P1 was fairly detailed, with S16P2 and S16P3, I was struggling with drawing a mobile phone and the pose of holding it to the ear. S17P1 and S17P2 was a welcome change. S18P1 was the first attempt to use a painted background and this is used throughout the third arc. Drawing the interior of a car was a challenge, painting the interior of the room and the minibar was new to me. Trying to attack the same position at different angles and keeping the seating consistent was a real challenge in S19P1,S19P2 and S19P3. S20P2 was fun doing, not sure if O'Connor looked younger in that photo. S21P2 was a tricky one but I thought that was done pretty well and was a difficult angle. S22P2 and S22P3 was hard because it was looking down and was a real struggle. S23P3 and S23P4 was novel with shattered glass. S24 was interesting as this is the first time I drew a child in the series and was the first time I attempted to create tears. S25P4 was interesting I don't usually do the angle of just part of the face. S26P1 was one of my better camera looking up foreshortening I think, S26P4 was a nice to end and pretty to me. Motivation/Project Management: Honestly drawing a comic is not necessarily the sort of thing you want to do after a long day's work or wake up a little earlier in the morning. Nor do I find it always great to tackle on something hard when you're stuck and you want to leave it till tomorrow. I learned a little project management and a little on your webcomic is great in my opinion to keep yourself in a routine. It's best I found for me not to push myself to the limit for the whole project, I found there were times I got ill, for example I had a cold or RSI or I spent months suffering from dermatitis. I opted for about half a comic a week in the first half of the project and about one third of a comic for the second half. Also I had to accomodate time for others to use the computer, so I scheduled some days and periods for the drawing on paper and some for the digital work. For me it was important to have some contigency time just in case something unexpected shows up delaying the schedule. It certainly helped when I was doing my last couple when I felt a bit burned out and I felt I wanted a good last push. Easter Egg?: If you did get this far into my notes, you're eligible for my personal opinion on webcomics in general and my experiences. Drop me a message if you're interested, but note I won't give it to you if I don't get an idea who you are and that you aren't out to slander me. Personal Evaluation: Looking back I am fairly to quite satisfied with the effort especially with the testing circumstances which was mainly my limited energy after work, only having a mouse rather than a tablet and especially the dermatitis which at times was quite debilitating. If only I wasn't sick and in such a condition. I've pretty much delivered every week as I should and spent the effort to compensate for the weaknesses in my drawing and equipment as well as tried to attempt tricky things in generally the right spirit. I could have done something technically easier for me, probably more popular but I would have been dissatisfied. I tried to make art with my webcomic as well as entertainment and that was important for me personally. I believed I tried to provoke philosophical thought and emotion as well as humour with a degree of subtlety and nuances. The thing was I tried the best I could and it was at something where I felt naturally gifted at. No this was hard, trying to understand anatomy, foreshortening and struggling with it, weeding out little blemishes on the panel, making sure the website is working, trying to make my plot and characters consistent and interesting despite not being well versed in literature,film and animation or being that good with details, lying in bed or sitting in the car playing out the sequence in my head wondering if my quotes would be memorable and pondering whether my dialogue is ok as I'm rather introspective so dialogue might feel like talking to yourself rather than between two individuals. Importantly,I tried to capture some of the spirit of Noir/Madlax in this. Or at least the ones I thought made it special for me such as it's introspective existential outlook, subtle metaphors, provocative phrases,minimalistic dialogue, use of angles and lighting and moral ambiguity. In terms of effort I give myself an A in terms of quality in my own eyes though I give it a B. I wanted to make a rough diamond originally and I think I got a rough gem though probably not a diamond. Personally I felt tried to compact too much in, so the characterisation never felt deep enough and an extra few panels could have dramatised and strengthened some scenes. I felt my three arc approach also made it a bit disjointed but it was alright generally. Artistically, constistency was still a considerable issue, sometimes the hair and look of the face of a character felt a little off from panel to panel. Sometimes I tried to compact a little too much text in some spots but I felt that whirling bubble and paragraphing helped a bit. There has been only small and gradual improvements and no real breakthrough in terms of quality. However I am creating things a little better, quicker and many things are now more familiar. But honestly I can't draw as well or as I quickly as I want to, sometimes I want to give the drawing/art to another person because I'm stumped at how to take it to another level. I keep forgeting and remembering many of the same things and so it's a slow push. It's fairly frustrating and upsetting also to put a lot of pain and effort into the art and notice people find this to be arguably the weakest part of the series. I have to try to be forgiving on this but at times this can be hard but I should get better now. Plotwise it felt a little too linear for me but it has progressed fairly well, in the Noir/Madlax context it was Noir style plotline and Madlax style characterisation. This is still fairly good but if I wanted to be better I feel it should be Noir style characterisation and Madlax style plotline. There wasn't enough to really get to know the character's personal thoughts and relationship with others. I feel the way I explore themes and ideas is