Chapter Four Inking: It's Done!

This week, a quick recommendation, a quick adventure-fiction note, then a look at the last batch of Chapter Four Inks!

As always, the big spoilery images are in the carousel above, the images below are medium-level spoilery.

I'll follow up on the FONT SHOWDOWN in next week's update. Here's the post with the full pages, and the post with the poll, if you missed them. Thank you to everyone who has been offering opinions and insight!

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NATALIE HAYNES ON THE CLASSICS

Having finished Stephen Fry's three-volume take on the Greek myths, I went looking for more and similar. I found Natalie Haynes' PANDORA'S JAR, which attempts to do justice to the women of Greek mythology, who I think we can all agree get kind of a bum deal. It was enlightening and funny! And it made want to look into Euripides.

I thought Haynes' name sounded familiar, and it turns out I'd been seeing it in the "BBC Sounds" app. She hosts a program (or "programme," which even my Canadian-English spellcheck doesn't like) called Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics. Each episode is a half-hour tour of a certain person or idea from Ancient Greece or Rome, and it too is funny. As of right now, there are 35 episodes available, and you can listen to them on the BBC site, free, without having to log in or anything. Give it a shot!

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INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY

Worried that I'd further sour my nostalgia for the franchise, I did my due diligence the other night and was relieved to find that Crystal Skull is still the worst Indiana Jones movie.

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CHAPTER FOUR IS INKED!

All fifty-six pages are now ready for the scanner!

^ Near the end of the chapter, a montage of sour Alexandras. If this page looks weird it's because I needed eight portraits but drew eleven to give myself options, and I'll sort 'em out later.

For the same page, I decided to revisit the "ornate wallpaper" motif from Chapter Two. It's on a separate sheet (below) not only because it's easier to ink that way, but because the idea only occurred to me after I'd drawn the portrait page.

And then I looped back around to ink the pages from the start of the chapter.

Long-time members may recall that I've been doing this so that those first pages get me at my most-practised (the muscle memory fades a little during the time between inking each chapter).

In the pencilled version, I was worried that the sequence below (below) wouldn't read like the men are dropping the heavy chest onto the sandcastle. But I showed it to a friend while it was in progress, and he instantly read it right. I wish I always had that luxury while I was working.

^ You will notice that the background characters on this page are rendered in a sort of loose, incomplete way. When I got around to inking it, I didn't remember whether I had intended for the characters to look that way — the way they'd been pencilled — or if I was supposed to fill them out in the usual fashion. I really liked the loose, soft lines though, so I decided to ink them exactly as drawn. I'll use colour to exaggerate the difference between Alexandra and the others. I like how it looks, but the risk is that since I've not established this visual convention elsewhere, it will look out of place.

If it works nice in colour, maybe I can go back and find a spot or two to repeat the technique.

^ Chekhov's Jaguar.

I added a jaguar because I thought it would be cool, then later realized I'd have to do something with it, because that's the rule about How Stories Be Good. My worries evaporated when I figured out that whatever it is I have to make up, it will also be cool because it has a jaguar in it. These wise sorts of rules stand the test of time for a reason, I suppose.

^ I saw this idea — a kid held in place by their mom's headcovering — in a reference photo and had to use it because it was so sweet. I'd be curious to know whether it's a common thing or one-off.

^ Aaaannndd finally, the last page I had to ink, and the reason this update is late this week. I had to re-draw the façade of the Venetian villa for consistency, there were four panels with carriages in them, and Me From A Few Months Ago (who was pencilling the page) left a lot of the specifics up to Me From This Week (who had to ink it).

Cinematography / Animation / Storyboarding nerds will note there's a big fat break in the 180º Rule above. My excuses are that 1) I wanted the first panel to be consistent with a previous panel, and 2) you're allowed to break the 180º Rule in comics… if it works. Rules were made to be broken, don't you know? ;) I wish my friend had been around to run it by.

And that ties up the loop! Take a look at the October 26 Update if you want to see how it all comes together. Rounding up, it took eight weeks to ink roughly 56 pages, working basically part-time… and I like the pages? That's pretty good.

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FONT SHOWDOWN results next week!

After that, while I'm doing the unglamorous work of scanning and lettering the chapter, I mentioned I'd like to revisit some older work and share some thoughts on it, so buckle up for a roller coaster ride down memory lane.

Until next week,
I remain,
made to be broken,

TC