I like how it seems that he is talking to the audience, while they are standing right behind him.
It’s kind of like what one is taught for stage acting: always fa e the audience, even when talking to other actors on the stage. The audience knows who you’re talking to, and so do the other actors. It’s more important for the audience to hear your words clearly and to see your facial expressions than to look like a normal conversation. So face the audience instead of whomever on stage you’re addressing; the audience’s willing suspension of disbelief will convince them to overlook the seeming awkwardness of not facing the other actors much more readily than it will convince them to overlook an inability to hear your words. As long as everything they have to overlook actually helps them to follow the Story, they’ll very willingly forgive it.
Actually, Vanja did a great job of staging that entire third panel, according to that rule. The way the detective is holding the book, he couldn’t possibly be reading it; it would be like trying to read something perpendicular to ones face and held almost at chin level. And the way he’s pointing to the page would normally be kind of awkward and uncomfortable, wouldn’t it? Plus, look at where his face is in relation to Ray’s and Hobart’s; they’re not only behind him, they’re above him, even though he’s taller than both of them. That means he’s either sitting or squatting with his chin nearly on the table that the book is resting on — not a very comfortable pose.
But, we happily overlook all of that, because Vanja posed that scene to show us the characters’ faces and reactions as well as to illustrate to us what is causing those reactions. She very sensibly highlighted the story elements for us instead of stressing realism, because the Story is why we are reading Darkheim in the first place. I’m willing to bet most readers didn’t even think of how this scene is posed for their benefit until we began pointing it out. That’s the difference between a simply depicting an image and telling a great Story; always remember your audience, and involve them in your process of telling the story, and they’ll love you for it! That’s true Art.
I was aiming more for the detective to glance towards Hobart, but I now notice it looks more like he’s looking directly at the reader instead…I did a minor tweak to this in order to make it look the way I intended, thanks for pointing it out though ^_^
And thank you for giving such detailed feedback and praise, Bitflipper, I really appreciate it ^_^
You’re welcome! And thank you for sharing Darkheim with us; it’s refreshingly different from the gag-a-day fare that predominates webcomics. It’s good to see a real Story being told in this medium.
I like how it seems that he is talking to the audience, while they are standing right behind him.
It’s kind of like what one is taught for stage acting: always fa e the audience, even when talking to other actors on the stage. The audience knows who you’re talking to, and so do the other actors. It’s more important for the audience to hear your words clearly and to see your facial expressions than to look like a normal conversation. So face the audience instead of whomever on stage you’re addressing; the audience’s willing suspension of disbelief will convince them to overlook the seeming awkwardness of not facing the other actors much more readily than it will convince them to overlook an inability to hear your words. As long as everything they have to overlook actually helps them to follow the Story, they’ll very willingly forgive it.
Actually, Vanja did a great job of staging that entire third panel, according to that rule. The way the detective is holding the book, he couldn’t possibly be reading it; it would be like trying to read something perpendicular to ones face and held almost at chin level. And the way he’s pointing to the page would normally be kind of awkward and uncomfortable, wouldn’t it? Plus, look at where his face is in relation to Ray’s and Hobart’s; they’re not only behind him, they’re above him, even though he’s taller than both of them. That means he’s either sitting or squatting with his chin nearly on the table that the book is resting on — not a very comfortable pose.
But, we happily overlook all of that, because Vanja posed that scene to show us the characters’ faces and reactions as well as to illustrate to us what is causing those reactions. She very sensibly highlighted the story elements for us instead of stressing realism, because the Story is why we are reading Darkheim in the first place. I’m willing to bet most readers didn’t even think of how this scene is posed for their benefit until we began pointing it out. That’s the difference between a simply depicting an image and telling a great Story; always remember your audience, and involve them in your process of telling the story, and they’ll love you for it! That’s true Art.
I was aiming more for the detective to glance towards Hobart, but I now notice it looks more like he’s looking directly at the reader instead…I did a minor tweak to this in order to make it look the way I intended, thanks for pointing it out though ^_^
And thank you for giving such detailed feedback and praise, Bitflipper, I really appreciate it ^_^
You’re welcome! And thank you for sharing Darkheim with us; it’s refreshingly different from the gag-a-day fare that predominates webcomics. It’s good to see a real Story being told in this medium.