Small side question from all the action in the last few pages, but will we ever get an explanation for Loudkill's scars? I remember back when she was introduced people had a theory that Cutlass had a fight with her and gave her those scars ("I cut a lass once, I can cut a lad too!") but Cutlass and Boneslav seem pretty fine in their meeting with each other, which would mean there wasn't a fight (and therefore grudges)

Sorry if it's a long ask/silly question 😅

This has been theorized a lot, but no, Loud's scars weren't made by Cutlass, and the lass he cut has no weight since stonekrovns cut a lot of things. Scars are common for stonekrovns and they don't have big stories behind them. Loudkill maybe just got someone's brow tines at her face, they could leave a symmetrical mark just like Kasko's scars. Then maybe she cut her ear somewhere and someone had the great idea of making it symmetrical too, for Friday fun.

Hi! I'm working on a couple of OCs, and wondering about the size difference between Wanderers and Stonekrovn? My brain immediately stuck on Wanderers being bigger, but I definitely wanted to check with you first. Thanks very much!

Wanderers are bigger! The blue stag here is of course a grasslander, but you could imagine a full grown stonekrovn's withers at the peaks of his front tines. Wanderers are taller than their length, krovns vice versa. So maybe the win in horizontal?

do you got any tips to start comic pages? Or any tutorial you would recommend in mind

Look I know how to use a read more tag now

I've no tutorials in mind really. I did look through plenty of them way in the beginning, but later found what worked for me the most! And it's just having your script and deciding how much of it you want to jam in that one page, and most importantly, what panel you want the page to end with so the cut-off doesn't feel clunky. Check how much space your dialogue takes before sketching, make sure it has room to breathe.

I like it when there's at least one establishing shot in the page that shows the characters in relation to each other and the environment. Sometimes you can get away with not including it but a pageful of headshots gets boring easily.

Some people just sketch freely and add build the panels after that, it's pretty good for more action-packed scenes since not being bound by an existing layout tends to make things livelier. I sometimes use this for silent pages, since they're the ones that give me the most grief to plan.

If you're on the boat of being afraid to actually START making a comic, there's plenty of you! It's self-preservation talking, and it's so super normal, especially if you've never made a comic before. Comicing is hard work and offers a tons of things to keep track on. In the very start your story's spine is so flexible it's hard to see how you can make it hold weight, but with every page you'll be cementing it. Half of my comic feels wobbly right now because I'm not there yet, but 200+ finished pages have told me it'll be okay. It'll hold weight when we get there, because all that work we've done till then is now foundation.

I won't lie, sometimes paging is pain in the ass. Sometimes it's so hard to figure out what kind of shot to use, how to avoid repetition in conversations, deciding on panel size, how to fit all in, where to cut the page. Sometimes I've feared that this is where it ends, I can't figure this out, but then I remember I have so much done already, and I've met these troubles before. It doesn't need to be perfect, just get it over with! The next page will be better.

With these in mind, it'll get so much easier after you've started. White canvas is scary, were it a new page or a whole new comic.

Sorry if this is a weird question but can halves reproduce? I mean getting mates‚ lay eggs‚ etc or they do just live by their deers? I just think it would be very funny if a deer had a halv that was one of these colorful birds that won't stop dancing to attract a mate and the deer has to deal with the absolute nonsense

Sure! Being halves doesn't restrict them from bird's life that much. They do move with the deer though, so migratory halves give that up. Being a halv is just having a neat hat and a few extra tasks (and having to die when your charge does...) so it isn't inherited to the offspring unless it was Meant To Be.

The deer will definitely have to see some bird dance moves if their halv is feeling amorous. I love the idea of a halv like bowerbird being so invested in color coordinating their ground decorations that they miss out the whole story.

I know this is dumb, and GS will probably never be translated into Croatian, but I like to think how stonekrovn names would be translated into my language.

I'm talking names like Glasnoubica, Kostivol, Rezosnajka, Crijevovuča, Uhopucač and Mrgovilica

Well they sound cool in my mind's ears! I don't envy my translators who decided to translate stonekrovns' names, must be tricky.

How the osprey tierlist works?? I'll love to take that slot, even if it's only one time but it's always sold out. It's the first to catch? There's a long waiting list that's why it's still closed? Thankss

I can't believe you sent me this ask five minutes after I had messaged my current Osprey patrons about closing the tier in the coming months. The tier has been active for two years but I just can't keep up with the quality and workload anymore. I've never been a real commission artist anyway.

Thank you for the interest! I can't promise I'll open comms in the future, or similar tiers on patreon any time soon. At least not in the same price as before.

I dunno if I'm just kinda bad about noticing things and people already guessed it was important but I didn't even realise it was there and had to go back to look and the black ring has been on his antler the whole time! I think that's so awesome, just had to drop an ask to say let you know how much I have been enjoying golden shrike. you are an amazing story teller! There has never a new page that has disappointed me in any way, to find a webcomic that has that level of quality throughout is rare.

