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.

How to Make a Spiral Page Layout in Adobe Illustrator

An unconventional layout such as I'm working with for page 09 of Infinite Spiral might seem intimidating to some artists.  However, by using a few of Illustrator's tools, creating a spiral layout like the thumbnail below is a much simpler task than you'd think.

Let's walk through the process.

"Final" James and Christian Illustration

It is finally "complete"-the digital illustration of James and Christian from the Infinite Spiral comic world I'll be launching this summer. The painting was completed using Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, using a ton of layers, painting, and layer effects to get the look of the final piece.

So many books

It has been awhile since I updated on the progress of my Christian and James illustration-in large part due to the fact that I just haven't had the time to dedicate to it. 

I had spent some time the previous week working on details of the floor and banister, adding light, and adjusting the far background.  Today, I focused on the books, as I knew this would be tedious, but one of those details that really starts to fill in the full environment.  So far, I've created and modified a Vector Smart Object, using Illustrator, the perspective grid, and layers and layers of blends.  I'm going to paint over the books to fill in the details, and blend it with what is going on with the image.  However, adding the books with some gradient overlays and shadowing does a lot to bring the environment to life.

Christian and James: Background Detailing Begins and Lighting

The work continues. I spent some time in illustrator and creating layers of light, shadow and texture on this bookshelf.  As the background comes to life, I can circle back around to James and Christian and really get them in gear.  I did change the blend mode on the shadows to meld them with the environment more.  That was a good call.

I admit,  this may be the most attention I've made myself give to environment (especially man made) recently.  Things are coming along.  Tomorrow I'll tackle the floor and railing.  Then I need to get some books on those shelves!!  Thank goodness for layers.

Christian and James Continued: Base Lighting and Background Flats

So last night and this morning I continued to illustrate this out.  I actually added some lighting values by creating a Linear Burn layer with a blue-grey applied to create the shadows, then a yellow white with Overlay to create highlights.  After this, I actually needed to adjust James's skin tones, as he looked a bit lifeless.

This morning I began my Illustrator hop.  I have a ton of reference pictures from old libraries, most from the Trinity Library, and wanted to get the perspective right.  With help from reference and the perspective grid, I was able to block in the form of the shelves and background, then bring these back into Photoshop, apply gradients to block in basic lighting  in preparation for going for the gusto--details.  Right now I'm rather happy with the tonal values and color palette.  We'll let it sit for another few hours and see what I decide to change before going in for more "character" on the environment.  I'll likely have to adjust the composition as I move forward, but that is the luxury of using Vector Smart Objects as the background base.  A little adjustment there will be my next step before detailing--unless I want half a dozen groups in my file.

Here we are:

Despite the lack of shadow under James and Christian, the two are very much coming to life.  Obviously, still a lot of work and clean up to go, but this is really moving along like I pictured in my head.

Christian and James Flats

I'm showing some process again on this one, which helps me and others learn.  I've digitally flatted this piece using the lasso tool. Then, I went in with the eraser and cleaned up my penciling to make digital inking easier down the road.  Next I'll be flatting in some environment (which will make this image much wider).  The current flat is this semi-neutral purple to provide a base for a dark library aisle.  I'm going to be hitting some lighting reference on this hard.

Actually, I'm really happy with some contrasts in design I made with these two.  Even if you put James, Rory, and Christian together, James is going to stick out as ... different.  Which is something I want (Gavin's the same way ... he gets it from his Papa.)

When You See What I See

I'm very excited to have finished my Gavin painting.  I didn't take it the direction I thought, but I like where it went.  I can see a couple spots I may want to touch up, but it is probably time to move onto something new for the practice.

"When you see what I see ..." Gavin's catch phrase. You know, I've never quite been able to begin to tackle the world Gavin sees, and I'm just striking on it in the painting. The dead, unnamed spirits, angels--if it is unearthly, Gavin sees it.

This painting has gone through a few phases, and I'm happy to call it "done" (okay, abandoned).

Keep reading to see the WIPs of this piece.

Digital Colors for James and Rory Character Designs

I couldn't stop yesterday and just kept practicing digital coloring (mostly cell shading style) with sketches.  I'm glad, because I'm getting a great feel for how I want the Angelborn world to look when I begin pages.

I digitally colored my character sketches of the adbal from Angelborn who wanders around with James  I was down to two names, Rory (Aurora) or Perry (Peregrine), but my sister approves of Rory and I think she is right that it should be the name that sticks.

Now for last names, the list (in no particular order):

Gavin's Not on a Sidewalk Anymore

The creation continues:  starting to detail in now ...  Still working ...  But, I've pulled the lineart now.

