Aggie93 - Starting Anew!

#21

You can also find them here
Best to right click and “save as”…

#22

Just a face study (manga style). No reference. Pencil… in a car!

#23

Okay, well here it is. Without further addu…

CEREBUS

[left]This is a concept sketch (my sketch book and son’s school pencil that has not been sharpened). Being a symbiotic creature, I had to be creative with its design. That is exactly what this creature is… an it. It is a created being and is not reproductive in anyway. However, it is fully dependent upon its host but can survive for limited periods of time without being attached. My wife says it looks like a uterus. :eek: [/left]

[left]This is its anatomy sketch (at home with a scrap paper and HB pencil). The resources used was not only the internet but also Angels and Demons in Art by Rosa Giorgi, How to Draw the Human Figure - An Anatomical Approach by Louise Gordon, and my son’s Dragon Art - How to Draw Fantastic Dragons and Fantasy Creatures by J “NeonDragon” Peffer. Now that I have the anatomy drawn out and scanned in, I will annotate the parts of its body that play an important role. It is headless but I had no idea what to do with it anatomically there. Then my 11 yo son had a great idea. He said have tenticles that would reach up into its host head or neck and attach itself to be controlled by the host. :bowdown: I am glad he reads a lot. He can help me with the story. Therefore I was looking at the head of a manta ray and came up with the idea to have one tenticle that would attach to the spine of its host. I will repost this later with parts listed. I wanted to get it up today so I can get feedback and possibly refine Cerebus better.[/left]
[left] [/left]
[left]Okay, tear it up guys! :arteest: [/left]

#24

Hey Aggie,

about the character concept:

The decision to make her faceless is a tough and questionable one. How will you be able to express emotions, doubt, any kind of reactions and evoke reactions from your readers? Any illustrator will tell you to focus on head and hands to characterize the emotions of a given figure.
But even if you say “faceless!”, then you need to make up a concept of “how faceless is faceless?” Is the face covered with skin, maybe you can imply facial features underneath? Work out a concept of how to put a faceless head to use!

Her nakedness makes me feel awkward. I am not too shy about nakedness in comic stories (i read japanese comics - yay for unmotivated glimpses on female anatomy!). I think it’s because this fleshy thing snuggling up at her vagina.
I do think, though, that the symbiotic nature of her partner creature and the close connection is a great idea! Really original concept! Maybe you could try a minimalist clothing or equipment which integrates into both creatures?

I like the realist Allu painting the most. Your manga concepts are not too striking. I would say do a few versions of her. Different anatomy, different sizes and proportions. Explore her! And when you do concepts, leave out colour and cel shading, even value. For your comic concepts, forget all but two values: black and white. Use fat ink and linework. Dunk all the shades into solid black. Vary your line weight (thickness of line): outline contours heavier than inner contours, lower contours thicker than upper ones, thickest part of any curve on its saddle point.
BTW, you can go for full comic style and be realistic as hell. Check out this guy (the luke cage work in the galleries is awesome!):
http://www.shawnmartinbrough.com/galleries/#

http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6701618.html?nid=2789&source=title&rid=1375906730

Most important: For the sake of your comic as a whole, for the project as such - lay down your pencil/ink+pen and take your your word processor or typewriter and work on your story. Because - and I put it that bluntly to you, because I care - you do not have one. You have a setting or a starting point. But that’s it. And that’s not enough to start! Don’t put all this energy (drawing energy) into something which still needs a story.
What is the scope of the story? How far back in time and ahead is your storytelling about to go? What are your main characters? Their biographies? What are their goals, what are their obstacles and resulting from this, their conflicts? What is the solution? Do a treatment for all the scenes you need and then distribute this into pages.

Then you have a very good situation to do some proper concept sketches and you will know your characters much better!

A few ressources:

a blog about doing a comic while we all watch… This blog post talks about starting without a story:
http://projectwaldo.blogspot.com/2010/01/phase-one-in-which-doris-gets-her-oats.html

Scott McCloud
http://scottmccloud.com/2010/02/12/ego-surfing-is-a-double-edged-sword/

Really looking forward to more concepts and all!
:wavey:

#25

The skull would still be anatomically correct, just covered in a solid piece of skin. There is an Iraq war vet here in Texas that is having facial reconstruction from a bomb that went off. Right now he has no face, litterally. I am going to take information from that. I tried to find the story on the internet but I could not. I think that would get me to the facial expressions with shadows and eventually Allu will have a face towards the end of the story.

So do you think I should do something else here. I have thought about other ways of covering her vagina, but I am not sure how to do that and still relate to the fallen angel concept. Angels are not male of female but in stories they typically are. Then, the concept of angels have no clothes. Maybe I could use the idea of a weapon belt to cover that area. Thanks!

