Instead of dwelling on how this week’s page is once again a day late, let’s just focus on this cool page ^^;

So…this page sure doesn’t have many panels! Ain’t that interesting!!

…

…don’t honestly have much else to say :\

JUMP to page Page 139

Yay! Ryke is back! Well…not yet, but at least he was mentioned.

I actually debated with myself all the way up until drawing this page this week whether or not I should keep Ryke. Er…what I mean by that is whether or not he would stay in the chapter. I very seriously considered just having him give the bandits a map or directions to the carpentry and then saying “toodles!” But after thinking it over I decided that I could use him effectively in this chapter.

Let’s dive into the art of this page, cause I actually have some stuff to say about that.

First off, my bad on the top two panels. I didn’t realize I was shading on a textured surface till those were finished, so they have some weird subtle texture to them. ^^;
Also in the top right panel, Ryke’s eyes (in my opinion) came out terrible! D:< I almost inked over them, but was afraid it would just look sloppy... The two other Ryke panels, I like. I think they have some fun detail and an easily distinguishable character. And then that leaves us with the other two... I'm gonna go ahead and say it up front: I really like both! HOWEVER! I think the bottom one does a better job of separating the characters from each other and the background. I feel that one of the differences between the two panels is that the top one has about the same amount of small details on the characters and the background, while the bottom one has less small details on the characters (mostly because they are closer) and more details in the background. I tend to get pretty line heavy in my background details, so I hope to counteract this by drawing less small details on characters in front of detailed backgrounds. Maybe that'll fix it (or maybe it won't!) xD On the whole page, I really tried to build the backgrounds around the characters. Some lines halt before touching the characters or just help accent the character. I really like this idea (even if I didn’t pull it off very well on this page), but I hope to make backgrounds more like that in the future.

JUMP to page Page 138

Alright, so this time I was late just to plain old procrastination…

The page was actually finished early today, but I didn’t get around to actually uploading it till now.

Anyways, what’s done is done. As for the comic itself, I really wanted to have a simple 9 panel layout for once. I feel like I’ve done this before, but I’d have to go back and check for sure. It’s pretty tempting to just go with this setup for pages since it can communicate a lot of info and be easily modified to have larger 3-panel long panels for mixing things up. After all, Watchmen did the 3×3 grid so well.

So…the joke for the bottom half of the page I actually wrote awhile back. Several months ago, I started a written side story set in the MitM universe (spoilers: It’s some backstory for the bandits). Originally the joke ended with “Well, someday you’ll get a chance to go read it…” because ideally I would have finished writing it. Well…that obviously happened >.< It's some needless backstory that doesn't really add anything to MitM's story, so I have no plans of deeply exploring it in the comic. However, to help make them deeper characters, I planned out a lot of their life story. I feel like it'll be good writing practice to still write those stories out, but with just words, not comics. It's been a decent challenge (that's part of the reason it's not done). Hopefully I'll finish it one day though. JUMP to page Page 137

Chapter Six! Begin!! 😀

And you thought I wouldn’t get the page done this week. Ha!! Well I did! (and with only less than two hours left to the day…)

What a chapter starter. Not my favorite first page of a chapter mind you, but I was decently impressed with my (sorta) fish-eye lens panel. First try with a shot like that and I’d love to do it again. I still need to work on balancing my inking and graphite better though. This page feels like it suffers from that a little more than some others, but one can’t improve without making missteps along the way ^^;

Don’t tell anyone else, but technically I was still designing the bandits’ disguises midway through inking this page >.< Also kinda regret making the character with the longest hair have black hair. Sorry Mel, but when I use a softer, darker pencil in large areas it comes out looking really grainy unless I put some extra work into layering it with different pencil strengths... JUMP to page Page 136

Wait a second…
That’s not a new character! (Although I suppose the five other coyotes around him are…)

Alright! Another chapter done!

This one was challenging and exciting (at least on my end). I finally got around to revealing Coy (er…Chance), practiced a lot with my art style, dived more into Janice and Ray, and hopefully setup the next chapter to keep the reader on the edge of their seat! Also, fun coincidence, but I ran out of plastic sleeves and paper in my binder exactly on this page. I can obviously buy more paper and sleeves, but I’m beginning to think I should get a new binder…

It turns out 140 pages will fill a one-inch binder up pretty good (and that’s with two papers slipped back-to-back in the same plastic sleeve!) :O

As much as I really, really want to dive right into this next chapter, I’m probably gonna take a short break from MitM (but not too long of a break, because then I’ll never come back to it) 🙁

This next chapter is going to be fairly important (spoilers!) and I really want to do it right. There’s a few other things that needs to get done as well. For one, I need to get Nicolas’s bio finished and added on the cast page (I’m done with his drawing, just need to write the info). Another thing that’s been on the back-burner for far too long is a side written story taking place in the MitM universe that I’d love to finish. And finally, I’m considering actually doing some marketing for MitM (because if you haven’t noticed, the MitM fanbase is kinda small) :\

