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One thing the "graphic novel" route means is that I can take a breath, relax, and go back and do all the fleshing out and nailing down that I didn't have time to do before. I worked on this page while watching President Obama's press conference on the economic stimulus bill. I sketched out some head-on shots for some of the characters, going back to try to establish some rules on things like proportions, shapes, defining traits, etc. No actual model sheets to speak of yet, but those will come. I've found that the head-on shots are the toughest to get to look right, and that's mainly why I do those first.

There's also a really nice bit with Brian and Tazel. The expressions came out great, but the proportions need work.

Call this part of the "rebuilding" or the "restructuring" process. I don't know if this is the right way to go about it, but sometimes you have to let yourself do everything wrong, and it may turn out that you were right about a few things after all.