Page Layouts Combined...

 Before making the rest of my elements I wanted to further clarify my page layouts mostly because I don't want to stick to a formulaic layout I want to have free moving elements that aren't limited to rectangular squares that can link various scenes together. In order to understand how these are all going to link I needed to have a very clear layout plan.

Page One

I did the first half of page one simply by eye but I have tried to clarify and plan below. Although there are more rectangular squares in this first page than I plan on having throughout the rest of the strip I wanted to make sure that I would be able to deviate from this on my other pages without ruining the continuity hence the free form elements. The thought and the bird were two repetitive elements throughout so in order to keep their appearances down to a minimum it made sense for them to be freeform elements that link the various scenes together. These linking elements also integrate movement which is helpful because its hard to convey motion in stills.

Expression is a key element throughout my strip so deciding on my various facial expressions dictates how the story is understood.  

Key emotions on page one:

Scene One-Happy ambience 

Scene Two- Bird steals the thought - Shock

Scene Three- Sadness

Scene Four - An idea- Excitment

Scene Five- Out the window- Shock and Fear

 Page Two

Again the first two scenes follow a similar box layout- simply because I wanted to depict a wider scene in order to highlight height. 

The falling pose would be a freer element so I could have it overlap and direct the eye downwards- since the motion of falling is pretty extreme this also helped to convey the movement.

Key emotions on page two:

Scene One- Smaller side look - harder to see face

Scene Two- Fear

Scene Three- Falling- Fear and mouth open

Scene Four- Close Up - sadly/angrily looking at bird- probably a more neutral expression with eyes looking up 

Page Three

Diving downwards to find the fishing hook - before then grabbing it and then flinging upwards to a boat is a very complex range of movements - but it is ultimately one fluid motion with one end goal putting my character onto the boat. Because of this I think that these drawings have to be freer elements in order to use them in all of the scenes. Once the character is on the boat I intend to go into a more structured layout - with rectangular edges although there will be overlapping elements within these. 

Key emotions on page three:

Scene One- Swimming Face - holding breath 

Scene Two - Side on - Determintation

Scene Three- Idea- happy smile

Scene Four- Smug happiness 

 Page Four

The last page was a very simple one - since I made sure that my character and the bird were in position so that I could then have the majority of the page focusing on the main message which will occupy the bottom half of the page. There was also only one facial expression needed for this page: happy understanding, because in two of the scenes I am facing in the other direction. Once again various elements will be freeform to link the rectangles (the stars which will overlap along with the thought cloud).