The Castle from the back.

The back of The Castle,  which has its own private harbor and indoor dock.

Body language sketch dump!

Body language is important! My goal is for every character to be recognizable just by their silhouette. Too lofty? I will at least try. Here's some Prince Waldimar, first of all. A little bit hunched, a little bit slouched, but not too much - he's royalty, after all.

A little too handsome in this profile shot, perhaps:

And then Rada. She's a pain. I might just be particular, but I feel there needs to be a balance to her that my pencil really needs to work to achieve. She's kind of rigid. There's confidence, but there's also insecurity - she's very much not on home turf. She's furious and terrified and overwhelmed and trying to keep a stone face over it all.

The Castle

Not much to say at this point (although wait until you see the BACK of it!). I wanted it to be huge and foreboding, if not outright forbidding. Got to practice perspective and study castle architecture and it was an absolute blast. So much fun.

Excerpt.

I decided to do a practice run of the first five pages of the script. Here's an excerpt. I plan on using greytones or perhaps bluetones to add some literal depth to the thing. 

Merpeople

I might do more thorough character sheets closer to the actual due date, but here's what I have for now. The ones I've gotten around to name were done so according to the first-thing-that-comes-into-your-head principle. They might be subject to change.

The Heir - a young squirt. Proud, curious, rebellious.

Benjamin Dewey, of Tragedy Series fame, named this one Herbert, so there you go. Not quite a father figure to Rada, but an ally at least. 

Irene is sweet and quiet for the most part. The scars on her left side are from a man-o-war.

The long-suffering Queen. 

Head Chancellor Kor. Not happy with Rada at all, for reasons.

The Deadbeat Prince.

Prince Waldimar (Rada's target) and his bodyguards. The guy on the right's name is Eskil. I don't know the name of the other one yet. He has a tendency to talk a lot and somehow that's led to no one ever saying his name. I'll figure it out.

Waldimar has had a great night before and I don't know whose coat he's found, but it's clearly not fitted for him. He may or may not have lost money to the guy on the left and that may or may not be why said guy is whistling.

Prince Waldimar has been a breeze to write, unlike SOME characters.

Smoke.

This was an exercise in various things (light/dark, composition, texture, etc). It was humbling realizing just how hard it can be to properly render billowing smoke.

This is an actual scene from the story, but the design of the site could use some sprucing up. Hydrothermal vents are much more graphically interesting in real life.