moodâ˘
Claire Keane

Love Begins
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wallacepolsom
Aqua Utopiaď˝ćľˇăŽĺşă§č¨ćśăç´Ąă

romaâ
ojovivo
trying on a metaphor
Monterey Bay Aquarium
Mike Driver
Acquired Stardust
d e v o n

I'd rather be in outer space đ¸
Keni
YOU ARE THE REASON
Game of Thrones Daily
art blog(derogatory)

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@skunkaru
moodâ˘

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Same place, different day.
Awesome color study
I get asked about how I color the ghosts in GOTF pretty often, and I felt like killinâ some time⌠so hereâs how it goes! This isnât so much a tutorial as it is a deconstruction, as thereâs too many things in play for me to cover with any sort of brevity. Examine, experiment, and see how youâd go about it!
The Dragon Prince - 3x08
Someone whoâs never seen The Guy Who Didnât Like Musicals explain this

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Have you ever asked yourself:Â âWhat does the skunk say?â unmute to find out
what a good and respectful wildlife interaction, from both sides!
Table of Contents:
Part 1: Watch Your Symptoms Part 2: Character Levels Part 3: Developing Crowd Characters Part 4: Developing Tertiary Characters Part 5: Developing Secondary Characters Part 6: Developing Primary Characters A Diversion: The Worst Thing That Could Advance the Goal Part 7: Developing Characters Using Questions Part 8: Developing Characters Using Little Details Part 9: Diverting Archetypes Part 10: Avoiding the Self Part 11: Building Realism Part 12: The Truth About Character Flaws Part 13: What To Do When Your Character Falls Flat Part 14: Using Your World A Diversion: Dynamic vs. Static Characters
(a note from Pear: this table of contents is currently up-to-date. should I decide to return to this series, later posts will be added to this table of contents. all posts original to this blog may be found under the posts by pear tag.)
Table of Contents:
Part One: Speaking of Which Part Two: Key Formatting Points Part Three: Everyone on the Same Page Part Four: Enriching the World Through Dialogue Part Five: Culture, the World, and Speech Part Six: Shapeshifting Dialogue Part Seven: Donât Neglect Action Part Eight: More Than Tags Part Nine: Realistic Dialogue Part Ten: Talking Past Each Other Part Eleven: Truth or Lies? Part Twelve: The Tag Talk Part Thirteen: Foreign Languages and Research Part Fourteen: The Root of the Argument A Diversion: The Grammar of Dialogue Punctuation
(Note from Pear: This series is indefinitely open to new posts. As they are added, this post will be updated. Like always, you can find original content in the posts by pear tag and the table of contents tag for series.)
Source.
So yes, Knucklesâ mom had that baby sheâd been pregnant with prior to the timeskip. As we saw in Mobius: 25 Years Later, Penders named him Mace. However, Bollers has decided that that wasnât his full nameâŚ
No, his full name is Knecapeon Mace. Heâs better known by his nicknameâŚ
Kneecaps the Echidna
I love it. I love it with all my heart. Itâs so stupid. Itâs perfect. Penders usually named his male echidnas after philosophers, scientists, and artists and gave the girls hyphenated Kryptonian-style names. But that never really fit. What the hell kind of name is âKnucklesâ in a family full of names like Rembrandt and Hawking? After Sonic Adventure, Penders retconned it and said that Knuckles had been named after the ancient Knuckles Clan, but it still didnât feel quite right. So here comes Bollers with another silly body part name to go with Knuckles. I love it
You know who didnât love the name Kneecaps? Penders. Oh, he hated it. Which just makes me like it even more

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I'd probably benefit from deliberate practice, as in that I can measure in some way (privately) how well I did. Like, how a piano player practices repeating chords or the same section of a music piece again and again. But I have no idea HOW to practice WRITING because there's almost only advice what to do, no concrete ideas or tips for actual exercises. It's very frustrating. Do you maybe have something in mind if I may ask?
The reason itâs so difficult to find something concrete for practicing writing is because there is no concrete way to measure whether you did well or not. There is no rubric out there or scale to measure âgoodâ vs. âbadâ writing. Success and failure to achieve something in writing is entirely subjective and based both on yourself and how you feel it went, as well as your audienceâs perception of whether you did it well, which is entirely based on each individualâs personal preference. How do you put personal preference on a rubric?
