"Bearioki"

This digitally colored panel pushed the limit on how far I'm comfortable with going a bit too "photoshoppy" for my aesthetics. As mentioned earlier I have recently been inspired by the simpler, flatter palette of Peter Gallagher's "Heathcliff." Next week I'll post an excellent example of how I'm experimenting with backing off/scaling down the effect-driven technologically saturated approach. A cleaner + brighter palette is also much quicker to render too, and after sitting back to contemplate this one, I'm left more dissatisfied than usual.

Also this was one of a recent series that frustrated me to no end because panel after panel took more than the normal tweaks after scanning in the pen + ink linework. In other words I wasn't paying enough attention to making my marks, and upon review, required additional editing in order to arrive at a better, tighter, more efficiently designed composition. It's frustrating but at least easy enough to compensate for and hopefully shift some more focus on the task at hand, at least behind the drawing table.

Also there's a bonus homage to A.A. Milne (and by extension - not in craftsmanship - to E.H. Shepard's phenomenal illustrations). Here's a link to the solution for the obscure reference. After a couple of live demo sessions down at the cafe while the show was up I was able to bounce this one off random observers, and sure enough, a majority missed out on the hat-tip, which doesn't necessarily dilute the joke. Like life, it's just not as fully appreciated when you miss the comedic connections.