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.