Make Like Rope

Masha offers her own special brand of “help” to a desperate Lucky.

So, yeah. DOUBLE COMIC! This one’s a full-size standard comic book page. This is more or less what I want the Żużel and the Fox graphic novel to look like.

Except the shading–still not sure I’m happy with that. The trouble is, the more realist the shading, the more difficult it is for me to control notan (compositional balance of light and dark).

For example, I had a very tough time with panel 6. “Realism” says Lucky is in the hole, and Masha is in the open air; so Lucky should be darker than Masha. But compositionally, Masha is in the foreground and Lucky is in the background, while Lucky is speaking and has the focus–those two facts say Masha should be darker than Lucky. I’m still not sure my compromise works.

040-6a
With lighting that focuses on Lucky.
040-6b
With more realistic lighting.

Panel to panel, I like how this page looks, but as a whole composition, it doesn’t “read” at a glance, and that bothers me.

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