Shenanigans

Sometimes I draw stuff and it ends up here

[emberwych]

For this weeks thesis update we have a bunch more in the art category. I worked on designs for the different outfits Vasilisa will wear in the comic (though most will end up being seen for only a few seconds), as well as working on Baba Yaga’s design. Shes been a bit more complicated as I started out more realistic and realized I wanted a more cartoonish/exaggerated character similar to some of this projects inspirations (Labyrinth, Spritied Away, etc.) So I’ll be going back to the drawing board with her design. In addition to character stuff I also cranked out a bunch of different thumbnails. The first set mainly focuses on coming up with as many different ideas for page layouts and shots as possible. I like utilizing interesting layouts in my work, but there seemed to be a bit of drought when it came to interesting ideas in this first phase. For the second phase of thumbnails, I worked a little bigger and tried to pick out and combine some of my better ideas to make the best of the layouts.

I also had a meeting with the owner of String Theory Fabric Art about the limits and expectations of the medium I’m hoping to use for this project. It gave me good insight in to what kind of workload I’ll be expecting as well as where to cut down this project. The biggest change comes in the form of the entire comic no longer being embroidery, with 17 comic pages(at the least) it would be too time/materials consuming to fully execute. So I kept it to the most important parts (the folktale parts) being embroidery with some alternative but hopefully equally interesting ideas for the real world pages. This also lines up with my initial thoughts of representing them in different ways to help create a separation between the two.

As for what’s next? I’m going to be focusing on the embroidery pages first to ensure those get done, which means a little speed running in terms of penciling inking and representational coloring. And then on to patterns.

[emberwych]

This week I mainly worked on the story and the script, with a little bit of character sketching and inspiration gathering at a fabric store. With the script I started by adapting it to a more modern world and a more modern audience. This doesn’t mean I took out all the cool Baba Yaga stuff, I just updated the stuff around evil stepmothers and initiation rituals. I’m think about making a proper process book featuring my research and influences so I’ll probably put more on the story decisions I made in there.

The next thing I ended up doing was going to a fabric store to get inspirations from the colors and textiles. I ended up liking a lot of the more textured and interesting upholstery and Fashion fabrics. Though there was a lot of interesting designs and color on the regular quilting fabrics. The most interesting thing ended up being the upholstery trim. It gave me a lot of interesting ideas for trees and horse manes.

Lastly I have a few quick sketches of what I picture the main kid to look like in my head but I’ll probably end up changing it as I iterate the designs.

[emberwych]

This summer I’m starting on work for my graduate thesis, an anthology comic collection with a current focus on women’s roles in the past and in the world through narrative, genre and medium. This past week I primarily been researching for the first comic I’ll be working on. It will be a retelling of the fairytale “Vasilisa the Beautiful” using embroidery as medium. The next week I’m going to start thinking about how I’m going to be incorporating my research into the script and visuals.

Just occurred to me that the picture I have is terrible for showing how much there actually is in both stacks, so I went back and took a second picture.

[emberwych]

This piece I made a few days after the others. I spent a good while hand inking it, the creature is one I also believe I’ve depicted before called a Night-terror, which is a subspecies of Nightmare. They’re kind of like Apex predators. The “face” is more of a face plate, and their jaw is beneath the mask.

[emberwych]

These are the next two inking pieces I work on. The portrait inspired the mini comic as I wanted to explore the character a little and just make a weird kind of creepy comic. It didn’t come out exactly as I expected, but that does tend to happen when you don’t outline or plan and just want to practice inking.

The character in question is one I haven’t really drawn before, but I’d also never really had a grasp on what they were supposed to look like so that works out. Clearly I have planned a lot of this. The character in question is the blob creature. His current name is Dr. Calvin, but I’ve been tossing around other ideas because it was always a bit of a placeholder.

[emberwych]

First of all series of ink drawings I’ve been doing. This one is of one of my characters Lena, who I may have posted about before. I used a dip pen for the inking and this is probably one of the my favourites of the bunch.

[emberwych]

Liminal Space

This is some concept art for a story I want to write some time. While it doesn’t totally capture the idea of “liminal space” you normally get in pictures, I feel like it’s a good sum up of the location the events take place in. I might do some others of the different locations or try to do a more painted version of the “hill” and figure, but for now I really like the colors in this one.

In other news, if anyones interested in Cooking Companions (the game), I’m making some sticker designs for that. If anyone has some favorite more obscure games they’d like to see art of I’m open to suggestions.

Anyway, Thank you for existing and have a good day!

[emberwych]

This isn’t really an update or redraw of a character (though there are inconsistencies in the way I draw her stars, and that’s just because they were drawn a time apart) so much as the progression of the character over time as they develop. The first one is later in the characters story, and I just realized I forgot to color the earring in the second.

That aside, I really like the way I did the hair on that first one. The purple shading looks really nice, and I hope I will be able to recreate when I draw her again some day. I’ve also noticed I draw a lot of turtlenecks, or just big necked-sweaters.

