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! ^_^

Happy Birthday Elizabeth

"Goggles, dragons, blue."

You got it. :}

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

Crystal Pegasus!

I am a colorist on the upcoming children's book: Crystal Pegasus. Crystal Pegasus is a charming and exciting children's book set in a graphic novel form. It teaches children to value their unique gifts and to demonstrate courage. Crystal Pegasus learns that, although he can break, he needs to fly and protect what he holds most dear.
Crystal Pegasus and Rose are copyright to Tom Marcoux

APE!

Hey everyone, if you're in the Bay Area next weekend, come on out to APE! Lots of great artists will be there, and I'll be at booth #205! I'll have new buttons, prints and a new comic progress book printed! Hope to see you there!

http://www.comic-con.org/ape/index.php

Below the Asteroids

A quick painting before bed... Kind of moody.

Brushes

Song

Memory Museum

Fantasy hypotheticals with your friends are always fun. Heres what I came up with so far as far as epic RPG party members go.

The Summoner.

The Holy Paladin.

The Red Mage.

Working on the Monk, Warrior, Ranger and Warlock next. Fun times!

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 Peace Offering

Ok Spiders. Heres the deal. I give you a Goddess, and you leave me alone. Ok?

Ok.

I was playing around with a few custom brushes I found on DA.

She's very Sylvanas. @_@ But I was going for Arachne-ish. I like her either way.

"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. ^_^

Birthday Presents!

Even though my birthday was almost a month ago- (eeesh sorry for the delay guys) I had to post up a few goodies my friends made me! I love art presents, and I think these may just be some of the first "fan art" bits anyone has done of my characters! (that Ive ever seen, hint hint)

<3 Created by Ann <3

http://annmarcellino.blogspot.com/

http://nna.deviantart.com/

<3 Created by Renee <3

http://vida-en-color.deviantart.com/

I want to thank all my friends and family for an awesome birthday and all the warm wishes and awesome presents- like so (obviously theres a theme) XD

Layout Design Portfolio

And thus concludes my 18th year of education! These are most of the pages from the Layout Design book that I made in Oliver Sins class. I had a lot of fun in that class, it was a great group of people, and I learned so much! I am no longer intimidated by designing settings and backgrounds, tombow ink markers or tracing paper! Thanks Oliver, and thanks everyone for a fantastic semester!

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.