A little later than planned here’s page 8!
I drew up the linework on holiday to avoid a complete hiatus, though drawing in the face of strong winds at the beach wasn’t the best of ideas, nor was trying to draw straight lines in a moving car…
Anyway, with this one I wanted to change the atmosphere giving the sense of breathing room after the claustrophobic tunnel and airlock. I was advised to pull back more by Paul Gravett so I’ve done just that with the middle panel, emphasising Alexa’s departure (for now) and the new spaceport setting.
In relation to this I cranked up the brightness of the colours aswell, going for more in the way of antiseptic whites and light blues while intensifying the characters. This may seem counter logical given the used future setting and noir influence, but I feel this is a good point to visually emphasise the ‘calm before the storm’; the story is destined to head into gloomy murk soon enough and a little contrast seemed like a good idea. Besides this, in reality airports frequently have whitish colour schemes and if anywhere on the station were likely to be well maintained it would be here.
I should also mention I made a notable alteration from the script here with Curt’s reaction. Originally he didn’t say anything after Alexa walks off, but it occurred to me how odd it seems they didn’t introduce themselves at all. As such I felt an acknowledgement in the dialogue might be a good idea, while lending a bit more colour to Curt’s personality in the process. Alexa also developed to be more flirtatious than scripted in drawn form so the suggestive response seems believable enough.
On the negatives: I can’t help feeling I could have done more with the space, especially that middle panel. Maybe a few passers-by or more scenery would have improved it. I dunno, but a bit more care in future compositions wouldn’t go amiss. That and a few instances of dodgy anatomy continue to irritate as usual.
Not a great page then, but at least an adequate one and a reminder of where I need to work harder.
Growing Branch 
It’s nice to see some natural dialogue, and by natural I mean when they’re not concerned by work only, or “friendly”. Not that the other dialogues so far were unnatural. I guess casual would be a better word.
Anyway, nice page. :) The floor is going a little fisheye where the woman’s feet are though. I know I’m not the one who should pick on perspective but I thought it might be something to watch for.
I hear you on the floor, I nearly always find two point perspective problematic – looking at it now it seems the points I was drawing from should have been further apart. Ack, definitely something to work on :(
On the upside, glad to hear the dialogue seems natural/casual; I’ve been trying hard to avoid cheesy lines so its good to see that paying off at least :)