WORK STAGES on yet another art-test story from THE CHASTE AND THE CHAINED; blue-pencil tavern flashback ahoy!

So!

After I left the previous art-test story from fantasy project The Chaste and the Chained on pause for the time being, I switched over to a different story to try out a (theoretically) different artistic approach.

Said previous story featured a faux blue pencil Work Stage in Clip Studio Paint (iOs version), which I then inked over:

These results were decent--in fact, by far the best digital inks I've managed so far--but still constituted me having to painstakingly render the same drawings twice, a redundant process that I'm trying to get away from. Thus, time to try out a somewhat different digital art workflow!

I switched over to a 4-page flashback scene involving the younger, roguish iteration of the future Paladin, as seen in an illustration from 2023:

 I redesigned the likewise roguish cronies of the "Pre-Paladin," as seen below:

 ...and worked up analog roughs for the short story, three of which I'll repro below:

Last week, I worked up tighter versions of these pages in Clip Studio Paint and slapped on some word balloons with "for position only" interim lettering:

This mixed-case font is arguably a bit small (9pt at comic repro size), but I wanted to leave open the option for future lettering being ALL-CAPS and thus requiring more space inside the balloons. (Of late, I've become oddly fond of mixed-case comics lettering, despite being vehemently opposed to the practice twenty-odd years ago back when Marvel's Ultimate line arguably popularized the approach.)

Note that the barmaid's design was borrowed from another old illo from The Chaste and the Chained:

 On with the flashback scene:

Gotta say, I love the look of blue pencils like this; perhaps irrationally so, as I'll discuss in a future post continuing these Work Stages.

Anyhoo, I'm hoping to develop these initial drawings into a final version of the artwork without completely redrawing and inking over the g-d material as I've been doing, in a desperate bid to draw nearer to the perhaps unachievable workflow ideal I've dubbed "First Draft, Only Draft" (or "FDOD"). Will this quixotic effort succeed? Find out in a future Work Stages update, dear Patrons!

NEXT TIME ON THIS HERE PATREON: No idea, TBH, but something should be coming up in the next M/W/F slot. Let's find out together, shall we?