Having taken so long to make "Bed-ridden" and a long record of save files, I thought I'd throw together a making-of. Not because it deserves one (there are plenty of tutorials out there that look nicer than anything I can do yet), but for me this comic had a long journey behind it which I want to share.

1) After making "Appearances" I started several ideas for a follow-up. The flu season proved the ultimate inspiration.

2) I was unhappy with the third panel, so I redesigned to get a better view of all the characters. Note the lamppost transformed into a tree; I liked the idea at first, but later decided, in my universe, shapeshifting wouldn't affect nonliving matter, so I threw it out.

3) With the composition done, I started shifting around the anatomy of the characters.

4) Even after adjusting the anatomy, I was still unhappy with each character, so I laid down a background in the meantime. This was where I took a few months off to work on other things.

5) Coming back from my break in late June, I got a few characters into natural-looking poses. Meanwhile, I decided to break shapeshifter Dad down into different pieces of anatomy.

6) I wasn't sure if I wanted the daughter in the picture or not, but finally I decided she took up too much space and took her out. I made a few minor adjustments as well.

7) Happy enough with a sketch work, I made a quick color palette. I remember being frustrated by Dad's palette; I wanted a wide variety of colors without any of them being overpowering, but the colors were just flat and boring.

8) So I started inking. Here, overlaying the sketches, are the inks for the two women. Eventually, on July 1, I got too intimidated to continue; I took another break.

9) Coming back around mid-September, I decided I wanted Jen's friend's final TF form to be a full sheep, rather than an anthro sheep. I redrew the lower half of her body in panel 2 and mostly redrew her in panel 3. Somehow I worked up the courage to ink Dad.

10) With everything inked, I could now start laying down colors. Again I took a break here; I started again around Christmastime, and continued until January 1.

11) Because the transformation in the middle was the most important part of the piece, I wanted it to have a lot more "detail" than the other panels (not true detail, because this is still a cartoon-style drawing). I experimented a bit with wool textures here.

12) Deciding upon the shaggy texture, I redrew the wool and her hair, and added in the sneeze colors.

13) Added in shading for Jen's friend, and laid down the colors for Dad. I decided to go for a slightly manic color scheme, not too psychedelic. The polka dots were just a whimsical idea that stuck.

14) I started thinking about the background elements a bit more, including the door.

15) I realized, unlike "Appearances", that I wanted a sense of interior space and lighting. This was my first attempt.

16) Not happy with that, I tried another more subdued attempt, which I think was more accidental than intentional.

17) I added a hazy dark border and a bit of texture to the walls. I noticed Jen's foot touching the panel border, and considered moving the panel around. But that would have required too much work by now... I compromised by adding some extra snot in the upper corner. It was then that I mused upon the idea of covering Jen with snot in panel 3, making it 10% sexier.

18) Compared to above, the rest of the journey was smooth sailing. Just looking around, fixing mistakes and bothersome points, adding a few details here and there, and putting in the dialogue and word bubbles. I was happy enough to put my name on it.