Though I did have a dream where the heroes were in a hopeless battle against an empire that brainwashes its citizens with a series of lies, featuring them managing to flee to an outdated ship, the base for the resistance led by the brother of the king, but it was completely outmanned and outgunned being obsolete and surrounded thanks to the tracking device unwittingly planted on one of the protagonists. Bit grim, woke up before I could see what happened.
Anyway, what I really came here to blog about was what Red Hood Rider stuff I did. Basically, I redid the entire first page, and am at where I was the first time around, minus some pieces of glass I've yet to draw. (Which I'm mostly saving until AFTER I draw Ruby, rather than doing them before on the original--the source of some problems you might guess.)
So let's compare:
Anyway, what I really came here to blog about was what Red Hood Rider stuff I did. Basically, I redid the entire first page, and am at where I was the first time around, minus some pieces of glass I've yet to draw. (Which I'm mostly saving until AFTER I draw Ruby, rather than doing them before on the original--the source of some problems you might guess.)
So let's compare:
This is the page that I scrapped. There are elements on it that are absolutely wonderful, like her bent leg, the shards of glass, the window, and panel size (I used most of the space on the page). I also got proportions for her forearms (which look fine) fairly close to anatomically correct compared to the leg. It's just that the image was riddled with issues. The anatomy, the pose, it just fundamentally wasn't working and my options were either "screw it, I'm giving up; we'll go digital to fix" (which I hated the thought of since that's specifically what I'm trying to avoid), extensively redo things from basically scrap, or just start over from scratch.
I chose the last one. And so far, I've got this:
I chose the last one. And so far, I've got this:
The first and most obvious change is that I added a panel. This wasn't in the script, but I think that it makes a much, much better usage of the white space, gives a good sense of timing, and frankly, just sort-of FITS in better. The tradeoff, though, was that I accidentally made the panels smaller, meaning they're not quite as large as they should be, leaving more white space than I had intended to.
This smaller panel size unfortunately carried over into the final panel, and everything's slightly smaller, including Ruby's head. But things are actually much smoother, here. I've yet to add in the extra glass as I just said, I don't think I did the leg quite as well, and by god this is a tough angle to nail down, but I think that overall, everything is just...smoother, easier, more in proportion, basically, it just feels right.
It's basically meant to be her effectively flying almost-horizontal at the window (if horizontal = 0 degrees and vertical = 90 degrees, then she'd be at ~30-45 degrees), just arching her back and continuing into arching her neck so that her head's facing up yet the rest of her body isn't. Not sure how much sense that makes to describe, but it is an anatomically-plausible (not just possible, it's something you can actually do as anyone jumping into a pool would know--I literally see it at work every day, if you imagine that the edge of the pool = the window being jumped through) pose to make.
What I mainly need now is touch-ups: replacing the generic anatomy I have with more specifics: hands, socks, shoes, and furthering the shirt/skirt details already present. (And the glass, after that.) Butyeah, that's where I'm at. The pose is hard. It probably isn't perfect, as me taking this much time to talk about it in text shows. It also involves a fair amount of foreshortening, which traditionally has been an artistic bane of mine.
Yet while I don't think I nailed it...I think I actually made it look passable! And I did this page in one day, in the 3-5 hour range. (I'm not sure when exactly. Late at night.) It's not finished, but I got it close to, in less than a day.
I can do this! I know I can.
This smaller panel size unfortunately carried over into the final panel, and everything's slightly smaller, including Ruby's head. But things are actually much smoother, here. I've yet to add in the extra glass as I just said, I don't think I did the leg quite as well, and by god this is a tough angle to nail down, but I think that overall, everything is just...smoother, easier, more in proportion, basically, it just feels right.
It's basically meant to be her effectively flying almost-horizontal at the window (if horizontal = 0 degrees and vertical = 90 degrees, then she'd be at ~30-45 degrees), just arching her back and continuing into arching her neck so that her head's facing up yet the rest of her body isn't. Not sure how much sense that makes to describe, but it is an anatomically-plausible (not just possible, it's something you can actually do as anyone jumping into a pool would know--I literally see it at work every day, if you imagine that the edge of the pool = the window being jumped through) pose to make.
What I mainly need now is touch-ups: replacing the generic anatomy I have with more specifics: hands, socks, shoes, and furthering the shirt/skirt details already present. (And the glass, after that.) Butyeah, that's where I'm at. The pose is hard. It probably isn't perfect, as me taking this much time to talk about it in text shows. It also involves a fair amount of foreshortening, which traditionally has been an artistic bane of mine.
Yet while I don't think I nailed it...I think I actually made it look passable! And I did this page in one day, in the 3-5 hour range. (I'm not sure when exactly. Late at night.) It's not finished, but I got it close to, in less than a day.
I can do this! I know I can.
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