The Engirls

Hey everyone, Grant here. As Chapter 3 comes to a close, I wanted to mention a few changes that will be happening to the Engirls in the coming months as we look on at Chapter 4.

For one, I will be taking a hiatus for the rest of November. I know it’s normal for a hiatus between chapters for me, but this time I have some actual things I need to deal with, namely health stuff. Don’t worry, I’m not dying or diabetic (I hope), but I will be unable to really focus on my comic the way I was able to in the past. That, and the fact that Black Friday and December are coming up really put my free time in jeopardy. I’d love to keep working through that but since I work in retail, it’ll be hard to keep my already subpar energy up.

Another thing that will change is that I am upgrading my art loadout. I have been using a Microsoft Surface to draw everything, but I’ve recently been having issues with keyboard attachment that make the more fine tuned process of making the comic a lot more frustrating. So, I decided to get an iPad and work with that. I’ve worked with one before – read chapter 1 starting with page 3 or so, most obviously the page with Gwen going down to her basement room – so I’m familiar with the territory. I feel like getting the iPad will help me concentrate on art since it’s not as cumbersome as carrying around a moderately sized laptop with a long charging cable. I’ll still use the surface, though mostly as a vessel for making the panels and lettering.

The final thing that I wanted to mention is that once I’m fully recovered from my various medical issues, I will be looking to fully record the music that I have prepared for the comic. Perhaps I will release it on youtube in comic dub form, but I am still a little on the fence about how I should do this. Let’s have an example: the Taco Song. I can record guitar, bass (or lack thereof), and cajon easily, but there’s one issue: I am not a girl. I can’t sing in Whitney’s voice. I can either skirt around this issue by not singing and leaving it as an instrumental track, replacing Whitney’s voice with a pan flute or clarinet track, or I can hire someone. The last option is probably the  est option for the sanity of the comic, but that comes with it’s own baggage, namely if I hire different women to sing Whitney’s lines, then there is no consistency. The next answer is to hire one person to work with me. That comes into another issue, mostly that at the moment, I cannot possibly pay someone at the moment to work for me. Until I have auxiliary income, I guess instrumental tracks or vocaloid (god help me) will have to be a substitute. 

Thank you for sticking around until the end of this blogpost, sorry if it seems like I’ll have to be lowkey for the next month. I’ll still be posting fanart on my twitter and little bonus drawings on the Engirls Instagram, so why don’t you all check that out?

Hey everyone! Time to posthumously write the explanation for this content I’m posting because guess who forgot to write a post? THIS DUDE!

Anyway, here is the link to the instagram. Feel free to like and follow me as you please!

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Hey everyone, here's today's #sketchsunday content! We have some outfits and skyrim/hilda fanart this week! Be sure to read the full explanation of the art over at theengirls.com/sketch-sunday-6 #sketch #artistsoninstagram #originalcharacter #fanart #skyrim #hilda

A post shared by The Engirls (@theengirls) on Sep 22, 2019 at 1:18pm PDT

Ahhh, what do we have here? First off, the first 6 images are all different outfits I decided to give to Gwen, Whitney, and Fiona for the next issue. Sure, it’s not going to happen for at least 6 weeks, but hey, we all have to brew our ideas somewhere.

Gwen’s outfits are a practice in modesty, which is torture in September in California, especially this year. I’ve been expecting it to cool down for the past few weeks and so far it’s been pretty futile. Then we get to her last outfit, which is probably the most summer outfit Gwen could wear. Sorry for the eraser marks by the way.

Next up is Whitney, who is more modest by choice. The reason? Oh, it’s simple. SPOILERS REDACTED. Anyway, that’s why she feels weird about her birthmark on her legs, no doubt taken by an unoriginal 24-year-old ADHD Manlad, according to Fiona.

Speaking of whom, Fiona! As you can probably tell, Fiona loves wearing skirts and dresses. It’s been a thing since I first started the series and came up with these character. I mainly wanted Fiona to be wearing a kilt/skirt all the time, thus her constant wearing of the tartan. Though recently, I’ve been finding it more and more fun to give her dresses and have her express herself a bit more femininely, I guess. Also, I gave her “trousers” in the third image to show that they make her feel, well, stiff.

NExt up is a random outfit I made for Whitney, who is sporting some ska-like attire. I don’t know why, but suspenders feel incredibly ska to me. Thus, the bowtie, suspenders combo.

And lastly, a picture I should have labeled better, is fanart of Hilda and the Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. I just felt like drawing the cutest adventurer in a set of Iron Armor, though I honestly see her as more of a light armor girl or even mage girl myself. Maybe I should draw David and Frida as a Breton archer and Redguard Shield warrior myself….

Have a nice day and go give the post a like over on instagram!

Hoooo boy it’s time for another Sketch Sunday! Let’s see what five we got here, some old, some new, and I managed to fix the lighting that was seen with the others. Hint: It’s got to do with my habit of staying up too late.

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New post for Sketch Sunday! Read it over at theengirls.com #sketch #webcomic #artistsoninstagram #hiking

A post shared by The Engirls (@theengirls) on Sep 8, 2019 at 1:27pm PDT

First up we have a very loving group of sisters with Maria, Gwen, and Josephine posing for the gram. Maria, of course, loves her sisters* and especially loves showing them off to everyone online.

Next in line is little Whitney playing with some MLP dolls like she did when she wa a kid. If we’re going by which Gen MLP she’s playing with, it would be about Gen 3, though it’s clear she’s toooo old to be playing with them. That didn’t stop many grown up dudes around 2010, though.

In the hole is Gwen on a hike, which I drew while on a hike. COINCIDENCE? It’s nice to know she likes climbing hills, or else the hill she lives on would be torture for her.

Fourth place participation trophy goes to Maria yelling at Gwen for having gone to Hot Topic. You can see this by the Load shirt Gwen’s wearing, and Maria incessently screaming “YOU WENT TO THE DEVIL STORE!” You have to keep in mind that Hot Topic was a vastly different place 10 years ago, back when the store actually looked like it was possessed by demons and cute fuzzy creatures called Happy Tree Friends. *shutter* Good times?

And last up, we have the Whitney edition of the baseball sketch set I made! Little known fact: Whitney is from Minneapolis, and so is her mom, Erin. Thus, they represent their hometeam together while Will, born in San Tiburon where the story takes place, is relegated to rooting for the A’s.

That’s it for this week’s sketches, time to go back to trying to figure out how time works and finish my composition. See you Thursday with the page!