Posts authored by Erin Ptah
Borrowing Trouble 10/49
Borrowing Trouble 9/49
Font tests for a new(ish) language
Leif & Thorn is going to have some characters speaking Tamaputian in the next few months. It’s come up before in the comic, but never in long-ish conversations…so I’m thinking, this is the time to get decisive about fonts.
Way back when Mata and Pato first appeared, they got the occasional line of dialogue in Tamaputian, which was typed in Comfortaa. Very plain, not a lot of character…easy to read, but probably hard to distinguish at a glance from some other fonts.
In the Kolpovision storyline, I gave the singers from Tamapoa a few of their own lines in Tamaputian, and typed those in a version of Ænigma Scrawl. Definitely has its own distinct vibe! …Not sure I actually like how it looks in wordier speech bubbles.
So I’m thinking about switching it again. But to what?
This post has tests of half-a-dozen finalists. Click through, scroll around, tell me which one(s) you like best.
Light spoilers, in the sense of “new background characters will exist, here are some of their faces.”
Continue reading Font tests for a new(ish) language
Borrowing Trouble 8/49
The librarian is an OC cameo from the Volume 3 Kickstarter campaign! I didn’t work out their Ceannic name, but in Earth terms they go by Dani, and use their magic to color their hair.
Borrowing Trouble 7/49
In planning this arc, at first I thought it would be a “series of check-in Sunday strips while the main arc focuses on other characters,” similar to the Kale in Lockdown strips. This page was drawn to be the first one of those.
It became clear pretty quickly that there was too much material for me to handle it gracefully as a side thing. For starters, this strip shouldn’t have to be a cold open, it deserved a week’s worth of leadup.
(That’s a statue of Telga, the famous historical water mage, running the fountain.)
Sketchbook: Unnamed Goose Girl
A fairytale/legend winged character from the Leif & Thorn universe. (Reward art for a Kickstarter backer.)
She’s an ex-princess turned mischievous trickster — never seriously hurts anyone or steals anything priceless, but loves to cause chaos by setting up pranks and running off with small-but-useful items. Sometimes you can tell she was there by the unusual handprints (ectrodactyly), or the sound of a triumphant HONK in the distance. To protect against her, leave a conspicuous bell lying around — they’re her favorite thing to steal, and when she has one, you can hear her coming.
Borrowing Trouble 6/49
Borrowing Trouble 5/49
Inspired by the 3D models in last month’s April Fool’s strip, the Embassy walls have gotten a glow-up. Or, in comics terms, “they were always this detailed, I just was drawing them in a simplified way before now.”
You can still see the original design in earlier storylines…but I did go ahead and redraw all the wall appearances from Volume 4 onward. (In short: all the strips that weren’t already in print.)
