Webtoon Creator · StoryboarderI write emotionally driven queer romance and develop stories for vertical comics — from story and scripting through storyboards, panel direction, pacing and production.I’m especially interested in the moments between words: the look that lasts too long, the silence after something almost said, and the small choices that slowly change a relationship.Currently looking for an illustrator collaborator to develop original webtoons with.
SELECTED WORK
I started in prose, then became fascinated by what happens when a story has to work visually.These projects explore different parts of that process — from adapting a finished story into a complete vertical comic, to developing an original webtoon from the ground up.
01 · FIREFLIES
Real, Not Reel — Chapter 11ONE-SHOT VERTICAL WEBTOON · PROOF OF CONCEPTTwo actors are playing lovers on screen.Somewhere between the scripted touches, lingering looks and moments they can still call acting, the line between performance and something real begins to blur.I adapted a scene from my completed AO3 long-form story into a finished vertical comic, handling the adaptation, panel direction, sequencing, pacing, lettering, editing and final production in Clip Studio Paint.
Uses AI-generated visual artwork. Full production details are included in the case study.
02 · FARM AU (Working title)
Original BL WebtoonIN DEVELOPMENTHe came to the farm to disappear.A former idol takes a three-month seasonal job on a remote farm, hoping to escape his debts, his old identity and the exhausting feeling of always being watched.Instead, he meets a quiet farmer whose way of caring for people slowly makes escape feel like belonging.Story · Characters · Storyboards · Visual Development
03 · PROCESS
From Story to ScrollHOW I DEVELOP A WEBTOON SCENEEmotional beat → Script → Storyboard → Art collaboration → ProductionI work out what a scene needs to make the reader feel before deciding what it needs to show.
04 · LONG-FORM WRITING
Real, Not ReelCOMPLETED LONG-FORM STORYThe story behind Fireflies — and the project where I developed much of my approach to relationship arcs, emotional continuity, setup and payoff.
REAL, NOT REEL
Chapter 11 — Firefy Mountain
COMPLETED ONE-SHOT WEBTOON PROOF OF CONCEPTReal, Not Reel follows actors Tian Lei and Zi Yu, who are cast opposite each other as lovers.As filming continues, scenes written for their characters begin creating moments of real tenderness, attraction and vulnerability between them.For a while, the camera gives them somewhere safe to hide.Every lingering look.Every touch that lasts a little too long.Every moment that feels unexpectedly real.They can still call it acting.Fireflies catches them away from the cameras.One evening, Tian Lei and Zi Yu take a walk together as dusk begins to fall.There is no scene to perform.No director calling action.No character to hide behind.And some feelings are becoming harder to call just acting.
MY ROLE
Story adaptationChoosing what from the prose needed to survive the transition into sequential storytelling — and what could be communicated visually instead.Panel directionDeciding which moments became panels, where the reader sits in relation to the characters and when the camera needs to move.Character beatsPlanning eye-lines, gestures, physical distance, reactions and the small changes in body language that carry the emotional movement of the scene.Vertical pacingUsing panel size, negative space and scroll distance to control how quickly — or slowly — a moment is experienced.LetteringDialogue placement, reading order and how words interact with the surrounding visual space.ProductionEditing, sequencing and final webtoon assembly in Clip Studio Paint.
Why I Made It
I wanted to find out whether I could take a scene that worked in prose and make it work as a comic.Not by illustrating every sentence.By asking different questions.What deserves its own panel?When should we move closer?When should the characters stop talking?When does a reaction matter more than the dialogue that caused it?How much space should exist before the reader reaches the next beat?The finished one-shot became my proof of concept for the part of webtoon creation I most enjoy:turning story into sequential experience.
VISUAL PRODUCTION NOTE
This completed proof of concept uses AI-generated visual artwork.I do not present the illustration itself as hand-drawn work.My contribution is the original story, adaptation, panel direction, sequencing, vertical pacing, lettering, editing and final production of the comic in Clip Studio Paint.For future collaborative projects, I would not expect an illustrator to reproduce these generated images.I want the final character designs, acting, environments and visual language to be shaped with the artist and informed by their own creative voice.
