Blazeguy Page 7 - revised

So after I posted page 7, I found there were a lot of things bugging me about the page, primarily Blaze's head in Panel 7. I've found myself struggling with faces lately for some reason. The letterer also requested that I nix the BZZT! sound effects in the first few panels. They were leading the eye prematurely into Panel 8, undermining the panel layout and storytelling flow. SO anyway, long story short, I redrew portions of the page. Here's the final version.

High rez version here.

(EDIT: Now Blaze's mom's head looks swollen and his sister's head is too small. Grr...)

Blazeguy Page 7

Here's page 7.

Blaze comes to alone in Dennis' apartment, awakened (awoken?) by the sound of his cellphone. He answers it and it's his mom, sounding terrified, telling him that Dennis has them captive at Dennis Corp Tower and he needs to hurry there to save them. Of course, she's being forced to tell him this by Candace, who holds the phone and a gun to her head, threatening her and her daughter...

High rez version here.

Again, 2H on Fabriano Bristol. Experimented with pencilling in the sound effects directly, a'la Aparo or Alan Davis. I'm a lousy letterer, but I guess that just means I can only get better. :)

BlazeGuy Origin page 6

Here's page 6. Dennis drugs Blaze and Blaze passes out. But not before he tells Dennis the security access codes to his house. Dennis calls Candace, who tells Fire Marshall that Blaze is in danger and is at the Dennis Corp HQ. After FM flies off to rescue Blaze, Candace pulls out a gun and heads back to the house. And of course, now she has the security access codes to get in.

I'm using a slightly different workflow for this page (and subsequent BG pages).

1. I sketch out each panel as a rough thumbnail drawing without worrying about how it will fit into a panel. This way, I can figure out character placement and camera angles and so on without having to think too much about how this all fits onto a page. I have a rough idea of the panel shape and size, but am not worrying about it overly much at this point.
   
2. Then I draw the panel layout on an A4-sized sheet of photocopy paper. And it's only the panel layout, meaning size, shape and placement. I also plan out the flow and make sure the panels flow clearly. I don't draw anything in the panels. It's just empty panels on this sheet. This way, I can plan out the panel contents and the panel layout independently.
   
3. Then I rule out the panels onto the actual 11" x 17" art board.
   
4. Then I blueline the panel contents based on the thumbnails from Step 1.
5. Then finally, I move on to final pencils.

I like working this way. It's worked out quite nicely for me. I've bluelined the rest of the story (up to Page 10) and now only have the final pencilling to finish.

Oh, and I used a 2H pencil this time. Allowed me to get more details in with a lot less smudging.

Hi-rez version here.