So we finally find out what’s behind all the mischief. Buried beneath the seaside mountain village lies a strange machine. The likes of Benne has never seen above ground. Finally, she sees the shiny stones and it’s not what she imagined. Lifeless and cold. A low hum and an unhealthy smell.

Dim lights illuminate a set of stairs which we will surely follow. Benne wonders if the animals that need her help are here. Or was it truly the ancients speaking through them as her father tried to tell her. Her father! Hope he’s alright …

Don’t forget to read from the beginning! And don’t forget to share. Thanks for watching!

We are halfway through chapter 1 and it looks like Benne has met her fate. A giant robot stands between her and freedom from the mad crowd that wants to sacrifice her to the Vat™.

As mentioned before, there is a rough outline for this story but when you create a new panel it does take a life of its own. That’s what so fun about making it up as you go along. When blocking out a scene the story comes alive and even I don’t know what might come next. Though roughly I would prefer the story not end.

The squat lady pointing the finger at Benne is supposed to be the village witch, but we shall see if she isn’t so bad.

A couple other timemonks round out the cast so far and we’ll meet them as we go along. But, the missing characters I wanted to crowd in to these scenes felt like to much, so I conveniently sent them away scared they would suffer a fate similar to Benne.

Lastly, we see that the inside of this cave is actually part of an ancient ruin suspiciously looking like a modern tiled floor heavily aged and overcome by the seismic changes of time. How much time? The timemonks know.

When decorating the inside of a cave, you should have animal skulls on the wall, animal furs for beds and straw mats for floors. Got it. But, I’m not sure how soon we come back to Benne’s cave to enjoy the ambiance!

In movies you have establishing shots where you get to see the environment before the camera zooms in to the characters. But, I feel there is a lot of story to tell and I’d rather not spend too much time admiring the scenery.

Here is a glimpse of what Benne’s seaside cave looks like so far. Much like a sitcom set there is only one side. We’ll come back later in the chapter. There’s plenty of food laying about, so no one is going hungry.

I should probably put some claws on that bear rug in the meantime. Also, there’s supposed to be a cat and possibly a dog or two. Enjoy!

Benne is home. But, what is home like? Who else lives there? Its been fun working on some new characters we’ll soon see.

But first, can we please find out why life is so deceptively simple in Benne’s world? Will it stay that way? Benne seems destined to wander much farther than the ravine and possible deeper.

Benne is home

What the best storytelling does is not tell you everything. Some things are left to your imagination. Its the same when you create art. So much is left behind. All the hours working on a scene that will never be good enough. Characters that don’t make sense even if they did in the rough draft. And if your medium is 3d, a million brushes to learn.

The Buddy has been sleeping a long time, so he’s pretty roughed up. It’s so much easier with Substance Painter. So is the ground, so are the hills, so are the rocks.

At this point I had wanted to introduce another character or two, but moving the story forward seemed like a better idea. Plus, when is the robot waking up?

As we get closer to home, we meet more characters. I’m really interested how this turns out!

This page took a little longer because Benne is almost home. I like to block out subsequent pages so I can see the continuity. So this page has to make sense with the following pages.

What does home look like? Who else lives there? Does Benne have any friends or siblings? Why are the monks called the Timemonks? Was that a robot or a statue? Does Timo kill the deer?

If you’ve been following along you know I’m making it up as I go. There are notes, but no details. Just stuff like “Benne talks to her dad and then he explains what the door is and where it leads to.”

And “Don’t you dare go back there!”

Hmmm.