Comic Report #44.2 - Very Illuminating (Patreon)

Hello again, here's the textless version of the next page.  I typed up a bit about this yesterday so I'll be brief on this one.

I love painting limited light sources, so the last panel was a lot of fun to work on.  When I paint a panel like this I'm essentially pointing the highlight of every shape at the single light point- like if you imagine a bunch of dice cubes, all the sides with one pip are pointing towards a single candle, that's how I approach single-lightsource shots like this.  It's an exercise in breaking a figure down into its three-dimensional facets and applying the highlight to the facets facing the lightsource most directly, with a softer reflected light being applied from the other direction, where light is bouncing off the environment and illuminating the back side of the character.  The dark shadow planes are nestled between the primary highlight facets and the reflected light back facets, and that's how the illusion of three dimensions is formed.

Regarding the panels I said I didn't like in my post yesterday, I went back and deepened the contrast between the shadows and highlights.  I brightened the facets around the windows, added the lightsource from the street Sheriff Tanner lived on to the reflection and added some rivets to the exterior of the bus.  There's more interesting detail now so I think the panels look less dull.  I also went through and added a kind of fog to the outer edges of the glass to make it seem like more of a dirty translucent material.  I'm happy with the page now, so I can move on.

It's a bit late tonight so I don't know that I'll type up the text and put it up before bed, but when I wake up first thing tomorrow I'll type it up and put it online.  Thanks again for being patient with my work!  I'm happy to be able to keep making it for you.