SKIRNIR STUDIOSTHE MAKING OF

A CREATIVE JOURNEY · 2018–2026

A manuscript.
A sketchbook.
A graphic novel.

Norse mythology imagined as a space opera.

The making of Whimsy & Wound, from Jonathan Morin’s early words and pencil drawings to a world in full color.

An illustrated record of a collaboration between
a storyteller and AI.

Out now!Buy on Amazon
Step inside the process
WHERE IT BEGAN
Same imagination.
A new form.
WHIMSY & WOUND / THE WORKING ARCHIVEWords, drawings, decisions, revisions.

THE STORY BEHIND THE STORY

It started long before
this collaboration.

Jon began the manuscript in 2018. The sketches followed in 2020: the hood and staff studies earlier in the year, and the other drawings around the fall. Years later, he brought those materials into this project: a story already imagined, and drawings that gave its world a face.

We worked from those beginnings to develop Whimsy & Wound as a graphic novel. The work moved between prose, images, page layouts and conversation. Jon clarified the characters, judged what felt right, and kept shaping the book as the pages took form.

2018The manuscript begins.
An early world takes shape.
2020The sketchbook gives
the world its first faces.
2026Words and sketches become
a graphic novel in collaboration.
Nov. 7A physical proof is read.
The next corrections become clear.
01

THE ORIGINAL MATERIAL

Before there
were panels.

The early sketches gave the world its first faces.

Seven photographs preserve Jon’s early design studies. Their clothing, masks, silhouettes and gestures gave us details to return to as the illustrated world developed.

The Álfar drawing is a particularly clear connection: the fringe, ears and clothing already point toward the Skirnir who appears in the book.

FROM THE MANUSCRIPT
“The High King wants me?”
Skirnir didn’t stop walking, but his voice dripped with disbelief.

Skirnir’s voice was there on the page. The adaptation had to find the expression, space and rhythm to carry it.

Excerpt from the manuscript snapshot preserved on 31 October 2026; not presented as an unchanged 2018 draft.
THE SKETCHBOOK01 / 07

Álfar

Fall 2020

The swept fringe, pointed ears and asymmetrical clothing became part of Skirnir’s visual identity.

Original drawings by Jonathan Morin · 2020.

FOLLOWING A CHARACTER THROUGH

Keeping Skirnir
recognizable.

The development sheet extended the early silhouette into turnarounds, expressions, clothing and color. Those references helped us carry the same character across changing scenes.

Skirnir reference sheet v0.2 · development material
02

LEARNING TO TELL IT IN PICTURES

One scene.
Many decisions.

A paragraph can hold a whole conversation. A comic has to give it room.

We broke scenes into pages and panels, worked out who was speaking, and made space for the moments between the lines. Jon’s clarifications guided the acting, the world’s rules and what each character could know.

The page plan

The early page plan broke the meeting into panels, assigned the speakers and reserved space for dialogue. At this stage, a stick figure could stand in for a character. The question was whether the scene would read.

An early plan and the current version of page 3. The archive records the steps between them.

Early planning document · page 3Click to explore ↗

HOW WE WORKED TOGETHER

Jon brought the story
and made the calls.

The manuscript, original sketches, character intent and creative direction came from Jon. His feedback shaped the adaptation, selected the cover and drove the revisions.

AI helped develop
and produce the pages.

ChatGPT/Codex helped with adaptation proposals, generated and edited artwork, lettering tools, continuity reviews, page assembly and print preparation. Each generated result still needed to be read, judged and, often, revised.

03

FINDING THE BOOK’S VOICE

The choices
that made it ours.

EVEN THE LETTERS HAD A ROLE

Five voices,
on the page.

The lettering studies explored five distinct voices: Everyday, Silverleaf, Gardenhand, Ironvoice and Glimmersong. Differences in shape, weight and rhythm helped make the world’s speakers feel distinct.

Then came the practical work: line breaks, balloon placement and checking whether people could read the words at the size of the printed book.

Shown: an early five-voice comparison from 31 October 2026.
01 / THE PICTUREOpening artwork
02 / THE READING EXPERIENCECurrent lettered page

CHOOSING THE FIRST IMPRESSION

A cover took
several conversations.

The direction settled on Skirnir with his original elven ship. Expression, architecture and typography each went through refinements, arriving at the illuminated teal-and-gold title and an ivory-and-gold hangar.

EARLIER PROPOSALBefore Departure
EARLIER PROPOSALUnder Open Stars
SELECTED DIRECTIONIvory and Gold
APPROVED · 4 NOV 2026The approved cover
04

OFF THE SCREEN, INTO THE HANDS

Then came
the physical book.

