Hey! This week, I'm preparing for my future workshops at
Geekfaeries 2025
, so I'm taking Monday to publish a production report on my progress with episode 39.
Previously on Pepper&Carrot...
Abnormally a lot has happened since the release of the
last episode 38: 'The Healer'
, so here is a quick recap if you haven't followed it:
The canceled version
I initially released in December 2023 a
beta version of Episode 39
codenamed 'The Bedtime Story' to the feedback of the community. The concept of this episode was that Cayenne decided to use bedtime story moment to info-dump the backstory of the series. A ten page long flashback, already painted in grayscale, with a lot of text and illustrations. It unfortunately rised more questions than answering ones, and the execution was clumsy. I tried to fix it for months but ultimately later in 2024 decided to cancel it. Last month, I ported the backstory and some panels of this canceled version to the
Wiki of Pepper&Carrot
.
The end of Pepper&Carrot
In mid 2024 and following a long period of personal struggle, I announced
the end of Pepper&Carrot
after completing the episodes necessary for my fifth book. I was decided to write only four more episodes: 39, 40, 41 and end at episode 42. Retrospectively, that was a mistake.
MiniFantasyTheater
Shortly after anouncing the end, I also announced
my new project MiniFantasyTheater
, a series better suited for social networks that allowed for more frequent posting. Releasing the
first ten MiniFantasyTheater episodes
weekly from April to July felt like a breeze in creativity and productivity. From a metrics standpoint, it was
a success
.
Back to Pepper&Carrot
However, I felt that I was merely recreating all of the Pepper & Carrot infrastructure with MiniFantasyTheater, including the font, translation system, Git repositories, and website. I also missed being able to write longer episodes. Ultimately, I decided to merge the projects. Along the way, I incorporated all the innovations I made for MiniFantasyTheater into Pepper&Carrot. I also decided to embrace a long-term vision for Pepper & Carrot and not end it at book five. By the end of 2024, I had implemented all these new ideas, despite the technical difficulty of merging all the MiniFantasyTheater repositories and techniques into
a new Pepper&Carrot website
.
Tough production conditions
I'm not looking for excuses, but creating a new episode doesn't happen in a vacuum. Here is also a list of things I'm dealing with since episode 38:
-
AI generative imagery:
It's everywhere and hard to avoid now. It drains me to receive sometime accusations that my digital art style is looking like AI-generated.
-
Linux is in its worst shape:
It's really difficult to advocate professional Digital Painting nowadays (
Wayland
,
packaging mess
,
Microsoft stylus guidelines in Linux
). I keep receiving requests for help from users who are lost in this mess. I published
my workstation install guide
last year to address this.
-
Patreon:
converting soon 'per creation' to 'monthly' by November 2025, messing with my 'per episode' income model (details:
Pepper&Carrot's Support page
and I'll share more details about this change one month beforehand).
-
Tougher Society:
Inflation, hatred, wars, and the rise of fascism.
-
Family:
There have been too many deaths in recent years...
Research and development
Since the beginning of 2025, I have been (re)testing various workflows. The focus of this research was to find a method that I could replicate on dozens of panels consistently and enjoyably.
Workflow A: the classic
This is the classic of classics in the industry: line art, flat colors, and shading. This is the workflow I used for the first eight MiniFantasyTheater episodes. The problem? Once I obtained clean line art, I spent a lot of energy filling the artwork with color while preserving the line art's precision. So, coloring and shading became tedious and boring tasks. I always die a little inside while doing it because it doesn't stimulate my brain enough.
The three steps of the classic workflow on Shichimi and Torreya artwork.
Workflow B: direct painting
This is a workflow that I used a lot during my career as a concept artist. First, I built the grayscale building blocks, then recolored them approximately, and finally painted over them until they looked good. While this method is the fastest, hands down, it also has a major issue: many things can go wrong with the proportions, drawing of the face, and facial expressions. The same goes for speedlines or a specific perspective and view angle. All the efforts are postponed to the final pass, where I redraw the details and make everything solid. In this demo artwork, I did well, but unfortunately, for many panels in a comic, this method is simply hard to manage, pushing all the efforts toward the end of production.
Three steps of the direct painting workflow on Pepper 'Rain' artwork.
Workflow C: compromise
For episode 39, I've decided on a compromise workflow. First, I'm creating a thick sketch in mid-gray on a white background. This step is a bit frustrating because I can't make all the details look as precise as line art, but the goal is different. The goal is to create solid volumes that are correctly proportioned and to achieve the correct view angle and perspective. The pre-coloring step is divided into two steps: grayscale and recoloring the grayscale. I find it easier to focus on defining how the light source builds up the volume and splitting the different parts of the picture into grayscale. Thanks to the semi-transparent sketch, I have a guide that helps me minimize the number of brushstrokes. This makes them more visible, even once recolored, as individual entities rather than blending them together into a mess. Because of the thick sketch, it's also easier to paint in grayscale and recolor with precision. It's "blocky." Finally, I can flatten everything and selectively repaint or edit details on top.
Four steps of the workflow c, on the 'A Drink Alone' artwork.
If you look on a close-up you'll get a better idea of how the sketch totally blended into the final result, how the brush work is visible, and how the details and resolution are located only on few area of the painting. On this crop: the lips.
