Sustained Investigation

INQUIRY STATEMENT
I want to investigate the aspects of visually telling a fantasy anti-hero's story and adapting the written word of a tale I craft into a graphic format. I want to explore everything from character and place design to mythical creature depiction to storyboarding and how the elements of art can be effectively used to tell a story.

Early Processes (old)

Dimensions: Mostly 9 x 12 in

Materials:

Sketching pencil (HB), drawing pens, colored pencils, recycled sketch paper, alcohol pens, Krita and Photoshop.

Ideas:

The dragon stipple art was a first look at the themes -- the dark sun (eclipse) and the moon.
I specifically remember wanting to make Captain Greene, (a villain), look like the stereotypical golden-boy hero.
I really really really wanted to incorporate elements of the ancient Polish Calvary into Sunny's design.
. . . before I realized that a military organization like INRAE (InterNational Resistance Against Evil) would have uniforms.

Processes

Some of these are 2+ years old, and weren't in the best condition when I photographed them. A lot of "what if?"s essentially drove the process.

It was mostly to help me visualize and figure out the story at this point and not geared towards the creation of a graphic novel.

Artists Referenced

Unfortunately, I wasn't in the habit of referencing master and current artists when I made these.

Mythical Creature Depiction Investigation

Dimensions: All done on 9 x 12 inch paper

Materials:

Sketching pencil (HB), drawing pens, colored pencils and recycled sketch paper.

Ideas:

I wanted to create my own ideas of how to depict these creatures, but while also adhering to the original descriptions/depictions.
Effectively combine the original depictions with something modern audiences would recognize.

Processes

I looked at both ancient and contemporary depictions for each design I wanted to do in order to create the fantastical creatures that would inhabit a world based on Earth. This set of mythological creatures are some that inhabit the continent of light (the Human Nations). Most of these designs I will use to make characters granted with their powers, and some will appear in the story themselves. (FYI, this is a more demon heavy story in terms of mythology, so we don't see a whole lot of creatures of light playing active on-page roles in the story.)

A lot of the time, there were some major differences between original depictions and what pop culture has made it into.

Artists Referenced

Chen Rong, Yu Sheng & Zhang Weibang, Michelangelo, Leonardo Da VInci
Lampp0st, Fenshui Monster, Drakinator, Marnah, R.J. Palmer, Richard Garfield.

More Mythical Creature Depiction Investigation

Dimensions: All done on 9 x 12 inch paper

Materials:

Sketching pencil (HB), drawing pens, colored pencils and recycled sketch paper.

Ideas:

I wanted to create my own ideas of how to depict these creatures, but while also adhering to the original descriptions/depictions.
Effectively combine the original depictions with something modern audiences will recognize.

Processes

I essentially started shifting towards looking more at oral descriptions for the demon types that weren't depicted in art.

This set of mythological creatures are some that inhabit the continent of darkness (the Demon Lands). Unlike the last set, these are all pretty much what the characters will look like (with variation characteristic to each demon type, of course).

As an additional note, the fairy/faeries are a more ambiguous species with some on both the light and dark continents.

A lot of the time, there were some major differences between original depictions and what pop culture has made it into. Especially with Native folklore.

Artists Referenced

Ancient Greek vase painting (gorgon), traditional oni mask, (Both artists unknown.) Johan Henrich Fussel, Leonardo Da Vinci
George O'Connor, Vivienne Medrano, Lampp0st.

Brush Tip Pen Inking Exploration

Dimensions: All done on 9 x 12 inch paper

Materials:

Drawing pens - brush tip

Ideas:

I wanted to investigate the properties of the brush tip pen and see if I could achieve the desired line thickness variance effects with it.

Processes

I essentially picked up my own brush pen from my small pens set at home and started playing around with it. I found out pretty fast that my motor control when holding the brush properly is not the best. I was having trouble getting the thinner lines, so I switched to a pen with a skinnier brush tip from among the classroom materials and that had better results.

Artists Referenced

Bill Watterson (Calvin and Hobbes artist/creator.)
Lampp0st, several other random graphic novel pages that popped into my head that I remembered specifically because of the inking.

Character reference sheet (Part 1)

Dimensions: All done on 12 x 9 inch paper

Materials:

Drawing pens, graphite pencils, colored pencils.

Ideas:

I just wanted a reference sheet where I could compile all the loose old sketches/concepts still floating around in my brain into something cohesive.

Processes

This story concept has essentially been with me since Freshman year, so I didn't just make this from scratch. I had their descriptions in the written story that were strongly connected to an image in my mind, and a few early sketches of some of the main characters.

I had my mom (who knows nothing about character design) try to guess from this who the main character was. She got it narrowed down to two (Juniper and Eclipse), which is a pretty good start for me. (The actual MC is Eclipse.)

I don't think colored pencils will be the best tool with this project.

Artists Referenced

This is an idea I got from a book explaining the making and concept art that goes into a PIXAR film.

Characterization through eyes Deep Dive

Dimensions: All done on 9 x 12 inch paper

Materials:

Drawing pens, graphite pencils.

Ideas:

I had some trouble with some of the characters' eyes. (My mom confused arrogance for rage-prone jerkwad characterization (Bottom two).)
It actually started with realizing how valuable eyelashes can be for accentuating the eye shapes -- I was not doing eyelashes previously.

Processes

Essentially compiling my experience in theatre with what I knew about character design and human expression.

Artists Referenced

Charlie Chaplin (not a visual artist, an actor, but is really good for watching and learning facial expression in characterization.)
Japanese anime really relies heavily on the eyes for characterization (although that's not my art style for this project). I also looked at tv shows with art styles closer to my own such as Noelle Stevenson's She-Ra and the Princesses of Power.

Concept Piece for pt.1

Dimensions: about 9 x 12 inches

Materials:

#2 pencil on sketch paper, then photographed and finalized it on Krita (digital art app).

Ideas:

I just really liked this composition idea for a concept piece.

Processes

I mostly dealt with technical issues while making this. It took a stupidly long time to make because the software would read too much into my hand shaking.

I also had to figure out how to make the individual characters' color schemes work together for one cohesive whole. Color context and schemes.

Artists Referenced

I referenced Andy Warhol for help with the colors in this piece.
Noelle Stevenson's She-Ra and the Princesses of Power -- a panel from the Season 1 intro sequence was my inspiration for this composition.

World Map

Dimensions: about 9 x 9 inches

Materials:

2H and 2B pencils on sketch paper, then photographed and added text to it on Krita.

Ideas:

I really liked the idea of an inverted yin/yang for a world map reflected across the equator.
I wanted to make sure the major societies of the world were represented in the Human Nations. (This is heavily based on Earth.)

Processes

Making this involved a lot of looking at the world map as a geographical reference, as well as getting inspiration for the country names from Google Translate. Some, I combined elements of different words, if it was a nation based on many Earth-nations, and some I just left as is.

For the Demon Lands, I used only geographical names because their natural state is anarchy (meaning, no countries). For the society part of the world building, I took everything about human society and reversed it to get a basis for the demon society.

Artists Referenced

I referenced Greyson Perry's "Map of an Englishman", which combines witty political commentary with world building. I'm not sure if the world map counts as a "master" reference, but I used that a lot too.
Several maps from my favorite childhood fantasy series such as Wings of Fire (which I found don't hold up very well geographically). Christopher Paolini was the best example I could find of a good fantasy map, though his place names are mostly based on Germanic languages.