And now we’re zeroing in a bit on our subjects! That appears to be a Tamian merchant selling amber jewelry, in addition to what appears to be a young Lutren enamored with said items from afar! Does she look familiar? How about a random Ermehn/Canid pair hanging around in that first panel? Anyone?

page01_1stdraft

As you can see, the first draft of page one ALSO included this page’s events — which would have gotten things started a lot quicker, but also felt a bit crammed/rushed when we really got down to it. Showing that first market page standing on its own is meant to help pull you into the world, like an establishing shot, and then zoom into one of many exchanges going on within the crowd. The pacing just felt better to us, breaking this page up into two.

Also, you know, there’s the little detail about the page dimensions in the first draft being more standard comic size (ala Cain & Yurk) and not the usual square format we use for Beyond the Western Deep. That would’ve meant shrinking things down, cluttering up the page even more.

page02_thumb

Fortunately, breaking the establishing shot and this follow-up sequence into two pages was a very natural process — as you can see, the panels made it from page 1 to page 2 almost completely unchanged — a big first panel, and two smaller ones to follow. The biggest change there was changing the orientation of P1 to landscape, to better establish the vendor’s location, which resulted in the tweaks to the remaining panels. All in all, we’re pretty happy with how this one turned out!

So, I might’ve mentioned to some folks that New York Comic Con was my last convention appearance of the year. It turns out I was mistaken! Much to my surprise, I discovered I’ll be attending a publisher’s panel with Action Lab Entertainment at this month’s NEW JERSEY COMIC EXPO!

I’ll likely only be there Saturday the 21st, for the Action Lab panel at 12pm. I’ll probably be spending the rest of my time there at the Action Lab table, where I would imagine there will be copies of Beyond the Western Deep: Volume 1 that I can sign :) If you’re in the area, please do stop by!

This week for guest art, a fun piece from Kirsty Eddy of someone we haven’t seen in quite a while: a Felis scholar!

kirsty_felisscribe

Alastair the scholar (with Felis script no less! AWESOME stuff Kirsty!) is appropriately surrounded by tomes, books, scrolls — the tools of his trade! No doubt he spends many a long hour in the Spire of Gair, inundated with all manner of historical quandaries. A scholar’s work is never done — there is always something new to learn! Such inevitabilities make the Felis religion very demanding for those closest to its creed, but Alastair seems to be taking it in stride.

Thanks so much for the artwork, Kirsty! We love it!

Lastly, happy N7 Day to all my fellow Mass Effect-lovers :) May you all reach for the stars… and not find any Reapers therein!