A Look At Page 8
I don't know about you guys, but today just flew by. One minute it was the afternoon and I was making good progress on my work and then the next minute it was 10pm! I hate it when that happens...
Anyways, I have one more page of my gothic comic to share with you guys before I go back to page one to ink & color everything. You'll have to wait a little while until I start working on the rest of the comic.
I wanted to share the thumbnails for this last page, as things changed a lot from the original sketch, but I drew them on loose piece of paper which I then must've thrown out because it is currently MIA. I have a bit of an issue with leaving "future Theresa" to deal with the consequences of my actions. I often draw things on loose pieces of paper that either get thrown out or lost amongst other papers but instead of putting this habit to an end I continue to do it and just say, "Future Theresa can deal with that." Past Theresa can be a dick sometimes.
In lieu of thumbnails, you'll just have to imagine for a second: in my original thumbnails, I had the man in the previous pages bringing the main character to her room and had a blank panel at the end of the page because I had no idea how I wanted to end that moment. Then in my redo thumbnail, I wanted the 8th page to be a little bit of a breather page where we are alone with the main character and her thoughts only to find that at the end of the page, she isn't quite so alone.
I was on the right track but wasn't totally satisfied with the pacing and composition of the page. I felt the eye needed to linger a little bit more on the main character before the ghostly figure was revealed. I also found that panels 5 and 6, while initially were done to build anticipation, were too similar in framing and thus repetitive and boring.
I was much more satisfied with the pacing and panel compositions in the tighter sketch. For the first three panels, I wanted to spend some time to show how involved 19th-century wardrobe was for women ( I haven't done research to the undergarments for men of the time so I am not sure if it's as cumbersome). In my research, I actually found a whole community on Youtube that creates their own Victorian clothes so I was able to see exactly how a woman of that time would get ready every day. Since the main character isn't an upper-class woman, she doesn't have nearly as many layers to deal with but even so, it's still a lot of work. But I thought it would be an interesting sequence to frame as she's thinking to herself.
I also chose to make the panels slanted once the ghost lady comes into frame to add to the sense of unease and mystery.
Hope you've enjoyed this sneak peek!
My ending questions are: Choose your favorite!
- Everett, Cecil, Victor, or Samuel
- Emil or Ira
- Any favorite victorian-era names? I have a lot of characters I've yet to name...
You can check out my previous comic updates here:
Update 1
Update 2
Update 3
Update 4
If you'd like to keep up with more of my work you can check me out at the following:
Instagram: @la.fumettista
Tumblr: http://la-fumettista.tumblr.com/tagged/art
Twitter: @TheresaChiechi
Website: https://www.theresachiechi.com/