Yaga Sketchies

Yo!

So, sorry for the late posting. I did some sketches of Yaga and Vassa (along with Yaga's home/ship) a while back, but of course they have been hanging out in my sketch pad being useless. These are pretty darn close to the final character designs (They seem to always change whenever I actually get to final pencils). I'll post some of my page thumbnails and pencils as well over the next few days to get caught up, but this is a good start, ne?





Oh yeah! Does anyone think that using Illustrator for line work is "cheating"? I'm never happy with my inks and love how clean the Illustrator brushes I created turn out. Any preferences?

Thanx - O

Workflow Exploration

After finishing up my thumbnails I came to the realization that I have to figure out a way to produce this thing – some kind of workflow from pencils to colored & lettered pages. After a little research I came to three possible workflows:

1) All By Hand (I very likely won't be doing this)

2) Hand/Digital Hybrid

3) All Digital

My first inclination was to use some flavor of a hand and digital method (and I still might), but I came across this book on Amazon that describes an entirely digital process. I ordered the book, received it yesterday and went through a quick exercise that covers the rough sketch to inked drawing completely in a digital environment. This is my first experiment with some added color. On the plus side, the workflow is super streamlined even though I'm a little clumsy sketching on the Wacom tablet at the moment. On the downside, my Wacom skills need some work and I don't end up with nice pencil sketched pages like I would in a hand drawn process. Also, digital inking is also going to take a bit of experimentation in terms of brush settings, but I think with a little practice I can get my skills to an acceptable standard.

I still plan to try a hybrid flow (hand pencilled to digitally inked and colored) before I decide which way to go for the actual pages of my comic, but overall, I liked the all digital method and may end up employing it. Here's the drawing that I did.

Storyboard Thumbs, Revised

Hey all, a quick progress report. I finished storyboard thumbs for the complete 12 page story and I've given it a name – Soul Shadow. It's about a jungle boy named Honovi who's spear fishing when he gets sucked down by a lagoon monster and on the brink of death his consciousness passes into the Shadow Realm. This is where Honovi and the reader are introduced to the concept of a soul shadow. I'm going to leave out any spoilers, but for now here are thumbs for the first five pages!

PIG - Storyboard

Hi guys, my name's Doug. I'm farther behind with my story than I wanted to be at this point but I've been working to catch up. I wanted to post my storyboard so you guys can see what I'm working on. The story has been changed many times but this is the latest iteration.

The story is kind of a psychological science fiction that takes place in the not to distance future. It is tentatively titled PIG and follows the story of a human test subject as he is subjected to the experiments of a cold, sadistic scientist. The tests center around the mind and body connection after death.

I'm envisioning this as a story that spans several chapters and this first chapter is about the death of the lead character. My hope for the series is that it will capture and hold the readers attention because of the questions it generates. Who are these characters? What is there connection? What are the experiments for? This first installment establishes the central characters and the dynamic of there relationship (scientist and test subject). If you want to check out the storyboard then just click the link below. Will post more soon.

PIG - Storyboard

thumbs for black horse brown cow

Here are the thumbs for my horse and cow story. I'm calling it Alienated:

Spread 1: Opening splash with intertwined wildflowers in extreme foreground. Title on opposite page.

Spread 2: Horse eats flower. Then series of shots that establish the cow and horse's inseparable relationship over many seasons. Cars pass in the foreground. Passage of time concludes with an abrupt black frame.

Spread 3: Panoramic spread of horse and cow apart. A van passes through the scene but screeches to a halt. The people in the vehicle are puzzled.

Spread 4: A family of three gets out of their van speculates about events which led to cow and horse's separation. The father theorizes there was a silly misunderstanding.

Spread 5 and 6: The mother speculates peer pressure from other livestock caused the break up. The son is much more inventive in his theory: He imagines that a spaceship has come down and terrorized the horse, abducted the cow, performed unspeakable experiments, etc. He speculates that the cow was later deposited back on to the meadow—but not quite the same.

Spread 7: The boy concludes his elaborate tale. After a brief group deadpan, the family erupts in laughter. They return back to their car and pull away.

Spread 8: The horse looks on as the van drives off. Camera pulls back. Final page splash shows the back of a shaken and alien-tagged cow.

End.

kintoki-con June 18–19 in Sac

Just a heads up that two of your fellow Yarners will be exhibiting at Kintoki-Con this next week. Ms. Leliel (aka Amanda) will be in artist alley along with Choko (aka myself). Come on out and check it out.

This is a story called WEIRD. It's about a guy who wakes up one morning and notices his head is missing. Not only does he have to deal with finding his head, but also interactions with the people and environment.

evolution of cow

The dairy cow has evolved to this. Dialing in horse now.

