Answers to your Questions!

You had questions, I have answers! (finally— sorry it took so long, it’s been a weird couple of weeks between squirrel-related power outages, the KickStarter taking longer to prep than I anticipated, and gnarly weather here.)

Loïc Van Doorn Asks:

My question would be: what's your writing process like? More specifically, how far in advance do you plan major plot points or where the story is going generally. I've read a few webcomics, but nothing comes close to your storytelling. Almost every page is a cliffhanger by itself and to top it all off the whole storyline is just amazing. 

Answer: Thanks for the compliments!

Splitting hairs, I think Oren’s Forge is more accurately comparable to other graphic novels than most webcomics. ‘True’ webcomics have the benefit of being less narratively formal in a way, and more adaptive to the creator’s immediate storytelling desires, since they are usually done in bursts without a fixed end point.

Short answer: I have it mostly scripted before I even start on the art. (I hate scrapping finished art work because I needed to change something in the story, nothing feels quite so demoralizing to me.)

My writing process is probably most comparable to screenplay writing. The first thing I figure out is the ending (or, specifically, the emotional thesis/what I want an audience to feel at the end.) Then I work out major plot points and break those down into individual scenes. Very first draft, I start backwards, working characters from the end to the beginning, then reading it from beginning to end to see if it flows logically. (For the artists out there, it’s like working on a sketch then flipping it, I guess.)

Initially for scenes, I will just write a quick summary of what needs to happen to bridge one scene to the next. (ie ‘Swift runs into the woods where she finds Egg/Lichen, who steer her toward the trap.’) This helps me to get a good idea of pacing and can highlight any major logical flaws. (This will be the point I realize, ‘why would So-and-So do this when they can just do this?’ then course correct.)

When the story has been mapped out, that’s when I start to write dialogue for individual scenes (and I tend to start with the ones either I’m most excited about or the most pivotal). I use a lot of placeholder dialogue if I’m in the flow, so first drafts have a lot of characters being extremely anachronistic or blunt. I’ll do a second/third pass to tidying it up, and by this point, I feel safe in the overall story to start to work on actual art/page layout.

The final dialogue I tend to edit on the fly when I’m laying out the speech bubbles (which is one reason I end up with so many last minute typos, hah.) This is little changes, either adding or removing an idiom, that sort of thing. (Or I’ll read it out loud and realize ‘this is insane, no one would say this’ and change it entirely if I can.)

And I do try to make every page a cliffhanger— after all, why not!

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Gale Tazzin Asks:

One question I had about the volume as a whole: Sedge had a lot of appearances in Volume 1 but was entirely absent here...?

Answer: Sedge as in the chubby gray vole/ground squirrel, right? He went with Hemlock, he’s up on the ridge on PG225-226, and has a couple lines with Hemlock on 229. He’s also around the fire when Oren is making the plan on 239. (I imagine his ability to become unmemorable is how he’s evaded predators for so long. ;) )

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JohnnyTikitavi Asks:

Are you going to release the April Fools comic into the wild because it is too amazing and hilarious not too :)

Answer: For now, that’s some special physic damage reserved exclusively for Patreons!

I may officially put it out in the wild sometime, maybe after the public comic posts have finished. We’ll see!

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Gurkin Asks:

I would like to know - what is the price of weather?

Answer: Steep, my friend!

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Krzysztof K Asks:

1- Could you tell us more about Lichen and the mountain where he saw the dark silhouettes he told Rask and Egg about on page 216, or would it constitute a spoiler? Based on what he said, are there any magical elements in this world?

Answer: Lichen’s back story will come up in the main story at some point, so I’m going to hold off an answering that one. As for magic— no, there are no supernatural elements in the world (aside from, well, talking animals I guess.)

2- Does Oren see Egg in the same way as Rask (you once wrote a comment that Oren doesn't see Rask as an equal person. This comment was probably on DeviantArt, Rask himself said that he doesn't want to be a weapon) so is Egg just a tool for him ? I understand that Egg likes to dig in the dirt. Does Oren see nothing more in her?

Answer: I don’t want to speak too directly about Oren’s world views in relation other species, since those are definitely coming up in the next chapter. However, I do think it’s worth noting that Oren has major prejudices and blind spots (he’s pretty maniacal/down on the other hares in Oren and the One-Eyed Wolf, for instance.) Though at first he seems like a cool ‘affable uncle,’ Rask will start to see his flaws.