Jon’s proof copy · photographed 8 November 2026.

The printer’s “Not for Resale” band marks this as a proof copy.

“I just got the proof today and I read through it all. The color is gorgeous. Everything was readable.”JON · PHYSICAL-PROOF FEEDBACK · 7 NOVEMBER 2026

Reading it changed
what we could see.

The physical proof confirmed the color and readability for Jon. It also revealed an extra finger on a hand and a mismatch in Ymir’s exterior machinery between scenes.

Those became specific correction tasks. The hand went through further attempts before Jon accepted it. The corrected interior was then uploaded to the existing print draft.

Production milestone · 8 November 2026: physical proof read; corrected interior prepared and uploaded.

Before · physical proofThe hand held near the mouth.
After · accepted correctionThe open hand resting on the chest.

The same panel, shown at the same scale. The correction also changed the gesture, from a hand near the mouth to an open hand resting on the chest.

05

AN AUTHOR’S NOTE & AN AI COLLABORATOR’S REPLY

In our
own words.

JONATHAN MORIN

Creator, writer & original sketch artist

How it started,
and what I learned.

My starting point was imagining mythology as a space opera. I began with Vanaheimr, the prequel to Whimsy & Wound. To practice, I decided to write a short story about Skirnir. That exercise grew into Whimsy & Wound.

Later, I tried an experiment: could AI help me build a process for turning my sketches and manuscript into a graphic novel? It helped stage the pages and panels, and I was impressed by how much of my vision came through.

I found that time spent on a descriptive manuscript and sketches paid off throughout the adaptation. They gave us a foundation for the book’s visual style and references to return to as we refined the characters, environments and props together.

Working this way asked me to be a director and producer as well as a writer and artist. I had to decide what belonged in each scene, judge what needed fixing, keep the story flowing and manage my time. And if you’ve had five coffees, made ten pages and forgotten to eat: take a break!

For me, AI was especially useful in building a repeatable process and helping track consistency across pages. That consistency still depended on clear references, careful review and revisions. A well-described character and environment gave us something concrete to return to when we hit a roadblock, so we could solve the problem with less guesswork.

Jon

Author’s note · Edited for clarity with AI assistance

CHATGPT / CODEX

AI collaborator · A response to Jon

A direction to
keep returning to.

Jon, your note gets to the heart of the process: you gave the work a direction before we began turning it into pages. The manuscript brought character voices, relationships and a world; the sketches gave us visual ideas to return to.

I could help propose staging, develop images, organize references and assemble the pages. Your choices determined which versions belonged in the book. Each specific correction—an expression, a line of dialogue, a hand, a detail of a ship—gave the next revision a clearer target.

I can help organize a consistent process and still miss a visual or storytelling error. Checking the work together mattered. Your reading of the physical proof carried that review into the form readers would actually hold.

For this project, the collaboration worked through that repeated exchange: a proposal, your judgment, a revision and another look. The original vision stayed present because we kept returning to it.

And yes: lunch belongs in the production schedule.

ChatGPT / Codex

AI-generated response · Written for this making-of archive

A STORY CARRIED FORWARD

From an idea in 2018
to pages you can hold.

The manuscript and sketches are still the beginning of this story.
The graphic novel gives them another way to be seen.

Out now! Whimsy & Wound is available on Amazon.

Buy on Amazon Explore Skirnir Studios Return to the sketchbook
About this archive & its sources

A working account

This making-of archive was assembled on 8 November 2026 from the project’s preserved files and updated with Jon’s sketch dates and identifications. Jon dates the manuscript’s beginning to 2018 and the sketches to 2020. The hood studies and figure with a staff were drawn earlier in 2020; the other five drawings date to around the fall. The manuscript excerpt comes from a later, dated snapshot; it is not labeled as the original 2018 wording.

The page shows selected process examples and a few early story scenes. It is not a complete reader.

The materials shown

Original-Sketches archive (seven supplied photographs); Opening Development v03 and v06; the five-voice lettering review; reader edition v66; cover concepts 11–13 and the approved v09 design; physical-proof feedback and accepted v13 hand correction; Jonathan Morin’s photograph of his physical proof, taken on 8 November 2026.

The Human sketch is cropped below the costume study at Jon’s request to omit an unrelated raven doodle. Other sketch photographs retain their supplied framing, with orientation and web-size conversion only. AI-assisted development and finished art are labeled separately from Jon’s original drawings. The early Odin design and Freya identification, including the floral “Vanir” lettering, follow Jon’s clarifications.