UNLOCKED: Page Deconstruction #6: PDA

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PDA!! What a fun chapter this was!I always wanted there to be a chapter where Madison and Lucy would meet, and I wondered how it was going to pan out. There were three different paths I was going to take, and I’m honestly really happy to have taken the path I did.

• Option 1: Madison would approach Lucy and scream at her, and Lucy would be confused and annoyed and yell back. I felt that was kind of pointless, because Lucy would at most be like “Who the fuck are you, leave me alone you freak” and that’s not very.. interesting. I didn’t know how to continue that storyline, so that idea was quickly abandoned and expanded into…
• Option 2: Madison would approach Lucy and scream at her, and Lucy, not giving a shit at all, would jokingly flirt with Madison, and imply jokey feelings towards Jessica, as a way to fluster and super piss off Madison. Lucy was meant to march off triumphantly while Madison seethed and felt very embarrassed/blushy towards Lucy. It was meant to be played as a joke.

I thought it was a terrible idea. I initially imagined the scene as a way to show Lucy having developed and matured because instead of lashing out at Madison, she is being level-headed and teasing, but I honestly think it’s just a cruel thing of Lucy to do. It’s not being mature, it’s kicking someone while they’re down. The point is that there’s reason to Madison’s anger towards Lucy, even if it’s a bit exaggerated. It’s not completely unfounded.

It’s so queer-baity as well, Lucy flaunting herself onto Madison and making a scene like that :l Just leaves a bad taste in my mouth, to treat Lucy like a sex-object and to play off Madison’s pain as a punchline. “Haha look at his thirsty and angry lesbian!” It elevates Lucy over Madison, using Madison’s pain to advance Lucy’s development. I thought that was unfair to Madison.

So I instead went for a third option, in which Lucy plain doesn’t even acknowledge Madison, and obliviously continues to walk because she’s a half-deaf person in a crowded hallway where sounds are going all over the place. Half-deaf people are “the deafest” when in places with tons of background noise. So that makes sense.

I liked this idea because it allows Madison the ability to talk, and it so works because when Madison is anxious/flustered, she just spaghetties out words. She can’t shut up, she puts her foot in her mouth and then proceeds to shove that foot even further.

I felt this chapter allowed the reader to delve into Madison’s thought process, and to show that she’s not just blindly angry for no raisin. She’s obviously being over-emotional, but she’s an emotional teenage girl trying to get past feelings of inadequacy and jealousy, and who loves her partner very much.

I wanted the chapter to end in a way where Madison finally realises she doesn’t have to be nervous, because even though she shares some traits with Lucy, she isn’t Lucy. And Jessica loves Madison for her.

SO YEAH NOW WITH THAT OUT OF THE WAY HERE ARE SOME PICS

I was quite frustrated with this angle of her face, you can tell that on the second revisionary sketch I just plain hated how it was turning out, so I erased it and tried a resketch. I get stuck at certain angled faces often, it’s something I really gotta get better at doing :l;

GOTTA REMEMBER HER BOOK. In the third panel Souppy told me that Madison should have both her hands up as she’s yelling to look more emotive, and I was against it because she’s holding a book, but Souppy helped me with a pose that involved her yelling AND holding her book, so that was a good suggestion from him! Little changes like that post-inking go a long way.

These two panels as well!

I loved this pose and face from the second sketch that you can see I didn’t resketch it again. Souppy wasn’t as hot on the pose, but I really liked it ;_; Jessica is so cute!

This kiss was interesting! I initially wanted Madison’s mouth to be visible (so it wasn’t fully mouth-to-mouth) to make Madison look more expressive, but I honestly thought that was an annoying choice that could understandably annoy some people. There’s been so many het kisses throughout the comic, and I didn’t wanna give the impression that I was still trying to hint things with Jessica and Madison — I just wanted Jessica to go for it!

I wasn’t really going for any kind of censorship when making Madison’s mouth visible — I just think it made Madison’s expression look better, but I was happy to sacrifice that for a full-on kiss.

They love each other!!