Hello and a lil info on my story...

Hi Everyone!

For those who do not know me, I be called Orysia.

Coming in here a bit late, so I'll be playing a little catch up (forgive me!).

I am planning to take a classic Russian faery tale and give it my own kind of twist. Hopefully you've heard of the witch called Baba Yaga. Classically she's an old hag (well...she is) that either lures children into her clutches for munching or tricks lost girls into becoming her servants. After doing a little more research on her, I found that she also has been known as a guide and a representation of death/life, etc.

ANYWHO, my version will feature a witch named "Yaga" (don't even think to call her Baba) who guides the lost souls of children in modern-day society. The 'trick' is that she is a little less than altruistic in her intentions and to not be trusted. She encounters a child who becomes a bit wise to her tricks and eventually gets the upper hand on her.

I also plan to incorporate some other elements of the classic tale, such as the three horsemen and the chicken-legged house, but this is my start for now.

I have a few character sketches that I am moderately pleased with, so I will scan and post those soon. Still working on the script, but my goal is to have some thumbnails up for it next week.

Thanx!

O

more background sketches

Okay, I lied. A few more background sketches before I post up the thumbnails. I started out drawing Holstein cows but those are a bit stereotypical. Also, there's the fact that the story is now called Black Horse, Brown Cow (I switched the adjectives). The Jersey cow (page 2) is a perfect solution and I think I can get a very original character out of it. The cow will be the feminine cast member and the horse will be male. The species of horse is still up in the air. I'm probably going to go with something in the draft horse direction though. We shall see.

horse development

Brought my sketchbook to Borders today and did more background drawings to explore the horse form. These are more shaded than what I'll finally settle on. But they are helping me see the contours. I have the story nailed down now. I'll throw up the thumbs in my next post. The tale will go for 8–10 pages I think.

Process

Hi everyone, my name is José Rivera.

Inspired by the legendary creature Bigfoot, or Sasquatch, my story is a tale of action and adventure that will finally shed light on the cryptic life of Bigfoot as he fights to escape capture by a bounty hunter.

Above are some rough character development sketches and storyboard. More story and sketches to come, just wanted to get a post in.

—José

My first post

Hey guys! I hadn't posted anything yet because I've been busy with school, but now that Mario's no longer busting my hump I can devote time to this. So, hello, I'm Brian. My story is going to be about two wizards who each have a profound effect on the little village they live in. Above is a concept sketch of one of the wizards. He's looking a bit generic right now, but I'm hoping to take care of that once I figure out my color palette. I'll be better about posting more and trying to catch up through the rest of the week. Hopefully I can be where everyone else is soon.

Some Movement in the Pasture

My story will be wordless, so I'm going to have to really work the poses and expressions of the characters. I look forward to really pushing the blocking on the frames.

Chicken Scratch

Doesn't look like much here but I'm about halfway done with layouts.  I'm aiming for 8 pages total ... give or take a page.  But yeah - it's moving, slowly, but moving nonetheless!

I've also gathered up some photo references as well.

Digger Jones: Terror of the Deadly Oasis.

Our hero, the famed scientist-hunter Digger Jones, is on the run from another miss-adventure while searching for the elusive forward-walking crab to add to his research collection.

The cannibal natives stop and will not follow Digger into this area of jungle.

Digger uses their fear this area to his advantage.

…but he has no choice as he is thirsty going without water for a day.

He knows he is heading straight to the Deadly Oasis.

Knowing the legends are based on something in fact, Digger to his dismay, finds skulls/bones on the path leading to the Oasis. Eventually Digger finds and recons the site carefully high up from a jungle tree.

It is a truly paradise of flowing water in small nature spring wells…

With one way in due is a narrow u-shaped area of the jagged stone cliff wall leading in and out.

There was with no signs of life typical to a watering hole -

…just deadly silent and dry skulls and bones are all about.

Fighting thirst through the hot jungle night, long hours are spent reconning the area in silence. He finally jumps down for his jungle tree perch heading to the water. Taking a slow long much-needed drink, Digger has a second to relax. A slight sound brings him back to full attention. The “Terror” is real.

A T-Rex crashes in through the growth. The oasis is his den.

Digger runs but quickly is trapped against the high wall of the rocks. “Why hunt when the food comes to you…” muses Digger Jones as he pulls his jungle knife and turns surveying his options.

T-Rex towers over Digger. It bends down to eye and enjoy the wonderful smell of another thirsty traveler. Easy meat.