Farm AU (Working Title)
ORIGINAL WEBTOON · IN DEVELOPMENT
He came to the farm to disappear.Shen Yao used to perform for crowds.Now he is broke, exhausted and desperate to become anonymous.Under another name, he accepts a three-month seasonal job on a remote farm — far enough away that he hopes nobody will recognise him and quiet enough that he might finally stop feeling watched.The work is harder than he expected.The mud is worse.And the farmer waiting for him is nothing like the person he imagined.Jiang He is quiet, intimidating and difficult to read. He has a severe developmental stutter and rarely wastes words trying to fill silence.But he notices things.A pair of ruined shoes.A meal left untouched.A person pretending not to need help.Over one uncertain season, Shen Yao begins to discover that disappearing and belonging are not the same thing.BL · SLOW BURN · RURAL SLICE OF LIFE · ROMANCE · DRAMA
THE STORY
At its heart, Farm AU is about two people who communicate very differently.Shen Yao fills uncomfortable spaces with words, jokes and performance.Jiang He has spent much of his life being judged for the words he struggles to say.Their relationship grows through attention rather than declarations — food left within reach, work quietly made easier, remembered preferences, shared routines and gradually shrinking distance.The emotional question underneath the story is:What happens when someone who has spent years performing finally meets someone who doesn't need him to perform at all?
IN DEVELOPMENT
I'm developing Farm AU directly for the vertical-comic format.Current work includes:Story development
Character arcs, relationship progression and episode structure.Storyboarding
Breaking scenes into character beats, shots and vertical sequences.Environment continuity
Building a consistent farm geography so recurring locations remain readable.Camera planning
Establishing reusable viewpoints and spatial relationships across scenes.Character acting
Using expression, posture, distance and gesture to carry emotional information without relying entirely on dialogue.Scroll rhythm
Exploring where to compress action, where to linger and where empty space can become part of the storytelling.
VISUAL DEVELOPMENT
AI-generated imagery is currently used as development material to explore staging, camera angles, character continuity, environments and panel composition.The references are meant to communicate things like:
where the characters are
what they are doing
what the emotional beat is
what information the shot needs to carryThey are not intended to prescribe a collaborating illustrator's final style or artwork.I want the visual identity of Farm AU to come from the artist as much as it comes from me.Any use of generative AI within an actual collaborative production would be discussed and agreed together.
LOOKING FOR ITS VISUAL COLLABORATOR
Farm AU is the original project I'd most like to develop with an illustrator.I can bring the story, characters, scripts, storyboards, continuity and production framework.I'm looking for someone who wants to bring the drawing voice — and help discover what this world ultimately looks and feels like.
About Me
Webtoon Creator · StoryboarderI'm a creator interested in emotionally grounded, character-led stories — particularly queer romance, slow emotional change and characters who reveal themselves through the things they struggle to say.I started in prose.When I began adapting scenes visually, I realised I was especially drawn to the direction side of comics:Where does the camera sit?
Which expression deserves another panel?
When should the dialogue disappear?
How close should two people physically be?
When should the reader have to scroll through silence before reaching the next moment?Those decisions are what pulled me deeper into sequential storytelling.I'm now developing original stories specifically for vertical comics while continuing to learn the craft and production side of making them.I want to help build the comic.
THE STORIES I LOVE
Slow-burn relationships.Earned intimacy.Characters whose actions contradict their words.Humour sitting beside heavier emotional material.People learning to communicate badly — and then slightly better.And the tiny scenes where almost nothing happens externally, but afterward the relationship is no longer quite the same.
LET'S BUILD SOMETHING
I'm looking for a comic or webtoon illustrator who connects with emotionally driven, character-led storytelling and wants meaningful creative input into the finished work.I'm not looking for someone simply to render my references or reproduce panels exactly as I've imagined them.I want to bring a strong narrative and production foundation — and build the visual identity of the comic with the artist.
I Bring
STORYPremise development
Character arcs
Relationship progression
Episode structure
Long-form continuitySCRIPT & DIRECTIONDialogue
Scene adaptation
Panel breakdowns
Storyboards
Camera and staging
Character beats
Vertical pacingPRODUCTIONContinuity
Lettering
CSP assembly
Revision
Planning
Publishing support
You Bring
Your drawing voice.Character acting and expression.Character and environment design.Composition.Linework, rendering and finish.Visual storytelling instincts.Creative opinions.Ideas I haven't thought of.I don't expect you to reproduce my development references.I'd rather discover what the story looks like through the way you draw it.
