PROCESS BOOK
sweet dreams A 4-paged comic to be included in Volume 8 of Lilies Anthology, a women’s romance magazine.
contents 2 6 18 28
research exploration refinement reflection
objective “The goal of this project is to publish original comic and art anthologies with a focus on exploring female queer/non-binary/lesbian romance, relationships, sexuality, stories, and culture. Lilies is open submission, and depends on submissions from you to keep going! Each volume aims to showcase between 20 and 30 artists, with stories ranging between 1-20 pages each.” logistics
7.25 by 9.25 inches Comic (1-20 pages) or illustration Should follow the theme “Dreams.”
color
Full-color pieces must be paired with a grayscale version.
type
Text, whether handwritten or typed, must be legible.
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i. research
“The overarching theme of the Lilies anthology is inclusive lesbian sexuality and romance. Each volume also has a subtheme. We encourage broad interpretations of the anthology’s themes, inclusive definitions of lesbianism, and diverse representation. We encourage people to present their own unique perspectives on love and relationships, and we seek submissions that bring diversity of age, culture, race, body type, ability, etc. to our publication. Please note that we would be delighted to see stories from and about trans lesbian women. The guest editors for this volume are interested in seeing optimistic, sex positive, and even asexuality positive, portrayals of lesbian life, romance and sexuality. Tragedy is a part of life, but in the case of a tragic story (ex.: a heartrending breakup, death, etc.) we would like hope to be present as well. Please note that we receive a lot of submissions about a couple meeting or declaring their love for the first time, so it may be more difficult for those stories to stand out amidst more complex stories!”
Each volume follows a specific theme chosen by the editors.
Volume 2: Stargazer — Space
Volume 1: Water Lily — Aquatic
Lilies anthology is a women’s romance magazine that has been running since 2015 and has recently published its 7th volume.
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Volume 3: Golden Lily — Wordless
Volume 4: Spider Lily — Spooky I first found the call for Lilies Volume 8 submissions in early May. At the time, I had been following Lilies Anthology for several years—I was first introduced after one of my best friends unsucessfully applied to the anthology with a heartfelt comic that I enjoyed. With each new Volume, I was constantly impressed by the level of skill Lilies artists posessed. Eventually, I became interested in being a part of Lilies myself. When I saw the call for submissions this year, I felt that trying to apply to Volume 8 would be good for me; I was (am) still pretty new to creating comics of my own, and didn’t have school to worry about since it was summer. The knowledge that my friend’s submission hadn’t been accepted into the anthology both added extra pressure and allowed me to feel okay with possible rejection.
Learn more about Lilies! Tumblr: liliesanthology Twitter: LiliesAnthology Buy the volumes: www.lulu.com/shop/search.ep?contributorId=1415215 (Volumes 1 and 2 are free to download!)
Volume 5: Tiger Lily — Self-Love
Volume 6: Corpse Lily — Haunted I re-discovered the call for submissions in early June, a week before my summer class began. In order to familiarize myself with past submissions to Lilies, I downloaded the two free volumes of Lilies to read (the rest are paid, $2-5+ for a digital PDF and $25+ for a physical copy), and read them in one sitting. I was stricken by the quality of the storytelling and illustrations, and started thinking about how I could create my own compelling lesbian story. My biggest challenge would be using the theme “dreams” in a meaningful way. “The theme of volume 8 is dreams! This theme is open to broad interpretation. Dream up stories and art about the kind of dreams you see at night, daydreams, or even life goals!”
Volume 8: Nodding Blue Lily — Dreams Call for submissions Deadline: June 15, 2019
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ii. exploration
I didn’t want my story to be overly tacky, but I also have a tendency to create ideas on the sweeter side of things, particularly when dealing with queer characters and themes (due to the high saturation of sad or harmful queer media out there). While I don’t often create art about tragedy, this portion of the Lilies submission guideline stuck with me as a new lens with which to look at the media I create and consume: “Tragedy is a part of life, but in the case of a tragic story (ex.: a heartrending breakup, death, etc.) we would like hope to be present as well.”
As I went on to gather ideas, I kept in mind that whatever story I told should contain hope. The “dreams” theme, in spite of (or because of) being openended, proved difficult to work with. Throughout the process of developing an idea, I mainly focused on the kind of dream one has when asleep—particularly how dreams often act as windows into our inner subconsciousness. I’m especially a sucker for the trope of a character dreaming about their love interest.
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ideation For one idea, I wanted to incorporate the line “some dreams really do come true” into a story about seeing someone you just met in your dreams. In this (albeit unrealistic) case, the main character sketches people on the subway and one day sees another girl she finds “absolutely gorgeous.” They kiss in her dreams, and end up kissing in real life later on. I sketched out this idea through multiple small panels (thumbnails, if you will) in pencil. I would draw my final comic digitally, but I always sketch digital works on paper first. After sketching this idea out, I decided against it. Though I was inspired by a true story another artist had chronicled—in which a lady she was drawing on the subway noticed and really liked the drawings of her—I felt that my story felt too unrealistic and cheesy, mostly because the main character somehow continues to run into the other woman on the subway. Of course, I’m ultimately glad that I explored this option.
