With my foot for scale. Note the very cool skull socks :P
After about six hours of scribbling, still a long way to go.
I've collected tons of references material over the last six months, did dozens of little sketches and tried to make sense of it. For now I have a rough background, and I'm fiddling with tracing paper to place the protagonists.
I'm still wary about stretching paper, so I am taking the risk of leaving it loose. I wish I had a big easel for this though, but the table will have to do.
Realistic wings or not?
Doodle in the train to get all the ideas together
I finished "Hide Me Among The Graves" by Tim Powers yesterday.
It's impossible not to have high
expectations when reading the sequel of your all time favourite book in that genre : "The Stress Of Her Regard".
The main sign that I really adored the book and plunged into it completely is that I had some very vivid dreams last night, directly related to the end of the book. And then leading into a complex story concocted by my subconscious. This is a sign that I was very immersed in the book, plus I can't get it out of my mind which is also good.
I might have wanted a couple of things developed further, but I can see that they are not necessary as such. And I missed seeing some characters from a "closer" point of view maybe. Well, it's obvious that no one can replace the
flamboyant Lord Byron as written by Powers, one of my favourite characters ever written. Trelawny did a good job though, in the end I really came to like the guy as horrid as he had been at first.
I was so curious to see how Tim would tackle the subject of my favourite group of artists, the story involves the Rossetti family and links back to the fact that John Polidori (who was Byron's physician) was their uncle. He's the common link in more than one way, between both books.
What struck me was that, while for me the Pre-Raphaelites are all about painting, colours and light, the book concentrated only on the poetry aspect of the Rossettis. I was initially surprised to see a subdued and almost colourless picture take shape as I read along. Thinking about this I realised it gave the story the right feeling of gloom.
I loved the familiar sense of horror that I always enjoyed in Tim's books. I'm not a fan of horror books but I like dark stories. Subtle hints that something is not right and then the sudden realisation that, something wicked is lurking. Until it takes your breath away.
I liked that unlike his father in “Stress” John Crawford isn't totally clueless about what is happening to him. He knows all the reasons why his life has taken the course it has.
Eventually the lack of colours felt right with a protagonist living in constant sorrow at the loss of his family.
Again, unlike his father, John never actually succumbed to the appeal of the vampires. I missed that a little, following one of the victims and realising how the succubae completely destroy their symbiont, despite giving them one thing in return: poetry. On the other hand this is not really needed, too many links back to the first book would mean that they can't be read separately which is entirely possible as such.
I also note that I am now twice the age I was when I read the first book, I may be a little jaded. I wonder if Byron would still bring to me this flavour of fascination if I met him today. I've always seen him and later the Pre-Raphaelites as the original rock stars. But of course it's all glitter and fake colours.
I enjoyed it differently now, but I still have this mixture of excitement and fear rising in my gut, when the story leads us into dark tunnels. I know what lurks there...Again, unlike his father, John never actually succumbed to the appeal of the vampires. I missed that a little, following one of the victims and realising how the succubae completely destroy their symbiont, despite giving them one thing in return: poetry. On the other hand this is not really needed, too many links back to the first book would mean that they can't be read separately which is entirely possible as such.
I also note that I am now twice the age I was when I read the first book, I may be a little jaded. I wonder if Byron would still bring to me this flavour of fascination if I met him today. I've always seen him and later the Pre-Raphaelites as the original rock stars. But of course it's all glitter and fake colours.
As I said, one can read this book without reading the first part. It will take away this feeling of loss when Crawford recalls his parents who were the protagonists of "Stress" but it won't keep the reader from getting the whole plot. But I would say that one should really read the short story that connects both books "To Cast Away Stones" beforehand or at least right afterwards. Otherwise an important brick will be missing from the construction.
Been fiddling with this bird some more. Right now it's either too realistic or not enough.I meant to do something more cartoonish. But I could also go and make it more realistic.
I kind of have two other illustrations to work on, plus a book to write... sigh.