WE SHAPE TOGETHER
Character designArt directionVisual motifsHow closely we follow the storyboardsFeedback and revision workflowProduction scope and scheduleCredits and ownershipCommercial arrangementWhether generative AI has any role in the collaborative productionThose are partnership decisions — not assumptions I'd make for the artist.
WHO I'D LOVE TO MEET
You don't need a huge following.You don't need years of professional webtoon experience.Early-career artists are very welcome.I'm much more interested in:Character-driven storytellingExpressive character actingEnjoying romance and emotional intimacyCommunication and reliabilityHaving creative opinions of your ownWanting to build something collaboratively
HOW WE CAN START
We don't need to commit to an entire series after one conversation.I'd rather start by talking.What comics do we both love?
What do you enjoy drawing?
What kind of creative relationship are you looking for?
How much storyboard direction feels useful to you?
What would make the project worth doing for both of us?If our creative instincts and working styles fit, we can explore a small pilot or short sequence together and decide what comes next from there.
INTERESTED — OR JUST CURIOUS?
Send me your portfolio, Instagram/X account or even just a few examples of your work.Tell me what you enjoy drawing and what you'd like to find in a collaboration.It doesn't need to be a formal pitch.If something here makes you think,I'd like to make a story like this,I'd love to hear from you.
LONG-FORM STORIES
I started telling stories in prose.That gave me room to learn how relationships change over time — not only how two characters meet, but how attraction turns into attachment, what happens when they hurt each other, and what it takes for an emotional payoff to feel earned.I include these stories here as examples of my approach to character arcs, relationship progression, continuity and long-form narrative structure.
Real, Not Reel
COMPLETEDTwo actors cast as lovers begin confusing performance with reality.What starts as chemistry during filming becomes a relationship shaped by attraction, fear, separation, public pressure, rupture, reconciliation and the difficult decision to choose each other deliberately.The story asks what happens when the safest place for two people to express something real is while pretending it isn't real at all.Fireflies, the completed webtoon in this portfolio, is adapted from Chapter 11.
How to romance a doctor
IN PROGRESS · ENDING PLANNEDA contemporary queer romance about intimacy built slowly through trust, ordinary routines and learning what another person actually needs.At its centre are questions around family, sexuality, insecurity, care and the fear of being temporary in someone else's life.
WHY THESE STORIES ARE HERE
These are fan-created works rather than stories I intend to commercially adapt as-is.They're here because they demonstrate the storytelling foundation behind my original comic work:Character development
Relationship progression
Long-form continuity
Setup and payoff
Emotional escalation
Knowing where the story is goingSome of the emotional and character dynamics I explored through fanfiction later informed my approach to developing original stories such as Farm AU. Their prose was developed with generative AI assistance under my direction.The original projects come next.
characters
Two people who have learned very different ways of surviving being misunderstood.
Shen Yao
22 · Former idol · Seasonal farm workerBright, expressive and quick to talk his way through discomfort.Shen Yao has spent years learning how to read a room, make himself likeable and give people the version of him they expect.Humour is often his first defence.Apologising is his second.Underneath both is someone exhausted by being observed.He comes to the farm hoping to disappear.
Jiang He
28 · FarmerQuiet, practical and physically imposing.Jiang He has a severe developmental stutter and has spent much of his life being underestimated by people who confuse difficulty speaking with difficulty thinking.He doesn't explain his care very often.He simply does things.And Shen Yao slowly learns to notice.
Their Relationship
The city taught Shen Yao that queerness was safe only as performance.The world taught Jiang He that speech made him vulnerable.They do not fix each other. They make each other less alone with what they already carry.
Early concept direction. Final production design will be refined with the collaborating artist. AI-assisted concept reference used to communicate character direction only. Final visual design will be developed with the collaborating artist.
STORYBOARD
I adapt emotional beats into vertical sequences through framing, character acting, camera changes and scroll timing.
Arrival in the mud
Shen Yao arrives at the farm with the wrong shoes, too much luggage and a determined attempt to remain composed.The sequence introduces him visually before the story explains him: city shoes sink into mud, his automatic smile begins to fail, and his old fame has no value in the place he has arrived.
What I’m testing
Character acting — what Shen Yao shows versus what he actually feels
Camera continuity — changing shot and angle without advancing the story beat
Visual anchors — mud, luggage, shoes, road and distance carrying narrative information
Scroll rhythm — deciding when to reveal, hold or isolate a moment
Current images are development references, not final webtoon artwork. Final visual language would be shaped with the collaborating artist.
