Because, you know, some people prefer it that way.
I spent a lot of time on this one, because I wanted to make sure I got all the subtleties right. Nina’s gestures have to be just the right amount of misleading–I didn’t want her to come off as afraid or in peril, or disinterested.
Also this one would have probably been a lot easier with reference photos. I only used reference for a couple of the hands, and just fussed and fussed with the poses and staging. But I am pretty happy with the staging in panel 4; that came out nice.
Balancing the levels between background and foreground was also annoying. I ended up desaturating the backgrounds a lot, so that I could put the figures in shadow without having them blend in.
This is one of my favorite parts of Rudek and the Bear so far. The budding relationship between these two started as comical, so it was a nice surprise to see Szpadel taking the initiative. Double-surprise when Nina turned the tables on him! Love these two!
Reading your notes here, I hadn’t even considered the balancing act you’d need to play to make sure Nina’s expressions didn’t mislead the viewers too much. The dialogue helped, to be sure, but I can see where a few subtle changes to her expression would have shown this page in a completely different light.
Well done, as always!