I'm surprised there's been several readers who just now noticed his ring! I need to add a Hello Kitty charm on someone to see if you find it.

Thank you very much! That's a big compliment.

Y'know, I'm not sure if this question ever got asked before or not (Nor can I seem to find the answer in any of the available pages just yet), so forgive me if this has already been answered but...

Which came first;

The deerkind itself or Karuna's children?

According to the lore, Karuna was all alone in the vast blue sky. He created stars and blew them down, where they became mirrors of himself, deer. Then came halves, the rest is history. I like to think that religious lore and beliefs aren't necessarily facts, just something mortals put into words to understand them better. Doesn't make them correct!

I think the creation of Karuna's children and the deerkind intertwine. Loss is called the middle child, but also the space where nothing ever was, which could be the lonely sky. When the deer came down and reproduced for the first time, you'd imagine Eve was brought into existence. At this point the deer are pretty feral. Their thinking is simple, life is merry. Later, when Karuna is bored, he creates War, which in this scenario can express individualism, which in turn leads to conflict, growth, grief, conquest, evolution, and god's amusement.

The deerkind itself doesn't much care about Karuna's children, majority doesn't even know to name them. They just merge them to The Great Karuna.

Sorry if this answer to this is too Spoilery but if Antaras didn’t step in would Eve have tried to help the deer couple? Her expressions during the whole scene so far have been pretty neutral n unreadable but it looked like she was at least listening to the two

You'll learn more about Eve's personality in time! Until then you'll just need to microanalyze the pages.

New page up! CF + dA

do you think you'd ever be able to show us how you plan out and do backgrounds for your comics? I've noticed some of them look photorealistic yet beautiful and like, if there's any tips etc for comic backgrounds without them taking forever it'd be appreciated ksdljgkld

The first half of the current chapter was made with Unreal Engine, just painted over.

I honestly don't know how to help you! I don't have a system, I just draw the characters and then splat colors underneath them trying to find some shapes and make it fit the perspective. I don't plan my backgrounds at all, except maybe having a loose idea if it's a forest, meadow or rocky area. Backgrounds have always been and still are something that make me uncomfy and restless, I don't enjoy it at all.

My best tip is just to find a palette you like, and optionally a ref of the ~vibe~ you want to express. Even if your shapes suck like mine you at least have pretty colors! Just be merciful with yourself. It's ok.

And if you're making those backgrounds for a comic, I'd avoid getting too detailed to save time and nerves. You'll be the one who looks at them closely, while readers zoom throught them. They're there to give a setting to the Characters. Unless it's an establishing shot, of course. We don't like drawing establishing shots in this house.

Hi, I just binge read your whole comic in one sitting and wanted to let you know I love it!

I have a couple of questions if you don't mind. First one is: is the sickness that the dark brown deer's family got intended to be Chronic Wasting Disease which is somewhat common among deer?

The second one is, do you have any voice canons for your characters? Like famous peoples' voices that you read their lines in? I can really clearly hear Kimiko Glenn's voice for Runi but that's the only solid one I have atm

Hey glad you love it!

All fauna, flora, diseases and conditions in GS are fictional. I did take inspiration from CWD though!

I have this old voice claim video, not all accurate but it gives an idea.

Are there any other animals you’re found of drawing

Sheep, goats. Sometimes canines, less often felines. I'm not very adventurous.

Hate to imagine this but I assume that boneslav wasn’t able to play with the other kids due to his condition, poor guy

He definitely played, just not as harshly.

Deer and halves can communicate, right? I know you said that deer don’t name their halves, but surely their halves must have told their deer what they call themselves at least? Like, they have names, just not ones given to them by deer, right? At some point Runi’s shrike must have turned to her and said “My name is _; I was called that by my parents as a chick.” I’m sorry, I’m just struggling to understand since the halves are never shown talking, even though they can.

They don't communicate in the way like "Hello deer, my name is Bob Bobberton, I like this and dislike this, my hobbies are that and these, there was this huge worm we saw last week and boy did me and my mates laugh at its struggles."

The communication is more about feeling than vocubulary. The deer tune in with halves because they have a connection. They understand them when the birds want to be understood, but what that looks like, we don't know. The only time we've seen a bird straight-up talk in GS was when Karuna spoke through Nero's shrike. It was a mouthpiece.

The birds stopping Loudkill from killing the gang didn't go "hey man they're on a mission", but they did let her know. We don't need to know how!

What do you use to get your text bubbles and such?

I use the bubble tool on CSP.

helevise's death made me think if that is somekind of burial or formal cerimony for the dead in the GS universe,we know that the deerkind has different cultures but are still under the threat of predators and illness so what exactly are you supposed to do when that happens?

The norm is just what happens in nature — leave them, predators take care of them. Helevise's death felt very wrong not only because it seemed like she was meant to be found like that, but because the idea of her staying untouched for long was grotesque. Usma wanted her to go the same way the other deer go.

But then again I bet coastians have some weird rituals. Put them into the sea or something.