3- Will we also see other seasons in your comic, e.g. autumn or winter, and what will the characters do then?

Answer: Yup, should I have the fortitude to get all the way there, I do have an autumn/winter plot line. It would be after this next chapter, though.

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Looweezah Asks:

Just how old is Oren? They keep reminding of his advanced age, but he still looks in his prime, unlike other older characters like Gristle and Quanaq...

Answer: Okay, bare with me a sec. A dog, I think, experiences all the same phases of life humans do (infancy, youth, physical prime, elderly, geriatric etc) despite a shorter life span. ‘Age’ is relative to the living— no matter the species, time is something we experience in relation to our own life cycle.

Anyway, that’s why I’m hesitant to put exact ages on these guys, because they all probably have subtly different metabolisms.

But, on a standard clock, if Oren was human, he’d probably be in his middle/late fifties— which for prey (certainly a hare, who are usually solitary and probably get picked off by their 40s) that’s on the older side. Gristle is in his mid 70s, Quanaq maybe mid/early sixties.

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Microgrampup Asks:

How did Hemlock find the Hollow? 

Answer: Hemlock met Oren not long after he returned north from the Conclave (where he learned to smelt copper.) Oren encountered Sibyl around the same time, and the three of them were the impetus behind the Hollow.

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Pantera Asks:

1-  Are we ever going to see Tracker and Nettle in the story?

Answer: Never say never! I don’t know anything for sure, except that I’m not done with them.

2- Is Ramble a season younger than Swift or just a runt of the litter since he is called "little" Ramble? Also how did he got his name in-universe?

Answer: He’s a few seasons younger, and Swift and Tracker were twins/litter mates. In this world wolves typically have twins, rarely triplets, and only average two or three ‘litters’ over their life. That likely has to do with food supply/nutrition, so the fact that Ramble was a single might be a good indicator that the pack was starting to face some hardships/food scarcity. He probably got his name in an obvious way— he wandered off a lot as a pup.

3- I’ve noticed that Oren looked very upset in the end of volume 2 when Rask announced his decision...?

Answer: Oren and Rask had some words prior to that scene, which I plan on presenting as a flashback to lead readers back in for the beginning of the next chapter. It’ll shed more light on the current state of affairs between them, and what’s going on with Oren (though, the cracks in his ‘wise old uncle’ persona are starting to show, I hope.)

4- Was Seral’s father’s injury similar to Red’s (e.g. was he still alive but crippled in some way) and could be saved if someone did to him what Swift did for her mate? And speaking of Seral—I liked that he was so conflicted. He was not just a minor baddie that was okay with murdering half of his family, he just happened to be a follower type stuck between a rock and a hard place. I wonder if he just missed a clue when Scree wanted to make him to leave with her or he ignored them because he couldn’t imagine living without a pack. And one more thing: is there a piece of a backstory behind Seral’s missing ear tip? ;)

Answer: I do not know how Seral’s dad died. There’s a lot I don’t like to set in stone because it may be the missing ingredient for a plot point or character motivation down the line.

As for Seral missing clues— I had a different (or maybe, second) epilogue originally in mind. I still might include it somehow, perhaps in a chapter 3 prologue or something, but I don’t think it constitutes any spoilers to just tell you now. I wanted to do a scene with Scree finding Seral’s body and talking to it, flashing back to just before they entered the woods together in Volume 1 (and then ran into Rask, etc.) The flashback would show Scree trying to convince Seral to leave with her and Seral refusing because he felt his duty was to protect Swift. (He’s also a coward and very afraid of the world, though he’s too proud to admit it and buries that feeling in aggression and split decisions. RIP Seral.)

For his ear— it was probably a young Swift or Tracker that gnawed it off in a play fight or something. Wolves be wolfin’ sometimes.

5- Have you decided what is the gender of the pups? ;) I remember that you wrote somewhere in a reply to a comment on dA that at this point it is not important, but it has been a while back.

Answer: Officially, no, not yet— I supposed for evolutionary purposes it makes sense if both are either female or one male/one female. I’ll probably err on the side of one and one, though.

6- Also, this more a general comment than a question, but I want to say that I really appreciate that you decided to not kill off Red in volume 2—it was really refreshing as there is that overused trope of killing off a partner/wife/husband/best friend to give the main hero a motivation.