Digger braces and jumps as the T-Rex’s head is still lowered. He stabs the knife deep with all his weight into the T-Rex’s left eye. Digger is thrusted up and over from the shrieking dino’s head which bolts suddenly upright in pain… Digger lands higher up the cliff wall ledge as planned.

However not high enough! He finds the large overhang prevents further escape. Digger keeps to the left (the now blind side) of the T-Rex’s mad thrashing head just out of reach below. The T-Rex will never stop its attack. Digger is momentary safe however he is trapped without supplies.

Saying “Oh what the hell…for Scotland and Mum!” Digger Jones, men of men,

jumps heroically off the edge with knife flying into the T-Rex below. (silhouette shot)

*

Snoring as the scene cuts to an old gentleman just falling sleep in a huge gothic estate reading room. He has a cocktail in hand. Two bored/skeptic kid from next door are sitting on the floor. They wanted the ball that was kicked over the fence, but were side-tracked by his odd ramblings before they could go home.

The old man snores as they explore the room on their way out. They find a few photos on the mantle among the hundreds filled the huge walls in-between the rustic books and strange artifacts. Shocked look from the both kids.

The scene ends with the close up of the old B & W photo:

Digger Jones posed with one foot on his kill (T-Rex.) surrounded by happy cannibals.

And over the photo is a jungle knife hanging displayed on the wall.

END

In the voice-over character narrative:

Think of a mix: James Mason – The 60’s cartoon “Commander McBragg” and the Dos Equis man.

The thumbnails shown is how I work: small and cryptic pages. 6 are planned for now. As the layouts go full scale, more refinements to story and camera angles will follow.

Fun stuff. ;)

-Mach

Storyboard Thumbs!

Hey all, checking in with a progress/process update. In working on my story I've made some changes since the initial idea posting. I've gone through a number of story outline variations and now have moved on to roughing out the story with a pinch more detail in rough storyboard form. With this exercise I'm not worrying about the layout of panels on pages just yet. I started by breaking up the outline into big scenes. Within each scene I drew thumbnails that begin to think about what the actual panels will need to communicate. I still have one more scene to finish, and then I'll read back over it and work out another quick set based on edits that I think need to happen.

I'm feeling a little bit behind schedule, but hopefully I'll still meet our May 28th script and thumbs deadline! How are you all doing?

Quote of the Week

“Even talent is … indistinguishable, over the long run, from perseverance and lots of hard work.”

~David Bayles

Early Concept Sketches

Here's a first concept sketch to share of my story's hero, Honovi and his dog Noku.

Noorius I was once called.

"Noorius I was once called." This is the title and the first line for my part of the anthology. It will focus on a side-character from a larger story I am developing about a warring angel inadvertently trapped in our modern-day world; and the repercussions her existence effect on modern society, media, religion, and politics, etc. But the short story of this side character, Noorius (a former warring angel living among humans on Earth), will take place in 1850's America. He reflects on his attempt to adapt and live as a human; even marrying and having a child. But unlike most humans, he can still clearly see through the dimensional barriers placed on Earth. He sees the other creatures, gargantuan and petite, that observe and swarm around the humans affecting their lives. Now human, he can do little but observe as well. In fact, a century of guilt and complacency has penetrated his heart and mind to the point where he has striven to simply find some measure of happiness on this Earth by trying to live as a human. Since he has lost all power to do what warring angels do, he has eventually found peace and contentment in the novelties of human life. But his complacency is challenged when he begins to see a dark figure, one of these other creatures, lingering around his young child.

Brown Horse, Black Cow

This is a story I've mused about for sometime. Some years ago my family and I attended church out in the country. Every Sunday we would pass by a spacious pasture with a brown horse and black cow in it. It was evident the two were inseparable as week after week we'd see them grazing together in different parts of the field. One Sunday we were shocked to find them on opposite sides of the pasture. We speculated on the events which led to their rift. Was there a misunderstanding? An argument? Had the neighboring livestock gossiped and driven them apart? My short story will fill in the blanks. ~Mario

Rich Lee

Rough idea: a boy looking for his dog with a current events twist.  I like the idea, but there's a few areas I need to massage over and fine tweak.  Will post stuff up as it comes.

From Mach

With a nod to “The Naked Prey”, we find a chase already under way.

Stumbling from Dinosaurs to giant man-eating plants, our protagonist is being pursued in the run of his life. Out of breath and mind racing, his only hope is to run deeper into the dense dark jungle…and just perhaps turn the obstacles dead-ahead obstacles into a slight dangerous advantage to distance him from armed pursuers. Can our adventurer stay ahead of certain death? Who is he and where can a place like this exist? Why is he running? What Is this a nightmare or a terrible reality?

