Dear reader,
The basic premise of Kara the Aquatic (the next arc in Kara the Brave) is this:
It’s underwater.
That’s literally it so far. XD
I’m trying to avoid another quest object based storyline, but I keep coming up with those, so I haven’t gotten much farther in that area. So far, I have a mental image of an underwater temple covered in strange and beautiful writing that Kara will explore somehow. The creatures involved will be this seal thing, highly expressive things I call squishies, and possibly a ghost-type thing.
The snake thing above might be part of the temple adornments.
From left to right: the stages of squishy movement. Think jellyfish, but cute and without tentacles. Then the seal thing with three pairs of flippers because why not. Followed by experimenting with various squishy expressions.
The idea for the squishies is that they don’t talk. They just emote. Thus the need for a wide variety of emotingness.
Feel free the use the awkward squishy for things, so long as you attribute me. Because it’s hilarious and totally worth sharing. The ghoulish thing to its right is the ghost thing that might appear in the comic. Not sure yet, but I’m warming up to the idea.
Yes, I want squishies to purr. Or vibrate in happiness, which is practically the same thing. It may or may not make it into the comic, but it’s hilarious enough that I’m strongly considering keeping it.
Some mouth-only expressions I’m playing around with and how they relate to each other. Squishies just have eyes, so this won’t be for them, but I’ve considered using this for another creature in this arc, or just as a reference for this and later arcs.
The challenges I’ll be facing in creating Kara the Aquatic are as follows:
- learning how to draw such that there’s a 3D feel to the space and movement (because underwater)
- figuring out underwater physics (especially with Kara’s cape)
- how will Kara breathe?
- learning how to plan a comic ahead of time
Kara the Brave was SO MUCH fun. I started it without knowing how it would end, and did a lot of planning on the fly. Which worked really well for that but, this time around, I want to be a little more methodical about this and use a development process similar to what professional graphic novel creators do. Like being purposeful about setting, character design, and storyline.
Above all, though, it’s got to be fun.
See you in the new year with more about Kara the Aquatic as it develops!
Sincerely,
Thea
4 thoughts on “Sneak Peek into Kara the Aquatic!”
Teddi Deppner
It definitely looks like fun!
As for plot, maybe Kara wakes up from a nap one day and finds herself underwater and able to breathe underwater. She doesn’t know how it happened, but even worse: she cannot breathe air anymore, so she can’t go home!
An underwater creature befriends her as she searches for the answers (how did this happen? how can she be cured?). They have many adventures, but eventually it is revealed that her little friend was actually the culprit. It was lonely, and when it saw her walking along looking at the tide pools, it transformed her into a sea-breathing companion for itself.
Or, you know, whatever you come up with is good, too. :-D
Thea
Well, seeing as you gave away the twist to your idea, it looks like I’ll just have to come up with something else :P
I was thinking there would be something involving the portals the Salamanders left behind for Kara to take care of :) After all, it would be silly to leave them hanging around at the end of Kara the Brave and not do anything with them in Kara the Aquatic
Teddi Deppner
Ha! If you liked the idea, you could delete my comment and it could be our little secret. But I expect you’ll come up with something that you love without my help. :-)
Thea
I *could*, but then you’d know the ending, and I rather like the idea of keeping you in suspense as you read the comic :)
Kara the Brave (the comic)
An eleven-year-old girl who spends most of her free time tromping about her mountainous back yard in a heroic getup of her own design, Kara loves the idea of an adventure. The real thing, on the other hand…Thea van Diepen (the creator)
Thea van Diepen spent the first ten years of their life on a tree-wrapped acreage where an inquisitive child might believe in magic. Nowadays, they live in a small city in Alberta, breathing life into characters and worlds and the stories those tell. They’ve been published in the Tesseracts anthology series, and their works include the White Changeling series, The Illuminated Heart, and the interactive short story The Tree and the Grave.