Thanks for the comments, moko! The man's mouth is a perpetual "huh" this page, indeed. Not sure what you mean by the eye being "saggy" though? He is not having both eyes open to the same extent, is there something off with that?
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Griatch

(click for DA version)

Page 12: The end?

There is also a cover for the entire comic to see.


So, this is the last page of Crossing Borders. Time to evaluate the project a little.

I usually don't do black outlines and was not comfortable at all with it at the beginning of this. I think I gradually improved as the story progressed (also thanks to the great feedback from people here and elsewhere, thankyou!). Concerning the outlines I think the main realization is the need for staying relatively tidy; I prefer to make strong, rather sketchy lines and this works well for a painting where those lines will generally be painted over or blended into the painting anyway. For the perception of a comic though, tidy lines matter.

This series of images represents a very deliberate play with light, progressing from a low sun in the first few pages through twilight and night. This aspect I was pretty happy with since I think it helped separate the pages in style a little more.

The Troll girl is one of those characters which I've only ever drawn in stand-alone images before; then usually with a cheerful grin. Making her into a full character like this was fun and I was happy to find that I feel more comfortable with drawing faces and poses than I have been; clearly some progress in anatomy there. Hands are still something that needs more work. And some of these pages went through quite a lot of adjustments and tweaks from their first version up to the point of getting uploaded!

Finally, telling a story without words was a challenge. My other comic projects like Where Red Apples Lie are carried to a pretty big extent by dialogue and monologue. Ditching text altogether made it a lot more imperative to focus on clarifying the artwork instead, a good exercise. And in one way it's sort of liberating to not have to give the troll-girl a "voice" so to speak but convey things only through action.

Overall I had fun and I'm pretty happy with the outcome. I'd love to hear your view though. Comments and critique, on this page or all of them, are much appreciated!
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Griatch

griatch: i love the ending! she chose to spare him and turn back to rock and now he will wonder about this for the rest of his life - and treat rocks with respect, i'm sure .
i think the waking up frames are hard to comment on, it's obvious you've got the lighting under control and i think poses and expressions are easy to read. troll girl's eyes are even easily recognisable as hers.
in the final frames i thought the trees in the background looked somehow inconsistent because of the blur - as if they somehow belonged in a different forest. i think i would have chosen to make them without blur but with very similar shades of blue instead.
it's been a treat watching the story develop and i love the hard outlines!
i am partial to the red apple universe, but i still enjoyed this story quite as much as any of those strips, it's ni

it was sweet....I really enjoyed it.

Thanks for the feedback! Good to hear the expressions work out. There is no actual blur on the distant trees as they simply have no black outlines, which I think may be what you are seeing? I see your point about them being in a different style from the foreground trees though.

I'm sure he'll have quite a story to tell (and no one will believe him)! But I wonder if he makes any sort of connection to the rock at all ...

Aye, this is different from the Red Apples strips in plenty of ways, but both were just as fun to do!


Thanks!
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Griatch