To use your own metaphor, playing an instrument is a much more definable art with a definitive good and badâyou either hit the notes or you donâtâwith a more subjective portion that comes in laterâinfusing feeling into the notes. Writingâs objective portion is simply the grammar and spelling of it. Literally everything else about it is subjective. The practice of a piano player is repetition, and the player can see the improvement as they hit more notes consistently. Writingâs practice is also repetition, but that repetition is found in the literal act of writing itself. By writingâwriting anythingâyou are practicing the craft.
Looking for specific exercises on the internet is tough because of this very reason: the exercises are simply writing. Trying to write, again and again. Trying to capture a feeling or a story or a mood, again and again. Thatâs practice. There are some specific exercises in creative writing textbooks, but for the most part, itâs up to you to choose an aspect of writing that you want to improve, and then write with that aspect in mind, observe what makes that aspect function, and see if you can bring that particular aspect out on the page.
Maybe you choose tone. First you have to know what tone is, and how itâs different than mood. Once you know what makes tone apparent on the page, your job is to sit down and write. Write with the express purpose of showing tone on the page.
Maybe you choose setting. You have to know what aspect of setting you want to focus on. Is it that you want to do a better job of bringing the senses out in your descriptions of settings? Or do you want to practice weaving settings through interspersed details in a scene, rather than info-dump-style descriptions? Or something else? Then sit down, maybe with a prompt to get you started, and write with that focus in mind.
Maybe you choose character development. Decide what part of character development you want to improve. Are you trying to do better at conveying emotion? Are you focusing on how to write romance between characters? Are you interested in improving how you share a characterâs backstory through context clues rather than info-dumps? Sit down and write a scene that allows you to showcase these types of developments in characters and see how you do with it.
These exercises are basically free-writing with little-to-no intention of turning them into full stories. Theyâre drabbles or vignettes where you try to bring out a particular part of writing. The easiest way to see if you succeeded with your objective of showcasing a specific subject of the writing craft is to share it with someone else and see how they react. Otherwise, itâs up to you to read through it again and see whether you like what youâve done. If not, do it again. And again. And again. And then write stories, and write more, and more. The only way to improve is by literally going out and writing.
Mostly, youâre going to find what youâre looking for in creative writing textbooks and help guides like the two Glimmer Train Guide to Writing Fiction books (x, x) and others, but here are some exercises Iâve done to help improve certain things in my own writing:
Dialogue:
> Go sit in a public place and listen to a conversation. Transcribe it as exactly as you can. Rewrite the conversation as a scene.     > This exercise focuses on: Observing how ârealistic dialogueâ in narrative differs from actual, real-life conversations.
> Write one side of a conversation. Make sure that the audience understands whatâs being said on the unheard side of the conversation without ever repeating what the other side says.     > This exercise focuses on: How to relay information to an audience through context clues and implication.
> Write a wordless conversation. Consider how people communicate back and forth with each other without ever speaking a word.     > This exercise focuses on: How body language can be used to convey meaning and emotion.
> Write an argument by the end of which it becomes clear the characters are not actually arguing about whatâs on the surface.     > This exercise focuses on: Writing subtext and the human tendency to speak in doubletalk.
> Write a conversation that does not use tags. Focus on making it clear to the audience who is speaking, how many people are a part of the conversation, and an impression of what their life is like. Try not to resort to literal introductions.     > This exercise focuses on: How to bring out the voices and history of various characters through their spoken words.
Setting:
> A character encounters the most mouthwatering smell theyâve ever had the pleasure of smelling. Describe it.     > This exercise focuses on: How to integrate the often forgotten sense of smell into descriptions and its impact on people.
> A character walks into not just a spooky house, but an absolutely terrifying one. Make the audience feel the fear.     > This exercise focuses on: Conveying the mood of a setting and how to integrate emotion not only into a story but into the audience.
> Alternatively, the house isnât spooky or terrifying, but it is horrific. What changes about the scene, and how do you convey that difference to the audience?     > This exercise focuses on: Also conveying mood and emotion, but also being specific with the emotions and feeling of a place, and how to differentiate between similar ones.
> A character is overcome with nostalgia. Help the audience understand the nostalgia while also feeling the profound loss or difference between the memory and the reality.      > This exercise focuses on: Integrating character history into description of a place, emotion, a sense of time.
> Write a scene in which a blind character arrives at a new location. Use their senses other than sight to describe whatâs around them and where they might be.      > This exercise focuses on: Using senses other than the typical fall-back of sight.