I don’t have any serious plans, but at least something more than just a tweet whenever I post a page. I might get a banner together that I can use as an ad, and pay to get up on places like FA or the like. Of course, I can’t exactly do an awesome job of spreading the word by myself. So…this is my formal invitation to tell your friends about MitM! Help get the word around that there’s this lame webcomic called Mutt in the Middle that’s not exactly dying, but would truly appreciate the support. ^^

So until I return, stay here.
Like literally.
Never leave this page.
NEVER.
O_O

JUMP to page Page 135

I’m pretty sure “It’s complicated” has been my most used cop out so far. Whenever a character says that, it’s basically been code for, “Hey, this is important, but I’m gonna draw it out to a later time to resolve,” or occasionally it means, “Hey, I’m not done writing, so I’m not even sure what the answer is yet” xD

Bonus points to anyone who figured out where Nic previously showed up in the comic. I plan to more directly address him in the next chapter, so no worries if his brief, obscure appearance before this evaded you.

Tried implementing some more diagonal or non-rectangular panels on this page. It’s pretty tricky properly balancing the page once you start introducing different angles and shapes. On the other hand, the unique diagonals can create some impressive contrast and guide the reader’s eye if used appropriately. Even though there have been several different non-rectangle panels in this chapter, I’ve still kept my distance from one type of panel variation. The curved panel, or basically anything without straight borders. Why? Well I don’t hate them. Heck, I’ve seen them used exceptionally well in stuff like Habibi by Thompson with it’s elaborate shapes and curves that provide a unique dynamic. However, partially due to my more angular style, I’ve stayed away from it so far. Who knows though. Come an impressive fight scene or something else, I might try to work it in someway…

Also…
What’s this?? Another new character??!! :O

JUMP to page Page 134

Sorry about the missed week. Last week was murder…

Ah ha! So it is a new character! :O

Well…technically no. Mr Nicolas has actually been unofficially introduced before, just very briefly. Extra points to anyone who actually knows where he showed up before (but seriously, he looked a lot different and it really was brief so I doubt if anyone can point him out…) :\

So for this page, I just got bored drawing rectangles and squares for my panels, so I resorted to several slanted trapezoids xD

…I actually kinda like ’em.
Maybe I’ll use ’em more…

JUMP to page Page 133

Fridays sure seem like they’re gonna take on the duty of page updates…
Which is weird because my Fridays are actually normally packed :\

So now we’ve switched back to Janice and Sam. Scene changes almost always make me stop and think how to get it to work. Switching mid-page is pretty cool in my opinion, but is occasionally tricky to properly achieve. Changing settings between pages probably feels the most natural, but it’s often one of my biggest problems with webcomics. When a webcomic changes scenes between pages, I almost always go back a page to make sure I didn’t miss a page. Because of the usual “once-a-week” update schedule of a webcomic, it can cause a reader to forget stuff. A sudden redirection can cause even the most attentive readers to fill like they missed something. Ideally you would want to signal an approaching scene change by doing something (like a fade-away shot) on the previous page to help the reader guess what is coming on the next page (which I’m not entirely sure is something I did with page 131…)

If I was to start this page with Sam and Janice immediately talking outside the carpentry and then follow them inside, I feel like it would have been jarring. That’s primarily the reason there’s the top, silent, “establishing-shot” panel, followed by a panel without them. Only their voices are heard at the end of an almost finished conversation. I’m not saying this is a perfect scene change example, nor am I saying that my previous scene changes are flawless, but I do believe the way I try to structure most of them do some things right. Of course you’re the reader and the only worthy one to actually judge whether they’re successful or not…

Also normally a shot like the top panel would have the stone/cobble road that I normally draw my roads with, but considering the size of everything in that panel, I felt that it would just get too crowded and hard to read. The word bubbles were a little frustrating on this page as well. I had a rough time finding room for them or where to appropriately place them so they read fluidly >.< What kind of person only knocks once as one large “KNOCK”??? ...an unskilled artist who only leaves room for a single “knock” onomatopoeia word...stacked vertically -.- Wow. I sure had enough commentary for this page. This was for all of you fans out there who just couldn’t live without my rambling!! >😀
(A whole 0% of the readers is my guess)

And finally, is there a new character approaching?!?!

…

…meh, maybe.

JUMP to page Page 132

Sigh…maybe I should just go ahead and announce Fridays as the new update day…

And scene end! This chapter’s nearing it’s end (just a few more pages to go I swear!). This scene was a lot of fun, working with trees and outdoor settings as well as small wooden cabins again. Also really glad I finally got to show off Charlie…er, Caleb…uh no, I mean Coy, or Chance (GAH!!)

Also dang, Coy is short in those bottom three panels. If you’ve been reading MitM for awhile, then you probably have realized that consistent character heights and proportions are not one of my strong points (the key word there being “consistent”). They’re not awful by any means, but I’ve never really made a strong effort to record each character’s size and their height in relation to others. I just have these general rules of “he’s shorter than her,” “she’s got long arms,” etc. Maybe I should put some more work into that stuff…

JUMP to page Page 131