Answer: I think (especially in the public comments section, oof) people have a hard time reconciling a disabled characters’ ‘use’ in an apocalyptic/harsh environment. It really bothered me when someone somewhere on a public page claimed Swift was a bad leader because she kept Red around, as though a persons only value is in the physical labor they can provide. Not only is that just a sincere lack of imagination, that ideology feels really naïve and divorced from the reality of hardship, so I want challenge it.

I’m not going to say Red’s fully sheathed in plot armor now (I can certainly wound him through proxy) but I want him to have a chance to shine as a key player, despite his physical disability.

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Lord Ryven Asks:

Is Lichen male or female?

Hah, honestly, I have no idea right now. For the most part, Lichen is as much a mystery to me as to you.

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ANONYMOUS Asks:

Do you think that drawing can be learned or does it require talent?

 [I’m only listing you as anonymous since you had messaged me about this a bit ago and I don’t want to out you for the question if you aren’t comfortable! I just thought it was a great question and one I think other people might want my answer, too.]

Answer: I think anyone can learn to draw.

Just remember: it’s a skill issue, not talent. ‘Natural talent’ just means someone has a more intuitive understanding of the basics. (To put it another way, I’m really bad at new FPS games when compared to a gamer who’s been playing CoD since the womb, but after I put 20+ hours in, I do noticeably better. Art is like that; put in the time, see some results.)

My first suggestion is to remove the idea of posting online. Take away the pressure to 'produce' and just explore. Finished art you're proud of is for sharing, but the learning process should have a degree of privacy and give you safety to just mess around.

Because, I think the absolute best place to start learning is by tracing or directly referencing pieces that you like. This is how young people begin (for me, I traced/redrew stuff from game manuals/magazines. I have a notebook somewhere of just tracings of that Jaguar boss from Pitfall.) This helps to train your hand to work with your eye and develops the muscle memory you need to translate an image from your mind onto paper. (Back to the FPS analogy, it’s like an aim-trainer!)

Life drawing is the next step after direct referencing/tracing. Again, it comes down to training your eye to recognize form and translate it to 2D. It’s an important exercise. There’s a great anecdote from The Illusion of Life I often think about, about how it doesn’t matter if you can draw Roger Rabbit, first you need to know how to draw a real rabbit. That’s how you understand the underlying proportions and then understand how to change/manipulate them.

Plus side though, you can life draw animals or people from photo reference — because the aim of life drawing is to learn to look at the subject as much as you can and NOT your hand/the paper. I don’t think a lot people realize that about why we life draw! (Also, do it with charcoal or soft super graphite pencils on cheap butcher paper. It is a good way to be loose/free/not give a fuck, and reminds you you’re just practicing.)

There’s a book called ‘The Natural Way to Draw,’ which is a self guided course book. It’s not bad and can provide structure for learning if that’s helpful for you.

Unless I’m misremembering (my copy is in storage at the moment) it focus on contour drawing techniques, which really clicks for some people.

Also look at Andrew Loomis’ books. Here’s a link to the free PDFs. He’s considered a master illustrator and has his own approach to drawing which might speak more to you. (His is more of a technical approach.)

Personally, I focus on ‘volume’ when I sketch, sculpting form rather than finding the outside contours. I have horrible ‘economy of line’ as my life drawing professor used to say, but it goes to show that people click with different methods. So! Try online tutorials if they seem interesting, look at the art books for movies you like, attend a workshop if you want— you might only find one piece of the puzzle in each new place, but it’s still more of the whole picture than you had before!

No one will have all the answers— art is way too personal. You’ve just got to be brave and experiment and have fun.

Be patient with yourself. You will draw so, so many 'bad' pictures before you start to feel like you're improving. It's a lot like going to the gym. If you go too fast, you'll burn out. Be slow and consistent (15-30 min of life drawing a day will really help) and after awhile, you'll start to see results.

Also, when you start noticing the flaws in your own art— that’s actually a good thing! It means you’re close to ‘leveling up’ (sorry for so many game analogies, yeesh.) Here’s an really great visualization of artistic improvement:

Art is many things but at its core, I think it’s catharsis— which is to say, a release of emotion, positive or negative. No matter your skill level—no matter if you ever share it—the process of making art is good for you.

I hope that helps! Good luck!