still a little too blunt, Strip 1-8 probably most so but the gag style is meant to be blunter. I liked it if my quotes could be interpreted in different ways in some instances, I'm not sure if it achieves that. However I felt there was the desired ambiguity. The plot and writing seems to be better received from what I can gather and I probably don't give myself enough credit for the general concepts and meanings I put into the words compared to the drawings. I like to also explore the relationship between creator and webcomic. I feel originally I had more of those popularity, fame and fortune aspirations when I first released it. I guess I had a few external motivations too, I was more dissatisfied with my job then. In today's financial climate though, I'm sure many would be thinking, are you kidding me you want to ditch your job and be a professional webcomic maker with the job you have? Monday to Friday 9 to 5 stable job, pays a lot more than the average salary, minimal managerial responsibilities, you hang out online with your friends during working hours and the boss thinks you're doing great? Even though I have a donate button and originally I thought of getting money, but now its a 'donate your opinion to me' button. Really it feels wrong for me to take money. Please DON'T send me money or anything of real finanical value, you got families to feed, there a lot of causes lot more deserving of money and beleive me this financial disaster we're in could just be the beginning. I doubt any of you will anyway but I had to make it clear. Apart from that though, I think the forum experience shows me wanting to be popular and be pro isn't all its cracked up to be. You probably have to sacrifice some of your expression and constantly selling to ensure you have food on the table and the amount of harsh scrutiny you'll be under is heavy. A lot of it will feel unjustified too, I really am too thinned skin for that. Any opinion I give is therefore only applicable for enthusiasts. So I'm one of those do it for love and friends types, ask someone else if you want to get into the comic industry. I have no professional training on art, writing or comics. My specialties are actually associated with the other sphere of the brain. There were many emotions throughout the comic. There was times I was happy, ashamed, disappointed, loving and hopeful of my comic. I'm not sure how many creators go through the many phases where sometimes you think yours is the best to mine is hopeless and a complete waste of time. I think it was worthwhile in the end, I did learn a lot not necessarily just about webcomics but about myself. I learnt a lot of the insecurities I had with my own work and the competitive nature I had. Rankings still give me a slight ego boost but I rather not take it seriously. As noted earlier I can certainly be defensive with my work. It also galvanised my beliefs about art and comics, I guess I'm a post-modernist in that regard. It taught me a lot about balance and values too, do you really want to sacrifice your responsibilities? your health? your relationships? Is your comic worth a flame war? what happens if this spills over to your friends? these are questions that I ended up asking myself. I think the last thing for me to do is to have a last look for a little while, wrap it up and have a few fond memories after a last look on a coffee table and saying "At least I tried to do something difficult and probably unique." and hope that me and my comic will be left alone in peace from trolls and flamers. Friends and Thanks: There were some great strips and moments with a couple of diehards by looking at the logs. I found fans/friends motivating and even if I made it for myself somewhat, I made it somewhat for others to enjoy too. So a positive comment here and there is rather morale boosting especially when you're tired at night wondering why are you spending all this effort. Seeing a friend put in a good comment or complete strangers following your story is a great feeling and especially if they were moved by it. I've put my thanks on the closing credits, there are people who have watched me and given me their personal opinion with respect to my views all the way through and that's great. Hearing people ask you questions about the comic is also great too, it really shows they're interested. I like to say thanks to a lot of supportive people out there, the ones who ask me to keep going, who read it every week, giving me friendly advice, linking my site to theirs and answering any questions I had with it. Finding a good friend to talk to about your comic who understands your point of view whom you trust but unafraid to critique honestly and specifically but in a non-threatening and friendly way is invaluable. I'm lucky to have a friend like that. Personally these are the sort of people who I value their opinion the most. Season2?: I really have no idea how I will manage to complete the second season, I'm not sure if I want to do it yet. The first season was 104 panels and took me 16 months. I want over 300 panels in the second, It's going to take me over four years. I'll have to think of a better way or it's just seems too long. Buying a tablet, reusing certain elements and avoiding the tricky angles might be the only way if I'm going to do it by myself but the latter two will disappoint me a bit. I might consider giving up on the drawing and give it to someone else. It's not what I prefer but I might not have the time or skill. But then again it's probably better I be positive and go for the difficult thing, that was how I approached Season 1 and it worked out fine in my opinion. Being an amateur creator doing it as a hobby, I have as long as I like (up till the day I die anyway). If I do go ahead, I'll be looking into more detailed character sheets, a more shaded and elaborate look, something leaning more on the serious side overall, more subtle humour, more sophisticated plot and character development, a different environment and a few surprises. Last and foremost give the comic a lot of love, I sometimes forgot that in the first season. Really one of the few things going for the amateur. Have to wait and see how personal circumstances pan out, keep you posted.