Illustration Notes for Episode Forty-Two

This week was CRAZY! I won’t get into details, but anyone who assumed—like I did—that life self-isolated at home for weeks would be calmer and less hectic…might still be surprised! That said, I kept this week’s image as simple as possible—as I once again find myself putting both writing and art for this week’s episode together as the clock ticks ever nearer to 3PM on Friday. :D

As with so many previous scenes that are basically written as ‘long conversations,’ I decided to depict something ‘related,’ but not literally in the scene. This time, that turned out to be a ‘portrait’ of Shade Tree (AKA ‘Shade’ most of the time) who is Anselm’s very young, extraordinarily talented, and extremely complicated ‘head of intelligence and security’—basically Rain’s ‘dark counterpart’ in this story.

In this ‘non-portrait,’ we see—or more accurately, DON’T see—Shade ‘at work’ somewhere. Not only is he in nearly solid silhouette, but what little we can make out of his face is intentionally blurred. Shade makes a point of not being seen—even when you see him. Even his body is ‘undefined,’ lacking any of the normal ‘rim-lighting’ or dim highlights one might expect—like a well of darkness not interacting normally with any of the light in this darkened room. As you may have figured out already, Colleen’s ‘second abductor’ whose image just ‘slides sideways’ in her mind every time she tries to recall his appearance, was Shade. Shade’s expertise at ‘non-visibility’ applies not just to literal visibility, but on MANY levels, as we will see further into this tale. And so—in this image—he is a featureless cutout, revealing virtually nothing else to us—by design.

Find the usual uncropped and uncluttered version below. And stay safe and healthy! :]