comic book development.

i have chosen to use the characters (below) to put into context. i will be applieing the character concepts into the pages of the comic books i am creating. the man is goig to be in the the comic book issue 1. and the creature is in comic book issue 2. both will be in the pitch. 

iv done one coloured and one in black and grey to show the different options of the colour theme of the comic book that will be explained more in the pitch. 

Narrative

my comic is intentionally based loosely on the song molten light.

however because my head is well over active i ended up with this all these scenes in my head. it still has has the same plot as the song but extended now. in the song at middle the brother go see the priest for guidance. mine will still have that scene but before that, the hole town are going to be tormented for a few days, and then when they town realise whats happening they offer a sacrifice and think its all over. but then one of the brothers sons get butched pretty bad and then they go see the viking priest for guidance. after that the main characters will be picked of by the creature but all dieing by horrible different deaths. in the song the creature just goes stright for the brothers and burns them. my story is more worthy of a comic book. 

the pages ill be presenting will be 2 parts form the song but directed by me and translated by my influence no the song direction. and then 2 parts of my own created scenes that fit between the songs parts. (hope that all made sense because thats pretty important)

below story boards.  

at first i dont put much detail in my drawings and i just use a simple grid layout to get the basics of the narrative down. later ill thumb nail some layouts. 

below- this book is going to help me create the pages and everything involved in the pages of the comic book. iv read it before and using this to help guide the pages to the final development. 

this book helps me with layout and speech bubbles and loads of other things such as drawing techniques, composition, inking and lettering, and its even got tips about breaking in - pitching to a publisher. all these ill be using in my project. a bit of a life save really.  

my practice has a lot of freedom in it, i like getting a tooth brush and adding them textures or letting ink run. its a huge step from what i used to be drawing. in my personal sketch books iv been taking it that much further and smashing ink down. i wanted to have the balls to use that freedom in my comic. again its a huge step for me submit that style.

these are some of my private pages that will help me influence this free style comic book pages

  


issue 2 page example 1
this page was exciting for me i used everything that i had learnt about pages from the book above. using over lapping images to tell the reader that the scenes are as a hole. changing frame composition to keep it interesting and enjoyable.



issue 2 page example 2
i was happy with the composition with the frame on this one this i could totally see on some horror film so this was an achievement for me. due to never drawing scary things and not having any knollege on creepy frames its difficult to portray that, i usually draw actions and stills.



issue 2 page example 3
i love the first frame in this page i think the flicks and splashes really give this image a movement, a tight jurked kind of movement. love it!



even though im super happy with the results i cant help of the pages and very happy with letting go and creating something so distant from my original professional practice...with all that it still wasn't hitting the spot for me, for me it didn't seam as professional as some of the art on the shelfs in town
(and there is some right crap on them shelfs)

i decided to take the images and run them through photo shop to give them crisp edges and any other way to make them more pro.
made the page black, levels was altered and still seemed so amateur.
just seems hobbyist



i added the one colour like my peers had suggested in a crit a few days ago, and i made the page white this time. i felt it looked more better because it was tightening up. the imagery was starting to tighten up.


feeling that the pages was looking better because they was becoming more tight i decided to carry on with the pages (some how with my brilliant computer skills i lost page 2 completely) yup they was getting tighter and now they was the imagery was being lost, the textures and the freedom was been trabslated as sloppy not artoistsic for me.

i decided to redraw my pages in the style i draw when i submit work for professional and college.
i was so much happier with the results, i could see the pages in an actual comic book and was happy to say that they are at the level i was hoping they would be.
i edited some of the frames and removed a few but got the story across either way.



i created example pages for issue 3 for my pitch.
again real happy with the results.
i think the frame work that i learnt from the book is paying of and show in these pages. i leant that useing a grid page basically is the same as an action part in a film were the frames are looking at one thing but from different angles and giving fast and important information. i tried that here (PAGE 2)and i think it worked apart from one frame that does not need to be in int and thats the 5th frame, it shows a limb bursting from the body and the 6th frame is the limb having a now stood up...i could have removed the 5th frame and the same story would have been told.
apart from that im happy.



in my pitch is going to be 3 examples of issues. each with 2 pages in, and each with an issue cover.
a little lost as what i should put on my comic cover. it needs to be tempting to buy and needs to have to illustrate horror but i dont want to reveal the monster on the cover.. i dont want to give too much away but for the sake of getting attention a little bit of the monster would be okay on the cover but not loads.



