Page two, and Luca’s lovely (if argumentative) wife. And a progress animation for the inks as today’s vote incentive, if you like that kind of thing.
I think this is the latest page I’ve ever posted… to (sort of) make up for it, there are two updated re-done pages in the archive (1.2 and 1.3). You can compare them to the originals here and here. There just isn’t enough time in the day to finish all that I want :
I forgot to take the opportunity last week to pimp a comic, so I’ll get back on that for this week. My good friend Blue Ten creates a wonderful comic called Everblue that you should really take a look at if you have a chance. If you enjoy my style of drawing and storytelling I guarantee that you’ll love Everblue… the only thing about his comic that really pisses me off is that it doesn’t have anywhere near the readership that it deserves. Its on Chapter 2 right now, and updates once a week on weekends. Sort of like me 6__9
Thankfully this weekend is a 3 day weekend. I’m going to haul ass on the next page so I can get it up in a reasonable amount of time.
Yessss! Updates!
Okay, let’s see…I really like the 4th panel, Phe looks really pretty, even when she’s totally chewing Luca out. XD
The way you draw furniture is really good, very realistic. I’m really looking foward to this chapter. c:
I adore the set and clothing design in these last few pages. The fact that you drew in hints of hooks and a lining on his fur gaiters make me squee with detail ocd glee!
Short and sweet, you’re awesome : )
I like how you distanced them in the room. It sort of emphasizes the argument even if they’re just dressing. By the way, how do you pronounce Phe’s name?
Thanks! And her name rhymes with “pay”
all this time I’ve been saying “fee!”
Finally! I was gettin slightly worried. But my goodness, with all these details no matter it took you so long! Great job! :D
*no wonder… blargh, mixing up words. D:
Well, I’m impressed! I was kinda wanting to read this comic for a while, but thought to save it for at least being able to read a whole chapter at once… And it has gone beyond all my expectations.
What can I say… I love the treatment of lights and colours, not to mention the expressivity of the characters… also, their design is pretty impressive; in a few panels you get to know what their personality is like, in a mixture of behaviorism and intelligent background-concept-working. And the backgrounds and spaces themselves are very effective too: perfectly balanced between the beauty and the atmosphere.
Oh, and I love the likes of Luca. it just suits the name (yes, i’m italian and it totally reminds me of a dark venetian lord); sort of an undercover bastard with a good knowledge of the ways of the world… kind of a bad-assed Samuel Vimes.
Well.. I’ll be waiting for more! =) Keep it up. My most sincere congratulations.
Thanks very much for noticing the details! I’ve had a lot of time to think about these characters so hopefully I can stuff a few levels of information into each page :)
And yeah, Luca is pretty badass. I won’t say more because I don’t want to ruin anything XD Thanks for reading!
(I know this is kiiiinda late-ish but) Duuuude! That’s why I love Luca so much – he TOTALLY reminds me of Sam Vimes :3
I can already tell this is going to be an exciting chapter. I love the details in this page, especially Luca’s wife putting her earrings on.
The main thing I noticed between your redone pages and your originals is that you’re “cleaning up” the nudity. (I also noticed the lighting changes, which look much better now!) Any particular reason for this? It’s not that I have a problem either way with it, it’s just I’m curious as to why you’ve decided now.
Haha, am I? I did re-ink the original pages, but I wasn’t actually changing anything (unless it was anatomically off-kilter before). I think I might have attempted to make the nipples or lack of nipples more consistent, but thats it :B
I was referring mostly to the first change, where Angora’s nipples were entirely visible, and now her leg completely conceals them. In all honesty, I think it’s a great change, it makes the pose more intense.
AAAAHHH!! It is awsome! Now that we aren’t in the jungle I can really realize more of a sense of space and it is great! Thinking back to your fake film screenshot, I can really imagine all of this, chapter one and all, being a movie or tv show.
I would watch it religiously.
I… I feel really bad about looking at Luca’s wife and immediately thinking “Is that KIZ?”
*flails*
lollll that will be cleared up soon XD Kiz doesn’t have quite as large of an ass.
But he IS a pretty big asshole!
You really have great character designs and it’s not that they look exctly the same, but it’s what first popped in my mind. XD This is aallllll new to me, since I never read the sketch comic, so it was kinda funny at first.
