#033
JANUARY 14, 2025

happy new year!

recently, i've been functionally using my new graphic lotto, russian doll, as a graphic portfolio too. if you follow that book, 1) first of all, thank you so much for your support across my books, and 2) you'll have seen that, a lot like how i write up my processes and thoughts in this book, i also do that for russian doll updates.

in the past, i haven't given as much detail in my lotto updates as i do in my portfolio ones, so i would often cross-post graphics and go into deeper detail here instead of over there (i.e. hellions or heartland, when they were still active... and going by those titles 🤣). because i've provided greater context in russian doll updates, i won't be talking too much about the graphics i've made *there*, here. for the most part i'm really proud of everything i've made for that lotto so far, which is a tall order considering the large number of graphics i've produced in the past two weeks.

anyways, this update is for the graphics i've made for myself and for kat / elfaouly, my best friend. specifically, my new steve rogers fic creature fear, and kat's new james wilson (of house m.d.) fic low rising. low rising has a dedicated chapter in my graphic lotto, but i also made the interior graphics for the story, so i'll elaborate on them more here.

the title for this update comes from the song low rising by the swell season, from which kat's fic takes its name. it's one of my favourite songs ever (hence why i forced kat to listen to it) and it also makes an appearance in the later seasons of how i met your mother, when ted and victoria break up for the last time. "all for the love of you"... so we should all just kill ourselves, is what i'm hearing.

in russian doll my proclivity and obvious preference for the colour red in my covers has become an official running joke. only murders readers (or rather; kill it! readers) already know this to be true, so i won't harp on about it... as hilarious and accurate as it is. the main version of kat's cover is on the left; the alternate red version can be seen on the right.

for low rising, the song that shares its name has heavy ocean imagery as well as a recurring foghorn-like sound throughout the song. i used to listen to it a lot while commuting to my old job which was by the marina, so in addition to its pre-existing boat-connotations i associate it a lot with water, and the sea. i wanted to—for once—make a blue cover for kat. i've made her covers for the other fics she currently has up on her account (saviour complex and crush); they are both predominantly red in design.

i thought making this one blue would shake things up a little bit as well as tie in to the content of the song that the fic is named for. i like how it turned out, but as you *can* see, i did make a "safety" cover using my trusty black-white-and-red combo.

as i did for saviour complex, i made the opening gif for low rising, too. i notoriously hate the gif-making process, and find it enjoyable only when making gifs for my friends. because of this, i also don't have a lot to say about this gif. i wanted to make good use of blue (if i use it once a year, i reason that i might as well use it full-send.)

i don't typically make moodboards for other people but kat is, as always, the exception. on the rare occasion i do make moodboards i typically draw from the pre-existing pinterest boards provided to me by the author; in this instance, i used my own images and pins since at the time i did not have access to kat's low rising board. i pulled pins from the boards of my ocs sierra, nina, scout, and annika, as well as my boards for canon characters frank hardy (he's always at the scene of the crime), nancy drew, temperance brennan, and emily prentiss. i like the mosaic of a vibe i ultimately ended up with, which too had an emphasis on the colour blue. the baby deer in the second moodboard was included as a reference to my and kat's obssession with brown-eyed characters ("big brown eyes like a baby cow", we like to say).

i made the spotify scan-code graphic and divider with the same shade of blue seen in the cover and opening gif. not much to say about this either, but yes, my perfectionist tendencies extend even to my friends' graphics when i make them.

above are my three favourite gifs from the introductory chapter of low rising. again; not much to say about these, other than: blue being the primary colour for this fic really works with all the medical-procedural shows that i've used as resources, namely grey's anatomy. i think that, even though the blue used for kat's fic is quite warm, it's a very clinical colour.

finally, we have the new sign-off gif that i made for kat, featuring madison beer. yes, it also comes in red.

🗝️

we move on to my own projects, namely my newest fic: creature fear. initially, this fic's graphics were going to be red-heavy as well, but after developing it into a duology (with unspun as its second story) i gravitated towards blue to set it apart from its sister.

these are the four *initial* covers i made for creature fear (two of which were showcased in the previous update). i say "initial" because i've noticed i always set out to make graphics for a fic in one way that changes over time. the visual language of creature fear is intended to coordinate with, first and foremost, unspun. however, i wanted it to fit in with the rest of my account, too. which felt tricky at the start, since i think steve rogers is the last character my followers would expect me to write for.

here we are. in the year of our lord 2025. writing a steve rogers mcu fic.

anyway. as you can see, these four covers are based around red, black, and blue. conversely, unspun's covers are always made with red, black, and green (but blue does have a place, as it makes up a main colour in spider-man's suit.) because creature fear is a very no-nonsense fic with a very straightforward premise, i wanted the graphics to reflect that. it's also a thriller, in a sense, so i drew inspiration from the design of gillian flynn's gone girl and dark places.

i changed creature fear's protagonist annika's faceclaim from karen fukuhara to maggie q, so i also had to remake the closing gif that bookends each chapter. not a lot to say about that.

in the same vein as the new unspun cover shown last update, i made a creature fear cover to match it as these two stories comprise the "silverwood" duology. i really liked how these covers turned out, especially looking at them next to each other. although i already explained the unspun cover in the previous chapter, i did make it with the current american animals cover in mind.

creature fear connects to unspun which (spiritually) connects to american animals. blue to red to green. in my head, this makes sense.

🗝️

to finish off this update: a new comic cover for my "flagship" peter parker fic, now you see me. if you've seen my many, many updates for russian doll you'll know i've spent the past two weeks in an uncharacteristically productive haze making graphics for everyone. yesterday i decided to take a step back and work on something for myself, which ended up being this cover.

i find it a lot harder to make things for myself, especially comic covers; they come so easily when made at the request of someone else, but when it comes to making them for my own enjoyment and my own projects, i often get stuck. i honestly have no idea why this happens, but i'm glad it didn't this time around.

on the left is the version used on my profile to match the rest of my current cover theme; on the right is the version used internally with the now you see me colour palette. the other comic cover i made for this fic also features spider-man taking a photo; i'm not sure why i'm so drawn to that specific kind of comic art for now you see me, but it might have something to do with peter and juliet (my oc)'s first meeting involving peter interrupting juliet while she tries to take a photo on campus at empire state university.

actually, that's probably *exactly* it. wow. who knew that elaborating on your thoughts in a tangible way helps you come to concrete conclusions?

anyways, thank you for reading this update if you got this far. if you've been supporting russian doll as well—if you've requested, even!—thank you x2. the growth and engagement this account has seen over the past two weeks has been phenomenal and heartwarming. i appreciate you guys so much more than you know.

a massive thank-you to kat for being an amazing detective-slash-human-slash-best-friend, who has supported all my projects as well as allowed me the honour of making the graphics for low rising. love you 🪡

until next time!! xx