Character Development:
> Find an old picture in an online archive, but donât read the description. Write a scene about who the people in the photograph are, what led them to this moment, and where theyâre headed next. Whatâs their fate?      > This exercise focuses on: Imagining character through visual input, inferring details about them, and conveying those through story.
> Alternatively, find a portrait or painting and write a scene in which the painter is the main character. What is the person who painted this art like? What were they thinking about when working on this piece? What kind of conflicts may they have been facing at the time of its painting?     > This exercise focuses on: Imagining character by examining their actions/things theyâve made.
> Write a scene from the perspective of an unreliable narrator where what truly happened is quite different than what the narrator tells the audience occurred.     > This exercise focuses on: The use of narration and how it can influence the story and what the audience understands about whatâs going on.
> Write a thank you letter for an unwanted gift; the gift is a work of art. Focus on conveying the character of the person penning the letter. Who are they? How do they handle the situation? What will they do with this gift? What do they think of the person who sent it?     > Step it up: Write another from a character who received the same gift but has an entirely different reaction to it.     > This exercise focuses on: Conveying voice and character by looking at reactions, words, and attitudes.
> Write a scene in which a character reacts to an event in the opposite way one might expect and takes action in an unexpected manner. Focus on how you can convey the characterâs reasons for their actions, pertinent backstory, and motivation without allowing the narrator to outright state anything.     > This exercise focuses on: Character motivations and how they can drastically change what a character is willing to do, how they react to things, and yet can still be in character.
Craft:
> Find a non-comedic scene in Shakespeare and rewrite it to be comedic.     > This exercise focuses on: Tone and how a writerâs diction can influence how a scene is perceived by the audience.
> Rewrite a poem as prose, focusing on steering the outcome toward something different.     > This exercise focuses on: How syntax and diction can change what something is about, despite using the same or similar words.
> Practice writing first lines that immediately draw audiences in to the story. Focus on how you impart information about the coming story to the audience through situation, setting, characters, potential conflict, point of view, distance, tone, etc.     > This exercise focuses on: Context clues and catching the eye of the audience.
> Write a scene told from a point of view you are uncomfortable with, or from a different psychic distance than you prefer.     > This exercise focuses on: Stretching the writing muscles we let atrophy simply because we donât prefer them, and testing whatâs possible with different tools.
> Write a scene in which a character discovers an Important Item they had been told about, but now they donât recognize it or donât realize its significance.     > This exercise focuses on: Foreshadowing and how context clues can inform the reader without necessarily cluing in the character.
Challenge Mode:
> Write a story at least 350 words long in which you may only use pronouns 3 times.
> Pick a concept or subject you know little about. Explain it in 100 words or less.
> Generate a list of random words by writing the first 10 (or so) words that come to mind. Write a scene or short story using all the listed words.     > Step it up: Use the words in the story in the order they appear on the list.
> A character stands at a crossroad. North is the future, south is the past, east is fear, and west is ambition. Write a scene in which the character sees what awaits them on these paths and contemplates what each means to them.
> Write a dream sequence in which the dream transforms objects. Make the transformations seem entirely normal.     > Step it up: Donât let the audience know itâs a dream.
Resources:
100+ Creative Writing Exercises for Fiction Authors from reedsy50 Fantastic Creative Writing Exercises from bookfoxWhat If? Writing Exercises for Fiction Writers by Anne Bernays and Pamela PainterCreative Writing Exercises For Dummies by Maggie Hamand
Hello! I have a small cast of characters that I love dearly and have been developing for a long time, and while I have a central event that I know takes place in their story, I cannot for the life of my figure out any kind of plot to go around it. Do you ever struggle with the actual meat of a story, or even the bare-bones of one?
Absolutely. To be a writer is to be confused, lost, and unsure sometimes, and thatâs okay.
I tend to use the GOTE method of figuring out plot in these kinds of scenarios. The characters are the most meaningful in this situation, so you want the story to revolve around them. I recommend doing this exercise for each character you intend to be a main character:
Goal:Â What are they after? What are they striving for? What drives them? Whatâs most important to them? What do they want? What are they trying to achieve?
Obstacles:Â What could get in their way? Who could mess up their ability to achieve their goals? What kinds of events would cause them to believe those goals are out of reach?
Tactics:Â How do they approach problems? What kinds of tools and skills do they have that are their first resort, their modus operandi, if you will? Whatâs their philosophy on blockages in their path?
Expectations:Â How do they expect they will achieve their goals? How do they believe problems will resolve? Whatâs their perspective on life? How do they hope things will go for them?
