Roughing it; The Sequel

Page 2 is roughed out, and here it is.

Roughing it

My first page roughed in. I had the sun panel already done and colored from my first attempt but redid all the other panels.

I set a layer to be a color other than white for the background to make it easier to work on, but I think I kind of like it if I can get roughly the same feel in print.

I am currently working to get all my pages roughed out and then I can come back and refine each panel.

Getting inside someone else's head

The characters within Coarse Crystal all have a sort of significance with me. Many were created, and detailed out of my own life whether consciously or subconsciously.

First is Zander, the hero of the story if you will. He is not a typical hero in that he is well motivated to be a do good, go getter. He is a young man that seems to constantly be battling himself and a mysterious, inner turmoil. I subconsciously began designing this character in middle school as I was undergoing what I could only describe as the sad or depressing self discovery that can be puberty. Zander was someone that was going through similar issues even if the source was entirely different and the resistance and resilience to these dark and sadden thoughts were inspirational in a way. My problems would be put on this fictional character in a fantastical way and could be worked through, battled, dissected and explained through fantastical means, giving new insight on how to deal with a similar problem realistically. My small moments of clarity through this lead to his small moments clarity. He has become a personified version of my dark emotional challenges and the clarity about myself that they led to his character clarity.

The heroine, Jady, began as an image of what I considered an "ideal" woman. This very, very quickly was changed to include flaws, and quirks to make her much more human and accessible. She has some of the least detail put into her to be honest, but her general nature is very benign, wanting to seek means to help people, and is in the early training to be a healer. She is intelligent while a little naive, charming and easy to talk to but maybe a little intimidating. Jady, I like to think, is a representation on optimization within people because regardless of her name she is rather resistant to jading and pessimistic ideas.

A support character, Exavior, is a creation of my feeling of physical inadequacy in high school. He is a very physically strong, while rather self-conscious and insecure. Exavior is a nerd in every sense of the word, who hatched a plan that worked, to steal a relic of the deity of strength, transforming him into a paragon of physical strength, and giving him a great sense of confidence, that is rather easy to shatter.

While these are not the only characters within the story, they do provide a decent idea of how I go about developing characters.

Script Overview

I figured I should give a little overview of what my comic script contains, more than the description that would be on the back of the movie cover.

The story takes place on Earth a few millennia following a catastrophic war that forever altered the planet and the people on it. The war introduced magic into the world as well as many of the races known to the fantasy genre such as elves, dwarves, orcs and many more.

It opens following a thief, who ends up being an antagonist, breaking into what appears to be a run of the mill house. He enters to find the house he thought to be empty still has the residents home. The residents are incapacitated and the thief flees.

Meanwhile the hero and heroine, Zander and Jady, head home from a day out to Jady's home which has been broken into and her parents incapacitated.

This is the point that I am aiming to get to in the comic

Continued Proposal

Typography:

I suppose that the typography I have had in my head for this comic project is what I would consider 'standard Marvel lettering'. It is all capitol letters, bolding and italizing for emphasis.

More Gutters and Book Dimensions:

I am hoping to do my comic on standard 8.5" x 11" much like my standard Dungeon's and Dragons books. I think it is a comfortable size for me to work in, and gives me some room for play. The margins will be 3/4" on the inside/ binding side and 1/4" on the other three sides.

Other Continued:

Another character sketched out. Exavior, a support character.

I was also inspired to work predominantly on the computer after seeing a classmate last year post a link to daarken, a concept artist that has a youtube channel showing how he goes about doing his digital paintings.

For now, I will continue to take the story for my comic and break it into a loose script and block out panels.

The Proposal

The Story Proposal:

In a post-apocalyptic high-fantasy Earth, our anti-hero, Zander and the damsel in distress heroine, Jady, have their lives changed dramatically when they find themselves the center of a disastrous plan of world domination. Zander and Jady, with the help of many friends along the way, face many challenges and foes in this mysterious and action packed drama.

I have a few character sketches of the hero and heroine:

I have not thought about typography, but would love to play with gutters, wider gutters to give the impression of longer time passing, and thinner gutters for shorter time passing. I'm looking into small margins, and no bleeds unless it is conducive to expressing a specific action or sequence.

Visual Influence

One of my visual inspirations is Marvel's Young Avengers. This may be because it is the only comic series I have read, but I think it is the high contrast shading and great use of line. The imagery in the Young Avengers is rather tight, with great composition in terms of size, relation and silhouette.

My other visual inspiration is a little less formal of a title; Questionable Content, a web comic with very simple detail, minimal line work and irregular gutters. It has also been fun to see how the artist has grown in talent, expanding his style from:

To:

I will have a proposal for my comic up shortly after this post

Small Changes

I am currently trying to bring all my work into the computer. I have already changed the first 2 panels to better fit Miles' explanation of how to stronger tell the story.

It opens on the sun in the sky, the second panel still viewing the house, but this is where the talking happens so the writing goes left to right, shows the 3 men outside this home, and provides a sense of mystery hopefully, as they are being introduced from behind as silhouettes.

Inspiration

I draw inspiration from all sorts of sources, and for designing my comic book I have decided I would like to use a story I have been working on for a handful of years. I drew inspiration for it initially from Final Fantasy IX, designing some characters in similar style. Over the years the story has evolved to envelop many more inspirations such as the shows Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Supernatural, Charmed, as well as movies such The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, 300, even Narnia. As you can tell, my story could very easily be classified as high fantasy, containing orcs, goblins, elves, dwarves and many more magical aspects. I also check Games Workshop: What's New Today blog daily.

My initial page I would like to have throwing the reader into a story that has already started. There are things in motion that have started before the story itself starts, and the first page is showing it beginning to surface. The reader should find themself asking not what is happening, but why is it happening.

My working title is Coarse Crystal.