Anyway, Thank you for existing and stay weird.

[emberwych]

I made a thing.

I started it last quarter in a different class (it wasn’t for the class), and put some finishing touches on it this quarter. I made it to mess around with some story concepts for a few of my storylines and characters.

L’appel du Vide is the name for the feeling you get when you are standing on a cliff and have a sudden desire jump or other similar intrusive thoughts.

[emberwych]

The first image is “Billiam” named after the penguin depicted

The second image is “Shadow figure” and depicts the fear one has of something hiding behind a shower curtain.

[emberwych]

If the void is an ocean, the void beings are the storms. When traveling between worlds you need to avoid them. Best case scenario you get blown off course. Worst case you end up in the eye.

[emberwych]

One last comic from my class (that I intend to post (I think?)) and a Florida man one to boot!

This is one of the first non-prompt based ones I’ve made. Or, well, technically there was a prompt (a noir interrogation) I just didn’t use a headline for a prompt.

With this one I got to mess around with dramatic lighting and facial expressions which was pretty fun. As for the 100 followers comic thing I promised, that’s almost done. I just have a few finishing touches to put on it before I publish it for you all to see.

Anyway, thank you for existing and stay weird!

[emberwych]

New Characters while I work on my Florida man comic.

The first one is a character that’s yet to be named but who is a friend of Namira’s. She used to be a run of the mill space pirate and smuggler until she became a Privateer or Buccaneer (haven’t decided which yet) for the Andromeda Galaxy.

The second is the founder of the Eternal choir, who does have a name. The eternal choir is a non-profit organization that while working with the Rangers is not apart of the Rangers nor do they work for them. The choir was formed after this big war that happened in order to try and clear up and purify the blights left on the land after the fact. Tazia is also a redraw of another character who I have since evolved.

Anyway, thank you for existing and stay weird!

[emberwych]

A late Halloween comic.

Another one I made in class. I stole the idea from myself (the ceiling panel image), mainly because this was an idea I had wanted to write in my book, but didn’t end up including because it didn’t work with the flow of the first draft. While it might get included later in the story or later in revisions, for now it sits in the void of uncannon. Anyway, I had fun with this one. I pretty much listened to an entire Last of Us playlist and cramped up my hand but I think it came out well. I might do an alternate version of the last page sometime just because I have some ideas for it but for this is this.

Also, one of those arms is heckin’ janky if we’re really being honest.

Anyway, thank you for existing and stay weird!

[emberwych]

Late Arrival

A comic created while under possession by the spirit of Florida Man.

The prompt for this project was that we had to have two officially licensed characters have a conversation, so of course I choose Deadpool and Ryan Reynolds (with a guest appearance from Thomas the Tank engine). I thought it would be funny, and my original idea was to reference a poorly bubbled comic we were shown in class but I didn’t know if that would read properly, so I messed around with the scripting until it became this. It’s a weird and it’s definitely silly but that’s what I like about it.

Now the question everyone is probably asking. That’s supposed to be Ryan Reynolds?! Yes. Yes it is. Believe me, the first version was far worse. The last two slides are the work in progress testament to that.

He looked like the yellow shirt kid from Polar Express in the early drafts.

Changing someone’s hairline really alters a person’s appearance.

I don’t think this is my best work and I’m not a huge fan of the colors, but I had fun making it and sharing the silliness with my roommates and classmates.

Anyway, Thank you for existing and stay weird!

[emberwych]

Another comic from class!

I meant to post something earlier this week, but this week was pretty heavy so I just didn’t feel up to it. I also didn’t know if I should post this one or the other one I did the week before. I’m sure you all can figure out which I ended up on.

This particular comic was a research based one, with the primary elements researched being the different faces of historical figures, the clothing Catherine wears and the throne room of Saint Petersburg palace.

I originally considered doing the piece in full color, but my brain both didn’t have the energy for that and I thought a limited color palette might look cool, especially when using specific colors to signal specific things.

Anyway, thank you for existing and stay weird!

[emberwych]

Spooky Almost Halloween piece!

This is also a bit of a sneak peak of one of my other WIP’s. A sort of imagining of a scene I wanted to write but ended up replacing with something arguably freakier and more tense.

This lovely monster was created by a Fleshsmith which are for the most part a type of healer capable of stitching different flesh together without it rejecting or growing necrotic. On Gaia, many fleshsmith’s work as surgeons helping transplants go smoother and allowing for a higher rate of survival afterwards.

That being said there are some outliers who take the craft to its logical extreme. I.e. the Frankenstein extreme. For the most part those fleshsmith’s use corpses to create odd creatures that would never function or exist if they weren’t crafted through magic. Kind of like Reanimator and more specifically Reanimator 2 (Bride of Reanimator).

I don’t want to give too much away about this just because I don’t want to spoil anything about the project, but this thing is probably one of the weirdest things to crawl out of my brain using too many arms.

Hope you have a horrifying Halloween! Thank you for existing and stay weird!