Chapter 2: Page 4
The changing of the guard! These kinds of pages are always fun for me to see come together just because of the variety of poses and expressions from the characters. Rachel’s background in animation (which she’s demonstrated fairly recently with her animation of Ashtor in the prior chapter) really pulls out the best poses for each panel, I think.
With comics, you’re not just showing off a snapshot of time and drawing it – you’re consolidating several moments in time across multiple characters and finding the best way to portray that. Several small details will come together in a single panel, like expressions on multiple characters coinciding at just the right moment, for example. When a character delivers a line of dialog in a panel and you see another character reacting to it at the same time, that consolidation of time into a single tableau can be challenging. It’s one of the unique things about the comics medium that I’ve had fun analyzing over the last year+ with Beyond the Western Deep.
Dakkan is not in a good mood, poor guy. All the expressions here are beautiful, even if I think the answer we’re going to get next week is going to be a grim and revealing one indeed. At any rate, here we go into the breach!
Nah, he just looks tired not sad in the lower left panel to me.
Sometimes those are one and the same, I think. But either way, I feel as if he needs a nap or a giant salmon or something given to him.
In Dakkan’s opinion, there is never an inappropriate time for salmon. So, there’s that.
http://tinyurl.com/lt738ko
And there’s this. I’m sorry, maybe…?
I love how the first panel has the bleary darkness around the edges, simulating Quin opening his eyes from sleep to gaze up at Dak. But that looks like an awkward position for him in panel four – rubbing an aching footpaw, or doing some pre-sleep stretching exercises? Also, that’s a formidable-looking glove Quin is pulling on – a garment I’d failed to notice in the previous pages, along with the fact the he only wears a fully-enclosed glove on his right paw, the fingerless left glove open for shooting. So much thought in this comic!
Dak’s just doing some stretches, heh. He was sitting on that log a loooong time.
And actually, Quin’s enclosed glove is for his shooting hand – it protects his fingers from the bite of the string, while also providing all-around protection that a more traditional archery glove wouldn’t! The bracer on his left arm keeps it safe from the bowstring as it releases. c:
It was considerate of Dak to wait until near-dawn before having Quin take his watch. Nice use of bleary darkness in the first panel, as Wing pointed out, and good poses and expressions. Not much else to say.
Oh, Quinlan. Why a military garrison? Because, in Canid society, military garrisons serve many different roles in a single building. Government buildings, courthouses, hospitals, embassies, workshops, laboratories, public baths, PC gaming cafes, bookstores, etc.
>PC gaming café
That might be a little too high tech… :)