Inside a messy shack
*edit* I’ve reuploaded the page to fix some of the issues that you guys pointed out :) Thanks for your observations and suggestions!
This page… this page. I posted a walkthrough on how I colored this thing right here, if you’re interested.
Right now though I’m going to go eat something. After that I’m going to work on page 8 because 1) now I know how to draw this crazy environment and 2) I am so behind XC
If you want to read something fun and awesome in the meantime, take a look at Thistil Mistil Kistil! Fun, rather non-archetypal characters set in a Norse mythology kind of setting… Gotta love a world snake!
The interior of that shack is just awesome.
Thanks!
…Now I understand why this took so long. That is some amazing lighting and sfkdsjlf that interior!! I love Soli’s furtive expression in that second panel.
Really good detail in the shack interior.
Time to get down to business, whatever that business is.
HOLY FUCK the shafts of sunlight through the cracks in the wood. And the background detail! Ugh god you are too good. TOO. GOOD.
Awww man I’m so jealous of your skills. *_* The detail in the backgrounds is just amazing and its colored beautifully. Keep up the awesomeness that is this comic <3
I’m kinda expecting him to pull a gun out of his headwrap in the next page based on that last panel. XD
*her
aw, nobody’s in there?
I was expecting her to bust in there and have to immediately kick a lot of behinds.
Or are there ninjas hiding in the woodwork?
No. Obviously he’d been watching them with his telescope, and ran away through the window.
Glad to see new pages!. I love your style! it inspires me a lot *_*. Awesome coloring as always!.
Wow. That’s intense. Always beautiful!
Quite the set up our man has in here. Drying herbs, wiring, some kinda workshop set up back there? Nice.
NEW PAGE! It’s gorgeous. 8) Such depth and detail!
Wow the interior environment here is awesome. Feels really lived in and sensible. Also I noticed a few pages ago that Soli’s carrying a bag made from a pair of trousers? It hasn’t been shown directly but if that’s what that is then that’s even more awesome. XD
AND thank you so very much for the plug! <3
I keep having to do a double-take on that fourth panel; I keep thinking she’s floating in a room with weirdly exaggerated perspective or something, instead of standing in front of that ledge-type deal. I think it’s because the corner of the raised platform is hidden behind/is flush with her head covering, so my brain doesn’t immediately distinguish the two planes.
In other news, the tiny details of this interior are amazing; all the little knick-knacks really give it a nice personality. I love you and your hard work.
I know what you mean about the perspective, I was thinking, “What, is this house really long or something?” Then I finally figured it out. In my defence, it’s after 11:00 PM and I’m kind of tired.
Anyway: this was well, well worth the wait! Take whatever time you need (within reason, of course ;) ) to do the next one, behind as you may be. Quality is better than quantity, after all.
Oh okay, yeah maybe I can move the part of her jacket that’s hanging down to make it clearer that she’s on an angle/ ladder? Since her jacket and the ladder are both kind of dark and its hard to tell what the heck she’s doing?
Again, Soli looks so cool/awesome/cute/sexy all at the same time.
Awesome lighting here. D: Kind of makes you want to squint your eyes and feel like the sunlight is gonna hit your eyes.
Oh my wow. That interior is incredible. I have GOT to learn how to clutter up shelves like that.
Soli has the best expressions.
Haha, its just a bunch of rectangles XD It looks a lot better when minimized.
I was like “what’s taking the next page so long?” and now I know! so worth the wait! :D
Haha, actually I was working on some freelance work last week so I didn’t have a chance to focus on the page. The fear of doing this page took longer than actually doing it.
I’m definitely heading over to your DA to check out the walkthrough, because that environment is totally sexy. :D
Great work! I love the amount of detail you put into the scenery, it really shows how much you love this project :]
Firstly: Page= Incredible.
Secondly: Silly Soli! You mustn’t assume no one is there! Maybe the person your after is a ghost! *spooky noises*
I took one look at the last panel and immediately thought of Graham Chapman in a Bobby uniform going “What’s all this, then?!”
Well, there’s a ladder, and there might also be a trap door…
And I just figured out the fourth panel. She’s climbed up the ladder that’s right by the door, and is peeking onto the ledge above the doorway. There is a bit of perspective inconsistency; she looks smaller compared with the stuff up there than she does in the first panel, I think that’s why it’s confusing.
There’s a pretty low angle, which might account for how small she looks (also there isn’t any stuff on the wall behind her to compare her height to). The shack isn’t very large and she’s kinda tall so she’s only standing on the 2nd rung of the ladder : I’ll have to figure out some way to make that clearer, maybe I can add some item in the back to show the perspective better.