So gorgeous! I love how you did Phe’s hair! Another amazing job!
POWER TO THE PHE!
Gah~ this is just too awesome. Incentive was amazing too, hooray for WIP’s.
Thank you so much!
;_; Thanks so much for the spot and the kind words!
I love the look of that room with its high ceiling and big windows. You really get an idea of the size of that place. And your mastery of facial expressions never ceases to amaze 8D. There’s such a nice contrast between this and the last chapter — a warmer color scheme, a more geometric environment, and of course Luca.
Oh, but speaking of the last chapter, those revisions really make a huge difference. The lines are so crisp now and the jungle atmosphere comes across much better. And I thought the pages were awesome before O_O
She looks much younger than him…
His wife has a good point though ;) Lovely page, great perspectives
Her hair is really great, very detailed. Awesome page.
I’m loving those last two panels. ONCE AGAIN your lighting is wonderful :D
Any chance we’ll get another progress animation for how you color? I know there was one a while back but…I want moaar ;___;
pleeez
Haha, I will try for it for the next page XD Once I start coloring I always forget to take screencap breaks.
Phe in colour!!! I really like her much, adore the character and so on.
I also like the way Luca interacts with her.
(And this little detail in panel 4, the wedding ring!)
It’s been only two pages of argumentation and it’s already clear that they are wedded.
Luca… charming as ever.
And I like the camera angle in panel 4, too – that wardrobe must’ve been killer in that angle! I hate drawing static objects, because they don’t move. (well, DUH!) It’s really hard banning architecture and furniture on paper, but you do a great job!
Pheeeeeeeeeeeeeeee~ T.T
gaawd so much Luca! Wonderful stuff, your love for the character really shows (for some reason his hands in the first panel stick out to me, if you compare them to Phe’s for example. You draw sturdy anatomy so well) I’m really enjoying this argument all over again, awesome faces. And oh colors, such a great palet after all that jungle! And to finally see Phe full color and compare skintones etc. I also really like that closet-cam shot.
All I can think when I see the first panel is, “I pop my collar and all the bitches holler!”
Okay, I’m confused. Luca has Pinter’s facial-shape, boot coverings, and hairy arms, and Phe has Pinter’s eyes and hair color.
But Pinter has a map that says “Roman DeJersi”, and he says that’s his dad’s name.
“Roman” != “Luca”
Haha, no XD Nice guess though. Luca is a different race entirely, and for another I am biased to draw that kind of face because it is my favorite >_> Although Pinter and Phe are both from the same ethnic background (she has a dark nose too).
Oh! I had noticed the Pinter-like nose, and I thought that just came from alcohol abuse. oh well, so Phe doesn’t necessarily hit the bottle.
There goes my theory of the old retired general with a much younger alcoholic wife…
Well of course you know what I’m going to say about this. Damn I wish I know how to draw >:()
PHEEEEEEEE <3
This is gonna sound weird…..but every time you draw Phe, her face always reminds me so much of Alanis Morrisette. I dunno if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. Either way I love Phe. :)
Oh man this is my favorite chapter – I’m SO excited to see it taking off!
Oh Luca~
<3
Man, have I mentioned how much I LOVE your expressions! They speak such volumes along with the dialogue–it’s just such a perfect match.
Yay! What better way to bring on in to the long weekend than by making it a meekend? I could go on about how great your work is, but in this chapter especially I’m loving your use of space and furniture/architectural stuff. And damn woman those updated pages from ch1 are so crisp i think i just burned my finger! (yet I am in no way dismayed) You work too hard on this for your only reward to be our fanboy/girl-ish lovings.
Also, I was gonna ask you like 5 questions about your coloring technique but instead (after reading an above comment) I thought maybe you could run one of those programs that does a video-recording of your screen when you do your colors? Its less conscious than screenshotting the process and I know you work for like 3+ hrs on it but I wouldn’t ask you to edit it for time or anything. Please don’t feel obligated to do this it’s just something I’ve seen other artists do and is a great way to learn/teach technique.
Anyways have a great long weekend (woo!)
oo! Thatd be great! Not like I want to copy your style or anything, but I have always been curious., Your cell shading espescially, because I can never get the gradients to look just right. I think I get the gist with the rest though.
Haha, meekend.
