Project Log: Seven Dimensional Seas

The Start

The idea for Seven Dimensional Seas started as a project for a class in Oberlin's Exco program

Originally called "The Skeleton Crew," I imagined a more macabre tone for the world, with a focus on creepy crawlies and spooky settings.The characters names at the time were Cobalt, Lauren, and Jamie. Looking back, these sound like such placeholders!

Designing the World

Next semester, yet another class project had me revisiting this world. This time, a sequential illustration course asked me to create two character turnarounds and short comics to get a feel for the setting. This is when these characters came to life. I renamed them to Helle, Ivy, and Ruth, and shifted their designs towards a more whimsical world.

Ruth got a little neglected at this point of development, I don't have any sketches of her, but she would have been a frilly, stuck-up duchess.

A little luck

This past fall, my Dad happened to notice that Baltimore Comic Con aligned with my fall break. So, we got tickets for the last day of the Con, and decided to see what was in store for us. This was my first ever comic-con, and holy cow I can't believe it took me twenty years to go to one! Among many incredible things, I met the team at Metal Ninja Studios, and learned that they were raffling off a full service comic creation package. I tossed my name in the hat thinking not expecting anything to come of it... then I won!

One Last Character

At this point, I knew I needed to get a handle on the third character in the trio. She'd gone from snappy and sarcastic to prissy and uptight, but neither really created a fun dynamic with the other two. So, she underwent one final name change, to become Cordelia, the trinket-obsessed crow-witch

Present Day

As of now, the first official issue of Seven Dimensional Seas is in production! I am so glad to be working with the Metal Ninja team, and I'm learning a lot along the way. I can't share specifics out of respect for their process, but check back soon for more of my own drawings of these characters and their world!