Comic Report #112.2 - Just a Little More (Patreon)

Hello again!  This week I had wanted to put all my time into working on just the comic and nothing else, but I've been cooking enough things lately that I also gotta keep an eye on.  I did get most of what I wanted to get done for today, though, so I expect I should be able to have this comic finished by, ohh, around Monday/Tuesdayish?  I am planning to have this thing wrapped up this weekend and then I can have it posted and move onto the next page.  I'm gonna keep this one a little short so I can get back to working on the comic without too much delay, but you should definitely be hearing back from me again shortly.  

While I've been juggling so many chainsaws lately I've found myself having smaller bits of time with which to draw my comics, but in a weird way I've found that I've been able to paint my figures more efficiently lately.  I am not sure what it is, maybe it is just from being under pressure to make so many things at once but my painting has gotten a lot more efficient lately.  The shot of Marty Mulgrave in panel five particular is I think an example of what I mean.  I've been painting with a lot more emphasis on simple shapes, rather than trying to 3D render entire figures I can imply the 3D-ness with shapes of light and shadow, which ends up giving me more of a sense of space for less actual work.  Like Marty's shoulder in panel five, or the shape of light at his lower back, just broad shapes that do a lot with a little less.  I think there's a bit of that in Lizzie and Alice's hair shapes in the panel where they're leaning back in their chairs as well.  Just these really chunky, faceted shapes.  I kinda like it. 

One of the details I've been plotting for the completion of this page is the use of lighting in the bottom half panels, where there's shots looking in at the trailer's main room from inside the office.  To help define that space as being both focal and outside the place where the characters are I opted to block it in with lighter values, this way the doorframe separating it can be rendered in darker shapes and put the room as Somewhere Else.  Elseifying the room helps Lizzie and Alice feel like they're eavesdropping more, I think, like they're not supposed to be in there.  One of the other fun things bathing that room in light does is it lets me cast Nathan Mulgrave in shadow a bit easier, and try to achieve the fade-in effect I was alluding to last week.  With the contextual background values being lighter I can get a lot more detail out of relatively darker colors without losing Nate's silhouette.  I'm happy with how those panels are shaping up.

I'm gonna leave it at that for now and get back to drawing.  As I mentioned I'm gonna focus on just finishing up this page this weekend so it shouldn't be too much longer.  Thanks for your kind patience with my work, and I'll see you again real soon.