A close-up of the artwork "A Drink Alone".
Preproduction:
This section lists all the steps before drawing on the comic page, i.e., production.
Scenario
I wrote many scenarios, for which I mostly used Kate, the KDE Plasma desktop's text editor, to save my text files in Markdown format. Everything was versioned into Git repositories, but each time I wanted to open and refer to a version quickly, I saved the file incrementally. So, for each story, I ended up with a column that looked like the one on the left in the screenshot below. Thanks to Markdown, I can use the quoting symbol at the start of a sentence to get a different color for the dialogue. Sometimes, I want to reread only the dialogue, and it's convenient to have it color-coded.
A screenshot of Kate.
Here's a tip for determining the number of panels: In Kate, use the Regex search/replace function with the following:
^([A-Z])
, It will only count the first capital letter of a sentence. In my case, it will count the first letter of a new panel description.
Of course, I don't write my story panel by panel in this way, as you can see in the screenshot. This is the final product, the last cut, of many underlying passes.
Synopsis
My method often starts with a clumsy synopsis of a philosophical problem that I personally want to address and share with others. In future episode 39, the topic will be noise in public spaces and confronting strangers about it. It's a common problem we've all experienced: sharing a train, bus, or bar with strangers. Then, I write a long paragraph that broadly tells the story I have in mind, which I'll use as a metaphor: it will take place in a tavern with a group of warriors. There will be a minotaur, a hyena, and a lizard.
The Grid
Once I've written my synopsis (and I write many!), I test my favorite ones using what I call "the grid." It's a list of questions that helps me clarify the story's objective.
-
The universal problem of the episode.
-
The psychological blindspot preventing the main character from solving the issue.
-
The character's inner, strong desire.
-
The false idea the character has to solve the problem.
-
The immoral actions the main character is willing to commit to solve the problem.
-
The main character's real psychological need, which he does not see at the start but will grow to adopt.
-
A "revelation, turning point, or thought outside the box" that reveals the real need.
-
Unexpected twist(s).
-
Intrinsic human values of the story.
-
Visual interest and concept art.
Once the grid is completely filled in to my satisfaction, I move on to two things.
The Premise
The core of the story in one or two sentences: This will be my compass for the full episode.
Pepper, without her usual powers, learns the meaning of bravery. It is not the absence of fear, but rather the determination to act in spite of it.
The Beatsheet
This is a simplified version of the story in the form of a bullet list of simple actions. There is no dialogue or description. However, this structure respects the timeline of the final script. Below is a sample of how my beatsheet begins for episode 39.
-
Pepper and Cayenne stop in a village to rest and relax.
-
At night, the tavern is calm and peaceful.
-
But the atmosphere is quickly disrupted by a group of noisy, badly behaved warriors.
-
Cayenne discusses with Pepper how to tell the warriors that they are not alone.
The Cut
Once the beatsheet is complete, I copy and paste it into a new document. Then, I replace each line of the beatsheet with a panel description and dialogue. This process often requires many proofreading passes and corrections. Some panels can be removed, while others need to be inserted. Once the episode is correctly cut, however, we have a document to move on to the drawing part.
Concept art
For this episode, I decided not to create too many concept art for the visuals. My workflow is flexible enough that I don't need definitive line art with all the details from the beginning. I can create concept art of the new character I need and incorporate it as needed. However, some locations required more work. For example, here is a sketch of the exterior of the tavern hotel.
A drawing in grayscale of the exterior of the tavern.
I conducted more advanced research on the three warriors. Initially, I wanted characters that looked annoying, so I gave them the faces of well-known CEOs. However, that would have distracted from the main plot of the story, so I abandoned that idea.
A concept art exploration for the design of the warriors.
The three warriors: the minotaur, hyena and lizard on a panel.
Production
Storyboard
For this episode, I decided not to use a single document with many thumbnails, as I often do. I wanted finer control over the composition and placement of the dialogue, as well as control over the zoom of each face and expression. I ended up storyboarding directly on the final page size with a thin brush preset at low opacity. At this step, I eyeball perspective, but sometimes use a composition grid (eg. for the 'thirds' composition rule, diagonals, and centers). These sketches are quick to draw, which allows me to explore different angles and expressions until the scene is just right.
A sample without text of three panel at the storyboard step.
Drawing
Even when using a digital painting tool with a simple, flat brush and pressure-sensitive opacity ( a brush very similar to 'B) basic-6 Details' of Krita default brush presets) I like how it feels like penciling. It's probably because of the mid-gray color over white. Once the storyboard is finished, I zoom in to 66% of the viewport size on my XP Pen Artist Pro 19 pen display, which is flat on the desk, and add details to each panel. Some panels require a bit more preparation. For example, I used a perspective grid for almost all the panels in the montage at the beginning, when Cayenne and Pepper arrive in a cute mountain village for the night.
The final drawing of the page 2 of future episode 39 "The Tavern".
To be continued...
That's all for today. I'm still drawing the many pages of the next episode.
I'll update this report in a couple of weeks, after I finish the "precolor," which is the grayscale plus recolor pass. After that, I'll provide a final update with the finishing touches and notes about how the production process went.
Want to read previous production reports? They are all now
here under the #making-of tag
.
