The MYSTERY TRIO in “Not, In Fact, a Ghost Story”!
WHEW.
This comic has been a long time coming, as folks who have followed this blog and seen the various teasers over the past year will know. Actually I’ve been working on it even longer than that!
This was done as a trade for @pirably, in exchange for the wonderful Portal Ford plush he made! (Seen here.) The characters of Aru (big skull-faced monster) and Marun (the cat with the interdimensional-projection abilities) are two of his OCs who are friends of Portal Ford (see links to his tags for more of them!). This story took shape between us, and all through the process, he gave me invaluable feedback and really made this better. (I’ll say right now: the brilliant Bill-eye layout of page 8 was his idea; my original sketch was much more boring.)
While I’m terribly overdue in finishing my half of the trade, it’s probably fortunate I took so long, as this would have been 10x harder to do without being able to work digitally in CSP, and probably wouldn’t have come out as well either..
I realized at the end that the theme and atmosphere of the story was just spooky enough to make for a good Halloween post. So, also:
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
What with various things, could not get something new done for Halloween this year, so here’s a re-run of my big project from last year! (Originally posted 10/31/2020.)
It can also be found on AO3 here (where the pages might be a bit bigger than the view on Tumblr.)
Finally - the piece I did for the cover of “So Many Falls”, the Gravity Falls AUs zine!
The zine cover was laid out in a bunch of wedges, and someone suggested that we do a rainbow effect.
I wound up with orange, but I’d already been assigned the Portal Stans AU (that is, I gave a list of some AUs I’d like to do, and that was the one the zine organizers chose). So, no nice autumn scenes for this one! Instead I just used the color for dramatic lighting in a scifi setting, came up with some poses to make use of the weird shape of the wedge.
As much as I love the idea of the Stans being, like, space adventurers together, I really haven’t done much with that to date! I want to come back to these designs and do some more with them at some point.
Done for the Bonus PDF of the “So Many Falls”: Gravity Falls AU zine!
I’ve been a sucker for the Portal Ford & Portal Mabel AUs for a long time. Often called the “Drifting Stars AU” (after the title of the first fic I think did that premise?). But this piece is specifically an illustration of a moment from Chapter 9 in “Ad Astra” by @themadqueenmab, one of my favorite fics of all. The description of that particular world was a challenge to figure out how to do, but I love getting to play around with alien landscapes.
(Note: the fic is still a WIP, although I know Mab hasn’t abandoned it; and the fic alternates between Ford and Mabel, and what’s going on back in Gravity Falls.)
Been a hot minute since I drew some Gravity Falls, but I’ve recently been addicted to No Man’s Sky, and if that game doesn’t scream Portal Ford, I don’t know what does.
“A person who thinks all the time Has nothing to think about except thoughts So, he loses touch with reality And lives in a world of illusions.” - Alan Watts
God I hope putting quotes here isn’t too 2015, but I’ve been listening to “Overthinker” by INZO non-stop drawing this and it just fits so well! That and “Oceans of Time” by MelodySheep…
Here’s a little something for the excellent @pirably based on this fic by JaxxCapta!
Ford’s a little apprehensive when he first lays eyes on Aru, and Marun almost knocking him off balance isn’t helping hehe
Aru and Marun both belong to pirably. I love their designs and they were so much fun to draw!
Thank you very much!!! I love how you captured them :D Marun has such a lovely smile! Ford will soon realize that Aru is no monster, even when he looks intimidating <3
“A person who thinks all the time Has nothing to think about except thoughts So, he loses touch with reality And lives in a world of illusions.” - Alan Watts
God I hope putting quotes here isn’t too 2015, but I’ve been listening to “Overthinker” by INZO non-stop drawing this and it just fits so well! That and “Oceans of Time” by MelodySheep…