Testing my new graphic tablet, it's much bigger than the one I am used to and it's like learning everything all over again. But so much better!
If all else fails, draw kitties :)
And a good place to find models would be: http://www.flickr.com/photos/matsomuffi/
For him interrupting his work flow with rewrites, kills the flow completely so he explained that he needs to write in one long flow and only then go back for rewrites. I feel exactly the same.
Of course it's a bit harder in drawing, but I am always happiest if I can just let my pen loose on the paper without any conscious thinking. Not always possible as most illustrations require constructing, but it's what I am trying to do. Parts have to be constructed and then I need to let some imagination in.
Going from the above that seems a good writing method for me. And I've returned to work on this idea I mentioned a while ago. It hasn't even got a working title for now.
I have part of the characters, I need to do some more "world building" and then I am simply going to write non-stop (over several days of course but trying not to retouch things) I'm working on a very rough draft of my story. Aiming at approx 10'000 words but nothing is fixed. Then the really hard work will start. I've never done this on such a scale. Cutting out chapters, and then reducing everything to 5-6'000 words as it seems the best format for this age group (10-12).
Feel free to contradict this, I am really no expert on this, I'm basing this on what I found online and the type of books I used to read at that age.
I am aware that it is hard if not impossible to find a publisher for a first story, that also involves the finished illustrations, but it's what I want and I shall try. If it fails I have several fall back plans ;) I really believe this is a good story, not original (who can really say they've found a totally original idea?) but it will be different. Sure it involves animals and humans living in a Steampunk world, that's been done many times. But why not. I've had this idea now since 2009, after brain storming over this little sketch with a friend. And I've been collecting ideas ever since. It's about time I tried and wrote this down.
There was that photo of Myles Kennedy (who sings with Slash these days) in a magazine and I thought that it made a good basis for Elric. So I did various sketches until I got the main drawing for this.
One of the sketches. Bit on the classical side.
The original photo can be seen here
The finished lineart. Trying to take things to the darker side... Caring less about being realistic. I am still not really sure about the final result as such, I don't do photomanips usually except for texture because it's extremely hard to get right. And this seemed too much like cheating even to me who is open to all sort of creative meddling. But obviously it worked.
When Dave, who bought a print of this drawing told me it reminded him of Elric, I didn't even remember the whole process at first but then it came back to me and I was rather pleased to see that what was just dabbling in the dark actually made more sense than I had imagined.
Elric of Melniboné is one of these characters I keep going back to. Until last year I had only ever read one of the books. I must have been around 15 and it was my first contact with fantasy literature, I think (outside from graphicthat had been shaping my world for a while already). But that character always haunted my brain and I've drawn him countless times.
Even more so after buying two of Rodney Matthews' art books when I was at Uni. If you are not familiar with his work you really should, he has done a lot of illustrations for his friend M. Moorcock, and my image of Elric is indissociable from his. No other illustrator has influenced me as directly as Rodney Matthews, even if it might not always show (I think it does).
Well here you go, sometimes these things take strange paths.
Today Saturday 24th of March 2012 I'll be here to celebrate the release of my first art book with all of you. Go to the special page I just made to read more and to download the pdf version of the book or to buy the paper versions.
Notice the menus on the right side of the blogger page. There is also an FAQ section now. Browse it and feel free to ask more questions.
I hope you enjoy the book and hope to see lots of you today. Please leave a little comment to say hi.
I will keep on posting one page of the book every day here for you to see, until the 24th (see below)
The Three Sisters
All seeing eye, eternal triad
They know the secrets of life and death
Will them to speak, but beware of the answer
Pain and sorrow, eternal companions
On the 24th of March (Saturday) I will be having a big online
lauch and you are all invited. It will basically be an open chat, here
and on facebook. Virtual champagne and cookies :) . The pdf file will be
free to download and I hope to have some feedback from the people who
will have a look.
On Easter week end 7-8 April I will be in London at Eastercon and
I'll have a few books with me plus a lot of prints for sale. I hope
I'll see some of you there.
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