"A Fairy Tale", The Big Update

Extremely happy to announce that (almost 6 months later) I have updated my "A Fairy Tale" page on this blog to include work from my final thesis book. There are almost 30 of the 92 pages available to view online, including my favorite part to share with you- the cinematic moments with story!

I still cant thank my teachers and mentors at the Academy of Art University enough for their guidance and support on this project. Sherrie Sinclair, Nicolas Villarreal, Michael Buffington, and John Heebink- you guys are simply the best. 

I truly hope everyone enjoys this story as it begins to fill out, and be sure to check back as there will definitely be new material soon! Thank you!

Click here for the goods~~~ http://zealousceles.blogspot.com/p/a-fairy-tale-comic.html

The Harvest Festival

Vive le Roi.

Moving Right Along

A few more scenes in Act 2 that Ive been working on color scripting. I really really enjoy doing all of the story art.

Hello and Welcome /

Meetin Merlin

Kingly Duties /

Male Bonding

Phoenix Down

Visual Elements Part Deux

I was so lucky to be able to take Visual Elements again this past semester as a directed study, which meant I got to focus on my thesis work with the guidance of Nicolas and Sherrie. I proudly present the final product from last semester, ta daaaa. *confetti*

The Loremaster

They traveled looking for answers from what was believed one of the oldest surviving dragons, Niccodemus. They didnt realize that it wasnt a well eaten buffet they were walking through, but a tomb, a graveyard, the final resting spot for the blue and silver Dragons of the Water Flight. Niccodemus had come here to be with all that remained of his kin, he had come here to die.

Turning Point

Desperation left them one choice, to expose themselves and escape through the courtyard. Aranella ran first, to her own demise, as Hallas and Daniel fell behind and to the ground, overcome with an overwhelming fear. Dragon fear. The air was still and the battle drowned to silence as a beautiful, deadly shadow swooped up from the cliffs, behind the castle walls. Aran was alone and central in the dragons sight, and they both took a deep breath...

Character Paintings

After finishing Zephira, I got on this crazy "all my characters need to be painted RIGHT NOW" kick. In the final 2 weeks of my semester I blazed through getting these ones done in time to present them to my visual development class. They were super fun to do, getting into more detail with the costumes and attitudes of my characters. Now its time for fixes and finishing the rest of the cast in time for Wondercon! Exciting.

Heres a line up of everyone so far, mostly the good guys.

Zephira

For a long while now there has been this mysterious "Gypsy Princess" who at once creates tension between Daniel and his friends, and yet ends up saving his life at the risk of her own. I didnt know what I wanted her to look like for so long, I just knew she had to be demure, and elegant, like a beautiful belly dancer. (Heres a perfect example- Maria)

Then it hit me. If Daniel has Hallas, then it only makes sense that Aranella needs an "other" as well, and thats where I found Zephira.

I started developing Zeph to be like Air, only opposite. She would be confident and mature, with a radiant charm and sex appeal, as oppose to Arans innocent niativity. With a nickname like Air, I wanted to keep my Gypsy Princess' name close to that, which works out on the other side of the alphabet with Zephyr.

Meet Zephira, with her love drowned eyes.

Shes my Schala.

Color Scripts, Act 1

My first hand at color scripting, Im really really enjoying it! Its quite a thought process, thinking of the key moments in each scene, and how the color effects the mood and atmosphere of that scene, as well as how the reader is going to interpret all of it. I have Sherrie Sinclaire and Nicolas Villarreal to thank for their awesome continued guidance on this part, as well as constantly looking at art books from Disney and Dreamworks to see how the pros do it. Even though color scripts are technically supposed to be very loose and small thumbs, I find myself getting more and more into painting them like cinematic moments. Either way, its extremely exciting and rewarding to see my ideas take shape and become realized! ^_^

Getting to know my Villains, and other such characters.

Lets start with Queen Mab.

Mab is my sultry, seductive, alluring Mistress of Magic. I had a general idea of what I wanted her to look like, but she's definitely changed since I first drew her a few years ago. I have stronger shapes for her face and body now, and chopped her hair to give her a more modern bob.

Throughout the story I want to give her an arrangement of fantastic costumes, but

always long and elegant, showcasing the ribbing on the dress in some way. The dark green color was too forest and fae like, so I really like putting her in the deep burgundy and reds. Typically it makes her more menacing that way.

But then there was white.

And whats more unnerving then something that is what its not supposed to be? We meet Mab in the winter, and I like the idea of her putting forward this facade of purity.

I should perhaps usher out a "Spoiler Alert", but I wont say much about these dragon designs. Perhaps you can figure it out. :} (I do write a lot of notes on my drawings >_< )

All I can say is that I used to dream of dragons and draw them constantly as a kid. And now they're back!

