BIXIE (BEATRIX) CHARACTER DESIGN

 I did this sheet on Bristol A4 with a pen nib and filled in the blacks with a brush.

Shading with PROMARKER:

I already had this character and I felt it fitted with the script I whipped together yesterday. 

Armed with those sketches I sketched out some poses in red pencil and cleaned up with a HB pencil.

I then did the linear with a pen nib:

Then did the blacks with a brush..this is an area I'm really not good at, it'll be something I hope to get better at:

Erased the pencils for clean linear:

And the Pro Markers pass (I used 2 shades)

ROADTRIP : SIXPACK SCRIPT

 So spent all of yesterday writing a full script for a comic book idea. I have a lot of story ideas lying around, but because I just want to do this for fun. I worked from a new idea, something light and crazy, so there's not much weight on it. I can just focus on "learning" instead of trying to get things right and thinking about a final product.

The IDEA (The spark) : "What if you saw a Sixpack of beer lying in the middle of nowhere in the desert.?"

So that was my starting point, that simple.

- There's a mystery: what is it doing in the middle of the desert? Is it an illusion, a trap to lure them, somebody drop it?

- It gives my characters a goal! And it's silly :D. What does anybody usually look for in the desert? HYDRATION (WATER). But not my characters, they want BEER! 

So I just walked the path of the story in my head to see where it would end out, I thumbnail out some pages, brainstormed different scenarios and turns. Some potentially funny gags. Until I connected the dots from A (set up) -> B (the journey) -> C (resolution). 

I actually often think of how things will end these days, and that helps me then to fill in what happens. In this case I woke up with an image in my head of a tourist bus full of old people that were diving off a cliff.  Completely unconnected to the story, but it somehow gave me the idea for the ending. 

I didn't actually intend to write a script, but I quickly realised I wouldn't be able to thumbnail out my pages, if I didn't have all the beats laid out first. And it's much faster to type some words than redrawing pages of thumbnails. I guess a different approach could've been to use David Lynch's technique, where you write down a scene on a cue card, and another on another card, etc... and then you can rearrange these card into a story.  

But I decided to type out my story! Of course I have no experience writing scripts and especially my dialogue makes me cringe myself. But we all have to start somewhere right, in the name of fun! :D It ended up being an 18 page script, so hopefully it will translate to a 22 ish page comic.  (below just a random segment that doesn't reveal too much :P). 

Although I later noticed I kept mixing up my character names.. calling BIXIE (short for Beatrix) TRIX.  Anyway on to the next phase! Which is the hard work :P

Return to Purgatory

 I am kind of developing ideas for 3 different stories at the same time...not smart, but they all call to me, what can you do!

Crocodile Head

 Since I've never drawn a Crocodile before, it's important to try and figure out the head from all different angles before launching into the boarding. Oddly enough often in the professional world, I've had character turnaround but hardly ever any poses or angles. Like the character designers are not asked to experiment and figure out where the issues/potential with a design might be...

Because just look...a crocodile from the front looks...silly. So you either need to cheat it to look cool, or whatever you do, never draw it from a front angle ..unless of course you're going for silly. In my case I figured out that if you draw it with its' head down, so it looks like a topdown shot, you can work with it. 

The Crocodile

 Trying a new method of working out idea. I usually write down ideas and flesh them out that way. This time I wanted to sketch some thumbnails while I was thinking. 

For this story I have 2 angles, I don't know yet which one I like better:

1) A girl is running away from armed men chasing her, she goes down the sewer to hide from the men following her. The monster hiding down there is disturbed and starts taking everyone down one at a time, until he gets to her. At this point she opens her helmet. And it's revealed she is like him; a mutated girl. We hear more enforcers coming, and he needs to choose, will he leave/kill her or will he take her with him , since his home is now compromised. 

2) A girl steals a data disk for a creature who's hiding in the sewers, the facility she teals it from was planning to use his data to generate similar experiments - without his consent (sound familiar? That's what AI does, but digital).

She doesn't realise she is being followed, and when the data enforcers (or something) show up, he feels betrayed by her and he disappears into the shadows leaving her alone to fend against these enforcers. She runs from the enforcers but eventually she is cornered, and they are about to unmask her (maybe to also steal her data profile). Now the creature has to choose, will he reveal himself to save her, or will he let her be taken ...

Random Doodles

I love it when you don't know what is coming out.

LaLlorna : CHAR DESIGN

 LaLlorna - The Wailing Woman is a legend in Mexico; a vengeful ghost who roams near bodies of water, mourning her lost children.  So of course I had to draw her.