This one goes out to all the times I’ve slipped into casual cursing around young’uns. Which with my motormouth is fairly often.
Gonna be an adjustment period on the artwork for a bit. In addition to the tweaks to Selkie and Todd's faces, I switched to the brush tool instead of the pencil tool to try and get softer lines overall, but after correcting for all the little nooks and crannies the brush tool leaves behind, the end result is more or less the same... (which is honestly no surprise, based on the sketch pages awhile back) >_< It also took way too long, but that comes with changing up a workflow process..
Oh good, a story arc where Selkie could get some swimming in.
This should be fun!
I hope they’re planning on swimming at the bottom of the falls.
Pro, Marta.
You know when you go back and read a webcomic and you can see where the artist’s style just got better? This is one of those times. Especially noticeable is Todd’s face in panel five.
I was just about to say that!
No need to say it, if you read the director’s commentary before you type.
I’ll say, the artist has definitely made improvements since the beginning of the comic. There is still more to be learned, but that’s what practice is for, and nothing gives you more practice than a weekly webcomic.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying I don’t like her style, I’m just saying, as a fellow artist, that there’s always more to be learned, new art styles to test, new products and software to have fun with. I’m glad to see that they’re learning as much as I am, and that the changes are easily discernible.
… His style. I meant to say HIS style. Bloody thing auto-corrected me.
Wait, so Marta was naked in the woods and an eight-year-old walked in on her? ‘Cause that happened to me once. Only I was the kid.
Selkie is “the 8-year-old”. Swimming naked with friends is kind of an “adult thing”, and should not have been mentioned in front of the C-H-I-L-D.
Ohh… well that makes a lot more sense
Is Selkie reacting to swimming naked, or naked aunt, uncle and dad?
Oh, Selkie. How you disappoint me. Skinny-dipping was one of the best parts of my childhood!
I’m guessing Marta and her “friends” were a little older when she went skinny dipping. That’s why it wasn’t something to mention infront of the 8 year old.
…I’m kinda surprised that Selkie a) knows what “skinny dipping” and b) is grossed out by it. As an amphibeou(sp?) species, shouldn’t that not bother her?
Well, in the flashback Selkie and her mom were dressed after (presumably) just leaving the water, so she may honestly not see a difference between walking around on the surface and swimming.
I also hope we get a chance to see Selkie in her natural environment. (’cause the chance for seeing a happy Selkie should not be missed. x3 )
Most people, even the most primitive types, wear clothing of some sort. Selkie’s race does – her flashback to her and her mother in the lake.
Clothing is one of the things that separates us from the animals. You don’t walk around naked, like dogs and cats and squirrels and other land animals, do you? So why should Selkie’s people swim around naked, like fish and seals and otters and other water animals? They are people.
One of the most interesting things is that, as little as people wear in some cultures, they’re just as embarrassed when it falls of.
Even in cultures where clothing isn’t needed for protection it’s used for other things, like signaling rank. Loosing that piece signals loosing that rank and loosing face with it.
Don’t think it’s quite that simple in cultures that have been heavily affected by English Victorianism and/or Puritanism.
She wears clothes in the water.
I was gonna say “That’s what happens when you live with humans… tsk.”
OO, the art is looking good! The refined face shapes and detailed hair really bring the characters to life. Nice job! 😀
Wait, it doesn’t look the same at all! The characters in this panel look so much smoother than in the last panel. Keep doing what you’re doing here, and the faces have improved also. 🙂
Panel three: Marta and Todd appear to be strolling. Selkie’s uncle is standing still as if he stopped at a particular point deliberately to look at something. Selkie’s stride with swinging arms and longer leg stretch doesn’t appear to be a relaxed walk or yet registering the halt that Antoine just made. -I really like this because it shows how an eight year old has to walk just that little bit faster to keep up.
I am guessing that the orphanage has higher than normal modesty taboos, enforced because so many of the kids are not genetically related, and because of the background of institutionalized kids.
I am pretty sure gills would work much better if not covered by cloth – but certainly that would not be an insurmountable technological difficulty for the Selkie-kin. If they have cultural nudity taboos at all they would certainly extend to swimming situations. It’s not like clothing serves to make them look more like humans in day light, so they would have ended up with a differing taboo for on land than in the water. Of course, if their natural habitat is not on earth it could be different in place of origin. And of course a lot depends on how long they have been here. They could have been here for a mere total of five or six years if they tumbled out of a spaceship.
Thank you, Dave!
Did you make Todd’s face longer and less square in this? It seems like his jaw is a tad more narrow and his face is more rounded out in this. I kinda like it.
Yeah, I tweaked him to be a lot less of a geometric shape.
That’s good. His neck seems to fit his head better this way. 😀 Though I think his shoulders and chest don’t match his arms and neck quite yet. Good call on changing his face though! Sooner or later everyone will have very unique and recognizable body and facial structures.
I’m confused. First they’re coming home from dinner at Todd’s boss’ house, then all the sudden they’re at the park with his siblings. I keep thinking I missed something.
Dave mentioned in the last update that he’d be advancing the story in time faster in the next few arcs.
Love the sibling interplay. They already have marked differences, despite Anton and Marta having only appeared a few times before.
I especially like Marta’s terse warnings: “Do. Not. Tell…” Cracks me up.
Yes, you missed what Dave wrote under his October 8 comic.
As a person who often reads a comic but glances over the blog posts, I can see where you’re coming from. Thinking now if I could alleviate this sort of thing in the future. I know a lot of comics use cover pages to separate arcs, but I’m not sure of that for me.
Perhaps a little box at the top of the first page of a chapter saying something like: “Chapter 5: Selkie Smith and the Soccer-Playing Bully”
I’d lean more toward “Meanwhile, in the Halls of Justice…”
Something that I’ve found hard is having each page make sense as it’s released on a certain day and also in the grand ark of things while keeping the flow. Clicking through from last page to this page- I think the joke that you left off with previously and the obvious change of scenery here makes it pretty clear that this is a new ark without seeming choppy. I personally think that it’s a good transition and keeps the flow. Obviously that’s just my humble opinion though. Two thumbs up!
No need for an entire new page. A heading panel or a narration box would accomplish the same thing. Though personally, I didn’t even notice the transition. My brain just treated it as, “…they were driving … to Blue Moon!”
I think the confusion might be because they were in a car in the last strip.
A little narration box could fix the issue. Like, “3 weeks later” or something.
However, it would be within the spirit of this story to give clever/cute titles to each arc. Like Chaos suggested above.
Example: “Chapter 5: A Fish Into Water.” (IT’S A PUN!!!!)
Like seeing these guys together again. Love the outfit Selkie is wearing!
I -love- the new art style, if that matters to you at all 🙂
I really love this page; I think the line art is much cleaner than usual, and I really love the colors and the way the background was done. Its so pretty! Very amazing job 🙂 I also love Tod’s new hair!
You could have the mice from the movie “Babe” announce “Three Weeks Later!” in the upper corner.
Selkie is especially adorable today 🙂
This comic has one of the most tolerant far-left audiences I’ve ever seen.
it makes me just shake my head reading the comments and seeing their backwards attitude towards nudity.
…Actually Marta, you guys really SHOULD tell the “skunk story”. It’s one of the better ways to ensure there won’t be a NEW “skunk story” on this trip.
There’s not a lot of skunks deep in the city where municipal orphanages and public schools lie. It probably never came up before now.