Meatier Showers 2024 - 05 Draft (Patreon)

When I mentioned that some of the Meatier Showers 2024 pages were becoming increasingly detailed and difficult to ink, here's another example of what I mean:

This isn't meant to be a hard flex on how "detailed" I am, in the first draft above, this page already involves 9 panels which is by my personal standards, quite "busy" or what I'd like to describe as "compressed". While not all separation borders are drawn in, if you look closely, you'll spot at least 9 of these panels in the form of shot changes or beats. Sequential art is a compression of time. The less panels you have, the faster an event happens. Conversely, the more panels you have, the slower or longer a scene plays out. While this isn't necessarily a rule, that is the general effect you get when adding or subtracting panels.

You'll notice that in the third panel, I opted to free up more space to make the panel more "breathable". It's now more focused on the three characters at the table, with an over-the-shoulder shot for Pridestar since he's the passive party in this conversation. I shifted the panel of Pridestar thinking down a row so that this now looks like a sequence of keyframes in an animation.

In this version of the same page, I wanted to tidy up Pridestar's pose in the second panel so that it reads better instead of a hunched silhouette in the original. I've pushed the parfait closer to the viewer to make it "pop" so that readers can share in Pridestar's elation. You'll notice that I'm still in the process of simplifying and reducing things. Complex poses that I'm not good at drawing (especially when there are many overlapping characters and elements) are primarily blocked out using silhouettes so I don't expend too much time on details I may later need to omit.

In this final version, I settled on a closer shot of the table booth where the trio are seated so that we can have a clearer shot of their expressions. As you can see, the line mileage is a little crazy for this page - meaning that I have a lot more stuff to ink than say a regular 4-6 paneled page.

I hope you've found this update insightful on my process. If you have any questions, feel free to drop them in the comments below. Inked page drops on the 25 Jun!

Snares
Jul 2024