Rewrite the Stars || BTS3

Welcome to a new edition of Behind The Scenes, where I share the WIPs, outlines, and some of my thoughts as I drew pages 5 and 6.

You guys have no idea how long these two pages took me. I got exhausted, my wrist hurt, and at some point, I thought I had bitten off more than I could chew, and I considered changing the way I had imagined it in my mind. Not gonna lie, this wasn't a fun week lol

However, I'm mostly enamored by the final result. Extremely happy with how it turned out. But let's see what the outline said.

PAGE 5
> Luna talks to Lincoln outside. Luan asks if he already has a date. Lola makes snarky comment. Show all the older designs. Lynn gets there, calls the sisters off saying it's Lynncoln time, then they go to the mall.

Not gonna lie, the big idea behind this page was to show off the updated designs for the sisters. So, right away, I pictured a first panel with a wide shot that could show everyone at once. 

I think the sketch really shows my intentions, and what I was focusing on.

I put a lot of emphasis on the backgrounds, but aside from the final two panels, I didn't put a lot of effort into figuring out the poses for the characters. I was focused on the general composition and where all the characters would be positioned.

I don't remember at which point I figured out I could use the line "It's Lynncoln time", but I thought it was too funny to let go. So it stayed until the final product.

And next, we have page 6.

PAGE 6
> Talk between the two. Lynn asks again if he has a date for prom. Lincoln says he's too lame to get a date, so he wouldn't even think to ask anyone. He asks back. She says she's not interested in boys. "Not at all? I mean, there has to be SOMEONE... right?" he asks, hopefully. "No one that has asked me out, at least. Oh well, I guess we're both going solo."

This one seemed to be straightforward in my mind, but oh MAN did it take long to draw. I knew it would feature A LOT of dialogue, so right away I determined that the best layout was with  9 panels.

Oh, I guess I should talk about this, right? The entire comic so far has been based on the 9-panel grid that most people probably recognize from Watchmen. The main appeal is that it's organized, and it allows for a lot of dialogue. It's very flexible all things considered, but I also have a variation where I can divide the height of the page in 5 and then combine the panels. Page 5, for example, has a wide 1/5th in the first panel, and then the other two rows are 2/5ths each.

...I don't know if everyone understood that, so let's just go with the sketch.

As I mentioned, there was so much dialogue that I needed to place it right away during the sketching phase. I usually leave dialogue for last, but this time it was fundamental to have it as soon as possible to design the panels around them.

I think the main issue was that I underestimated how hard it would be to draw the streets, the bus, and the mall panel. I ended up tracing the mall, but holy moley it took me way too long to draw this page.

I think overall the dialogue is pretty straight forward. So far I've had many conversations where I take for granted that the reader knows they have a crush on each other, so there's a lot of subtext and unsaid feelings placed into many of the things they speak out loud.

Fun little fact: the eight-panel with the characters staring at their reflections (actually, I don't know how well this translated to the page, they're looking at each other through their reflections, to avoid direct contact as they weight in the fact that they're both going alone and looking for a partner to the dance) is based off the first ending of the original Dragon Ball anime.

I like the image, how contemplative it looks, and also the lyrics in Spanish are very romantic and have a pining vibe to them. I thought it really fit the mood of the panel.

Aaaaand that's about it. Obviously, if you have any questions, write them down and I'll reply to them as soon as I can.

See ya next week!