Happy 4th, my fellow Americans!
Brief artistic discussion moment. When the half-colored version was posted earlier, reader maggPi made a critique comment that they liked the monochrome-white background characters in Panel 2 more than my usual “color everything” approach for clarity reasons. I usually do full-color on my background characters because in general I find the “color the background characters a single monochrome color” technique to be a bit… well, lazy. It just looks off to me to see a big crowd of people all be one single color, and I can’t really see anything except a paint bucket when I look at it.
But I think maggPi had a good point about the clarity part of it, of making the crowd look uniform in purpose and helping the foreground character (Mina) stand out. So I thought I would try a “halfsies” approach to it, by lightening and desaturating the background characters a bit to make them somewhat more muted compared to Mina. Any thoughts on it are appreciated.
Oh and to answer some questions, Tehk is a boy with longer hair, and Te Fahn does not have a beard, she’s fidgeting with her braid. 😉
aa i cant wait to see more of these new kids!! and i wanna know how the classmates will interact with them
(blink) Now there’s a familiar name! O.O
Would you happen to be the same Kestrel that made thousands of episode contributions to the Anime Addventure site over the last couple decades?
oh boy i wish i could do something like that oml, but naw im just a kestrel who draws a lot and plays too many videogames ;^;
That moment of “Huh?” when I thought Te Fahn had a beard.
Yay! New kids, new adventures. what could go wrong?
Wonder if she keeps tugging her braid like that because out of water it feels awkward.
OOOHHH.. that makes much more sence… I was trying to figure out if blue guy had a beard
i guess she´s not used to the weight – in water it would just float.
also, i´m looking forward to selkie and/or amanda clashing with tehk 😉
I just thought it was an anxiety thing? Like some folks do that when they’re nervous?
Why not both?
Yeah it could be both. But my brain didn’t immediately think of that when I saw her doing that. It could be a case of both.
So they get little mr sassmaster and the shy Korra. This’ll be interesting.
Actually, I thought the monochrome was deliberate; it made me focus on the class as a whole– in the background but still important.
It’s a useful device. The teacher is the focus, and because of that neat little trick of viewing her from the back of her head (sharing her POV), we also see the class’ attention on her. The monochrome also represents similarity of intent (aforementioned attention on teacher’s words) while maintaining individuality.
I can see that individuality *better* because the monochrome allows me to see the detail of the line drawing, considering their proximity in the layout. Were they in colour, that would actually be lost. This way works better, more effective.
I know your style is to fully colourise everything, but I highly recommend you leave this page as-is, and play with this and similar techniques as the story progresses.
Especially since I believe you will be taking us and your characters through some dynamic (and dramatic) scenarios.
Color blocking like this will help you express your story in a way you will find very rewarding!
Also, Happy 4th.
I had a lovely 1st with my son and a few friends, with a great view of the fireworks over Ashbridges Bay.
????
To me, the desaturation isn’t very obvious; had Dave not mentioned he had done it I wouldn’t see it at all.
I would tend to agree that making the class monochrome tends to unify the class and shows the Sarnothi as outsiders, which really drives the point home that they are the “new kids.”
They did this in the movie novelization of Clavell’s Shōgun, where the main character in the beginning is the only one speaking English, with everyone else speaking Japanese– as you move through the story the other characters start speaking English more and more as the main character becomes more integrated with the Japanese culture. It’s a device, but it’s a device that *works*.
I agree, the desaturation is very subtle.
Just my personal opinion, but I appreciate simplicity & clarity in a webcomic over trying to go fancy with the art part.
There are some webcomics that go really fancy on the art and while it’s objectively very good, it can make the comic itself hard to follow sometime – and seems kind of a waste when it’s just something we skim over before moving to the next panel anyway.
I’m not sure whether you mean that my suggestion keeps things simple, or over-complicates things.
To clarify my intent:
Using a simple device can be VERY effective in storytelling. Minimum effort, maximum impact.
*Explaining* how and why it works is never simple. That’s why essays were invented. ?
The later, I prefer just seeing the scene as it is rather than trying to go for symbolism and what not. But again, that’s just me. 😀
Hasn’t everybody been “the new kid” at some point in their lives?
Usually it’s in a setting where everyone else is the new kid, too. Though for adults starting a new job might apply.
I was a military brat in the 60s, being the “new kid” was an annual experience if not more frequently.
Chronic ‘the new kid’ here. It’s not fun. Especially if you have something that makes you different from the other kids (in my case, glasses, foster care, and accent).
On the other hand, if you’re almost completely different, the other kids tend to treat you as cool (kids from other countries fared much better than I did), or scary.
This is going to be interesting.
So, I’m guessing from name formatting alone, Tehk is a boy, and Te Fahn is a girl?
There are SO many interesting things that are gonna fall out of this.
The Sarnothi family divisions– will they arise here? Will the fact that Selkie is Jin’Sorai make any difference? For that matter, how will the humans even figure that out?
For that matter, how famous is Plo Quar? Is Selkie’s heritage going to color the other kids’ opinions of her? Will she be regarded as the daughter of a monster, or a hero?
Sooo much drama in the offing…
Does that kid have a beard, or is that just the light?
I see Te Fahn tugs her braid a lot. Does she also like to smooth her skirt, fold her arms beneath her breasts, and sniff?
I think it’s an anxiety tick.
WoT fan?
Ha, you got it!
Glad that Te Fahn is there. Less good that Tehk is there, but maybe that will be good for him.
I like the desaturation in panel 2. It isn’t marked enough that I would have consciously picked it up, but now that it’s been pointed out, I can see that it turns the focus on Mina. A new tool in your toolkit! Worth remembering.
As for the Sarnothi kids… two very different characters. I like how you’ve set them up. Poor, shy, scared Te Fahn is homesick and lost. I hope she finds friends! And Tehk is angry. (Not without reason!) He’s the boy who cursed “teeth and scales” when asked to give his name.
I am really looking forward to seeing them interact, not only with Selkie, but also with Amanda and the other vivid kid personalities we already know.
Pity, the Abraham Lincoln looks good on her. 😀
Are they Tel’dora or Sar’teri?
Both Tel’Dora.
Sar’Teri didn’t get kicked out of Sarnoth.
Selkie is not going to get along with these kids anywhere near as well as she thinks she is.
One is angrily sarcastic, the other is terrified. This’ll go GREAT
I b’lieve the term I’m looking for is: “the Momma of all Drama Llamas”!
Are they Siblings? twins (frat.)? Or Justin the same class?