Building the Page: Ch 5 / Pg. 2 (Patreon)

Attached are the thumbnail / pencil / ink / color cues / written color notes that I handed off to Jones for final colors! You can see the final version of Page 2 here. 

Page 2 had to do a LOT OF HEAVY LIFTING with environmental storytelling. This chapter went through an incredible number of rewrites, and the opening scene had the MOST rewrites of everything. This chapter is the longest yet (spoilers: this chapter is the longest yet) so with this scene we wanted to cut out as much fat as possible and start out in the middle of the action. 

We tried to answer as many questions as possible about how we got here with just two shots. The broken window, Cecilia's wrecked office, Hale holding the magical loupe he was obviously coveting in the end of the last chapter; that tells the audience as much as it needs to know of the who/why/how— the rest would be cool to know but isn't really unnecessary.

Another spoiler that we haven't really been quiet about: this is the last chapter of the first arc (and therefore the end of the first collection), so we wanted to go out with some circular storytelling. The story starts with Cecilia's office, so it's ending with Cecilia's office. Where Percy started as an outsider facing against Leeds, she's now facing off against an outsider to defend her and Leeds' home. The first chapter starts early in the morning so I wanted to play out the first book with early evening colors pushed to be unreal — so we're in the golden hour. You can see some color reference photos I pasted in there for Jones. 

As a dumb aside, Cecilia has this cute potted palm lily as a nod to Charley from the Ace Attorney games. It felt like a good office plant!