WIP, notes [20-21 pages] (Patreon)

Today, I want to share the challenging process of storyboarding. Sometimes, laying out the frames across a page can take several hours. Yep, I spend A LOT of time choosing the most fitting frame for a particular pose and/or emotion... And page 21 is a great example — take a look.

This is how the page looked in the beginning:

First, I make sure that both Mavuika and Capitano have equal "presence" on the page. Meaning, if one frame contains Mavuika, the next should feature Capitano, and so on...

Here, I overloaded the page with Capitano while trying to highlight his smirk on the right. And yeah... then I realized I was missing an important emphasis.

The main focus was supposed to be on Mavuika’s reaction.

Of course, the strongest frame is the little kiss at the top. But just as important is the frame that shows what Mavuika is feeling — and what's going on with her hair. 😆

So, I removed the duplicate Capitano (goodbye, smirk) and expanded Mavuika’s frame instead.

Here’s the final line art + base colors has started:

Another thing I often do is "mirror" frame compositions if I feel the angles are getting too repetitive. But in this case, I decided not to mirror the lower open panel. It felt like the eye naturally follows a top-to-bottom flow better this way.

Here’s how the eye moves across the page:

If I had mirrored the lower frame, the reader’s eye would have run into Mavuika’s back first, which might have made it a bit less comfortable to look at.

Bad example is here:

This turned into some kind of guide, haha. But my main goal was just to share my process and talk a little about what I do and how! 😊