Chapter 1: Page 5
Just to remind our East Coast readers, if you’re visiting PAX East in Boston this weekend, swing by the Microsoft booth (#524) to check out Dust: An Elysian Tail – a game I’ve been serving as story editor and co-writer for. I’ll also be there helping to show it off, so stop by and say hello!
This week’s page, like last week’s, did not have an older version to draw from in the original draft. The banter between Quinlan and Janik in this and the next several pages was added to help set up the rest of the chapter. The whole scene felt rushed before, like we were trying to save paper or something – now though, thanks to the lack of page requirements that webcomics afford us, we decided to let the conversations breathe and flow naturally.
The thumbnail for this page originally featured two relatively large panels. This was broken up partially for pacing reasons, but mostly because squeezing all those dialog bubbles around the characters in a single pose hurts the illusion that you’re watching snapshots of a moving scene. Instead, it becomes more of an illustration representing the dialog. Breaking things up, even just a little bit, as well as shifting the perspective, helps maintain a constant flow of movement.
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This week’s fan-art comes from my very own sister, Caroline! A few weeks ago she asked me if it was alright if she drew fan-art for Beyond the Western Deep. Shortly thereafter, she sent me this picture of our heroes discovering that holding a conch shell up to your ear somehow replicates the sound of the ocean! Quinlan is of course mystified by this dark sorcery!
Click for full-size
Thanks so much for the artwork, Caroline! Rachel and I love it! :)
I wish I was going to pax, but i’m sick with the flu right now. Great page guys. I keep wishing I could fast forward the week so I could see the next one. :)
I went to Sakura-con instead ;_;… and New York is kind of a long trip. BUT Sakura-con hosts webcomic artists and PAX Seattle is over here! <-selfish comment.
Well, somehow I'll meet you guys, maybe I'll just happen to be back east one of these days.
Now on to this comic, I love this page so much, it's fun and I look forward to further banter between these two.
Carolin’s fan art is very cute. They certainly look a bit confused. :)
Hmm… One thing I should mention here is that Janik looks a little creepy in the first panel again. Specifically, it’s the weird moon-shape of her mouth. What makes it stranger is that in the black-and-white line version, the mouth seems a lot more natural and well placed. I think this is something you should consider changing.
A good page otherwise.