Working on stuff for the next page. I haven't got a composition in mind as of yet but I'm really enjoying the drawing process. I often forget how much I like to draw. I really want some section of the comic to be just black and white. I don't know how I'll justify it but the simplicity of black lines on white background really sing to me. For right now, the top and bottom images are my favorites. We'll see how it goes.
 

 Ok, finally, FINALLY done with this five page sequence. Had to go back and fix what is now page 238 (second one in frame) because no only did it not match the series before, the missing middle tail feather on Silas was driving me nuts. Originally, the title for track 11 was on the back of his hoodie so I justified its being missing on that. With the title no longer there, I had to either draw it in or move him back down to the level he was in the page before. So I did the latter. There's still a little bit of a jump from 238 to what is now 239 but that's ok. It's far less jarring than it was, and this isn't animation. All of this messing about really screwed up the page numbering and I had to go back and forth to get it finally right. Since I don't feel like going back and renumbering all the relevant files, this is going to be a nightmare when it comes time to put the comic together. I'm not sure there actually IS a page 234. Somehow. Whatever. But here's a screenshot of the sequence as it is now and I think it works. Gah.

 Not much to show because I worked an extra long shift yesterday but at least all the pages of the new track that have been done have now been redone and fit the mold. So that's something.

 More back and forth. Because I like the style of the page I'd just done, I had to go back and add a page between the one with the title on Silas' back and what ended up being the new title page. Then, I re-inked the page after tat, re-lettered it and am now in the process of re-lettering the page I posted yesterday. But FINALLY the whole things looks cohesive.

Here's the current four together. I think they go together much better than before.

 And with the work on this page tonight, I've gone in a different direction again. Which means I'll probably have to re-ink the previous pages so that they fit better, re-letter them as well. Which is fine. I'll sit on this overnight to see if I still like it, but so far, I'm happy with the roughness of this and especially like the expression in the top Silas.

 Not the smoothest transition in the comic but I had to get something in there or be stuck for far too long. This would be a bigger number in the show and he should perhaps burst out from a quiet moment. I'm going to go with that and if it continues to bother me later on, I'll do something then. This project has gone on so long, I really just want to go on as smoothly and quickly as possible. So for now, here's the beginning of track 11.

 Did this little self sketch tonight. Nasa posted a photo of Mars with uncorrected light and color and I was fascinated. I took the photo and made a palette from it in Procreate, knowing I'd want to do something with it. Turns out it was this. Just a quickie, no drawing, just 'painting.' I think it came out reasonably well.

Managed this today. Finally figured out how to both get Silas where I needed him to be and get the whole mural shown as well. This is more or less what I did with the Tamino mural, which makes a good bracket. I think the next page, the one with both murals will be from Silas' back and will have the track title on the reverse of his hoodie. And then, THEN I can move on to track 11 in full. I make my own problems.

 

 Speaking of that mural, here it is, the final version. I had a LOT of fun loosening way up, looking at screen grabs from "Singin' in the Rain" as inspiration. The figures are scribbly but have a lot of movement and, like Silas, I'm really pleased with them.

So the next thing to do was to get a shot with both murals in them so we can lead up to Silas gesturing with the paint all over his fingers. So I wrangled the two of them and made this as a starting point:

I finally made my new Mac spin its little beachball when converting the Tamino mural to curves. That was asking a lot. I really want this to be a 'Broadway' kind of moment; I haven't referenced the stage in a long time in this comic and really then, only when Howard's doing his narration. I did it a couple times in Tamino. Sometimes, linking two pages is the hardest part of this comic. No, getting anyone to READ it is the hardest part.

On a totally unrelated note, I've starting auditioning online for some voice acting jobs. So far, I've applied for about 20 of them, most of them to the same company for the same game. Haven't heard back but it appears I've been shortlisted for one of them. Not sure if that means anything or not, but it's a little green check. So who knows?

 I left a whole bunch of things out. I worked on a transition from the ream sequence to the end of the track where we see Silas in the waking world having finished the mural. It felt too jarring without it. I'm still working on the dead space between the two tracks as we haven't yet seen the full mural as we did with the first one of Tamino. So more work, but hopefully no more drawing. Or not much.

 So, we have a problem. Well, -I- have a problem. I forgot that I was thinking of doing a section of the comic in black and white to highlight the ink as I do love black ink on white paper. So I first greyed the colors out of Silas. And that was fine, especially if I left the background in color. Then I also remembered that I wanted to add splotches of color on his fingertips to subtly suggest the two murals he just painted. So now I can't quite decide which direction to go. I think I'm going to go with the colors, but those greys work well, too...hmmm.

 Did a whole bunch of work on this page today and now consider it done. That being said, I realize I need a spread for the second mural Silas did or this won't make sense. So don't know what this page number REALLY is, probably about four later than it's numbered. Such is life.