sketchbook

[egypturnash]

So yeah, I was doodling direct in AI and the first thing that came up was Alecto.



I know her chin and ears are wrong here but I can't remember what's right (oh, there it is, in the icon). Also note that judging from the silhouette of the Superdome, the story's explicitly set in New Orleans now rather than in a dreamy copy of it with the serial numbers filed off. I suspect I'll be processing some lingering stuff related to Katrina when I do get around to doing this story. Sure, add that in to the other old wounds I'll be obliquely licking, why not?

I wanted to pull something from either the Heaney translation of Beowulf or from Gardner's Grendel to put on this first doodle but I have neither book handy any more, and the Internet wouldn't serve up a pirate copy of either.



I'm kinda digging on this fake crosshatch look. I've faked it better in the past (art brush rather than pattern fills); I could probably experiment a while and make a nice library of ways to fake it. I'm not so much digging on this experimental rework of Clyve, though it sucks less than the overly-geometric dude I was originally drawing. That grate on the right comes from the outside of my father's recording studio on Rampart, by the way.



Also not totally happy with this fiddling with the queen of the Water Sidhe. (oh hey it would help if she had LONG POINTY EARS like an elf SHOULD, hmm, that's starting to go somewhere. Almost goaty for a bit, which would be interesting, but I decided to pull back from that.)



I am however happy with this drawing of the magic sword lying in the servitude, about to get rained on.

The "Midwinter 2011" date is not a promise of any kind. Although that'll be ten years since the central character walked into the back of my head and wrapped her cold, lonely self in a story I'd started to put together a few years before.

Comments

[eriscontrol.livejournal.com]

Truth: I am interested. I don't think I was last time you mentioned it, but now I want to know more about the story.

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

The fact that I wished I had a copy of Grendel - a book told from the point of view of the monster of beowulf - should be a bit of a clue. *grin*

It's an urban fantasy, set in New Orleans, about a girl who is not happy to be turning into a monster. There are also elves and a Hero and a magic sword and all that stuff. And metaphors for my gender issues (I was still a boy when I started to put this thing together) and other issues as well!

And there's a lot of rain.

[eriscontrol.livejournal.com]

Well, you know how to get my attention. I've never read Grendel, but I do know enough of Beowulf to give an idea how it might go. Plus I like stories that turn the traditional monster versus hero framework bumside up and headside assways: let me tell you, I have a moderately enormous collection of Pokemon mini figures and I was always way more interested in the monsters' own adventures than training them. I think that qualifies as animal cruelty anyway?

Rain is always a selling point.

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

SPOILER WARNING Grendel dies.

[eriscontrol.livejournal.com]

Also, I like your brain and I'd be keen to visit it one day. Do you sell tickets?

[ceruleanst.livejournal.com]

I'm typecasting myself again here, but I am super impressed with that first wordmark. (There's nothing wrong with the others but they do for some odd reason make me think "literary magazine".)

And yes, there's something satisfyingly solid about that sword. Like it's more real than the whole world around it.

KT would probably argue with me, but it hasn't been sitting right with me that JazzSwampVoodooLand is already being thought of as a dead civilization that can join the world of imaginary settings with PyramidLand, FlyingCarpetLand, MarbleColumnsLand, PirateLand, et al. So I think it's fitting that you would use your own mythicization to remind this world that New Orleans is still part of it. There's no short way back, I guess.

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

Nawlins has always been a mysterious, exotic land that borders on imaginary. I think the first time I realized that was when I saw an episode of Scooby-Doo that was set in New Orleans, with a plot that was of course woven through an ill-researched Mardi Gras. And ducked into the voodoo-infested swamps like they were just one block west of Bourbon.

(Parenthetically: Yeah sure Mardi Gras is a big colorful crazy thing but does every freaking story set in the city have to happen during Mardi Gras? Drowning City does not explicitly touch upon Carnival and maybe I should make that deliberate.)

And yeah, the first logo worked out surprisingly well. The story's never had one that was really satisfying to me; that one's come closer than anything else ever has.

[ceruleanst.livejournal.com]

When I flew down for my cousin's wedding, the girl next to me on the plane asked if I was going there for Bourbon Street. Since this was no time near Carnival, I don't know if I want to speculate on what she was implying.

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

Probably nothing. Bourbon is just one of the major tourist vortices.

[kinkyturtle.livejournal.com]

I don't think it's necessarily being thought of that way. One of the things I like about Princess/Frog is that New Orleans, even '20s-era Jazz Age New Orleans, is an interestingly unusually modern setting for a fairy tale, and by "fairy tale" in this case I mean "TF story". :}

[kamenkyote.livejournal.com]

I'm of course interested in -any- comic work you're going to do. And though I knew nothing about the plot, I was worried when I started Tamino that it might clash with this (as there's a city and rain in it). I think anything that allows you to more freely draw is a good thing as your years of practice show in the confidence of line and action. We will take nothing as a promise but we'll wait impatiently anyway. :"D

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

Honestly, the only thing The City Dreams Of Tamino The Cat and The Drowning City have in common is the word "city" in their title and a lot of rain…

The original designs for Drowning City were very simple and geometric. Dimensional but simplified. There was an abstract quality I liked to them but they just don't feel particular enough for me now...

[kamenkyote.livejournal.com]

I find that preprod work is a good thing and yet, like any image, it's not until one starts actually doing the comic that things fit together or show where they need to be changed. I like the linework here not only for its own look but the fact that it's different than the approach for Absinthe. I love what you're doing now, but that you can do something else as well is very exciting.

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

Absinthe is just so fucking lush. I won't be doing another comic that looks like that for quite some time after I finish it.

Of course, I'm sure I'll find a way to make this rendering style turn unfeasibly complex in short order, too.