Selected thumbnails from my sketchbook “I thought she was absolutely gorgeous.” “So gorgeous that I had to try to draw her so I could remember.” “I went to sleep that night and there she was, in my dream...”
“I kept dreaming about her, and one night I dreamt that we...” “I saw her again... and again.” “We got coffee and eventually...” “Some dreams really do come true.”
After exploring that idea, I continued thinking about the theme “dreams.” I remembered a song that I’d been introduced to a few years ago: “Dream a Little Dream of Me.” The song was originally made with music by American Fabian Andre and Wilbur Schwandt and lyrics by Gus Kahn in 1931, but since then it has been covered by many artists worldwide such as Ella Fitzgerald with Louis Armstrong, Robbie Williams, and the Mamas & the Papas (my favorite version). Read malignantly, these lyrics (on the next page) might come across as creepy and possessive. However, the music itself is so sweet and “dreamy” that to me, this song captures the feeling of longing and wanting to be close to someone. To go along with the music, I imagined a woman dancing in a ballroom who isn’t interested in her dance partner but rather another woman dancing in the next pair over. I sat on the idea for a night until fleshing it out more the next day.
Preliminary sketches in sketchbook
Stars shining bright above you, Night breezes seem to whisper “I love you” Birds singing in the sycamore tree Dream a little dream of me. Say nighty-night and kiss me, Just hold me tight and tell me you’ll miss me While I’m alone, blue as can be, Dream a little dream of me. Stars fading but I linger on, dear, Still craving your kiss I’m longing to linger till dawn, dear, Just saying this... Sweet dreams till sunbeams find you, Sweet dreams that leave all worries behind you But in your dreams, whatever they be, Dream a little dream of me.
Covers of “Dream a Little Dream of Me” I wanted to distribute the lyrics so that each line would correspond to one panel. Due to the short time frame I had to create my comic, I decided to use only the first two stanzas of the song so my comic would be 8 panels. Instead of writing a narration or dialogue, I wanted to show the lyrics. In a sense, this made my comic wordless and left the characters and setting more open to interpretation.
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development I wanted to depict what I see as the core of the song: longing for someone—in this case, someone the main character has just barely met. I decided to draw a nighttime ballroom scene in which a young woman is dancing with a man she finds boring, switches partners (per the rules of the dance), and is starstruck by the woman she meets. Regarding the element of hope even in the face of tragedy— although the comic doesn’t explicitly end with the two characters “happily ever after,” there is an open-endedness to it. Is the main character simply dreaming of a kiss that never happened but that wishes did? Is she dreaming of a kiss that already happened? Regardless, there’s still hope at the end for her, whether in reality or in the dream world.
Layout sketches — I drafted two options. top: equally-sized panels 1-6 with small panel 7 and large panel 8. (I chose this) bottom: large panels 1 and 8 with equally-sized panels 2-7.
Assigning lyrics and actions to panels — I ended up changing many of these due to what actions I felt were most important. I knew that I wanted to show the main character dancing with a man, switching partners, having a “oh no she’s hot” moment, changing partners again, laying in bed alone, and dreaming about a kiss.
Character design — I decided to have the love interest wear a ponytail with an undercut (along with a snazzy blue suit).
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Preliminary digital sketch — I first drew what I see as the crux of the story: the moment when the main character has just switched partners again and finds herself missing the enigmatic woman she just met. Using one layer allowed me to acheive a more painterly effect since the colors blended into each other.
2018 Viennese Waltz — good for showing different pairs together at the angle I wanted https://youtu.be/ mGxgm-Xo1GE
Amoureuse Change Partner Waltz (Official) — also good for showing different pairs together https://youtu. be/157dK__5yls Beauty and the Beast (2017) | Ending “Dance Scene” — not a good movie but has good close-ups https://youtu.be/ sadujj45Y90
While gathering references for drawing different dancing pairs, I looked at a lot of youtube videos, which, as opposed to still images, allowed me to see the dancers’ movements from one stage to the next. The most challenging part of this was finding footage of people switching partners. While I did find a few, I ended up having trouble representing a partner switch with the one panel I allotted myself.
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Stars shining bright above you
Night breezes seem to whisper “I love you�
Birds singing in the sycamore tree
Dream a little dream of me
Say nighty-night and kiss me
Just hold me tight and tell me you’ll miss me
While I’m alone and blue as can be
Dream a little dream of me
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iii. refinement
All pages as of June 15
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3
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Colors edited in Photoshop, Text added in Illustrator As I was drawing, I noticed that the main character looked like a different person in each panel—I had neglected to draw all appearances of the main character before moving on to the second, like I probably should have done. I was unhappy with that aspect of my comic, but time was running low so I submitted the above pages to Lilies.
