The Emperor's Treasure: Page One

I'm pretty happy with the art for the new comic (The Lost Explorers: The Emperor's Treasure) so far. I've felt more confident in what I'm capable of depicting, and consequently I've increased the level of detail in comparison to previous attempts with these characters.

Here's how things looked last summer in a short 13 page comic that has seen the light of day basically nowhere:

Here's the first page of the new attempt:

The eyes are now enclosed, not just dots on the face, and the background isn't just a monochromatic color and a few lines. Blogspot won't let me post larger images, but a lot more work went into the detail.

One thing I'm trying out is extra texture where shadows will be when the image is finally colored. I can't think of other artists that do this, which means it might not work or be worthwhile in the end, but there's only one way to find out.

-2 pages penciled/half-inked, still