A graphic for Behind the Design: Day Off by Jessi Eoin that shows the three stages of the comic's production: pencils, inks, and completed, next to the text announcing the topic.
Behind the Design,  Blog,  Comics

Behind the Design: Day Off

Comic titled Day Off by Jessi Eoin. There are six panels, largely done in shades of light blue and white. The top panel shows the title and credits written on a steaming mug. The next panel shows Jessi taking a sip from their mug with a happy look and their eyes closed. Next to them text reads, "Ahhh~" with a heart under it. The next panel shows Jessi smiling and sitting with their mug in their hand and text next to them that reads, "Finally time to relax." The next panel shows Jessi in the same position, now looking slightly strained as two small green hands appear behind them, reaching out toward them. The next panel shows Jessi in the same position, looking considerably more strained as they ignore the green hands getting closer. The final panel shows Jessi in the same position, looking very strained and eying the arms that now stretch out around them. The arms extend from a giant green jello fruit salad monster that stares at Jessi expectantly and intensely. The various fruits inside have been labeled with white text: blog, art, news, portfolio, newsletter, patreon, social life, moving, admin, comics, and volunteering.

Day Off

Created: March 2023

Dimensions: 6.88″ x 10.5″/2064px x 3150px at 300 dpi

Created with: Procreate

First Shared: on Patreon

Color palette for the Day Off comic. Four circles show the shades of blue and green used in the comic paired with their hex codes. From left to right, the hex codes are d8f0fe, 93d7fa, 286e93, and 63ff74.
Hex Codes: d8f0fe, 93d7fa, 286e93, and 63ff74

The Tools

For Day Off, I used

  • Dry Ink, Smoother – a modified version of Dry Ink that I tweaked to be a bit smoother, larger, and to have the ending tip blunter
  • Blunt – a modified version of Studio Pen that I tweaked to have a blunter tip and larger size
  • Blushy by Magdalina Dianova

Blunt was used for the panel lines, speech bubbles, and for coloring, and Dry Ink, Smoother was used for the line art. Blushy was used for the steam coming out of the mug in the title.

The font is my own handwriting that I converted into a font using Calligraphr.

The Story

I have a problem with resting. It’s hard for me.

I’m 1,000% certain this is not just a me thing based on how often I see people talking about their struggle with this, too, especially in the art and disabled community.

There are a lot of factors that go into creating this feeling, and for me, I know it’s a product of internalized ableism mixed in with a heavy dose of ADHD boredom when trying to rest and the justified fear of forgetting what I was working on and missing something important. I also just don’t like stopping in the middle of a project until it’s done because I’m often in a state of flow that feels really nice.

There’s also, of course, the genuine concern about not being able to make money as a creator. It’s uncomfortable to admit, but I currently don’t have any income of my own as I make this content. I just returned from a multi-year hiatus due to COVID and other issues, and the algorithms are punishing me brutally for it. So if I don’t make things to get people’s attention and try to bring people to my shop, my Patreon, etc., then nothing will change. And I need things to change! lol

I made this comic during the weeks before my partner and I went on a trip to Maryland to scout out a potential new home, and I was busy drafting and preparing a lot of blog, Patreon, and social media posts ahead of time to avoid falling behind my plans. This was also when I started to return to social media full time for work AND just a few weeks before reopening the shop for May and preparing all of that.

As you can see, the pressure adds up 😂 

So I made this comic to gently poke fun at myself and remind myself to try to chill tf out while connecting with others who feel the same lol Because at the end of the day, I’m human, I need to rest– especially as a disabled human.

The Design Process

I was thinking about the idea of feeling absorbed by work, and the memory of “fruit salads” from my childhood came to mind. For those unfamiliar, these are desserts made of gelatin (Jello) with bits of fruit (usually canned) added into them. Sounds nothing like actual salad, right? lol 

The brainstorming/pencil phase of the comic Day Off by Jessi Eoin showing largely the same set up as the final comic but much messier and looser. There's a lot of pink handwritten notes on the comic: "Move everything up and make stress monster more like jello dessert abomination with fruits and stuff inside. Add environment to other panels, too. Add stark and dramatic lighting. Make much creepier/intense expression." The stress monster has a variety of green eyeballs drawn around its head to experiment with.

