Andromeda WIP: Don't Do Anything Stupid (Chapter 1 Page 8)
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Lost Scrolls Mass Effect Andromeda Chapter 1 Page 8 didn't quite have the same eagerness as Page 7 because I was nervous about getting some of the images right. I think I must have gotten tired or lazy or both, but I didn't put as much effort in the thumbnails like I did in previous pages so I couldn't just take off from the rough sketches and ink directly. This was going to take some elbow grease.
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Panel 1 was the biggest culprit of "I really don't want to do this sh*t". You can see the complete absence of sh*ts .that could be allocated to a task in full force, there. I barely even completed the basic structure of Cora. I just got to a "Ag, it's good enough" stage and called it a day.
Yep. That was me with Panel 1.
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Look, complaining isn't going to put this image together so I pinned my ears back and started with the lineart. I gotta say, it worked out. I got Panel 1 to work out and I shifted Cora to the right so she overlaps with Maruto. This allows us to get a sense of depth. Panel 3 I am particularly fond of and am enjoying the cocky and obnoxious pose of Maruto followed by the facepalm of Cora in the splash image. I really wanted to capture how he's being a corny and smug idiot and making Cora regret a few choices.
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The tricky part of having a page composition of so few panels and a big splash page is that it's hard to get a good balance of the page. As an example, you have a very heavy Cora on the bottom right with a lot of black but the images around it are more white space. In colour it will make sense but the illustration seemed wonky and drifting to the right. I had to find a way to balance the page out and the best way to do that without making the page too dark was to add backgrounds to the other panels.
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I debated if I should add a background to the splash page but I decided against it. I didn't want to pull focus away from the two characters. I think it worked out great. It gave a little bit of the counterbalance I was looking for. I also really liked how I got Maruto's hair style right. using guidelines is so incredibly helpful and I don't know what I didn't use them as often. I thought I was too good for them and my art suffered for it.
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An additional thing that this trick does is to see if a background is distracting or if it helps bring the subject out. Panel 2 is actually my favourite panel because it gets so many things right. It gets the composition right; the camera angle is cool; I like the pose and didn't use hard lighting on it and the background adds depth and dynamism. It's my favourite panel.
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And there is Page 8 inked and ready for colours. I like this page - not as much as Page 7, but I still like this page quite a bit. Page 7 had intimacy but this page had humour.