Making of "Clover"
Added 2023-03-17 15:40:24 +0000 UTCI came up with this one last summer after I set the boys looking for a 4-leaf clover in the garden. I sketched it out, but ran into 2 issues. 1) I had Vincent being the one to ask how 4-leaf clovers came about, but because he believes in them, he'd have to say "discovered", which seemed clunky, and 2) I had Fran and the kids dressed in old timey clothes to suggest they were from the past, but it wasn't very clear what was going on. Rather than push through the issues, I decided to shelve it until St Patrick's Day this year.
When I opened the file up again I immediately realized I could have Fran questioning the origins of the tradition instead, which solved problem #1 and allowed for panel 3 to be smaller. That in turn gave me room to add "History Times" to panel 4, largely solving problem #2! To make it even clearer I made the family Irish Setters instead, which added an Irish Easter egg into the mix!
The background was a pain in the butt, but I was pleased with how it came out -I even hid a 4-leaf clover in there! :)
The only annoying thing is now I'm doing this post and watching the animated GIF, I wish I'd stuck with the original idea for the 1st panel, with her holding up a 3-leaf clover. Sometimes ideas from the rough pencils get lost as I work on a comic (especially if there's a big gap in time like with this one!) and I don't notice them till I get here to do the making of posts. Oh well, not a huge deal, I just found the original composition cuter!
