Ch. 8 Page 04
dragonsong12 on April 20, 2008
Someone's feeling a little guilty…
Well, I really didn't want to do this too much, it's so overdone in fiction, I didn't want Tren to mope around “Oh woe is me! I'm a horrible person.” Bleh, he's a little better than that. At the same time, however, given his character, I couldn't really imagine him not feeling AT ALL guilty. It'd be there a little, he wouldn't be able to prevent it. I think this is ambiguous enough anyway, it seems likely that he means himself, but depending on how you interpret it, it's not necessarily so.
And maaaaan, I really hated this page when I drew it…just…talking heads. Now I'm not against talking pages (I can't be, I've said it before, dialogue is my crutch) but it really really bothers me when the characters aren't moving much on the page. When they're just…talking heads. I have this problem where some days art seems so difficult, and I can't draw anything I try to, and then other days it just seems so effortless. (making me wonder how people can do it professionally on command) The original page was drawn on the former day, and it was inked on the latter. So I added in Tren pointing in panel 2, Jaith holding up his hands in five (though you can barely see it) and Tai crossing her arms in the final one just to have them moving a bit. I think it helped a bit, I hate this page far less than I did then.
Where are the bags they were carrying before? Did they leave them behind or did I just forget to draw them?
Also, I'm SO GLAD we're not in a town scene anymore. Organic backgrounds are SOOO much easier to draw because you don't have to design anything. Everything just has to be different. Aaahhh, it was such a relief!
Unfortunately, it's painfully obvious that I didn't plan this page for the amount of text I wrote…which I was really annoyed about when I went to put in the speech bubbles. I ended up having to cover everything up (and trying to place Tai's final comment…urg) so, if you'd like to see the page without any text (because I ended up liking it okay and it actually has a background) go here.
I guess that's all I've got…thanks for reading and I will see you next week!
HawkandFloAdventures at 1:34PM, Dec. 26, 2022
The eye of the tiger is burning bright!
crocodile__smile at 5:16PM, April 21, 2008
thanks for another intrepid step forward on the road to disaster! this comic totally rocks the jam session all the way to Saturn. (ha, if only Nareth had been more of a jerk to his slaves earlier in life, Trenan might be able to save them now and convince them of the very real danger they are in! what WONDERFUL irony!)
DreamFog at 8:21AM, April 21, 2008
Ah, the irony of not knowing yourself better than someone else even though...well, you're yourself. It would probably make you feel like your only option was to light your head on fire and jump off a cliff. Not me. of course, I would turn my violence onto somebody else. The epic fight between dialogue and art for space. I know it well from high school in which me and a "friend" would have a comic war. He was the better artist, but his dialogue...just plained sucked. Text messaging sucky. On the other hand, my art wasn't as strong, but my dialogue a LOT better. So to win, I would have to plan out to how to fit in everything to make it all work. Thanks to that I found a few ways to deal with this problem. Focussing on a body part like eyes, hands or feet where there can be the most movement in a small area can give you the space you need for dialogue. Focus on something in the background can be used, but shouldn't be used too much. It would seem like the artist is getting bored with his own story on found something more interesting like a bug on a tree next to the scene. I don't think you want that... >.> Using a lot of small scenes to break up long lines of text is a good option to use too, and if you mix all of these things together, including talking heads, it should turn out fine.
Tantz_Aerine at 6:38AM, April 21, 2008
I like this page and it helped me focus on the dialogue.
HiNaTa_fan_13 at 5:42AM, April 21, 2008
Sweet!
dragonsong12 at 4:38AM, April 21, 2008
Haha! I looked it up as you suggested - what a great resource! I had never heard of this before, thanks so much!
DAJB at 1:44AM, April 21, 2008
If you want to avoid "talking heads syndrome", you need to get a copy of [i]Wally Wood's 22 Panels That Always Work[/i]. It's on quite a few sites on the internet, so you should find it if you google it. If you can't, PQ me. I've got a link somewhere.