Lazy Reading Inks WIP

I wasn't going to post until I'd finished the inking phase of Amanda's lazy reading portrait.  However, I am very excited about how her hair turned out:  it is black and curly--two things that become a challenge to ink.  I'm inexperienced at doing this traditionally (despite having Amanda forever, I've always focused on the "outlines" being black, so her hair would wind up this awful blue-grey), so I'm very excited about the progress here.

Obviously, I'm still working on problem areas, but I was tired of the pencil for the black hair smudging.  This was a fun solution.  It will be interesting to take this one out to digital coloring.  I think I will have to touch up the arm drapery (it got out of control), but we'll see one the entire piece is inked.

Older Gavin with Amanda, his sister

I got in a fun mood last night (meaning, let's play with Angelborn characters) and wanted to try my hand at drawing Gavin older than usual (it is always fun to try and draw characters through their ages).  Hey, Gavin has a bit of his mother's nose by this point. I've always had it in my head that I'll have to engage him at older ages within his storyline anyway.  At this point, he's abandoned his all black trappings from childhood--dressing more like his pa. (James just loves his good old vests and coats).

I also took it as an opportunity to have a go at redesigning Gavin's older sister, Amanda (not that she really looks older here).  I've almost captured her, but I need to give her a bit more forehead height--when I started the drawing I worked the structure lines as though she were looking up more.

Gavin and Amanda are 5 years apart in age (when he was 8 in the "January" prologue I wrote back in the 2000s she was 13), so she should be older here.  But I was taking advantage of having them on the same page to work that old family resemblance angle.  Though, given the idea of Progression in their universe ...  Oh I tease, you'll have to learn about that in the comic once it is under way.

Artchives: The Evolution of Gavin

So, as much as I've adored the manga style Gavin picture I've done through the years, as I've stated before, the Angelborn world is moving away from that style.  This means I get to redesign Gavin ... again!  Actually, he really is the most consistent of all of my characters.  I just need now to actually make him look like he is nine years old instead of four years old (seriously!  I made him look super young).

Gavin is easy, so I'm pretty pleased with this interpretation.  I was actually redesigning James at the same time, so actually am trying to give them an acceptable family resemblance.

But I suppose you are ready for the iterative tour of Gavin's character design, right?  Hoo boy! This will get trippy (and go clear back to high school if I can dig out those images).  We'll start from the old (and scary) art and move forward.  This is a great lesson in how art should improve over time if you are always observing and drawing.

Post Mortem for Wave: A Rhapsody in Cantando

You are a jellyfish, an outsider to your tribe. Sunken ruins call to you with a haunting song. You alone wonder what could lie waiting in this place of music.

You cannot understand why others of your tribe cannot hear its need. You feel compelled to return it to its glory. Therefore you leave your tribe in search of the city that pulls your spirit. What awaits you, you can only imagine.

I was the 2D artist (among other roles within a four person team) for this ambitious, experience driven game project in Brian Winn's TC455 class.  This was my first opportunity to push the limits of what my 2D skills could accomplish in a 3D game engine.

Read more to find out my game art and design lessons from Version 1 of one of the most ambitious game projects I've tackled yet at Michigan State.  Better yet, play WaRiC!

Crafting the Story of a Place: Omairi

Platform 12:  Waiting on the train to Ise-shi.

This week in my Comics and the Visual Narrative class, we finished our silent comic challenge.  In the silent comic, you may use no words (not language or sound effects) and must convey the meaning of the story through gestures, facial expressions, and body language alone.  I went through many ideas, but something that stuck with me was the idea of a story of a place and how that place can weave people into merging and diverging tales.

This idea has resonated with me since I traveled to Japan.  I think, that often the United States feels so new that as a culture we miss that places cultivate different patterns of behavior in us.  I think, often enough, there is a lack of the truly "sacred space"  and place so old and monumental you feel humbled simply by being there.  There are few places here that give the average population chills--few places that inspire silence.

Illuminating the Illustration: Child of Bloom

"Child of Bloom" is a character illustration of one of my characters from my Angelborn universe.  In this piece she is a child, but in the universe the audience has the chance to see her grow up.  I've actually focused much of my recent attention on the children (some of my friends are very familiar with Gavin and Amanda) of her and James, an Angelborn or Demi-Angelus she is sworn to protect.  She was actually kidnapped by an angel from her normal human life to take on the role of an abdal, or a substitute.  This has given her special abilities and a period of immortality until she can complete her duties.

Read more to view the process of creating this illustration.