LOVE LOVE LOVE the lighting in the first panel! <3
Is it just me, or is there a bit of what could be a leg in the window behind Soli in the last panel?
Very nice… looks like living quarters is upstairs and work area’s on the ground level.
I hate when i break down a door, only to discover that there’s nobody in the first room.
Looking forward to some action!
also, want to see the colouring steps
I feel bad writing this, but panel four *has* problems.
Yeah, I’m reading some of the comments on that. I personally think it looks fine, but I definitely messed up on panel 3. She’s supposed to be looking up, which I sketched clearly but didn’t ink very well. If you can tell she’s looking up then it makes sense for her to suddenly appear on the ladder?
In terms of perspective though, I measured and that’s about how tall she should be on that step so I don’t know if I should really do anything about that. Did I miss something else that looked weird?
Problems in panel 4 aren’t in the perspective. One is in the sudden change in pov. Reworking panel 3 as you mentioned could actually help following her movements.
Another problem is that it isn’t immediately obvious to me that she’s on a ladder and leaning against the upper floor: she appears oddly standing on the wooden floor (right at the front, with her feet out of the panel). Obviously everything is off, but that’s what I see at first every time I watch again.
Yeah, its that jacket : I thought it would be more realistic for her long jacket to be hanging off the side of the ladder with gravity, but instead it makes her look like she’s standing upright (fail)
I want to say that I have no problem with that panel at all. I didn’t think anything was wrong.
Even adding a bit of lighting to the ladder, might help? Well a bit more XD I was looking at it and I can see what people are saying though…well, I still see it as her on the ladder :P The perspective is perfect, though, its just the eyes playing tricks when it comes to placement and distance. Our attention is drawn to Soli so the details of where she is gets garbled for a moment :P
Haha, actually I reuploaded the page before you posted this, so you’re seeing the edited version! Thanks though.
I’m going to have to agree with ampquot that chief among the reasons for a wonky panel 3 is the sudden change of POV (while it was immediately obvious to me that she was checking out a second floor, I didn’t really notice where the second floor was until I rechecked the first panel). To make the panel’s place even more unclear is the one right after it, where it appears as if she just walked through the doorway. I realize that she’s actually coming off the ladder, but at a glance, it looks like she just continued walking from from panel three.
Also, I am sensing a distinct lack of chinchillas.
Not saying her head’s at the wrong height; but her body as a whole is smaller relative to the shelf and its contents than in the previous panel. Given the original sizes, we should probably only see her from the waist up. As it is, it looks like she’d almost have room to stand up there, and she did not in the 1st panel. It also occurred to me that it would be more obvious she had turned around if the room had not; she’s facing right in both the 1st and 4th panels. Had she been Facing left in the 4th, I think we’d have figured it out easier.
The ladder is more visible now. Her hand on the rail instead of the ledge would have called more attention to it, though. AFAIK most folks won’t grab the ledge unless their actually getting off of the ladder up there.
That interior is beautiful. Nicely done.
You know, for some reason I can’t help but think the house belongs to Pinter’s father, Roman. Dude was an explorer, and the telescopes just remind me of that. Plus the shack has slightly similar vibe to Pinter’s tent. Yes I realise the telescopes are to spy out and paranoia, but just pointing something out.
Oh my gods. I’ve never seen anyone do that light through the cracks effect of a rickety shack. Really well done, not to mention the perfect rendering and perspective.
Oh, I have a feeling Soli is going to get a surprise soon. (Or she knows exactly where the dude’s hiding!)
Love the work on the backgrounds on this page. :) Awesome. Not surprised this page took 20 hours. Looking forward on seeing the walk through! Rock on!
I just keep staring. So much detail! So much wonderful detail! I bow to your skills!
Oh. Soli’s female!
Where’s the chinchilla? :D Great job it looks so cool :D
awesome, as per usual! :) really getting excited about this chapter :D
and also, that’s very wierd: i literally just started TMK yesterday, then came here and read the recommendation :P another very good webcomic, though.
Having looked over your tutorial I find myself desperately wanting this page (and others) to match the resolution of the last pannel of the tutorial (sans chinchila) the detail of your color and line art is just too good to loose to downsizing.
Just saw something I didn’t notice the first time… what’s that painted onto the top of the door frame? It looks like a huge, blue eye!
