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"The Woods" - That thing I spent a month and a half working on until I was too broke to finish
🕑 Added 2024-12-14 23:41:21 +0000 UTCThe Writing
The story here is about a traveler's guild escorting a noble on his first 'solo journey' outside of his hometown- He may be an adult but it's his parents that actually pay for everything, so it was his parents that made him wait till a high ranking traveler's guild member to accompany him.
This was already a devastating blow to his pride, and that was before finding out who would be leading him- a woman. Everything that follows is pretty much 100% on him.... She's taking him down the safest route possible which he interprets as her being incompetent, having him travel the same road as peasants. He sets off on his own, with her trailing behind him begging him not to leave the path. At this point he couldn't take another hit to his ego
..but if his pride was hurting before - it was about to be thoroughly eviscerated.
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The actual dialogue that happens here is mostly just him throwing insults that gives you clues to this kind of privileged background, his attitudes and values towards women, and the progression of his mental state throughout the comic. Especially during the swallowing sequence where it's just him and his thoughts, he is doing everything in his power to disengage with what's happening to him.
There's a period after the monster cums where he thinks about having his guide executed/tortured for the damage to his dignity - genuinely probably the least likeable prey I've written, but that's kind of the point. It's not until he actually sees the light of the campfire that it dawns on him that he's not going to come out of this and take revenge.
Also one of the ideas here I thought was fun - her belly there is partially transparent. She's supposed to be a 'monster futa', so her skin literally stretches out, letting the light of the campfire come through so he can visibly see his companion sleeping. They wanted emphasis to be put on them being nearby as he digests, and I thought it'd be fun to let him see for himself
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The Story Behind the Story - Red Yaps and Apologizes again
So technically this was a commission... but that commission was 11 panels long, with everything here condensed down into those 11 panels.... Several of those panels also had 2 scenes playing at the same time, so it was effectively 16 panels, with several different kinks all at play at the same time, condensed down to even less than that.... There was definitely pacing issues
I should've just said no, but I thought I could fix the pacing issues myself- I mean in my mind that was my job, to apply my knowledge to make their idea actually work in reality. A job that despite knowing it would take extra effort, I decided that was effort I'd pay for myself out of pocket which... did not work out. Ultimately I still want to finish this but technically speaking everything they paid for I did - and with 4x that amount on top of that in free work. The end total was around 200~ hours before I burnt out realizing I couldn't pay for food
But it doesn't make sense to hold onto it if I can't finish it right now-
This one is a mix of pride and shame for me.... I am proud of the way it was turning out, it was someone else's idea that I thought I could make into something a lot of people could enjoy... Ashamed I never really got to live up to it
On the bright side, this one forced me to really improve my line art- although obviously not all of it is 'final' line art, but the ones that are I genuinely feel are pretty good.. Although that could be a bit of a cope
I don't think I can put this one in the 'dead end collection', I just can't. It was too much effort and it was one that I legitimately thought would end up being one of my best. I might not be able to finish it right now, but I still want to. It's actually fairly close to being done, with the full thing about 70% of the way there. Unfortunately that's still 60, 70 hours of work I can't really afford right now... I am sorry this is the way that I am, I want to make good things even if they're beyond what I'm capable of... Or able to afford to do
Anyways, I hope this is at least somewhat enjoyable despite its state....