Here’s a look at the pencils/brainstorming phase. As usual, very loose, very simple, lots of notes scribbled all over lol

The fruit encapsulated by the wiggling jello kinda reminded me of an amoeba*, too, and I thought it would be funny to show the feeling of these tasks as being absorbed by the amoeba-jello-work creature with me trying desperately to ignore the very un-ignorable monstrosity creeping up behind me.

*I have watched too many episodes of Monsters Inside Me, and once I saw an episode featuring a person who was killed by a brain-eating amoeba that got up the person’s nose while swimming in a lake. It hit a little too close to home because I looked and realized that it was a lake WHERE I HAD BEEN TO as a kid. That was enough for me to become terrified of amoebas– a microscopic being that I have no real business being afraid of as someone who actively avoids swimming in natural bodies of water lol

The line art stage of the comic Day Off by Jessi Eoin. It shows blue and green line art for everything, and the layout is the same as the final comic. Nothing is colored in except for the steaming mug at the top that serves as the title card.

And here are are the inks. I’m not gonna lie, I forgot to save a copy of the inks when I made them, so I just went back and hid all the color layers on the final comic and saved the line art 😂 But that is pretty much what line art is, so I’m not beating myself up about it lol

It was also fun to use this comic as a way to push back against my overworking tendencies off the page, too, because this forced me to just be okay with a simple concept that didn’t require redrawing every single thing with impeccable detail (what even is that in comics?? why do I self-impose all of this?? lol). Instead, I just reused the same image and added minor adjustments here and there.

And you know what? I had fun!

I want to do more like this in the future and also practice not being such a perfectionist about things. I don’t judge other people for these kinds of helpful tricks; in fact, it’s the opposite, I think it’s so cool and clever, and I love that they’ve found ways to make work easier for themselves! So why the hell do I judge myself so differently and make things harder for myself?

Anywho, that’s a peek into the thoughts that went into this and into my very anxious mind 😂  

Reference

I referenced this image of a green fruits and veggie jello salad from Sewing Our Sanity to make the comic. I can only imagine what people who have never heard of this dish before are thinking when they see it for the first time 😂 

And please know, I’m not trying to target this person in particular or make fun of them– I’m making fun of all of us white people who have made and/or eaten this because it genuinely is a very strange thing to make and consume. I have to admit that I’ve never had the fruits and vegetable version of this (and would actively avoid it lol), but I’ve had the fruit one and enjoyed it as a kid.

Green jello in the molded shape of a bundt pan with a variety of fruits and vegetables in it. It rests on a clear plate on a wooden table.
Photo Credit: Sewing Our Sanity

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this Behind the Design look at the process, you might like to subscribe to my newsletter Into the Bramble or follow me on Patreon (where this comic was first published) to get notified when the next one goes up! My Patreon also includes additional exclusive behind the scenes looks that don’t get posted here on the blog.

If you’re into comics and in the market for a new read, I also recommend checking out my series More Comics Please! for monthly comic reviews. You can also find me and say hi on Instagram and Twitter!

Do you struggle with resting, too? Feel free to leave me any questions or thoughts in the comments below!

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This graphic shows the pencils, inks, and final stages of a comic by Jessi Eoin titled, "Day Off." The comic shows Jessi attempting to rest on a day off while a green, jello salad stress monster slowly creeps up behind them. My apologies for the brief description; Pinterest restricts alt text; for full alt description, please visit jbeoin.com/btd-day-off.

Jessi Eoin (they/them) is an illustrator who loves making, reading, and talking about comics, and they have come to accept that this is probably how they would be lured by a kidnapper.