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 >.<

MitM returns after its one week break! (even if today’s update was a little late…)

Really pleased with how this page came out honestly. I’ve been wanting to do a panel that stretches from the top of the page all the way to the bottom, but I’ve never found a place to use it.

Fun fact: I haven’t used a five-panel layout since page 36. I really strive to make my pages different and stand out from one another, but I noticed that recently I had stuck pretty close to using roughly 8 or 9 panels. Most of the time I think somewhere around that number gives a nice balance of information per a page (obviously there are exceptions), but I was itching to use less panels and add some more detail and practice drawing some new perspectives and objects.

This time around I kept all the boring history to like less than one page. See! I am learning I swear!

Brother’s response is literally mine when I read the first chapter over again. I’m like, “How do you know all this stuff?! And why the heck are you wasting all my time telling me?!” Also Brother’s exclamation is there to help quell my own fears that I wasn’t just writing another Mr. Connors #2. Also also, what is up with Brother’s stance?? It’s like some weird interpretive dance 😛

Also I wanted to pull the lame “BONK stick” joke once more this chapter. Just like me, Joel is learning his lesson. Slowly, but surely.

I put the first panel and the last panel off to the very last. Doing a detailed background that is in proper perspective is tiring at times.

Today’s history lesson: Fort Cosgrove is a place, and this place was attacked during the war.

……fascinating.

Typography is such an interesting art style.

Working with type and font was actually one of my biggest struggles during my design classes (that and color, go figure…). To this day I still kinda dislike working with type. HOWEVER! If I have to hand drawn type it is a much, much more enjoyable experience to me. This is only my second time working with Blackletter (also referred to as Gothic Script), and while it is pretty tedious, it is very rewarding! I also really enjoy psychedelic font work. Fitting everything into shapes or distorting letters in a really funky way :3

Ah yes. Another one of infamous “walk-and-talk” scenes coming right up. It’s normally my way of cheating with boring dialogue, while still giving the characters something to do. Don’t worry, I plan to wrap up the chapter in just a few more pages (hopefully).

Ha! So you thought I was updating on a weekly schedule? Or at least I would finish a page every other week? How about more like once a month?! >:D

But seriously, I’m extremely sorry about not posting the past few weeks. All my time was eaten up by the combination of getting used to Seattle, finding a temporary job, starting that job, still looking for another long term job, traveling two states over to go to a wedding, etc. Okay…so maybe not all my time, but when I found some free time I either was too tired to draw or not very inspired to do so. But I will try to make more of an effort though.

As for commentary about this page in particular, I can’t think of much…

……Joel’s word bubbles look like little ghosts :3

Alright, page one-o-one. Had to find a new scanner, so it’s up today a little later than planned.

Don’t worry, Joel’s just freakin’ out. Also I thought it was kinda ironic how both Sven and Joel were both worrying. Joel’s breakdown is from a legit fear, but seems odd because of the delayed reaction; while Sven’s fretting is over unimportant matters, but seems realistic in nature.

Also I had to put Sven’s lines in because I find that I ask myself some of the exact questions every time I get done talking or visiting with someone. I guess that’s one of the things I inherited from my mother 😛

Page. 100.

And it only took roughly four years to get here…

Everything seemed like it was against me on this page.

I spent like an hour working with the printer to get it to work, and after I figured that out GIMP decided to join the “trouble train” as well and not launch on my computer. So originally the plan was to upload this shortly after lunch, now it’s almost supper…

As for the page itself, at least it was a lot of fun to draw. I decided to go with some more unusual panel shots (like panel 3 from behind Joel, or especially panel 4 looking down from the rafters). Although panel four sure gave me some extra work to figure out perspective, which changed from being behind the characters just slightly above them (so you would see the whole room) to being directly above them and just looking down. I ended up with this more three-fourths view, or isometric view.

Joel seems pretty good at “story telling” on the spot…

Also…hype……for………next…………page! 😀

Whoops! Meant to finish this yesterday. Didn’t have the shading done till late last night.

Oh, by the way, have you heard? I’m switching to an every-other-week schedule! Okay, no, not really (thank goodness). Things have just been super busy figuring out housing and a job that I just haven’t been able to set aside much work to do on MitM.

After my most symmetrical page ever, I do this haphazard layout. When sketching this page I was really struggling to get the panels to layout how I wanted them, so I gave up and went with this weird layout in the end. I wanted to try and have a character breakup two different panels, and I ended up with Sven awkwardly thrown into the middle of it. If you’ve been reading MitM so far, you’ll know that it’s ripe with several layout experiments, some which are awesome and others that kinda fall flat, and I’m afraid this one leans more towards the latter category…

Also it would seem that Joel is really testing Brother’s “cool nerve” O_o