More WORK STAGES on 4 pages from THE CHASTE AND THE CHAINED, plus bonus script!

So! Time for s'more work-in-progress jpegs from an ongoing art-test story for fantasy comic The Chaste and the Chained, now with the narrative's dialogue revealed in script (but not lettering) form.

First off, the story's initial analog-media inked page in work-in-progress form, still needing to be cleaned up a fair bit:

And here's the page's dialogue:

PANEL 1:

PALADIN: Lady Elfmage.

PANEL 2:

PALADIN: Need I be concerned that you have been sneaking oddly furtive glances at me ever since that last visionspell you cast?

ELFMAGE: Ah…!

PANEL 3:

PALADIN: Is your unearthly magesight bescrying evil spirits wafting ‘round me, mayhap?

PANEL 4:

ELFMAGE: Y-your insight is indeed keen, good Paladin…!

And here's page 2, drawn in Clip studio Paint and likewise needing more finishing work:

PANEL 1:

ELFMAGE: For I was, in truth, surreptitiously inspecting you for malign spiritual presences with a lesser spellsight enchantment, you see!

PANEL 2/3:

ELFMAGE: But I wished not to offend your Paladin’s modesty by staring at you directly, my admirably chaste guardian…!

PANEL 4:

ELFMAGE: Pray pardon the indiscretion, but I did seek only to ensure our mutual security by such scrutiny!

PANEL 5:

PALADIN: Aye...?

CAPTION: ELFMAGE LHIWEN’S ENSORCELLED POINT OF VIEW

CAPTION: The Salacious Sorceror’s Lesser Visionspell of Clothing Transparency

CAPTION: (small) (Decorously crafted to preserve target’s underclothing modesty)

PANEL 6: 

INNER ELFMAGE: Unveiled, the strapping lad is sculpted even more fetchingly and ruggedly than I had imagined

INNER ELFMAGE: And his enticing brawn sports even more delightful scars than this demure Elfmaid had hoped

Here's page 3 in various Work Stages, though not quite finished either:

Here's page 3's dialogue:

PANEL 1:

ELFMAGE: Um, if you are thusly agreeable, good sir…

ELFMAGE: …might I assay another, more potent spell of magical inspection upon you…?

PANEL 2

ELFMAGE: More than mere furtive glances would be required for this enchantment, however…!

PANEL 3:

PALADIN: Agreed, Lady Elfmage.

PALADIN: Cast your visionspell and be done with it, quick-like, so we might be on our way.

PANEL 4:

ELFMAGE: Gladly, my good Paladin…!

PANEL 5: 

INNER ELFMAGE: Let us now espy what lurks ‘neath those well-filled breeches, my gullible guardian

CAPTION: The Salacious Sorceror’s Greater Visionspell of Clothing Transparency

CAPTION: (small) (Peers through ALL of target's clothing)

PANEL 6: 

ELFMAGE: Heh.

And finally (for now), here's the still-incomplete page 4 in various stages:

And the page's text:

PANEL 2:

PALADIN: So?

PALADIN: What do you see, Lady Sorceress?

PANEL 3: 

ELFMAGE: D-despite all our eldritch misadventures, m-my enhanced magesight proves you wholly devoid of any threatening presences, good sir…!

PANEL 4:

INNER ELFMAGE: Save for the threatening presence down there

INNER ELFMAGE: Such a prodigiously far-from-elven endowment would bid fair to rend a delicate Elfmaiden in twain

PANEL 5:

INNER ELFMAGE: Even in a quiescently dormant state, such stoutness makes a damsel quail with trepidation 

PANEL 6:

PALADIN: Well, good, then.

ELFMAGE: Y-your Divine Maiden’s protection has warded off any malign spiritual pollution, clearly…!

PANEL 7:

INNER ELFMAGE: The true issue of pollution arising here is, how might such an imposing manhood pollute me without tearing my frail frame asunder in the process?

INNER ELFMAGE: Hrmmm.

In fairness, I should note that the Paladin might not be all that hugely endowed as such, but only seems so in comparison to Elven males, who might well hew to the diminutive ideal of, say, classical Grecian statuary or the like. (Unstated here is the possibility that the Elf Mage has never actually used this spell to peek at a human male before.)

Anyhoo, I'm pausing this test story for the time being as I move on to yet another test story that will use a slightly different artistic approach. Y'see, while the digital inks in this sample worked out relatively well, and in fact represent the best inked output I've yet managed in Clip Studio Paint, I'm still hoping to get away from this slow, tedious, frustrating process of essentially drawing the same g-d page twice (once in "blue pencil", once in "inks").

The dream digital workflow, for me, would be what I've dubbed "FDOD," which stands for "First Draft, Only Draft." That is, I'd like to get to the point of juuuuust tightening up a page's initial art stage enough to make it reproducible. The only extant example I can think of this theoretical approach is a relatively loose 'n' sketchy page from the earlier "Elf vs. Chair" test story:

Ehh, I'd probably like to go a bit tighter than this, though. Problem is, I would need to somehow override Artist Me's incessant perfectionism to roll with a "sketchy" art style; anyhoo, I've just switched over to drawing a new flashback scene in which I will attempt to go all "FDOD." Wish me luck, okay?

Onward!

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?