Whoops, all WIPS

First— I’m sorry, there’s no page today. I can’t even tell you the last time I planned to have a page up and didn’t get it done, but here we are. This last week, I had the rare opportunity to really dig into something I’m passionate about and I had to take it. That’s where all the extra hours went, I’m afraid. My birthday is also later this month and as a gift, I decided to not beat myself up too much over not finishing the next page. Hopefully you can forgive me, too! It’ll definitely be up soon, and if my schedule stays the way it is, I may try to squeeze in another page for this month to make up for it.

Anyhow, in the meanwhile, please accept some WIPs.

I went through this jag of really garbage thumbnailing— I mean, it got the job done for me, but they’re pretty indecipherable after the fact. Here’s the pair for page 270 and 271:

But, I think it's important for people to see the messy, pre-planning parts of a comic, too.

I also just really like this Swift panel from PG270. I love when I can play with a false camera focus (on that front bush, for example). I try to go in with a light touch when I use the effect since I don't do it very often in Oren's Forge, and it can overwhelm really quickly. My college background included a lot of live filming/cinematography classes-- I think I'd enjoy making a comic where I go really ham with the tight focus. I dunno, one day maybe. Someone cram a few more hours in the day, could you?

And here's Swift from 271, which I always think of as the Mountain Dew Swift

Lastly, here's another thumbnail, for page 279 (and a bonus Yarrow doodle from when I was trying to figure out the layout.)

This thumbnail is not my normal kind of thumbnail. I knew (for the most part) what the vignettes were going to be. My focus was finding a layout that was reminiscent of cracking mud or porcelain--something breaking--but also legible, with a good eye-flow. I changed it up a bit in the final page-- I wanted Quanaq in there, too, since he's the first person to plant this seed of 'what is this all for' into Rask.

Anyhow, until next time!