K8r-t0t

It's been a while since I posted about my 'medieval story' characters. I just don't have much time while I'm finishing school!!
I did this gouache painting to take to work and doodle costume ideas over w/ sticky notes. 

I noticed recently that some of my main characters suffer from a case of same-bangs syndrome, so I set out to fix it. 

Blake, Pagan, and Rurick. They all have a fluffy situation up there that ends in a point on their forehead.
Blake is a sergeant and will have a helmet on almost always, but I need more distinguishing features. Not because I feel like the characters are similar enough to get mixed up, but to prove to myself that I don't HAVE to draw that hair. 
My first thought was to give Rurick a mullet (#3), which fits with the kind of 80's barbarian vibe I wanted. I tried out a couple others but I think I'll stick with the mullet.

Still struggling with his face, but at least I have a solution for his hair (until I decide to change it, like I do with everything.)
I've become obsessed with IJKelly's style recently. It feels so natural and renaissance. She was writing about how she redid the opening chapters of her webcomic THREE TIMES because of the style change over time and how much of a horrible experience it was. God help me  

I need to work on environment and costumes. My grasp on good lighting, composition, and just drawing backgrounds in general is so weak that it would fatally alter the quality of my project. So basically this update is just telling myself I need to grind.
Although the script is not finished yet, I'm fairly confident in it. Dialogue is really the only written medium in play so I just have to make sure it aids the visuals and whatever. Here's my favorite part so far:


I think I'm comfortable with having a main cast of four, sort-of-five if you count Blake. Ruth is the main character, Pagan is the gem of the story, Mildred is the catalyst, and Rurick is there to lighten the mood. I'm excited about Ruth especially because she is so evil and I get to draw her in lots of different contexts throughout the story. Here's a drawing from a scene in the rain with her headdress and crown off. 

   Peace and love.

Writing journals feels like a mental checkpoint for me, and I feel it's time to post.
Originally I decided to remove someone in my main cast (this was MONTHS ago) because I was having a block and I thought that it would help move things along. I was telling my boyfriend about it and he stopped me and said "You can't kill her off. She's your most interesting character!" It was a hard sell at first, but I did decide not only to keep her in the story, but to give her an even bigger role... and suddenly I had all this inspiration!! So the story is coming along nicely. I have the major arcs planned out, synopsis of the three acts, and bits of the script written. 


Pagan the swamp elf in the first act.

I want to start releasing this webcomic in summer. That gives me this semester to finish characters, settings, props, and the script.
In unrelated news, boyfriend and I went to see Greatest Showman yesterday and I was pretty disappointed. Soundtrack was forgettable IMO. But we did find an obscure sports/music memorabilia store in the mall and I bought four vintage Beatles cards and a shirt. 
I'm excited about this comic. I'm still not hoping for much, but I've never held so much interest in a project for so long. It just keeps going!

I submitted some stuff to Don Bluth University for fun this week, and got a reply back saying I had been accepted. I asked the assistant if Don Bluth had actually reviewed my portfolio and he said "Yes."
It's 10k to enroll, so I've decided not to do it, but I can at least die knowing Don Bluth saw my art.

I've really struggled with Pagan's face. She needs to check so many boxes- shy, petite, boyish, feminine, adult, mischievous, wise, etc etc. It wouldn't be so hard if I could dress her accordingly, but she's introduced into the story as a slave, so she's basically in medieval underwear. And then she's living in second hand peasant clothes the rest of the story. I have decided to give her a dress, so that helps with her gender.
Here's a collection of everything I've tried so far. Still on the fence about pupils/ whatever the hell is going on with the eyes. 

Glen Keane said while working on the design for Aladdin: "This one's too big, this one's too scrawny, and this one's too hard to draw. Unfortunately, this is the one we have to do."
Couple days ago I scrolled past a screenshot of the old Beatles cartoon, saw Paul McCartney's face, and instantly knew it was the face shape I was looking for, so I have that going for me

This vision surpasses my art skill, so I might have to grind and actually practice drawing GOHHHGGGGGGGGGGGG