The Tithe continues! We are on page seven today and I can tell you that in total this is a ten page project, meaning it will wrap up a week from today.
I’m feeling super good today and it’s all because of you guys.
The tweets and the emails you're sending about the Tithe are much appreciated.
Today I even snuck into the forums to see what people had to say about the latest page. I know that “reading the comments” is never a good idea for an artist but I was curious. What I saw made me so fucking happy. The discussion taking place in there made me feel incredible. Seeing people talking about what they think this means, what the motivation is behind the different characters, I could not stop smiling. I even (gasp) posted my thoughts on the Thornwatch and what each of them is about. So many of you are invested in this world and in Hanna’s story specifically. I could not be more inspired to finish up these last few pages now.
One thing I've seen asked is why the Blade would have such a negative opinion of a Daughter, considering he "travels" with a Greenheart who is essentially a druid. Get ready, I'm about to go full nerd. If I had not had Lasik, this is when I would casually push my glasses slightly up the bridge of my nose. The Thornwatch is not an organized group like the Lookouts. They are a loose band of outcasts bound by an agreement to help those in need. When the spell to summon them is cast it reaches out to the nearest members. They are more often than not off doing their own shit in the Eyrewood when they feel the call. They can choose to ignore it or answer it. If they answer it they are immediately summoned to the tree the spell was cast at. When they arrive they see who else was summoned. They might have worked with each other before or they could be complete strangers. In my game each adventure starts with the party arriving at the tree. Do you know the other members of the party? If so do you like them? Hate them? All of this makes for a very fun role playing start to each session as players figure out their relationships.
It's also worth noting that the Greenheart is indeed a druid of sorts but compared to a Daughter of the Eyrewood his connection to the forest is ridiculously limited. He also won't have the same motivations as a Daughter but that doesn't mean that people might not still treat him differently. Yeah so I could talk a lot about the Eyrewood and its inhabitants. If this sort of thing is interesting to you let me know and I'll do more of it. In the meantime, here’s a little art dump from today’s page:
The original sketches for pages six and seven. This is what they all start out looking like in my sketchbook.
A high res shot of the Blade.
(click for the big)
Another close up of the Blade being a real asshole.
(click for the big)
-Gabe out
