Nothing can save Ellie now. Well, then again, I’m not sure. I try not to read ahead. My emphasis in this strip is not to make fun of the mother, but to further ingrain that Ellie is a complete TWIT.

When I first started making this strip, I was pretty envious of those that have sprite comics, or elements thereof. A sprite comic is one where the character templates are used over and over and over again. Example:



This would save me a tremendous amount of time, but in the end, I would loath myself for it. I could upload 10 times a week, but I wouldn’t get the emotional angles and subtle nuances I want. So I thought, why not make the backgrounds like that. Like “sets.” I could draw the characters however I feel, and BOOM, background done. Well… doesn’t work quite that well. Well… kinda my fault though. I don’t draw the characters to suit the straight forward angle of a prefab background. Even if it were at an angle, I’d feel inclined to force the angle over and over. So, eventually I gave up on that. I just cut down on mandatory backgrounds unless they’re actually required.

An example of one that COULD work, would be something an animated show would use, like an location set up, like so:

This is Quinn’s apartment from when she kicked Ellie out originally (the day time version.) Some dramatic cheap lighting, and you get what I used for the evening:

You should be able to click these for a larger resolution if you so desire. Quinn’s car is on the left. If you can’t tell by now, purple is her color-identifier out of her “Violet in the Woods” color scheme. Warm colors contrasting her personality.

Interior of the apartment and Ellie’s application hub. No obvious need to finish a phone that won’t be seen.

Ellie’s register was such an elaborate set I only truly used once in it’s entire glory. I just can’t let myself feel like I’m hack-jobbing the strip. And it’s not even hacking it! I certainly don’t knock anyone who does a sprite comic. There’s nothing wrong with it if it works with your premise/style or line of humor. It’s just something stupid in my brain. I’m overly-adamant of not repeating any ART anywhere on the site (other than the cast page avatars.) Below are all the props, each a moveable layer in Photoshop, as demonstrated: