Posted January 18, 2016 at 1:01 am

Are you ready for "Dan critiques his own art technique" commentary? If not, you may want to flee o_o

I find myself very frustrated by this comic, because while I'm ultimately happy with the form Grace wound up in, I'm pretty sure a lot of people are going to answer "no" to her question in the last panel.

I guess I could claim "that's the joke" while having shifty eyes, but the truth is that I didn't realize until adding shadows how little contrast there truly was. There are a bunch of adjustments, but they're all subtle, and they're subtle enough that I'm not even sure they'll register for everyone. I attempted to add additional muscle tone, but it didn't look right.

Really, I've never been satisfied with detailed muscle tone in my style. It looks abnormal given a style that favors fewer lines, and generally looks odd unless dealing with someone like Aludrakrala. Lines are generally there for high contrast spots, so when they're supposed to be there to show abs, they looks odd in my style on anyone who shouldn't have REALLY prominent abs that are capable of grating cheese.

Anyway, I actually like the end result with Grace. I'm just irritated because I had planned for the change to be a bit less subtle.