SHIFT!!! (SZ EP 262 Panel Preview/Process)

oMG YALLLLLLLLLLLLL... It finally happened! After YEARS of hyping it up Clove finally had her moment in Ep 262. At last, I'm happy to say my haters don't have a grip on the series with the "Clove hasn't even transformed yet" comments that drove me mad for weeks on end.

I personally think the previous chapter summed up my reasoning for keeping Clove's powers contained up until this point:

Dragon powers are able to bring people back to life, which is the ACTUAL reason the Dragons relinquished their forms (so they could bring back these kind, innocent children that were killed when the war first breaks out- which also happened to be Clove/Kyro's ancestors.

Dragons having super magic badass powers is a bonus of the previous point, BUT it's not the main reason the chars have Dragons living inside them.

I'm sure many will complain that it still TOOK TOO LONG for her to transform, but from a narrative perspective... It's MUCH more interesting to write Clove as a character finding creative solutions to her problem, not blasting through them with Dragon powers.

One other comment that used to bother me was insisting that Myste's mindless, half-snake, jade dragons can shift and WHY can't Clove just DO IT?!! I really hope people reading the new ep will realize the TRUE dragon-shifters are leagues above the jade beasts and are in fact, NOTHING alike.

HURHUR I realize I just spent the last 20 mins listing out my gripes with comments now that I finally have something to say back. In any case, please enjoy this panel preview + coloring process featuring @eggpuranto's lovely coloring work! (it looks so good).

I was pretty rushed while inking this panels so imagine my surprise when I was able to BS the foreshortening on the hand with no refs. Not gonna lie, I was really proud of myself for drawing a decent hand haha. In the past, I'd usually do everything in my power to avoid extreme hand angles but it just goes to show that BRUTE FORCE drawing 50-60 panels per week for YEARS does help one improve... who would have thought... ^^