The G gives you motivation; the O gives you conflict; the T gives you action; the E gives you personality.These four things give you a foundation to start thinking about. It gives you conflicts to build story from, and when you have the obstacles and goals and tactics for several characters, you can start looking into how they all relate to each other and how events might play between the various characters.
Hopefully that helps a bit, Anon. Itâll at least give you a way to evaluate your beloved characters that might be a bit different than your previous perspective, and maybe something will spark out of that. Good luck! -Pear
Growth and Failure
The longer the story, the more failures there should be and the greater the change that should occur.
This is the case for anything you write, but the more episodic the series is, the more this holds true. TV series, ongoing web series, and web comics are the most obvious examples of this.
Basically what this means is that your characters canât succeed at everything they try to do. One thing about shows like Supernatural (the early seasons) is that you as the viewer know that, for the most part, by the end of every episode, the Monster of the Week will have been defeated and everyone you care about will still be alive and healthy. There are overarching plots, but they are tangential to most episodes and donât affect much.
In Stargate SG-1, on the other hand, they spend eight season facing one major enemy (the Goaâuld), and they spend many of the episodes fighting the Goaâuld in some form or another. And sometimes they fail and the Goaâuld win, and sometimes they win and that later helps the Goaâuld win, and sometimes they donât fight the Goaâuld at all, and those missions may be either successful or not to a lesser degree. Beyond that, there are lower level failures: they try to make a spaceship and it almost kills some of them, they try to make a new spaceship, it doesnât work as hoped at a pivotal moment and they almost lose the entire planet, they build a giant spaceship and it gets stolen (briefly), they build more giant spaceships and one gets shot down over a planet and then later they need to get that spaceship home and it (temporarily) gets stuck in a giant sentient gas cloud. All of this means that sometimes they donât have a spaceship that can do what they need even though theyâve been trying to build one for most of the show, but at the end of the show, they end up with spaceships whose capabilities and weaknesses play a pivotal role in the show.*
My point in recounting all of that (other than to get you all to watch Stargate) is to show that, especially when you have a long series where you want to show a great deal of growth (and Iâll explain why you need that in a second), you canât just have them win every time they try to grow or every time they try to defeat an enemy. You have to have them fail, too, or there will be no stakes and it will be hard to suspend disbelief.
SoâŚwhy do you need growth?
Basically, if you end up in the same place that you started, what was the point of your story?
Well, you cry, they defeated the major enemy. Isnât that enough?
And to that I ask (because I like holding imaginary teaching sessions): If they could defeat the major enemy (or if they could get the girl/boy/non-binary person, or if they could get into the school they wanted, or if they could do whatever else they want to do) with the capabilities they had in the beginning, why didnât they? There is no need for a story if your characters have everything they need to succeed when the story starts.
And as for why you need failure? Here are three reasons.
One, failure is realistic. Things rarely work well on the first try, especially more than once, which means that the more things a character (or group, organization, etc.) is trying, the more they should fail. If you think about someone trying to learn a language, they basically never (without an eidetic memory) remember all words the first time they see/hear them, or use grammar perfectly on the first try, or pronounce every word correctly. They will get some, but they will rarely get all. The same should go for someone who is trying to learn how to fight, for example. Even if you get everything right the first time you are shown it (which may or may not happen), youâre not going to get it right every time. You might fail more at some things than at others, or fail at the same thing over and over. Sometimes itâs because you donât understand how to do it, sometimes itâs because your brain and your body arenât communicating well, and sometimes itâs because your muscles just arenât strong enough or your body isnât flexible enough for it to work. Those are all failures that can and do happen in real life.
Two, failure raises the stakes. If you know the main characters are going to succeed at everything they try, or that their failures arenât going to have any consequences beyond that episode (or chapter, etc.), there are no stakes. There is no concern for whether the character will do well or whether they will be ready in time, because they always are. There is no risk, because there is no failure.
Three, failure is interesting. As we see in Stargate, entire episodes can be built around failures. Failures make for interesting storylines, and sometimes successes that turn into failures can turn into even more interesting storylines. You defeat the Big Bad only to have a Bigger Bad rise up because of it? Thatâs a great storyline, and shows what was ultimately a failure by the characters. You stop someone for personal reasons at the expense of stopping someone for strategic reasons? Great storyline, because it not only prolongs and changes the conflict, it also adds an opportunity for personal growth and/or conflict into the mix.