Stay tuned for the exciting next chapter!

The Rising of Reoled

Reoled is a futuristic warrior, who suddenly had to exist on the other side – on the enemy side – being forced to understand them. He goes through a series of awakenings, for example suddenly opens his eyes and he is in the middle of a battle (medieval style), fighting and killing his old best friend, who's face in agony gets planted on his memory; then his memory blanks off until the next awakening happens. His "mind" has been kidnapped and taken away on an unimaginable journey. I want to present a series of scenes 6 total that will move through the warrior's new persona's life cycle (re-birth to death). There is many ways in which I could approach this story (scenes of the future supported by scenes of the past) but due to a page limit, I want to concentrate on the short life the futuristic warrior gets to live, I want the reader to experience the world he is living in and the warrior's strive to make "peace" which is the only way to save his friends and family on the other side.

White Lady

Hello all. The story I'm developing is based on the White Lady stories I've been told as a kid by my older cousins who were born in the Philippines. After some research, it seems many cultures have stories based on the "White Lady." An excerpt from Wikipedia, "White Ladies are popular ghost story topics in the Philippines. Along with other Philippine mythological creatures and ghostly beings like the Manananggal, Tiyanak, Kapre and Wak-Wak, White Ladies are often used as subjects that tend to convey horror and mystery usually aimed at young children for storytelling purposes. Sightings of white ladies are common among folk from around the country, and usually every town and barrio has its own "White Lady" story to tell." I remember being super scared when they told of sightings and such...so...hopefully I can carry that over. I may be a little late on the next deadline, as I will be in Hawaii for a week, but it'll be on my mind...and so the process begins. Bwahahahahaha.

Religious Debate

A man stands at the door of another man's house having just knocked. The man inside has the door opened a crack, saying - "You can come in, but only if you promise not to talk about church."
He obliges and enters. They sit silently in the living room in front of the fire place (the story is told symbolically with no words) and once a certain message has been conveyed, the man visiting stands up and says, "All right, see you later then!" and quickly leaves.

And so it begins...

Visual Remix

About four years ago, I started toying with the idea of creating a "visual remix" - a sequential visual representation of a song, kind of like a music video in graphic novel form. I know an artist who did a cool song-as-comic long time ago, but I want mine to be a bit more free-form. Abstract elements and textures will represent patterns and sounds of the music, in addition to the characters carrying the story. I wanted to do it with a Depeche Mode song, but never got around to it.

I was at a concert last month, where an artist from Denmark, Oh Land, opened. I'd been hearing some buzz around them from friends who'd been following the headliner - the buzz was warranted! Her music is a visual feast! An eclectic blend of synth electronica and R&B-inspired beats and a silky almost jazz-style vocal.. delicious.

I love fairy tales, and have been mulling on a Red Riding Hood-inspired story called "La Luna" for years. It's a dark love story with dysfunctional royalty, legends gone awry and three little pig-witches. At the concert, one of Oh Land's songs struck me like a two-by-four: it could be the ending theme if this story were animated. It's a haunting but magical sounding tune called "Wolf & I." For YARNS, I'm thinking I'll create a "visual remix" of this song using the characters from this story.

Watch/listen to the song:

Oh Land- Wolf & I (Live) from Oh Land Music on Vimeo.

The Way of Animal Powers!

Hey all, this is installment one of the process toward my contribution for the YARNS book and beyond. For awhile now I've been baking this idea of a world where these gifted, shaman-like people unite their souls with a twin animal spirit giving them amazing gifts and powers related to their twin beast. Think strongly Hayao Miyazaki inspired (particularly Princess Mononoke) with a dash of Naruto. I have a bit of a mini-series in mind that I'll continue as a web comic, so one challenge with my YARNS contribution will be finding a logical "to be continued…" point at the end.

So far the story stars the young Honovi, a carpenter's apprentice and his work dog Noku. He and Noku are gathering wood in the forest for his master when Noku spots a strange apparition that he can't help but chase after. Honovi follows in hot pursuit and when he catches up he finds that he's no longer in his forest and Noku's getting a belly rub from a beautiful forest spirit named Sylvia.

I'll leave it there for now as I have have many more pieces to figure out and still need to develop the characters to give them a voice. I'm feeling pretty stoked about my story and really looking forward to hearing what the rest of you have in mind! Until then, excelsior! Oh wait, that line's taken.

- Mike A.

3-2-1 …

… and lift off. This post marks the beginning of the new comic venture, Yarns, due out in Fall 2011. Artists: feel free to post liberally and often. Everyone else: please excuse our dust, this is a work in progress, so the masthead and look of the blog will definitely evolve as the months progress.