Author notes

Ch. 7 Page 19

dragonsong12

on March 2, 2008

It occurred to me as I was working on this page that Jaith's line there at the end could have a couple of different meanings. Now, I know what I intended it to be, but I think I'll keep that to myself and let everyone interpret it themselves. That's the horrible, wonderful thing about art. It will be different in everyone's mind. And since I don't think any of the interpretations of that would be wrong, I'd rather everyone reach their own conclusions rather than have me dictate them to you. ^_^

I was excited about this page though. I think it needed to be said, and I needed Jaith to say it, because it carries the most weight with him. He doesn't like the life he lives - NO ONE is that[/il] good. That's borderline angelic. He merely makes the best he can out of the situation and makes light of things to keep from going mad. That's always how I've written him, but this is the first time I think it really comes across.

Art-wise, I'm pretty happy with the poses and expressions. I'm a little sad on the shading. It's not bad, but I was really hoping everything on this page would pop and that doesn't. Also, I feel like I'm abusing the dot-eye thing XD but I just run into situations where it's too small and I fear that the bleed from the pens would make them look worse. Simplifying them to dots gives me more freedom.
Also,one thing that I both like, yet bothers me about anime/manga style art, is the moments when they lose their eyes. This effect actually works really well in some situations: with their eyes hidden, you can't tell what a character's thinking (as eyes carry the most emotion). However, this doesn't work when the space their eyes should be is just shaded instead of completely black because then there's just this weird, creepy void where their eyes should be. So I resolved never to use that particular device. However, I really wanted to on this page because I did not want to dictate Jaith's actual feelings in panel 3. Lucky for me, that eyepatch does the job nicely. XD I only regret not hiding his mouth as well (perhaps behind an arm?) hindsight's a poo-head.

And if you're wondering what Jaith's doing, he's getting the wine Ralla initially asked for.

Hooray for the return of the long author's notes! Apologies, but I've been thinking a lot about this page for a long time, and I think it more-or-less conveys what I wanted it to. ^_^

Thanks for reading! See you next week!