Final Quest #12

Cloudbuck wrote:

It's really interesting to see a direct side by side comparison--I definitely feel the shift in how pages and panels are arranged, but it's very striking to actually look at them that way. What occurs to me is that the line quality has gone down a bit, but on individual figures I don't notice it so much. What's much more apparent is change in the overall sense of weight and mass in the panels--the resizing and pasting leaves inconsistent and generally very frail line thickness, and that really makes the whole thing feel off.

Personally, I'm another one who does traditional lines with digital color, and that technique does have its own challenges that would be solved by working 100% digital--but the extra work is always worth it, from my perspective. Even if you tweak things (I almost always move at least one eye!), the feel of physical media comes through in the way the line moves, and very few people can replicate that digitally. It can be done, but it's not being done here.

I wasn't thinking she should ink traditionally-- just sketch it out-- then scan in and trace over it or do a finished line over it by inking digitally-- then delete the original sketch. The big difference that jumps out to me when looking at these two images is that-- in the first image, the characters are all in natural poses, as if caught mid-action, positioned together in a way that seems, well...natural. They are gathered on a hunt-- everyone is in the middle of doing something-- and the angle of scene is interesting. The second image is just a flat on, horizontal shot of people standing around stiffly in what seems to be a very artificially staged position.

Most of Final Quest has been like that. Characters standing in lines. Characters standing in awkward three quarter views, staring at each other. Characters standing around like a congregation while framing the central activity with their bodies-- the central actors positioned stiffly and awkwardly in the center like some sort of nativity scene.

It's something that I think started to happen, perhaps coincidentally, when she started drawing on the cintiq. She didn't do it in Searcher and the Sword-- but there was a ton of it in Discovery. And in what I saw of Masque. I just think there is something about a pen that is easier to be loose with-- and that might be why the difference.

She also seems to have trouble with proportions when drawing digitally. Embers head is huge in that picture, and I've noticed other proportions that are off here and there in FQ.

That's true, Stargazer-- but she was also doing that in Kings of the Broken Wheel-- and there is a lot less of it in Final Quest.

Twillor wrote:

Brew some wolfrider coffee, stoke the fire, and get back to being divine savages, living in the "now!"

Isn't this exactly what was worrying Ember? That living in the Palace would make elves forget what it's like to really live, pain and all?

Yep, Ember addressed it early on in FQ and it's too bad it hasn't come back to discussion.

@Twillor - You're speaking my language, and I feel exactly the same way about this entire situation esp with Leetah.

Zadzi wrote:

Yep, Ember addressed it early on in FQ and it's too bad it hasn't come back to discussion.

It really should at this point, I think.

Davrille wrote:

OMG. Twillor? Another Tower Mountain elf says hi!

Hi, Davrille! Good to see you

Vaeri wrote:

this, all of this. wolfrider coffee, coming to a holt near you! XD

Took me a couple of days, but here it is:

Love it, Twillor! Very much Wolfrider and the last line roundsw it up perfectly.

Awesome, Twillor - "extra caffeine for long nights" XD

That's how they stay up all night and why they sleep all day.

Brilliant coffee!!

Twillor wrote:

Vaeri wrote:

this, all of this. wolfrider coffee, coming to a holt near you! XD

Took me a couple of days, but here it is:

"when it's hard to sleep at night"

This deserves much more use than just once here!

Elwing wrote:

Twillor wrote:

Vaeri wrote:

this, all of this. wolfrider coffee, coming to a holt near you! XD

Took me a couple of days, but here it is:

"when it's hard to sleep at night"

This deserves much more use than just once here!

Thanks, Elwing! All are welcome to share it, save it, make stickers for your coffee cups, anything... here to have fun.

Great tag line

Twillor wrote:

Vaeri wrote:

this, all of this. wolfrider coffee, coming to a holt near you! XD

Took me a couple of days, but here it is:

"when it's hard to sleep at night"

OMG this is unexpected but oh so awesome!! love it!!

Got my copy today, finally. On re-reading, I felt the touch of sadness this storyline invokes in me, but I also felt angry. I feel as though Wendy has destroyed her most beloved character through this stupid and unneeded retcon. (It has to be a retcon; it just doesn't add up with what came before.) What is the point of it? What's the point of any of it?

And the more I read about Moonshade, the more I wonder if I'm right and Wolfriders wouldn't be able to truly leave Abode unless they give up their wolf blood and render themselves essentially extinct. And if that's true, how did Moonshade come to that conclusion? Or is she just not thinking straight?

Great idea for the coffee logo.