Whoever lives there is definitely using that telescope to perv on fellow desert residents. D:
Zombie apocalypse. First victim. You. Maybe then, after eating your brain, I’ll finally have some talent!
One thing about panel 4: The far wall to the left of/behind Soli has rather low contrast in the wood paneling. That same wall just in front of her has very sharp, clear lines. This makes it look like those planks are much closer to the viewer than those behind her, which makes me assume at first glance that all of that is actually more floor.
I hope that made sense? The patch of wall right in front of Soli almost appears more connected to the wooden loft than to the rest of the wall.
When I opened the new page to The Meek, I was immediately struck by the play of light through the roof of the barn/shack/hideout. Then I read your blog entry and was told that I damn well better admire it!
Just teasing. It looks fantastic. I was introduced to your web comic a few month ago and am well and truly sucked in. Lovely, vibrant art and a compelling story.
I was following one webcomic where the authors just upped and quit because of a perceived lack of interest. Nobody wrote them! I won’t make that mistake again.
Soli rocks that veil, let me tell you.
Also, the detail work in this comic is excellent, although I have to agree it did take me a moment to follow what was happening in panel 4 (at first I thought she was still standing on the ground).
Overall, it’s excellent. It’s fantastic. It’s superlative. It’s nearly superfluous! One might go so far as to say… it’s mediocre. XP
This whole page is made of win. Same for the tutorial. I love it.
My granpa had a farm I go to alot.. and his garage was the coolest. It was it’s own separate building. Very dingy and busy looking with odd stuff in it. A lot like this environment. It’s like being there again, when I see this page. <3
how come she looks so tiny on the fourth panel
Perspective? Bad perspective? The jury in my head is still debating.
After looking through that AWESOME tutorial, I actually double-checked for the chinchilla here XD
I love you for your lighting.
So while this is an absolutely beautiful page (the lighting!), I did also sense something else… wonky…. not in panel 4, but in the continuity.
So she has her arm on her bag in Panel 1… lowers her arm on Panel 2… arm back on the bag in 3… I get that she very well may of lowered and re-raised her arm, but to me it seems more like it should be still holding her bag in panel 2? Correct me if I’m mistaken, otherwise, great page!
Nope, nevermind, just realized she was lowering her bag off her shoulder. Dunno why it didn’t click with me the first time I looked at it?
If Soli dies, I will be forever sad.
Looks… so awesome! FANTASTIC job!
As for some of the comments about the preservative in the last panel… I just finished up in a 3D animation class. Sometimes camera angles will make characters/objects seem to small compared to the environment. The solution? Cheat it. Bring her and the ladder closer or make them bigger. Even though technically it is “correct.”
My teacher was awful, but I’ve gathered the impression from both him and just watching commentary on pixar movies… it’s not uncommon to cheat things to the camera. It’s just figuring out when you need to cheat things to the camera is the hard part. Since you tend to be so absorbed into it you don’t notice it.
Really good point XD I do the same thing, but I didn’t know it was “allowed,” I thought I was just being lazy or something, haha.
Soooooo free shack?
Wow realy lovely job on this one, Great interior!
Another stunning page!
O_o holy crap! I just wandered over to the cast page and read that this blonde is a woman?! I had no idea. she looks and acts very much like a guy. very awesome painting skills btw :D
yeah, I only jut read that as well. kind of a “for realzies?” moment.
Also I noticed quite a few telescopes in the room. I think who ever occupied this barn was expecting company, they were on the lookout.
Nah, he’s just an astronomy buff. I mean, come on, are you paranoid or something? (/kidding)
Hah! You made this incredible page AND a tutorial XD ? I’m amazed and thankful. That is some seriously impressive stuff. I’m wondering what a contrast/brightness check is though :D
Woaw… A friend of mine advised me to read this webcomics… and I gotta say after reading it all this is going straight to my RSS feed list !! The art is amazing and the story very intriguing ! We have yet to see how the different chapters mingle with each other but it seems something very spectacular is coming.
So far, my favorite character is the Emperor but I’m eager to learn more about this chapter’s characters. Excellent job, really ! :)
I just read the entire comic, and I have to say I’m impressed and very much hooked to see where you take this!
Your art is beyond beautiful, as is stated fact but the story is even more intriguing in my opinion. So well done, and I am happy to have come across your work :)
What, no meercat? XD
THE LIGHTING! THE LIGHTING! IT’S SO BEAUTIFULLY DONE! I’M GOING TO SPEND HOURS STARING AT THE INSIDE OF THIS SHACK! Hnnnggg….