PROCESS
FROM STORY TO SCROLL
How I approach a webtoon sceneI don't start by asking:What should this panel look like?I start with:What changes between the characters because this scene happened?That emotional movement becomes the foundation for everything else.
01 · STORY
What is the scene doing?Before thinking about panels, I identify:What does each character want?Where are they emotionally at the beginning?What changes before the scene ends?What information needs to survive into later chapters?What can disappear without weakening the story?A prose scene can contain many good sentences.A comic doesn't need to illustrate all of them.
02 · SCRIPT
What actually needs to happen?I reduce the scene into three layers:DIALOGUE
What genuinely needs to be spoken.ACTION
What the characters physically do.SUBTEXT
What their behaviour communicates that they aren't saying aloud.The goal is to give the visual storytelling room to work.
03 · STORYBOARD
What does the reader need to see?This is where I begin directing the scene.Shot size
Wide · Medium · Close-up · InsertCamera position
Where the reader physically sits in relation to the characters.Character acting
Eye-lines · Hands · Posture · Distance · Hesitation · TouchContinuity
Where characters, objects and environments remain in relation to one another.Panel rhythm
Which moments move quickly and which ones need room to breathe.Vertical pacing
How scrolling itself contributes to timing and reveal.
04 · ART COLLABORATION
The storyboard starts the conversation.My storyboards communicate narrative and emotional intent.They are not meant to eliminate the illustrator's creative decisions.I'd want a collaborating artist to bring their own instincts around:Character acting
Composition
Character design
Environment
Lighting
Visual motifs
Rendering
Panel solutions I haven't consideredIf an artist finds a better way to communicate the beat than what's in my storyboard, I want to hear it.The strongest version of the comic should contain ideas neither of us would have reached alone.
05 · PRODUCTION
Once the sequence works, I can continue supporting the parts of comic production that often sit around the illustration itself:Continuity tracking
Dialogue and lettering
CSP assembly
Revision tracking
Episode organisation
Production planning
Publishing preparationI enjoy the process of actually getting ambitious work finished — not only coming up with the idea.
WHAT I CAN HAND AN ARTIST
Depending on how we decide to work, I can prepare:Episode scripts
Panel-by-panel storyboards
Character and emotional notes
Camera and staging direction
Environment references
Continuity notes
Final dialogue
Production contextThat level of detail doesn't need to be fixed.Some artists may prefer detailed boards.Others may want much more visual freedom.I'd rather develop the workflow around how we work best together.
AI & development tools
Some prose drafts, written development and panel-script wording are created with generative AI assistance.I direct the story structure, characters, emotional arcs, continuity, revisions, adaptation and storyboards. AI-generated images are used as development references rather than final commissioned artwork.Any use of generative AI in final production would be openly agreed with the artist.
LONG-FORM STORYTELLING
Real, not Reel
COMPLETED · RPFReal, Not Reel is an imagined romance between actors Tian Lei and Zi Yu, beginning while they film Revenged Love together.What starts as chemistry under the protection of a script gradually becomes something neither of them can dismiss as performance.The story follows their relationship through attraction, separation, public pressure, fear, rupture, reconciliation and the slow work of choosing each other deliberately.
WHY IT'S IN THIS PORTFOLIO
I include Real, Not Reel because it represents the long-form storytelling foundation behind my comic work.Across the story, I had to sustain:Character development
Relationship progression
Emotional continuity
Recurring motifs
Setup and payoff
Conflict that changes the characters rather than simply delaying the romance
A complete endingFireflies is one small scene from that larger arc.The webtoon adaptation gave me the chance to explore what happens when the same emotional storytelling moves from prose into panels.
FROM REAL, NOT REEL?
Hi again ♡
If you found your way here from Real, Not Reel in AO3, welcome.Writing Tian Lei and Zi Yu made me increasingly curious about the moments that sit between the lines of prose:the look that lasts a little too long,the hand that almost reaches out,the physical distance between two people,or the silence after something neither of them knows how to answer.Eventually I started wondering:What would these moments feel like as a comic?That curiosity became Fireflies.
Fireflies
Real, Not Reel — Chapter 11
A webtoon companion to the ficBy Chapter 11, Tian Lei and Zi Yu have spent weeks playing lovers in front of a camera.That gives them somewhere to hide.A touch can belong to the script.A lingering look can belong to the character.Something that feels unexpectedly real can still be called acting.Then they take an evening walk together.No scene to perform.No director calling action.No characters to disappear into.And some feelings become harder to explain away.I adapted that scene into a complete vertical comic in Clip Studio Paint.
