Inside Scoop: 20-14 though 20-21 (Patreon)

I'm fully aware I've missed a bunch of these, but there's a reason:I couldn't really think of much to say.Ever since page 12, I've been kind of scrambling to come up with something to say about these pages and I've kind of just been BS'in my way through the process. Not really all that much to share about fights from panel to panel. So, instead, I'll just drop a bunch of thoughts on the process of the past seven pages collectively.A lot of the process involved in these pages has been primarily a bunch of trial and error. Figuring out what my strengths and weaknesses were when it came to both the act of story telling through panels and general art. As I'm sure you're all aware by now, the art has been solely helmed by me since the ninth page of Ravenous Rebrand: Part 2. With the departure of our layout / background artist, I've had to figure out a lot of things on the fly. If you're at all familiar with my work outside of the comic, I am by no means a backgrounds guy. I am very much "character + white void" or "character + abstract shape", which isn't something that you can necessarily get away with in comics all the time. So, I've had to do some learning (and cheating) in order to handle pages and keep the action moving forward.That being said, I've tried to keep things relatively simple so that there can be more focus on action shots and fun facial expressions. As a guy who grew up watching a lot of action cartoons in the 2000s, I tried to channel at least some of that energy into this story. I'll point out a couple of things that I particularly like from some select pages:Page 14One thing I'm a big fan of in comics is moments where panels help to build motion. It's something that I've done piece by piece in previous pages, but this is one of the snappier moments. Meant to be as impactful (physically), but a bit of an intimate (best word I can think of) moment of just the two of them back in the massive white void from the beginning of part 3. I also drew the SFX entirely by hand and I like how it came out. It's when I definitely felt more comfortable doing these myself rather than looking for and manipulating fonts.Page 15Bit of a mix here of a somewhat serious moment mixed in with a bit of comedic whiplash in the background coming back. That panel right there is definitely a showcase of how I am not the best at this and am just doing what I can to make it work. We're gonna get through this together, everyone. Have faith. I do like how the colors look on the left, though.

Page 18Now, if you want to call the smoke bomb a bit of cheating, then you'd be absolute right - because it is. It's my way to keep the backgrounds abstract, but without calling too much attention to it because this is a very Finch thing to do. It's in character! Also, the perspective on that street in the first panel is super off. Don't look at it.

Page 19If I had one mission for this page, it was just to make Finch look cool. Finch is my second favorite character of the comic and the one I draw the most frequently due to her general simplicity. I just think she's a cool character and it's cool to see her do cool stuff while looking cool. Isn't that cool?

Also, it's a bit of fun to have her in a spat with Midnight Reign, whose entire design goal was just to have a cool looking villain. So, I'm doin' it twice! Yay!

Page 20This page was an experiment. I'd been making pictures not using my usual inking tools and instead using the pencil tool for everything. That's what this page is done with. It was going to be a more frantic page with a lot of moving parts, so I wanted to give a looser attempt to the style as a reflection of that. The backgrounds are even less than they usually are and the colors are all dropped in manually rather than my usual methods in order to give it a bit more frantic energy. My only real issue is panel 3 and if I drew it again, I'd change the angle so that what's happening is a bit clearer. It's saved by the later panels, but that one could have used more work. Also, you get to see Finch's eye, so that's nice.As for page 21, I don't really have a ton to say about that one. It's only real significance in terms of production is that it's the last page I've drawn since I revamped my pens to be more like my pencils, so the inks are a bit more on the chiseled tip side.That's it. Thanks for coming.