Lastly, The story is mostly in my head. I tried putting things on paper both in story format and storyboard format. I will check these links out and see if I can come up with something. Thanks Mr. Mu. You have been more help with this response than in the last few years of me toodling around with this. Let’s see where this goes.

Thanks!

#26

Okay, I began a Blog to post my ideas of the Allu story and possibly get feedback that way on the story. I have some many ideas going I need to settle on just a few. I really like Mr. Mu’s post on Waldo (see above link). That is what gave me the idea. Anyhow, I will post here when I get some ideas on the Blog. Please click over there and keep giving feedback. Thanks!

#27

Okay I finally posted something on the blog. I am writing it like a what does the writer want to see in the graphics. I hope this is the way to do it. I am encouraging feedback. Thanks!

#28

I added to my story on the Allu Blog site. It appears that many people are starting character models. I would like to get at least my character sheet started. I know of a few characters within my story. Again, visit Allu’s Blog and give feed back to her story.

Thanks!

#29

I started working on my middle eastern woman for my story, which I think will be my other female character too. I went to a middle eastern clothing online store for a look at a good top. I hope this works. I am not too happy with the style of my work. I think I will redraw it.

#30

Always good to support a fellow Aggie. Interesting stuff. I’m envious of the Cintiq.

Thanks and Gig’em. Also, no Aggie artwork? I’d love to see a good sketch of Mrs. Reveille.

#31

Here is an open panel for the opening page of Allu. This is from my story which is posted at Allu’s Blog, see above for link! Sorry Mr. Mu for starting the art work now. I cannot wait…:shrug:

#32

lol, no need to apologize, man! Just don’t forget to work on that story…

BTW, the drawing looks very nice.

#33

Thanks MR Mu. I am really not knowing how to lay out the pages. I do not want a typically graphic novel panel page. I am going to explore a bit with this first page. I want to somehow get a few scenes in but without losing the interest of the story. I also do not know how detailed to make it. If I go real detailed, it will take forever. Suggestions?

#34

Trying something new. Since everyone else is trying sculpting, my son want to do something artsy together so I bought some clay. (I did not notice the things in the background that was interesting when taking these pictures, until now. I am noticing all the cloth diapers that we use for our new baby, a magazine called “Parent & Child” {ironic}, and my Aggie Ring is in it too.) I was going to make my Allu character and he was starting an Avatar bird but quickly went to the Avatar character. Anyway, we started with the wire skeleton then to tin foil for thickness. I am now starting the clay shell using posemaniacs as a guide to muscles. Here was last nights start.

#35

Some more work on the sculpture today. Anyone who has done this and knows what they are doing, am I doing this right? This is the first sculpture I have ever done. Also, does anyone know about this clay (Van Aken Plastalina Clay)? What do you do when you are finished, cook it in an oven?

#36

Very nice start on your sculpt!

Thanks MR Mu. I am really not knowing how to lay out the pages. I do not want a typically graphic novel panel page. I am going to explore a bit with this first page. I want to somehow get a few scenes in but without losing the interest of the story. I also do not know how detailed to make it. If I go real detailed, it will take forever. Suggestions?

I strongly recommend spending a little money on the Will Eisner series on making comic books.

Namely these two volumes:
Volume 1
Volume 2

Read them! Or go and find them at your library! I just recently discovered that my local library abounds in comics and comic tutorial books which is great.

#37

Thanks Mr. Mu. I will see if I cannot find these books. I went to the book store this weekend to find a book about something like that and did not find anything.

Thanks for the crit so far on the sculpture. Here is an update after working a little more on it last night. I think I have the torso too long. Any suggestions on how to fix it this far along?

#38

Well, just the obligatory question: where’s your reference?

:smiley:

#39

Mr. Mu, I am using multiple references for this. I have the Loomis Figure Drawing book for proportions, this website for doing a sculpture, and this model of the manga version of Witchblade. So far, I have not placed any details on her. There is no hands, feet, head, or breast. I also have not placed her symbiotic species, Cerebus, on her either. I want the figure done first, then I can see how to construct Cerebus.

#40

I had more time to work on this today. My son (11yo) worked on his too a while, you can see it in the background :applause: . He told someone that one of the most fun thing he does is art with me. I am blessed! :bounce:

I think since I started layering the muscles down, her proportions are coming around. Her butt is too big on one side, so I will give her a little cosmetic surgery tomorrow :rolleyes: . But I worked on the quads, hamstrings, lats, abs, and pects a little today. I am using the book, How to Draw a Human Figure: Anatomical Approach by Louise Gordon. It is helping a lot :buttrock: . Anyway, y’all be the judge: (sorry for the bad picts:curious: )