Relearning faces

So I've finished Without Moonlight (yes I know I've shouted it from the rooftops already) and I'm starting on a new comic. And prepping WM vol. 2.

This time, as a …seasoned webcomic artist…


STOPPIT

Anyway, with the experience I've gathered, I'm actually building a buffer on the new comic as I study for WM vol 2. That means that yes, I've already drawn a few pages and will draw more until the first update I make, probably in September because life threw me a curveball and I might delay some stuff.

I also need to prepare to draw Fotis and the rest of the cast as older teens, since WM vol 2. spans at least 5 years if not 7. By the end of WM vol. 2 Fotis will be 21 and I need to be able to draw him that way!

I also need to learn to draw the new comic's characters, who have entirely different features than the WM cast.

And it's a really weird and fascinating experience. It's like I'm relearning to draw faces. Not in the sense of proportions or where the features are on the face or anything, but learning to draw new faces over and over, and keep them the same.

I realised these past couple of weeks just how fast I can draw Fotis as he is in WM vol. 1. I don't need to think about anything in his design, my hand just goes on its own. But with the new characters in the new comic, I need to think EVERYTHING. Is the eye curving this way, how do I draw the nose, what about the jawline, is the mouth supposed to quirk up like that?

And it's taking AGES. In the time it's taken me to draw a single page of the new comic, I drew almost two of the WM vol. 1 pages. That includes background heavy ones AND background non-existent ones (so only poses and faces). It's incredible.

I expect that after the first dozen pages or so of the new comic, I'll start speeding up. Same with Older Fotis, Older Diomedes, Baby, and more of the characters in WM vol 2. They take a lot to draw too, though not as much as the completely new characters.

Anyway, I expect I'll get some "well duh" comments for stating the obvious, but it's just such a novel experience for me that I had to share.

Have you had this happen to you when you start a new comic after spending a lot of time with a previous one, or maybe when you introduce an entirely new character?

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