tonycliff

Holding on to Summer, Georges Beuville, and Home Renovations

A friend asked me, "does it feel like everyone's just ready for summer to be over?" To which my reply was, "no. No it does not. NOT FOR THIS GUY."

I do not know where the last two months have gone. And it's not lik...

Boat Notes

Happy August, everybody! I recently had reason to revisit Delilah Dirk's flying sailboat. There's a cheeky crop above, the top half of the image I've been working on. That's as good as the boat's ever looked, I think.

I've miss...

Chapter Five: The Conclusion

Here we are, at the end of Chapter Five!

Alexandra's father is incapacitated by the side of a stream. She's taken his valuable historical artifact into her care and, presumably, promised to keep it safe, riding for Barathron and the aid sure to be offered by the people there.

In Archipoli, the Provveditore has swa...

Chapter Five: Pages 47 - 50

Last time, Alexandra's Father revealed his secret obligation, the reason that the "Red Dirk of Meles" is so important to him… and to England. He also had a personal moment with a god that, until that point, Alexandra did not know played any sort of role in his life. He asked Alexandra to inherit his mission. She re...

Chapter Five: Pages 43 - 46

The "tiny sword" that Alexandra's father was carrying turns out to be more significant than Alexandra could have suspected. The glittering red gems embedded in the scabbard are supposedly the magically-transformed eggs of a majestic swan! Alexandra's father entrusts it to her care, but what does he want her to do with it? Wel...

Chapter Five: Pages 39 - 42

With his knee crushed, completely incapacitated, Alexandra's father has asked Alexandra to get back on Ataraxes alone, and continue the ride he meant for them to do together. Will she go? I suspect you know already, but wait… there's something he hasn't told her…

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NOTES

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  2025-07-03 17:52:23 +0000 UTC View Post

Chapter Five: Pages 34 - 38

Last week, Vignelli received a pummelling… not that it accomplished anything, as everyone was startled to see shells raining from the sky, each carried by a crow, each containing a small message. You might assume the messages were from the pirates, about the declining health of the bald flagbearer / first mate. You might re...

Chapter Five: Pages 29 - 33

In last week's post, Vignelli was trying to convince the elderly townsfolk of Archipoli that Uncle Nikos and his sister had conspired with the British Navy to bring doom to their town. When the townsfolk seem disinclined to believe the worst of Nikos, though, Vignelli calls for anyone to bolster his claim. He has also just po...

Chapter Five: Pages 25 - 28

Last week, things were not looking good for Alexandra, her father, and their ride for Barathron. But we will have to come back to them, because over in Archipoli, Alexandra's mother and uncle have problems, too. They need a safe place for the villagers to hunker down. Vignelli's manor is a natural solution — there is probab...

Chapter Five: Pages 22A - 24

Last week, Alexandra was ruminating on the horrible sounds that owls make, shortly before hearing a similar horrible sound from her father. He had simply been watering their horse upstream. What could have happened? That's what we find out this week.

This instalment is a weird one, sorry about that. It was hard to know ...

Chapter Five: Pages 19 -22

"Hey TC, how's the comic book going?"

Well, all week I thought I'd already posted an update here, but it turns out that was actually last week. That's the state of my mind and the way time has been passing for me recently.

Anyway, last time, as they galloped from Archipoli to Barathron, ...

Chapter Five: Pages 13 - 18

Last week, Alexandra and her father were rushing towards Barathron on the back of a horse that was clearly becoming exhausted under the effort, especially with two riders. Alexandra's father was unwilling to turn around to water the horse, but fortunately a potential oasis has appeared on the horizon…

This week! A new...

Chapter Five: Pages 9 - 12

This week: is it an omen?

This is the second instalment of Chapter Five! I put up the first last week, and you should be able to browse the updates easily using this Patreon Collection.

I can only make a short update t...

Chapter Five Begins!

Welcome to the start of Chapter Five of PRACTICAL DEFENCE AGAINST PIRACY!

When last we saw Alexandra and her father, they had just leapt on the back of the fine stallion Ataraxes and hurried out of and away from Archipoli. The town had become overrun by pirates who obscured themselves i...

Night Lights (Chapter Five Colour Keys are done)

Flatting is all done for Chapter Five of PRACTICAL DEFENCE AGAINST PIRACY, and I've spent the last week preparing its colour keys. You know what that means… it's almost time for finished pages! Those begin in the next post, probably in a week and a half.

Right now, though: some tips on how to render nighttime scenes w...

A Compositional Investigation

Flatting continues! Chapter Five should be ready to colour by the end of this week. There still isn’t much to look at (such is the nature of the flatting step), but I had a strange encounter with an image in the wild this week, and I did want to share that.

In 2025-04-08 19:42:57 +0000 UTC View Post

Chapter Five Flatting Rambles (Style, Speed, and Composition)

I've been flatting, flatting, flatting, and it's all going at a respectable pace, but whoof whose idea was it to draw trees in outline again?

Last week I went to do a talk with the Illustration students at our local Emil...

Chapter Five Lettering is Complete!

All sixty-two pages of Chapter Five are now lettered and ready for flatting! Hooray! All the panel borders are in, too, and it's done the trick that you think I'd be used to by now: it looks like a real comic.

Here are some things I've been thinking about while I've been turning drawings into a real comic.

Reliable Tools and Beautiful Nerds

I managed to sneak in my scanning chores, so all the pages for Chapter Five have been turned into little computer blips and blops thanks to the ancient but reliable large-format flatbed scanner at Emily Carr University. I've been using this same scanner since The King's Shilling (DD2) back in 2015, a decade ago!...

Chapter Five Inking is Done!

Chapter Five of PRACTICAL DEFENCE AGAINST PIRACY is now all inked up, from beginning to end. If you want to take a look at the inked pages, they're displayed in full in the carousel above. (Is the Patreon image carousel any good for looking at this stuff?) Obviously, lots of "spoilers," so do as you will. More about the pages...

It's a very Napoleon-Crossing-The-Alps sort of week

I've reached the last page of Chapter Five! Old hands will know, however, that this does not mean the chapter is done yet — now it's time to loop around and finish the first ten-or-so pages. A closer look at inks in a second. 

First, a casual salute to anyone who was la...

I offer you these uncut gems!

I feel like I'm finally getting up to speed with my inking! The downside to (long-running theme here) jumping in and out of disciplines as I have been doing (pencilling, then inking, then colouring, and so on, as opposed to inking the whole book at once) is that I get out of shape with my craft. But I like the marks on these ...

There are two wolves inside of you and they both want you to tighten that jiggly cupboard handle

Happy New Year! Yes, we're already half way through January, but I haven't wished you a Happy New Year yet, so I'm within my rights. I maintain that if I don't see or talk to you until December 31st, I'm still allowed to wish you an — admittedly belated — Happy New Year.

To my friends...