dupe
patreon
idletry thumbnails: scene 16 ("far above your level")
🕑 Added 2024-07-02 22:58:05 +0000 UTCI doubt that I will post all of the thumbnails for Idletry. For now, this is my first attempt at thumbnailing a scene from Idletry. It was selected by a random number generator, from the first act, excluding the first and last scenes of the act. This is the third-to-last scene of act 1. I've been using the pansy hand font for the text.
... It's rough! It's very difficult. I constantly feel like my back is about the hit the wall behind me because there is so little space, and anything adds up to so many pages so fast.
I've tried to vary the way I handle panels in an effort to make them fit more into each page, when possible. In that regard, I think I was successful, at least -- the panel shapes and sizes are different from how I panel digital comics. Whether that's for the better... debatable.
I've found fancy panel shapes can be distracting; although, it can be rather difficult to pull an engaged reader out of a comic with bad panel composition, either too wild or samey, as long as the way to read the panels is obvious. In practice, as I'm drawing panels, more unconventional shapes for panels feels distracting and less grounded.
Relatedly... I can't help but feel like these panels are too large. The page size that I want is already fairly big, and I ideally wanted to fit more into a page to take advantage of that space, especially in panels where there is no text that must be read. I printed them at the size they would be in the comic, and they feel huge. I may end up needing to scrap all of the thumbnails, and choose a larger size to thumbnail at. It doesn't help that drawing so small still has my hand aching.
I wanted to mention that the shot choices in this were also on my mind, potentially not in a good way... I've been drawing a fanfic comic for a comic series that I've liked for a very long time, and the shot choices that I can make there can be much more dynamic.
.... there's a lot of them. I tried not to pick only panels that have a "Dutch angle" thing going on, although those I like the most by far. They are fun to draw.
The comic in question has several practical features that make these kinds of perspectives abundant: the characters are drastically different sizes, so there is often a strong reason to look from-below or -above just for a normal over-the-shoulder shot; it is action-oriented, so the characters can take up a lot of space in a short amount of time, forcing perspective to help bear the load (ex: the last panel there); also related to being action-oriented -- there are often different body parts that need to be communicated as the most important information, such as someone's paw kicking someone else, providing a lot more leeway and variety with how the body is presented; the story does not give a fuck if you understand what just happened or what you just read; and, what I would argue is the most important here, the comic takes itself incredibly seriously. It wants to make important points about important things, and it uses the camera to try to command a sense of importance. Shots which depart from the master shot imply that you are being shown something unique, noteworthy, and important to the narrative.
Idletry does not take itself seriously. It has serious themes, and has serious scenes, but the story, as a whole, does not take itself seriously. It is a comedy, and it goes out of its way to remind you constantly that it's totally fictional, divorced from anything practical to reality. So... imagining shots like that in Idletry, even excusing things like characters being pretty close in size, can often feel too serious and kind of cringey.
I've imagined that I could use them ironically, where the forced perspective adds to the humor, but I could not imagine using the technique regularly... it's sort of cinematically mugging at the camera.
Anyway, I have a lot to think about. Sort of feels like being forced to chew an entire meal immediately all at once instead of addressing the issues one by one. I do guess that my experience with making comics already is probably making it worse -- someone with no experience is not so picky, does not have so many standards and expectations of their work. It is simply an exciting novelty to be making a comic at all.
