Recent Sketches and Gestures for Infinite Spiral

First off, news, "Infinite Spiral" is officially live.  Explore the worlds here!  You can also enter the Spiral on Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter, and DeviantArt. dA showcase pages 1-10 (though edits are made as necessary before they are posted to the main site).  Page 04 will go live on the homepage on Friday.

In the past two weeks, I've been working through a ton of gestures and rapid sketches just getting to know possible characters and planned characters in "Infinite Spiral".  I shared these on the Infinite Spiral Tumblr, but want to compile them here for those that follow this blog. 

This piece is simply working through body language and poses of main characters, mostly Christian and James.  Christian is more open and gregarious, while James is more timid and protective.  I want to be careful to convey that through postures and movements, as well as facial expressions as they are introduced.  This gives room for this to change as the characters develop.

Words in the Air

James Hartwell is one of the main characters in "Infinite Spiral".  He is called Wicked or Named One, and no one knows much about them.  Most in his world with that qualification are part or mostly human. His past is a mystery, and he cannot remember before the age of 11.  He's brothers in Name with Christian, who drags him into trouble more often than that.

Early after Illumination (when Wicked Children get their 'Wickedness') James sees words in the air (which is part of what I'm illustrating here) ... what that turns into would be spoilers.  He also has the ability to heal, which is a rare and dangerous ability.  What other skills will illuminate as he enters the Spiral.

I'm Coming For You (Gavin)

I typically draw Gavin as a 9 year old boy (my beloved Gavin-yes I have favorites), which, I admit, is when most of his planned segment of Infinite Spiral (Angelborn) takes place. That might ... have to change ... I am not going to mess with him at this age (whoa man, who made you mad?).

James Hartwell Sketchdump

I was out of town (visiting family, vacationing from tech), so did a ton of sketching in lieu of my current page I'm working on. This is the first sketch dump from the last 5 days of crazy drawing, the focus James.

Top is a moment between James and Rory I'm playing out. There are several James sketches with different expressions, a sketch test working out thoughts for a scene in the Infinite Spiral that is scripted, a silly moment between Christian, James, and Allie, a wood elf that James, Rory, and Christian may encounter much later in the comic in Gelthor's forest (teasers!), James using his powers, and Gavin (he snuck in there ... apparently going Super-Saiyan or something). Christian is in the very bottom right corner again messing with that yo-yo. Suspicious.

Have fun with these!

Good morning, Sunshine!

A little morning warm up (two hours from sketch, to vector inks, to color). Out of all the Infinite Spiral characters, James and Allie would be the two to most likely have the craziest bed hair! And James is so put-together and fastidious about his appearance, the idea of crazy bed hair just tickles me.  He would have to hate it.

Worlds in Your Eyes: James and Rory

I've started exploring the interactions between the three main characters more, but I had yet to explore just Rory and James. If you look at my other art you can make some assumptions about why their interactions are so important.

Here, Rory is just mesmerized by looking in James eyes under the light of the aurora, and has bursted the bubble of his personal space looking at them. People don't like to look in James's eyes for too long and he's not used to making eye contact. Rory is determined she can see the thread of the universe in there, which might be what bothers everyone else. However, Rory also has a rather extraordinary imagination.