Page 4 was posted on 08/28/2006.
Page four introduces the first new environment outside of the doctor’s office. Panels four and five show the transition to Perso’s flashback where he begins to recount memories oc his childhood. It was s relief to finally be able to draw something other than these two characters squirming in their seats and gesturing. The landscape illustration shown in the last two panels is actually two parts of the same drawing. Other then the general concept that I wanted to scow a landscape, I wasn’t entirely sure what this would look like when I got started. Quite by accident, I found after it was srawn, that I could isolate separate parts of it in each panel, to create the effect of zooming in on (or flying toward) the settlement on the hillside. (At least I hope this is what it looks like to others).
As you can see below, the original illustration was reversed when I placed in into the page. I did this for design aesthetics, as the original orientation didn’t interact well with Perso’s figure and the text balloon. I’m bummed that the balloon in panel five obscures so much of the drawing as I really like how the sky and clouds came out. It was difficult to render this image in black and white, as color would have made is so much easier to define the landscape elements (like a blue sky, etc.). As it stands now, I wonder if others will immediately recognize it for what it is, since this is a dramatic visual break from the imagery I’ve used so far in the comic. Let me know if you think the image works.
After I completed this illustration, I changed some of the dialogue. Originally, Perso referred to coming from the ‘outer plains’. Now he just mentions the ’North Hemi’. I removed this reference since these are obviously hills and not plains. I drew hills to make a more dramatic visual introduction to the outside world. I just couldn’t find a way to make flat plains look interesting from an aerial perspective.
Another concern that I have is the juxtaposition of what has turned out to be two different drawing styles between the foreground characters and the environmental background imagery that I am now introducing. The background doesn’t rely on the hard black lines and boundaries like the foreground. I’m okay with two different styles being used next to each other as long as they work well together and don’t call attention to each other. I don’t want such stylistic elements to pull readers out of the story. This is a concern that I’m pondering more and more as I progress on page five. But, I’ll leave that discussion for next week.
