Turning The Other Way

Hello Readers,

Yes, I missed posting last week.  I'm SAAAAWRY, ok?!  Yes, I'm not crazy busy so what got in my way, right?  Jeez you're tough.  Ok, you're right, I had no good excuse except that sometimes I feel like I have no idea how to finish this story and I'm really doubting myself and how to wrap this up so I guess I've been procrastinating and letting playing with the dog while listening to evening news get in the way of my precious drawing time. 

Maybe these two pages and a bit of extra something will shut you up.  WHAA?!  I didn't say that!  Just look at the pretty pictures, would'ja?

 

Page 120

Page 121

I saw a presentation recently in which someone was talking about the various shots we use in cinematography and I realized I've not been using the close-up enough.  So in the first two panels I did that camera move in so that you, my dear audience, can better see Fancy's expression.  I think by doing so the drama is amped up.

And then the crashes! OOF.  Doing these panels made me realize I don't have very many words for sound effects and probably need to develop more.  Anyway, fun drawings of crunching jets.  It's not clear what crashed in the middle panel, but I hope you inferred that it was two of Lawrence's jets, 'cause it was.

After I finished page 120 and had moved on... or tried to move on, I realized I didn't like the way I ended that page.  Here's what the original panel looked like:

 

 It shows Fancy turning back to see the wreckage and try to determine if anybody made it out alive.  I felt like I've told this story in a too meandering way, not direct enough, and I felt that if I want to end this thing, I gotta step on the gas and get it done, which meant not breaking away from the fight to see if her buddies are ok and then returning to the fight, but instead, push on harder with the fight as we see on page 121!

There she goes, firing off energy bursts but missing.  Nice drawings there, especially the last one on the page.  I drew the smoke trail once but it was a bit too much in profile, and I realized by adding some volume to it I could really add some depth to the shot and suggest that jet is coming close to the camera and high over the others which makes it tons cooler.  Look out, Fancy!

Adding to the Heap

 Hello Readers.

Well, after some quick drawing, I've got two more pages for you, but like Lawrence, you're right on my tail. I gotta speed up my progress on this and bank a few pages!

Ok, less talk (for now)...

 

Page 118

Page 119

Page 118 is ok, but nothing too exciting.  I was going to post just that one page, but I thought you needed more.

But page 119!  WHOA!!! Looks like Marcel and Jake are out, as are two of those little jets, but which side lost 'em?  

When I started on page 119, I had the first panel as you see it, but then I drew a larger one of Dave, but the flow on the page wasn't so good. I thought doing a little insert of him (like you see here) would be better.  It makes the action a bit punchier but also more fluid from panel to panel.

Fun action of the planes all smashing together, and the last panel is pretty cool - these big planes dropping and the suggestion on fire on the screen left jet.  Marcel sounds pretty frantic with this "EJECT, EJECT!", and Jake, ever the cool cucumber just says "Ditto"!

Did I mention page 118 marks the end of another one of these scribblers?  I'm on book 10 now!  Who'da thunk'it!

All Barrels

 Hello Readers!

What a page we have here!  Lots aerial action.  But enough talk, right?!  

Page 117

Well, Fancy suggested she'd bring on the fight, and with her team, such as it is, she does!

This page was kind of hard in that I'm trying to suggest Fancy is flying in the middle position as four other jets barrel roll around her, guns a'blazin', but of course, this being a comic with still images, well, how do you do it?

Draw a bunch of images of the jets in various positions?  That would slow down the action.  Draw one panel with a bit of an arc on the side of the circling jets to suggest they're drifting around... well, that's what I did.  I hope it works.  

 Another challenge with this middle panel was showing the firing projectiles while making any look like they were hitting another, not covering up the jets too much and to show depth throughout. I did a bit of shading to help that.  A bit of photoshop blurring to suggest motion and depth would really help too.

That last panel was drawn smaller but I realized it needed to be bigger to add more impact.  Could probably be bigger yet and closer to the viewer.

What Goes Around

Hello Readers, and in this week's case, active participants!

Here's a couple pages of your beloved "Flight of Fancy"!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Page 115

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Page 116

I know you don't think I listen or take advice, Mr. IG, but I do!  AHA! 

You suggested we see Lawrence's reaction to Fancy's "Let's see how you like it" line. Yes, I shoulda probably put this page in sooner, especially after Fancy's shouty tyrade on page 109, but... and this page 115 might mean I need to nix some other pages especially because the dialogue is a bit of a repeat from page 109.  Dunno.  Let's see what happens when this story is finished.

Page 115 was a bit of a challenge because  I wanted the characters to look like they're talking to each other even though they are in different jets. I had Fancy's jet turn 180 degrees in the middle right panel so that her jet's screen direction would match that of page 116's, which, incidentally was done before page 115.  It was also kinda hard because I hadn't drawn Lawrence in so long I forgot how he looked!

Fancy's expression on the last panel of 115 is quite nice, and yes, I purposely didn't draw Lawrence's eyes in the middle left panel so to make him look more superior and un-readable.

On page 116, I like the drawing on the top right - it and the bottom panel are nicely drawn, but I especially like how this hearkens back to the start of the story when Fancy was trying to fight some enemy jets and her team didn't know the maneuvers she wanted them to do. Oh, what goes around comes around.

... and thanks for the comments and input.  VERY helpful!

Putting the Team Together

 Hello Fans of Fancy.  

We're getting there (I hope), slowly getting to the end.  Oh boy.  And to get there, I guess you need to see some more pages... Jeez, you are demanding.  Ok, ok...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Page 113

Page 114

Surprisingly good drawings on these pages.  I like the first one on page 113 where Dave is pushing the AR goggles at one of his "volunteers" and especially the guy's chin down, pinky finger up pose. Very expressive of his "wha?!!" silent reaction.  

It's a darn good thing I did a wider view of those flight simulator chairs and the overall setup, because I knew how it looked so it was easy to draw.  Having said that, when it came to drawing them again on page 114, I wasn't so happy.  "What?!  This again?!" I complained.  "Who wrote this thing?!"

Nice drawings of Lawrence's jets flying, very dynamic and for some reason (maybe the shape of the jets) those panels remind me of "The Rocketeer".

The last two panels on 114 didn't quite work out as dynamically as I'd hoped... I wanted to give a greater sense of the hijacked jets peeling away.  I think I should have made them bigger as if coming closer to the camera.

It's pretty hard to describe dynamic action and camera moves with moving objects (jets) with still drawings.  If you ever figure out how to do that effectively, IG, let me know, ok?!

Snarf!!