With that, failures can also cause really interesting interpersonal interactions. Letâs so all of the characters are counting on Bob to pull off one part of the plan, and despite trying his best, Bob fails. Now everyone blames Bob (or maybe some subset of them blame Bob, depending on their personalities) and it causes tension in the group. Maybe this tension ultimately leads to Bob leaving because he canât take the blame anymore. Now you have a splintered group all from Bobâs one failure.
What types of growth and failure can you have?
(Iâm glad you asked, me.)
Here are some examples (primarily for militaristic/adventure type stories, but thereâs a mix)**:
Building an army (or a group of people)
Not be able to convince people to join
Have traitors in the midst
Have large numbers die/be killed
Have people defect
Have ideological/strategic differences with allies
Building a new form a transportation
Not have it ready in time
Have it not go far enough
Have it not go fast enough
Have it fail mid-journey
Have it explode mid-journey
Building a weapon
Not have it ready in time
Have it not work
Have it explode in testing
Have it fail during use
Learning to fight
Not be ready in time
Hurt self while training
Not have the strength
Not have the endurance
Learning magic
Lose control
Not have the magical capacity
Not understand the theory
Not perform key rituals
Perform key rituals wrong
Not have key materials
Learning a language
Forget vocabulary
Forget grammar
Not understand grammar
Be unable to pronounce words
Be unable to understand spoken words
Misunderstand nuances
Translating/decoding something
Misunderstand nuances
Mistranslate words
Know the wrong dialect
Have the wrong key
Looking for something
Follow misleading clues
Have someone else find it first
Taking territory
Not have sufficient forces
Not have sufficient ability to break walls
Lose too many forces
Be unable to hold territory
Getting a romantic partner
Cheat
Make bad decisions while intoxicated
Forget significant dates/events
Say inappropriate or mean things
Misunderstand what is being said
Miscommunicate
Getting a degree
Not having enough money
Not studying enough
Not getting good enough grades
Not having the time
Having other life issues that distract from it
Forming a government
Have ideological splits
Have political splits
Have factions form
Have coup attempts
Be unable to govern
Be unable to create a working organizational structure
Be unable to create adequate civil service (police, roads, etc.)
*Of course, Stargate has some of its own issues with this, like the fact that Daniel has been brought back to life more than once, so the viewers stop believing that Daniel is ever actually dead.
**When I use the term failure, I donât mean that it is the fault of the character or organization (necessarily, though in some cases it might be). I just mean that it is not-success.
Hello! Do you have any suggestions for using syntax to differentiate between POV characters? They have the same education and cultural background, but I was wondering if itâs possible to use terse sentences with a terse character, or longer passages for a more meditative character - not just their speech, but description and action as well. My characters always have a lot more going on in their heads compared to what they actually say, and I really want that to come across. Thanks so much!
Youâve nailed it right there in your question! Everyone has their own way of putting words together even if they come from similar backgrounds, and Iâm not just talking regional dialects, here.
Personality has a huge impact on the way we talk. Iâm a big multi-tasker, so I tend to have multiple sentences going on in my head at the same time, which often leads to long, complicated, complex sentences where I try to splice all those ideas from those sentences into one big long sentence like this one. Other folks are more straight-forward. They stick to the topic at-hand and are more direct. This isnât just something that shows up in the way a person talksâitâs also how they think, too. Each POV should have a distinct voice that belongs to the character, and their personality will reflect in the way they piece sentences together in their mind and in the narration.
Observational skills are another huge influence on narration. Not everybody notices everything! I can tell you exactly where a coworker left a notebook, but I couldnât tell you what they were wearing while my coworker frequently has no idea where their notebook went but will tell me if I wore a shirt two weeks in a row. What characters will observe in their narration will vary wildly from one character to the next depending on what theyâre focused on. Think about what details in a scene they would think are important. Are they more focused on people or things, on work or on social, etc, etc.
What a person values will also shape what they comment on. This might sound like advice for dialogue, but it goes for narration as well. People remark on things in their heads all the time, even if they donât say it out loud. Theyâll have opinions on whatâs going on and what course of action they or someone else should take in the situation. They might think about how something is right or wrong with whatâs going on, or they might muse about how they might have done something differently, or they might consider how much they really like a thing that another character might not even consider at all.
Youâve already got the right idea to use the character to help inform how their narrative style would present on the page. By tailoring it to be distinct to each character, it puts the metaphorical âcameraâ closer to the character and lets the audience hear almost directly from them (this is called psychic distance!) even if itâs third person perspective. Follow your instincts, because theyâre already working in the right direction.