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To my surprise, my comic was accepted! I came in contact with the editor (Anna) and eventually asked if I could edit my comic before she put the anthology together. I wanted to make the main character look more consistent across panels, so I told Anna that my edits would be minor and wouldn’t change the page number of my comic. Fortunately, she gave me ample time—until July 20, after my class ended—to submit my edits. After my class ended and I had time to revisit my comic, I wanted to make the main character’s appearance more consistent. I realized that in some instances, her hair looked wildly different, she seemed to switch ages, and she was even missing her earring. I had drawn many of the figures on one layer only because that’s how I made my preliminary digital sketch, but this made editing all the more difficult. In many cases, I had to separate the figure onto different layers (one layer for the hair, one for the body, one for the eyes, etc) like I usually do when working digitally. The process was tedious, but I was also unwilling to redraw panels. In addition to making the main character more consistent, I added fingernails to both characters and even had the main character wear red nail polish. I also ended up changing the typeface I used for the lyrics from Museo Slab 300 to Bodoni Egyptian Pro Regular Italics. I felt that Museo Slab looked too blocky and wanted something more elegant.
dream a little dream of me dream a little dream of me
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After
Before
Final Page 1 When reworking my comic, I learned that even the smallest things (the size of the eyes, the shape of the hair, the way they smile) can severly impact the character’s appearance. While I am happier with the final pages, I still feel like the main character’s appearance feels a bit inconsistent.
Final Page 2 In addition to the main character, noticed a few inconsistencies in the love interest’s facial shape and ponytail length. I also reworked some of the hands, which I noticed I hadn’t fully developed.
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Final Page 3 The last panel on this page was my favorite so I was hesitant to edit it. I did, however, make the main character’s skin tone consistent with the rest of the panels and fleshed out her hands further.
Final Page 4 When revisiting my comic, I noticed that the last panel felt lackluster, which is the opposite of what it should be. The figures weren’t creating a particularly dynamic negative shape, and there was no real indication that the scene was occuring inside the main character’s dream. To combat this, I found photos of nodding blue lilies (the titular lilies of Volume 8), drew them, and superimposed them onto the page.
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hi, i’m bread (they/them)! i’m a junior in college studying communication design, writing, and (groans) computer science. i’ve recently started making comics (i still have a lot to learn) and wanted to try submitting to lilies since i’ve heard so much about it! i thought about the “dreams” prompt for a long time before remembering this song i heard years ago called “dream a little dream of me.” it was originally made by fabian andre, wilbur schwandt, and gus kahn in 1931, but since then many people have created their own covers, such as ella fitzgerald and the mamas & the papas (the version i listened to while drawing this). i encourage you to give it a listen! in my comic, i wanted to depict what i see as the core of the song: longing for someone you’ve just barely met. i decided to draw a nighttime ballroom scene in which a young woman is dancing with a man she finds boring, switches partners (per the rules of the dance), and is starstruck by the woman she meets. the rest is history! i’m super stoked to be in lilies anthology volume 8! a huge thank you to the editor anna, and thank you for reading! tumblr & twitter: @fumikawge portfolio: by-lee.weebly.com
Artist Page Anna (the editor) asked me if I wanted to make an artist page to be placed in the anthology after my comic and gave me examples of previous artist pages. I felt that creating one could be a good way to introduce myself and discuss my thoughts behind my comic.
Grayscale pages I used Photoshop’s Black & White adjustment layer feature to control how dark and how light each color became.
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iv. reflection
Looking back on this comic, I’m a little impressed with myself for finishing it (at least the first draft) in a week. I’m also sad that I couldn’t give this comic the attention it deserved. If I were to continue with this project—which I could technically do, it just wouldn’t be published in Lilies in its most updated form—I would use all the song’s lyrics and probably attempt to illustrate the full ballroom scene by making panel 1 fill the entire first page to truly set the scene. More lyrics means more panels (twice as many, in fact), which also means I could slow down the comic’s fast pace. Another option would be to keep the comic as it is but expand the ending so that the characters potentially meet and kiss in real life (giving into the “some dreams really do come true” line). I learned a lot about making my own comics throug this process. Something that surprised me was how hard it was to keep the characters’ appearances consistent throughout, which would be helped by drawing all of one character’s appearances before moving onto the next character’s, or by fully fleshing out the character designs before starting the comic. In the future, I will pay closer attention to designing characters and give them names and motives—even though I developed the characters’ clothes and general demeanors, I never gave them names (to be fair, coming up with names is hard). I’m happy to be a part of Lilies Volume 8, and encourage you to check it out! There are lots of cool artists participating in it, so I’m very excited to see how it will turn out!
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Miles “Bread” Lee Lilies Anthology Volume 8: Nodding Blue Lily Comic Submission, Summer 2019