I have no idea what those programs are, and if I did I have a very limited ability to post it (I am on dialup most of the time, and can’t get to a good stable internet connection easily for uploading larger files or streaming things). I would love to do it if I had more resources though, maybe in the future. If you do have any specific questions you can always feel free to ask here or through email or on lj or whatever.
Well you could use camstudio or hypercam for a recording program (they’re free), as far as uploading you could probably use ustream or youtube to put it on. You don’t need to live stream for that but if you have trouble uploading with dialup i don’t know what to suggest other than visiting a coffee shop or someplace with better internet.
I was mainly going to ask if you colored your shadows by hand or if you used a photoshop technique, or some combination or kinda just how you do them I guess. Also I was wondering if you use any effects like the gaussian blur to show distance and how you fade your colors tones into each other, cause they always look so smooth and nice.
I do a combination of things to get my shading the way it is. I start out with flats like most people do, then put on shadows and hilights (in that order), then smooth everything out (by hand), then fuck around with some photoshop things like gradients and dodge/ burn. Mostly I mess around until it looks right! The real hard part is maintaining color consistency between pages because I mess around so much.
Haha yeah from looking at it it seems like you do a lot more than most people would take the time to do by hand which makes it that much harder to make things look consistent, you still manage to do it though. Thanks!
Dear Lord, I love Lucas’s faces already. The first and last panels are adorable. <3
This page got me thinking about how it must be a bitch to keep the thickness of hair on Luca’s arms consistent haha. From just the right angle, extremely foreshortened, it would get all clumped and look like an lol-arm toupe. It ALMOST got their in the last panel on the previous page SO I AM WAITING. For arm toupe.
I mean that in only the best hairy-man lovin’ way, of course.
I am also anxious to see how far his fashion sense has come- purple, muave, lavander? We shall have to see.
But seriously, these pages are wonderful. I’m curious to see that picture in front of Phe on the wall, and what exactly is sitting under those trees. I imagine you had to have a layout for the room to make sure everything shows up where it’s supposed to- a bit more complex in that sense than the backgrounds from the previous chapter!
Haha, I am also looking forward to the right to bear arms. Looks like we can both specialize in old men :C We will be so famous, I’m telling you.
And yeah, I am HATING the rooms in this chapter. I hate them so hard. I thought having to draw the same tree again and again was bad… now I have to paint all these paintings just so I can shrink them to 1/8th size and hang them on the wall >:c Maybe I’ll put it up as an incentive tonight, its just a stylized sketch of a reindeer herd migration.
Lollll thanks for the CLOSEUP on the voting incentive! That deer at the bottom left is totally a spiderdeer (Spideer). What family outing would be complete without seeing one of those?
Long time reader, first time commenter. I know, for shame! I’m lazy like that. =X
/insert rant here about amazing expressions, beautiful hues and color usage, and a progressive mind-snaring storyline
^ Note: more laziness. =D
I really do love this webcomic. Keep up the good work!
On a side-note…..did anyone else look at these two and think of Pinter? It could be just me, or it could be the art style (or for all I know racial traits pertaining to species in the story), but if you take his body type and face, add in her nose and hair color….
/PONDER
I’m just curious. >_>
nah I think Alexds discredited that further up. Phe is of the same race as Pinter but there’s not any sort of relation otherwise. Luca’s just a hairy old man with a round face XD that’s all Pinter and he have in common
awe Phe :) she’s so lovely.
I think the sign of a really excellent comic is how you handle the quieter moments and you handle this exceptionally well. Like for instance this conversation between husband and wife is excellent characterization. You get a clear idea that Luca is more than a bit reluctant to be in the middle of this situation and Phe is trying to give him a nudge in the right direction and is feeling rather frustrated about his stubborness. And you manage to portray both of their personalities so well in their expressions, their gestures and their words.
His ” yeah yeah yeah ” face looking in the closet is priceless B[
Also interesting I don’t recall Caris being mentioned as the aggressors before but maybe I missed that in the original? cool
loving this chapter keep it up
Have you seen this? http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/streams/webcomics.jpg I’m pretty sure that’s Angora in the bottom left near the person with a cocktail.
Oh, I love the colors! =)
Did anyone told you that Phe looks very much like Imogen Heap on this page?