Good luck! -Pear
The Schweizer Guide to Spotting Tangents
I do compositional lectures a lot in my classes, as well as at the occasional convention. Iâve been asked to post them, so hereâs part one: The Schweizer Guide to Spotting Tangents!
Comic art is, as a general rule, a line-based medium. I know, I know, there are plenty of artists whose work is painted, or who depict their subject in ink using solely light and shadow.  But these folks are unquestioningly in the minority, as the history of printing technology originally dictated the use of line to depict form in the early days of comics. This became a stylistic expectation, and itâs an expectation that I enthusiastically embrace, as have many others. But using line to draw the world invites chances for that cardinal sin of composition: the tangent. A tangent is when two or more lines interact in a way that insinuates a relationship between them that the artist did not intend. It can create confusion on the part of the audience as to what it is that theyâre looking at. It can cause the spatial depth that one attempts to cultivate through the use of planes to become flattened. Most of all, it creates a decidedly unwelcome aesthetic response: tangents are just plain ugly. There are a lot of different types of tangents, as least according to the way I define them. In order to make it easier on my students when giving critiques, Iâve categorized them and named them. This may have been done before, but Iâve not encountered it. My hope is that, by making this âspot-the-enemyâ guide, fewer artists will fall into the tangent trap by knowing what to look for.  1. The Long Line The long line is when a line from one object runs directly into the line of another This is the tangent that everybody knows. The one thatâs easiest to spot, easiest to avoid. For a lot of folks, this is the only thing meant when one refers to a âtangent.â  Even in the work of the very best comic artists, a vigilant eye can find the occasional tangent. Even when a cartoonist is constantly on the lookout, a tangent can slip through. But, as each of strive to better ourselves and the quality of our work and our medium, 2. The Parallel The parallel tangent is when the containing lines of two objects run alongside each other. This causes one of two negative outcomes. Either one object becomes âlost,â as the other overpowers it (figure 1), or one object feels strangely contained by another (figure 2). This can be avoided by ensuring that any object that COULD run alongside another is angled at least 45 degrees from the first. The next two are REALLY tough to spot, and most artists have fallen victim to them before.  3. The Corner The corner tangent is when two lines in an object meet in a way intended by the artist, but another (accidental) line runs directly into the place where they meet.  4. The Bump-Up A bump-up tangent is when the containing line of one object âbumps upâ against the containing line of another object.  When these two lines touch, it creates a bump-up tangent (and even when they donât technically touch, if itâs close enough to raise eyebrows, they might as well). The bump-up gives the impression of containment. In figure 1, it seems as though her ponytail is physically unable to enter the space occupied by the pole. In figure 2, it feels as though her elbow is unable to LEAVE that space.
Also, be careful not to let elements of the drawing bump up against your panel borders! Either give them room to breathe or decisively crop them. Same goes for letting figures âstandâ on the bottom panel border.  5. The Directional A directional tangent is basically just a long-line tangent thatâs been broken by empty space. Now, this one isnât always bad â it can, on occasion, be used to draw the readerâs eye through the image on a specifically determined path. 6. The Panel-to-Panel This one is exactly the same thing as the directional (in fact, I shouldnât even classify it as its own thing), save that instead of empty space dividing a long-line itâs a panel gutter. My gutters are crazy wide, but with normal-sized gutters this can be a real problem.  One more thing⌠This ainât a tangent, but it is a compositional no-no. Fake Panels Comics generally have panel borders, so readers are used to having images contained by straight lines. Some artists donât allow gutters between their borders. Though I believe that, as a rule, this can make it harder for new comics readers to follow the story (and new readers are always important), itâs done with enough regularity that we must expect the audience to feel comfortable with gutterless pages. What does this mean? It means that we canât draw a straight line in any panel, either vertical or horizontal, without having some object overlap it. If we do, readers may think that it is a panel border, incorrectly breaking one moment into two. See how the overlap of the elbow causes there to be no question? Thatâs it for Lesson #1. Lesson #2 will come around in the next few days. Feel free to use any terminology that Iâve laid down in this one, or feel free to abandon it in favor of better, more accurate terminology.

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Itâs beyond your understanding.
If you would like to request a tutorial, you can do so on this post over here! Eye Coloring Tutorial by me | Other Eye Tutorials: 1 2 3 | My Resource list for Faces and Heads