i researched  film horror covers and these are the top 8 that i saw and thought i could use them as starting points for my cover. each one transformed the location into a viking area and the victims as the characters from my comic and the creatures being swapped as my scary lady.




i researched comic book covers also, but i have to admit nope of them i saw wasnt doing anything for me, seeings the creatures first gave away too much. the art work wasn't selling it for me either. a few examples that might influence my work (best of a bad bunch)






font downloads for the cover title.
revenant-

i was researching norse words for death, many came up but too many hard to pronounce for a comic title. i came across a norse word "revenant" a person who has returned from the dead thats only purpose is to haunt or torment the living.

thumbnails

this issue is in the wrong order. the power point file shows the images in order but for some reason every time i upload it it saves in random sequence. but it dosn't  need to be in order it shows my development stages.

i coloured the comic pages in using a grey scale. i felt that colour would distract the story telling, i wanted it to feel dark and scary. less there is the more the imagination of the veiwer is used. 

 

im really happy with the coloured result but for some reason im in love with it been black and white.

so i did some research and found a strong successful horror comic that was published just in black and white. and has got a huge following all over the world. 

the walking dead. 

so with in my proposal i will submit 2 variant styles of the comic. grey scale and black and white.  

revenant issue number 1 

revenant issue number 2

sketch book development concept of the vikings.

so far iv done quite a lot of research for the vikings them self to help influence the theme of this comic. how ever i feel i need to do more visual research for me to be able to execute believable vikings. i dont want the horns or any of that sterio crack, i want this to look the part, look the age. so even if a historian looked at my comic that person would say, the attire and living are spot on. this project is a huge challenge for im setting my aims high on what i want to achive with the visual and the impact the comic will have on the reader. 

taking all that in, iv decided to research deeper and getting a better knowledge on the vikings.

how they lived, loved, worship what they ate. i want to know it all to help me create this comic book. 

becuase i cant go ask the old viking at the end of the street its going to be a history channel marathon. 

below - 3 documentaries i watched were i learnt the basics of what they looked like accurately and how they lived. and what they lived in. all these i need to help me make the characters. 

below - ive used the vikings as referance for my character development. iv used this because on sites and fan pages a lot of people on there have said how close they have it to the real thing. such as the way they look and live. also the show seems more realistic than the action scene in the biographies above. like ive stated before i want this comic book realistic as possible, i want it true to what vikings was like. i need the reader to be lost and apart of the story. 

i dont know how else to blog how i researched the attire of the vikings in the series. other than what i have just done. a lot of my notes when into my sketch book with my drawings. i could have added endless photos of the cast but that would seem pointless. 

i made a  journey to york to visit the Jarvik centre to do some on site drawing of the things in the musuem but on my arrival i found out that it is shut until 2017. so i decided to do some drawing the royal armouries and again, i found out that that centre has nothing vikings in it. now that im lost for on the field research im going to have to use the internet and films and books for my research. 

Sketchbook research 

below - a few pages from my sketch book. here i researched clothing and how to describe the material on paper. also doing this aloud me to get stuck in deep with the visual research and get a good feel of what vikings wear 

below are sketches of the weapons that vikings would use. 

each of my drawings has a fact about the vikings witch will help me create the vision in the comic book.

below- i began to jot down some ideas for the brothers that i had in mind for my comic. 

i had a vision of a man in mind some one like albert from wwe. he needs to be bald brusson, shaped like a power lifter. sturn look and a beard. i achieved that in no time, i wasn't rushing and didn't want to come to the character so early but the one i point at in my sketch book is perfect!. so im not changing it.

again as above the other brother came quickly again this is exactly what i had in mind for the second brother. 

i decided to study the characters had created by putting there faces through different expressions. it was here that i discovered a technique to draw beards effectively with a pencil. and i also noticed that the second brother was harder to draw but it was at 12.45 i was drawing so i decided to come back to him at a later date with a fresh eye. 

 

using my sketch book i made a few flash sheets of head shots. not so rendered but just to practice with the style in ink. 

below- fisrt man sketch on the first page pushed forward. 

i used my good man tom as reference for this flash, i used tom to see if i could use ink and still get a life like feel with the image. i did BUT i dont like that style i will keep it life like but not too grounded i want freedom with a few of the character. 

because i was happy with my big bald bastard of a man, i decided to render him and make his flash sheet. 

(i dont know why but im still having problems with images)

brother number one.