Ah yes, another beautiful page displaying my inability as an artist 😛

I never got Ray to look right while coughing in the first panel, nor did the blood-stained handkerchief come out very well in the fifth panel. Did have some fun trying out some new panel ideas though. Also experimented with some more variety in word bubbles and font (which I might keep working with).

Since the last page did not exactly instigate a wave of discussion about how I should ink the pages, I decided on my own that I’m still gonna try to pursue the “ink shading” at least a little bit longer…

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Come on Dayton. “…decided to do it yourself.” That seems a little much. I’m pretty sure Sam played a pretty significant role in convincing you to do the job 😛

Spent a lot of time writing this page. I knew from the beginning I wanted the conversation to escalate to having Dayton frustrated and on the edge of an argument, but smoothly getting there with the dialogue proved a significant challenge for my small little writer’s brain…

However, I was really pleased with how the panel layout came out. I liked the 9-panel grid (with the missing panel in the middle) and how it created this circular composition that revolves around a conversation. The conversation itself also goes through a three level system (top three panels, then middle two, and then final three) as things become tense. Another cool touch I tried to do was keep the left panels focused on Dayton and the right ones on Ray. Originally the bottom ones were gonna perfectly mirror the top panels (first panel would show Dayton with Ray silhouette in background, and the last two focus on Ray), but I switched it up a little.

Also, Oh look! No ink-shading-thingy this page. I’m not completely abandoning the ink shading, but I wanted to try and see what it would look like just filling in open spots with ink. I’d love to hear what you guys think. Your opinion could change the future of MitM’s style! 😀

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Whoops, a day late, but I gave it my best ^^;

Once again, blah blah, not sure this style is working, blah blah, it’s becoming more and more obvious I’m not sure what I’m trying to do with this style, blah blah blah 😛

Still trying to find a balancing point, but I do really want to push my art style, so please bare with me through these troubling times of extreme experimentation (I mean I’m always trying to experiment with MitM, but this is more radical and…yeah…)

Since it’s NOT obvious by any means, the long skinny panel is meant to show Dayton in four positions. Running down the stairs, grabbing a loaf of bread (yeah yeah, I know, but there are many more issues than my poorly drawn bread), slicing the bread, and then his silhouette grabbing something from the top of the cupboard. Yeah…this panel kinda just fell apart the farther along I got. I had hoped that silhouetting the last Dayton would help him and the other characters stand out more, but that obviously didn’t work. I was also unsure of whether or not to use the solid inking black for background elements or foreground stuff. Yup. Officially botched.

Also back to crappy scanner for a few weeks…

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Hmm…I don’t know…

Not sure I’m digging this ink shading. I’m definitely gonna give it some more time and a little more practice, but like I said, expect some weird stylistic changes to happen this chapter.

The bottom four panels were super fun to draw though. They were designed to mirror Dayton’s four panels of him waking up on the last page. These four panels with Janice though were supposed to have actual panels around her. I drew them during the sketch phase, but they never got inked because I thought the panellessness (real word, I swear) was pretty cool. Well that and I’ve never done something like this before, and you know me, always eager to try out something new 😛

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I warned you!!

But seriously, I was really serious about testing out some new stuff artistically with my style in this chapter. Expect to see some stuff that will never show up again in MitM, and some terrible face-palm moments. However, I hope to finish Chapter 5 a better artist (here’s hoping!).

For today’s atrocious experiment, I present to you: Ink Shading!

Not only did I dive into this blindly with no idea what I was gonna do, but I didn’t actually figure out how I wanted to do it till like halfway through the page. Looking over the finished product, it’s not…terrible. I do like the idea of some solid black shapes using ink, and some subtle ink shading. Also I think if I get a better hang of inking like this, I could do some cool dark scenes. Until then it’ll just kinda look all awkward……like this page…

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That’s it. The end. No more. One hundred and ten pages is a good stopping point 😛

…Well, at least for a chapter. Next chapter (Chapter 5!) will bring us back to Dayton and his adventures. But, sadly we are all gonna have to wait longer than just another week to find out what the next part of MitM brings to the story.

I will be briefly putting Mutt in the Middle on hold. Why? There are several reasons that factor into my decision, but the biggest for me is the MitM website. It is in DESPERATE need of updating. While the front end is……feasible…the back end is currently a mess and needs reworking. Fittingly the domain name for my website is set to expire next week (which I will renew), so it’s like a perfect reminder/sign to get some work done on the site.

I will sorely miss working on MitM weekly, so I may get restless with the website rework and start chapter 5 before the website is finished ^^;

Meh. Another page done.

Not a huge fan of this page honestly. Had some missteps here and there while inking and I didn’t really do anything special with the panels. I had some trouble making a few of the characters on this page look right too, but i guess we all have our bad days…

The middle three word bubbles I rewrote several times. I really wanted them to capture my thoughts on the topic of blindness, while also be relatable to other situations. Whenever I think about things like this I always remind myself that life’s simple qualities truly are gifts and we should never take them for granted.

Also I guess I should say something about how this page is important for revealing that Joel is blind, but I don’t really know what else to say…

So trying out some new ideas. I’ve had some critique (on multiple occasions actually) about the characters becoming hard to distinguish from more complicated backgrounds. While on this page I decided to simplify the backgrounds, later I hope to work with only harder (or lighter) pencils and try to keep the characters darker. Now all that’s left is to put it into practice…

Almost made this page completely symmetrical by the way. For awhile I considered stretching the middle three panels full page length and making the top two the same size as the bottom two and have them overlap the same way. In the end I decided it was a bad idea and went with this solution. I had the characters pop out of panel 5 to help balance the page, but I doubt anyone really cares to know that silly bit of info…

Look at that first panel. Look at that hand. That. That is the essence of laziness. I could have given some effort and actually drawn a hand, but nope, I just drew this little stub o_o (I’ve even drawn a similar pose before!)

Also I went through several dialogue options before landing with this one. Several of them featured cringe-worthy jokes that I tossed out the window. Eventually I decided to run with Joel’s first line on this page because it accurately summarized my feelings after I went back and read the previous couple pages. Why the heck did I have them walk here??? Maybe time will reveal what is currently hidden to me >.<