The comic uses AI-generated visual artwork. Full production details are included with the project.
WHY I MADE IT
I wanted to see whether the emotional rhythm I use in prose could survive in a completely different form.Instead of telling the reader what Tian Lei or Zi Yu is thinking, I had to work with: framing, distance, expressions, silence, panel order,
and the space between one image and the next.Fireflies became my first complete experiment in turning one of my written scenes into a sequential experience.
WHERE THIS IS LEADING
Farm AU
Real, Not Reel also helped me understand the kinds of relationships I'm most interested in exploring: restraint meeting openness, care expressed through action, people who communicate very differently, and love built through small accumulated choices.Some of that emotional DNA became the starting point for an original story.He came to the farm to disappear.Farm AU follows Shen Yao and Jiang He, original characters with their own histories, conflicts and relationship.A former idol takes a three-month seasonal job on a remote farm, hoping to disappear.Instead, he meets a quiet farmer whose way of caring for people slowly makes escape feel like belonging.I'm developing it specifically for vertical comics.
I'M ALSO BUILDING SOMETHING NEW.
Real, Not Reel isn't something I'm leaving behind.It's part of what taught me what I love about relationships in the first place.I'm still interested in prose — I'm simply also learning another language for telling those stories.Panels.Expressions.Silence.Scroll.And eventually, original comics made together with an illustrator.If you'd like to follow that process I'm on IG as @jlene.ink
And if you’re an artist...
I’m also hoping to meet a comic or webtoon artist who connects with this kind of storytelling.I’m especially interested in someone who enjoys character acting, subtle emotional expression, slow-burn relationships and visual storytelling, and who would like to grow a project together rather than simply illustrate a finished script.I bring the story development, scripting, storyboarding, continuity and production planning. I’m looking for a visual collaborator who wants to help shape how those stories ultimately live on the page.You don’t need to be an established professional. If something here makes you think, I’d like to draw stories like this, I’d love to hear from you.
Real, Not Reel: FIREFLIES
FINISHED VISUAL STORYBOARD · ONE-SHOTA quiet confession beneath a field of fireflies.Tian Lei and Zi Yu are walking back at dusk when an ordinary conversation turns into something neither of them can quite take back.Fireflies is a visual adaptation of a scene from Chapter 11 of my long-form AO3 romance, Real, Not Reel.
The Story
Sometimes the hardest thing to say is the simplest.Surrounded by fireflies and with nowhere left to hide behind jokes or half-truths, Tian Lei finally tries to tell Zi Yu what he has been afraid to admit.A small, quiet moment about fear, tenderness and choosing to be honest.
Thank you for reading.
ABOUT FIREFLIES
Fireflies is my first completed vertical-comic storytelling project.I adapted the scene from prose into a visual sequence as an exercise in:storyboarding
shot selection and camera direction
character acting and expression
dialogue adaptation
vertical-scroll pacing
panel composition
lettering and SFX
emotional rhythm and silenceThe goal wasn't simply to illustrate the original chapter, but to work out how the same emotional beat changes when it has to be communicated visually.
From Prose to Panels
The original scene comes from Chapter 11 of Real, Not Reel, my completed long-form romance.For this adaptation, I deliberately narrowed the scene down to one emotional beat: Tian Lei trying to say something frightening, and Zi Yu slowly understanding what he means.That meant deciding what could remain dialogue, what could become an expression or gesture, and where the story needed space to simply sit in the moment.
PRODUCTION NOTE
I use generative AI imagery as visual reference material while learning storyboarding and sequential storytelling.I don't claim the generated imagery as hand-drawn illustration.My work on Fireflies is in the story and adaptation, panel breakdown, shot direction, composition, pacing, dialogue editing, lettering, SFX and overall visual sequence.I'm continuing to learn drawing alongside this process, with the long-term goal of working collaboratively with artists on original comics.
WANT TO MAKE SOMETHING TOGETHER?
I'm learning visual storytelling, currently developing original romance projects for vertical comics.I'm especially interested in meeting artists who enjoy character-driven romance, quiet emotional storytelling and collaborative world-building.If Fireflies feels like the kind of story you'd enjoy working on, I'd love to hear from you.