'Nothing to Fear' p4 layouts

This fourth page was one of 3 out of the 12 that were “full-page splashes.” As such, I knew I had to nail the layout just right in order to convey enough drama to warrant the extra space needed.

After my first draft, I realized that I would be best off avoiding circles as much as possible, since they are so hard to get right and so obvious when they aren’t perfectly round. Also, I noticed that I left way too much empty space on each side of the center sphere, so I considered trying some dramatic flair by putting April’s feline eyes on each side… until I realized how stupid it looked!

The second draft was my attempt to avoid circles all together, but I decided that pushing the “reaction” panels to one side of April just wouldn’t convey the necessary horror of the moment.

In the final draft, I decided to go with only one circle (the sewer hole) and try to just do my best with angles and quadrilaterals to box off the reaction panels. The sewer hole certainly didn't come out perfectly round and the mouser section isn’t perfectly symmetrical either, but I’m very pleased with the overall effect. Having April stepping through the hole one step at a time provided a nice sense of perspective and motion.

See the finished Page 4:
[link]