Character design for the light pollution comic

I may not have had the time to post last weekend but don't think I haven't been hard at work!

Progress is rolling along with the light pollution comic. I'm taking a steady pace and making sure that I've fine tuned the story, design and style before I really push ahead with it. I've got quite a distinct image of what I want in my head, so the more energy I spend trying to get to that point the better, right? 

Here's a collection of character development art from the past week ~

Watercolour and pencil doodles of style and colour combinations.

Developing the look of my protagonist with ink and pencil, and a brother character that has since been dropped. I might re-purpose the design for a background character, I loved drawing that fluffy cloud of hair!

Developing a spirit-fox character. I was looking at a lot of Beth Cavener's sculptures for inspiration, aiming for a wind-carved, sleek sort of look. This is a mix of pencil, ink, marker pen and watercolour overlays. 

More finalised designs for the protagonist. Top middle are mixed markers, with the other being a combination of ink, marker and watercolour overlay. I'm not sure about the combinations of yellow, white and overlay, but I think I'm going to lose the yellow hood in favor of the bottom middle design. Still some work to do here. 

I'm really happy with how the overlays have turned out. And actually how well the galaxy painting as a whole went. As I was painting I felt like it wasn't working and started to question the whole idea of overlaying the watercolour galaxies over characters and clothes. But I was so happy with how it dried. See! Don't give up hope!

So where am I going from here?

• The protagonist needs a little bit more tweaking regarding her block colours. 

• The fox needs a little more designing. The idea is that in moonlight/darkness it takes on star-spattered galaxy colours, but under man-made light it becomes sketchy, withered and generally pretty scary. 

• Get down the secondary characters - a hare, various birds, deer, a badger, fish, frogs, and a few human characters including a young couple and mother with children. 

• Location development! I need to design the protagonist's home, maybe map up her journey so that it makes real sense in my head, and a couple of other locations.

• A test panel, so I know exactly the style I'm going for and how long the entire process takes so I can schedule everything in properly. 

• And then I'll be ready to storyboard and steam ahead~ 

Please feel free to comment and let me know what you think of the designs. Are there any that jump out at you that I might have overlooked or dismissed?

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A mixed media kind of week

Owing to a particularly belligerent creative block last week, this post comes to you a few days late. However, that means that I've got more work to share!

I managed to squeeze out a speedpaint, although it's more of a speedsketch..

Sketchbook, colour pencil and graphite

Working in clay and three-dimensional form as a desperate move to get my brain co-operating with me turned out to be a good move. I think I overwhelmed myself with my to-do list and so my muse turned stubborn and refused to get on-board.

Air dry clay. From left to right: Crow, hedgehog, axolotl & fox

I'm not in any hurry to paint this little critters, so don't expect to see them any time soon. Though I do have about two thirds of a pack of air dry clay to get through that I've haphazardly sealed until I get some bright ideas. Don't want that to go to waste..

It actually worked incredibly well for lifting the art block, and so I managed to get round to some thumbnails for a commission I'm working on..

Dragon in the woods thumbnail sketches

And a piece of concept art for the unnamed graphic novel about light pollution that I'm working on..

Mixed media illustration on A4 Bristol board

I still have to work out the designs a bit more and get a fluid style going, but it was super satisfying to get some kind of expression of this idea out in colour and with a bit of polish.

Things are looking up!

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Graphic Novel Design, Speedpainting & Shop Update!

Unfortunately I don't have much polish to show off this week.

I've been busy on design work for a graphic novel/comic sort of idea that's been stewing around for ages. It'll gradually bleed into the blog and my website as I progress, but I've never tried a big personal project like this before outside of university so bear with me as I work out all the teething pains.

I started out with some figure drawing practice to get me into child proportions. I knew from the start my protagonist was going to be a little girl around 8-10 years old but I tried to keep everything diverse and broad. Thanks Flickr!

Then I progressed to some cabin doodles. Architecture and buildings have never been my strong point, and this project isn't exactly brimming with them. I'm stepping out of so many comfort zones at the moment I thought I'd take this particular one at baby steps.

I went over a couple of drafts, and I still have a couple of bits that don't sit well with me and that will need some reimagining. It's so nice to tell stories again, even if it's just to myself at the moment. 

Next steps? Lots and lots of design work. I'm aiming to make up a first draft storyboard in half term. I day job at a college so I'll have a whole week to devote to it...more or less. 

In other news, I added some giclee prints to my Etsy shop. They include the limited edition 'Divide' print, as well as the last of the first run of terrarium prints. 

And here's my weekly speedpaint!

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