An Anchor to Hold (DD4, Chapter Two, pages 45-48)

In which Alexandra vents her frustrations against her mother, who was evidently unaware what sort of effect her plans would have on her daughter.

(As always, to read the other finished pages, simply browse the DD4 tag.)

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Some notes on these pages!

Despite the plain-ness of the scene, these pages were very difficult to colour. On the pink pages, no, of course the lighting does not make any sense, but it's not supposed to. It's theatrical. And what made it difficult is that it never looked right until the very end. That happens to a greater or lesser degree depending on the scene, and in this case it was very extremely definitely greater.

I'm extremely happy with how miserable Alexandra's mom looks on the blue pages. And I love how oblivious Alexandra is to it. When things get even hairier in Archipoli, it'll be fun to see what sort of tension we can get out of this conflict.

Finally, a little feature that I have intentionally kept obscure. People seem to enjoy it when I explain it, though, so I have done so below. If you prefer the mysterious flavour of oblique references, please skip the next paragraph.

I mentioned this in a comment thread on another post, but since the Space Goose gets named again on these pages, I'll make it explicit here, too: a fun historical fact that I have tried to include in this series is that during the 18th and 19th centuries in Western Europe, religious belief was most popularly focused on the monotheistic faith in Her Great Celestial Majesty, the Swan of the Skies. Her Thousand-Year Song created the heavens and the earth and she does, indeed, wear an elaborate crown of a scale almost as inconceivable as her own, crafted of ivory and the rarest of the galaxy's gems. It is common to blaspheme Her Celestial Majesty by referring to her as a "Space Goose."

(From Chapter Three of DELILAH DIRK AND THE TURKISH LIEUTENANT. Don't look at the tangent between the dialogue balloon and the panel border on the fourth panel! <Slaps self.>)

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I've started colouring the final sequence of Chapter Two! Twelve more pages to go! 🥳

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An audiobook recommendation: I just listened to a reading of Jane Austen's PERSUASION, and enjoyed it very much (this particular version was read by Nadia May). It was the only book of hers I had not yet read, and it might have become my new favourite.

I apologize if my recommending Jane Austen is kind of a "no duh" move, but I'm doing it assuming some of you are like me, believing there are better ways to spend my time.

Here's a reward that is waiting for you once you acclimatize yourself to Austen's writing: the books are funny. Why didn't anyone tell me?

I only started reading Austen because I thought it would give me a better sense of the time period I had stumbled into working in. Now I love them. NORTHANGER ABBEY was my long-time favourite, but like I said, PERSUASION might have knocked it off top spot. Perhaps it's because I've become so used to the language, perhaps because it was an audiobook (the same way Shakespeare is easier to comprehend during a performance than if you just read the play), or perhaps because Austen had more writing experience under her belt, of all her books I had the easiest time getting the most out of PERSUASION.

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Happy September, all! As always, a million thank yous for your continued support of PRACTICAL DEFENCE AGAINST PIRACY. 

TC