richardf8 | (Reply)

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Since you seem to do it as a matter of habit, it's probably going to be a bit difficult to explain. Probably the best way to put it is that you are not afraid to let your characters take up a lot of space in a panel, whereas I tend to show a whole lot of the room and make my characters relatively small - as if I'm afraid to let them take up space. They don't really DOMINATE the panel like they should. Cases in point, because I have the originals handy are the January 4th and December whenever strips. In Panel 3 of the December strip the figures are small enough that not a whole lot of detail is visible on them, there's more distance than necessary between Willie and Grendel, all so that I can show an expanse of kitchen counter. In the January 4th strip, I've plunked Willie's mom in a vast expanse of an unfurnished room - like her furniture was repossessed or something. In Panel 2 Grendel and Willie should both be closer to Willie's mom and most of that room excluded from the shot. (I tend to think like a cinematographer when I talk about this stuff).

I have a lot of these same problems when I use a camera too - I tend to try to include as much as I can in a picture for "context" instead of giving the frame over wholeheartedly to my subject. This is an impulse that I need to consciously fight whether I'm looking through a lens or at a piece of Bristol.

I have this problem less when I'm doing stuff in your universe, and I think it's because I tend to plow through Regime Change for references, and your tighter composition is more at the forefront of my consciousness.