Page 55

I'd been worrying about this page for a while now, because it has to explain a good deal of the motivation behind the plot so far, nearly all by itself (the only other hint was background detail in 51-52). This could be a bit of a toughy to get, but hopefully it isn't completely indecipherable. I'll probably take to calling Mr. Creepy there by a nickname that will tend to give it away next week, so check back then if you need a clue.

Drawing these people-in-front-of-painting scenes is proving tricky: I need to use shadow to show separation between the foreground person and the people in the painting, but I can't just cast my usual solid black shadows over them, because it just blends right into the painting itself, and the foreground scene melts into it, and you can't tell what's painting and what isn't. I went with grays for keeping things separate last time, on page 52; this time I tried some actual cross-hatching, kind of my first real attempt at that ever, woo! I don't think it's gonna be up for "Crosshatching of the Year," but I think it gets the job done, mostly.

Please gaze long and lingeringly at the Princess' nose; for some reason, it takes me ages and ages to draw that thing close-up (52 was a killer too). Seems like with noses, if you have just one little bit of slope not quite exactly perfectly just so, it immediately transforms into a horrible crooked warty protuberance, rather than the perky and stylish breathing passage required to grace the center of a proper fairy tale princess' face. And this time it was angled slightly down and away, rather than in convenient silhouette like it was in 52, which made it tougher. Darn that little nosey.

Wanted to be sure I had general head/body proportion right for the little girl perched on the chair (okay you should be able to figure out who that is :), so I tried Googling up some general reference shots of little girls, and behold and lo, the first real hit was Shirley Temple. Thanks for representing cute little girl head proportions, Shirley.

It was fun drawing younger versions of the ol' King and Queen, last seen waving a fond farewell to the Princess as she left on her ill-fated ride way back on page 2. They were pretty spontaneous character designs back then and they're still just plain fun to draw.

Page 56

Took forever to settle on a pose and then draw it in semi-passable fashion; just one of those days I guess! Anyhoo, another prison fun scene, although this time, some old buddies of hers are there to keep her company! And they seem to be in a slightly higher security area this time.

It's always nice to know when someone cares.

Bonus points to you if you spotted all four inmates.

So when I was reading through my story outline notes before drawing this week's comic, I didn't see any mention of how she would get out of her manacles, really, and I sort of figured I'd worked that out, so I went ahead and drew her in chains, which is more dramatic, anyway. Only now I realize that my original intent had been for her to be in the dungeon, but *not* chained up; I've locked my character up with no planned escape! :o Well fortunately I did have a thought earlier on what I'd do, so we'll see how this all works out and whether she can get out of those things.

I'm accumulating a pretty spotty history of dealing with hand restraints on the Princess! Last time she was manacled, which was in a boat, she doesn't appear to have had a way to get out of them, if we assume that it was her diminutive captors who switched her chains for the ropes seen in her next appearance. So to get out of them now it'll have to be due to something she didn't have back then. And then there's her infamous rope trick, where I had had a quick idea at one point that she'd sever the ropes on a sword dropped by one of the small dudes as they run in terror from the giant, but later when it came time for that I pretty much forgot about it--the sword, the severing, AND the ropes--so the ropes just disappeared. :D

Remember how I said it took forever to settle on a pose for the last page?



Gah. :p

Page 57

I'm starting to think the no-lipstick look suits the Princess best. I first tried a couple lipstick mouths but they were just too...heavy. Seemed like I could get a much more subtle expression there with just naked lips. Woo!

My first urge had been to draw a bobby pin--old style hair pins look so...sharp!--but it seems (Wikipedia is unusually uninformative on the topic) that bobby pins probably weren't invented until the last few hundred years or so, which is a little too futuristic for the Princess, so she'll have to make do. I suppose the pointy type of hair pins are probably better for what she needs here, anyway.

As far as why a fairly straightforward hairdo needed pins, well, I suppose those two ladies who gave her the makeover didn't want her hair flying all over while she was dancing; little did they know that dancing would be the least strenuous of her upcoming activities. Hm... I wonder what else they stuck in there.

Page 58

I figure picking a lock with a hair pin is probably like day 1 in Princess Finishing School.

I should probably stop stereotyping jailers as poorly dressed dudes with bad hair, but they're just so fun to draw that way. Rats are pretty fun, too. Not as fun as princesses, mind you.

Page 58

I sort of got myself into a corner here with this elaborate jailbreak; the only perspective that would have shown the jailer getting the shackle on this wrist, together with the Princess escaping, would have been another low angle from the corner opposite the door, but I've already done two of those in the previous three weeks. Blah! Oh well there was another possibility, which was having the point of view from outside the door, with the Princess coming out up the stairs, the jailer down below her reaching up with his non-manacled hand, but that would have been hard to show the cuff on his other hand, AND it would have been too similar to the perspective used in her *last* jailbreak scene. Sheesh. So I reverted to ye olde stylee side shot, which, now that I see it complete, is a bit dull, but at least you can see what's happening. I think the lesson here is not to get myself spending so many pages in a single tiny room. (Well, and that thumbnailing the whole plot out in advance would let me see these traps repetitive perspective traps coming, but I sort of intentionally don't sketch out PatG in advance, because it's kind of a break for me from A*, which is all thumbnailed all the time.

Anyway finally we're out and next week she'll be getting into new areas, so all the angles of perspective will be available for use again, whew. I used to do the plain old side view quite a bit but I don't think I want to do it very often anymore; it's just a bit lacking in drama.

On the plus side I guess, the clarity it offers did allow me to put the old turret jailer (not to be confused with the hulking, younger dungeon jailer) and good ol' Ratty in some funky poses, which was fun.

Page 60

The little Princess got all anime'd-out this week, and I can only say that it was pure accident. For instance, her right eye--oh hang on it's hard to see there, let's get the full size version I put in this new banner:



Okay, so her eye there just came out that way with one single quick squiggle of my stylus, and it was like...huh (especially because I don't even know *how* to draw anime-style characters :p). Maybe my subconscious has been reading manga when I wasn't paying attention over the past week or something. But you know, it didn't look *bad* per se, and I hear it's popular with the kids these days, so eh, I rolled with it. And ending up with that dark outline around her wasn't particularly planned either, nor the hair spikes, nor the skinny build, but apparently SOME cosmic force decreed that today I shalt draw the Princess as an anime princess, 'cause that's how it somehow all came together in this week's page. :P

Page 61

Long limbs in this week's edition for some reason. Hm the last time we were in somewhat similar circumstances in this exact same spot, 30 pages ago, there was also a very large thigh, but that was due to perspective. Finally, clear proof my art is devolving! Darn this Mannerism.

Page 62

The Desert Castle Gate Guard blocks the Castle Gate to the north.
>s
You move south.
You are in the middle of the north end of the Entry Hall. The Front Gate Entryway is to the north.
The Desert Castle Gate Guard arrives!
>inv
Your inventory contains:
Hair Pin
Bedleh (eq)
>eq hair pin
You hold the Hair Pin ready in your hand.
>throw hair pin
You throw the Hair Pin at the Desert Castle Gate Guard.
The Desert Castle Gate Guard dodges your Hair Pin.
The Desert Castle Gate Guard is off-balance.
The Desert Castle Gate Guard attempts to Grab you.
The Desert Castle Gate Guard's Grab misses you!
>_