fresh meat, page 30

sorry, this page isn't all the way done, but it's definitely done enough to upload at the usual time and then finish an hour or 2 after midnight... i've been worried about my dog, who needs her teeth pulled, and recently she's refused food a lot except if i hand-feed her. it's taken up my time both in terms of what a lack of sleep from stress does and from just the time it takes to actually perform the labor.

this was also kind of a lengthy page, comparatively. webcomics are tricky, because pages should end on specific kinds of beats to stay comprehensible (ie. can't end a page mid-sentence, still kind of a dick move to end on a cliffhanger, etc.), but they're usually on a schedule where anything extra can make or break timeliness.
i still like the format, because it makes sure i actually write the stories i want to, and i think being prompted for somewhat unconventional methods to meet the time sensitivity can really put a new spin on ideas and keep me engaged if i approach it like a puzzle with a positive attitude.

for this page, i had the idea that kim could shove the burger into her mouth completely when prompted for her name, and this might save me length in the comic. it'd be funny, the expressions would be interesting to draw, and the scenario would appease my anxiety about not drawing characters actually eating food in food settings much... in the end i decided this just wasn't one of the instances where i should make drastic changes to the events of the story.
thematically, kim had a choice between solidarity or perceived relief from punishment depending on how she reacted to the situation, and if she'd engaged in the behavior of mimicking the other patients at the table in playing stupid, it'd be way too early for the change of heart. it also would have wrenched some obvious plot points later and in the end would've caused me more issues trying to work around this one time i wanted more immediate relief from the pressure.
i might still try working in the idea later to a scene that's lacking if needed, but sometimes that's how the process of ideating different options goes. i've been trying to engage with my ideas positively again that way because i do end up refitting a lot of proverbial puzzle pieces into other spots just because i like them so much, so it isn't worthless to try if it fails to actually solve my current problems.

on a more positive note, i think i'm starting to get a grip on how to frame scenes where there are like 4 or 5 characters clustered together in many of the shots in a way that isn't like 4 or 5 times the amount of effort (although obviously any additional characters or objects inherently raises the effort level to some degree).
in terms of color choices, the deer on this page is the same color as sugar's eyes, but his shading is the color of the shadows on her tan markings to give the impression that it's a different shade of blue... and that he's not as shiny as an eyeball. the highlights on the red bracelets are, tangentially, also the same color as the shadows of sugar's tan markings.