"OMG that owl totally looks like that one thing from that one movie!" Why yes, yes he does. And if you recognize him slightly then Im using my 80s underground pop culture references correctly. I never said this story wasnt a cliche, or a throwback to my favorite influences. ^_~

Now lets talk about The Lyking. He's still somewhat of a mystery to me. I'm still getting to know him, I havent yet learned his first name. I do know hes the Worg Master, and consort to Mab, her partner in crime.


At first I was thinking he would look very much like Cliff Simon, Ba'al from Stargate. I wanted him to feel very old and wise, but still maintain and younger, very handsome and alluring front, with that arrogant smile.

Then I saw this amazing video and I got reeeally inspired. Can you tell why?

So Im sure there will be a redesign here soon. Not too drastic, just going to make him stronger.

A working character line up. I like the idea of having the villains and the main "npc" characters larger then life, like in WoW, the bigger you are the more important you are to the story line hahaha.

Id like to close this sketch bomb with Gump and Ginger. What a sassy couple. Ginger was inspired by some lovely ladies at a renaissance faire. I saw them and I thought, hell, why not! Gump needs some spice in his life, too!

Get it? ... Spice?...

<3

Default Expressions

Feeling a bit under the weather today. Bleh. Made some corn clam chowder with my cousin for dinner, and worked on some expression meme's. I tried to paint the portraits in an hour, make it quick. Im only really happy with Aranella, apparently I need to study my boys more. No problem there, really...

"A Fairy Tale Babies..."

"We make our dreams come true!"

Been working on a few flash illustrations to keep the story line going, even if I havent yet created the comic pages for whats happening. These are fun and fast, and let me explore and exploit the ridiculousness of each character. ^_^

Layout Update

Im getting really happy with the designs for my palace. My Layout design teacher, Oliver Sin, advised me to make the architecture more exciting, and I think it works much better in this wonky way. I added a lot more flourish to it, too, looking at Art Nouveau designs and architecture from Prague! It definitely has the feel that I want this world to have. :}

I really liked my childrens room when I drew it originally, but I like it so much more now that I did it in a wonky style. Its so much smaller and cuter!

Im really happy with my cable car shop design as well, I think the different versions of wonky style are really fun, and I love using markers for value studies. This whole process was enlightening on so many different levels- like ink markers and tracing paper magic!

Castle Designing

A pretty integral part of my thesis project is Daimon Castle, the last remaining safe haven for the Fae. I've really been getting into brainstorming about the design of the castle, and its getting easier and easier to see it in my head and on paper. Above are a few quick value studies of a street scene, day and night. Bellow are more concepts, and prop ideas. I like the idea of keeping some of the silhouette shapes close to a grove of mushrooms, kind of symbolic through the story.

Whats a Fairy Kingdom look like anyway? Luckily I have some really amazing influences, like Final Fantasy 9, World of Warcraft, Castles of Ireland, Allan Lee, Tangled... so many amazing artists and references to look at, they have helped me understand structures and design so much. Developing architecture and settings has always been somewhat of a challenge for me, but I feel more confident with it every day! I hope to take everything I see and push it further into my own style and fantasy world. I know that when Im actually drawing out the castle in panels there wont be a set recipe for how to do it, but thinking up all the different elements and designs I hope strengthens my idea of the setting when I get to it. So on that note, back to dreaming up more ideas. Taa~

Page and Process

I've been working on continuing the color for my story, with this page being the third and title page. It follows like so bellow (sorry no words or title in these images, just the art. Just remember that Daniel is really grumpy, and Air is so not.)

I think these pages have come quite a long way from the first instance I envisioned them. Originally they were to be a 2 page spread, which I like the idea of having only 2 pages, but it just wasnt going to work with the page layouts. Im happy with the way they have evolved from their first appearance.

Most of the time my ideas for a scene kind of explode onto paper in a fashion that only I can make sense of. I write a lot of notes, make a lot of squiggles, and draw things over and over to rearrange them- just to work through it and make sense of it for myself. This is a small section of a larger scene I have in mind where the tides turn, and the Castle of Daimon is attacked by the Lyking and Mab. It starts here pretty innocently, with Daniel and Aran having a nice, friendly dinner...

Sometimes my ideas come out really clean. I can storyboard them out, then move into page and panel layout pretty smoothly. This is a scene later in the story, after Daniel and Aranella have been separated, and Aran is held captive with Hallas by Queen Mab. It's kind of Daniels realization moment of the way he feels for Air.

Another example of an idea that came out pretty easily.

Then I can move into laying them out digitally and really cleaning them up and get them ready to color. This scene is where Daniel and Aranella meet "Merlin" for the first time as he welcomes them to Daimon. Its the first time we really see Daniel perk up in the story, he has a strange affinity for the Merlin, and will grow pretty attached to him as a mentor throughout.