The Launch!

It's happening! No, really, it's really happening. Go to http://bellintheocean.thecomicseries.com/ to start reading this story. Four pages for the grand first upload, from then on it's regular updates of one page at a time on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. I hope you enjoy! (This blog will keep going, at least for awhile.)

Getting closer.

There is now a title page:

A bit of color before I dive back into levels and charcoal again.

Draaaaaawingg!

I have started drawing the pages. The method is as follows: pencil on vellum Bristol - scan, up the contrast, clean in PS (from what I hear, Manga Studio is better, but I know PS better) - print out on smooth Bristol - charcoal - scan again and do cleanup.

Pencils, post-levels.

Pencils w/ charcoal, post-levels.

I do this because A: I don't want to charcoal over pencils and B: even if I did the originals in ink,I would want to keep them pristine, because I'm hoping for an eventual print version in full color!
This is a little bit labor intensive, though. Hopefully I can work out a snappy routine.

As I type, 19 pages are penciled and I'm working on a "cover drawing". The drawing stage is both absolutely wonderful and absolutely nerve-wracking. My own shortcomings are staring me in the face, but so are the strengths, and seeing characters and sequences that were mostly just doodles, solidify and come to life, is such a thrill. Plus, when I finish this thing, I will hopefully be miles better than I am now. There's the carrot.

And then there's the matter of ships, and how nervous I am about drawing them and how liberating it is to finally get to the stage of "screw it, just throw some ropes and bird poop on there and move on" only to then dissolve into existential angst when you see that it's nowhere near the magnificent vessel you envisioned. Ships - not even once.

Wrapping up.

The last stretch of writing has felt like the longest one. A constant "almost done" without ever actually BEING done. Months and months of chipping away at errors and weak spots only to later find flaws in the fixes and so the cycle went on.

At one point, I had to take a break, so I did another M.R James adaptation; Wailing Well this time. It was fun, good practice and a welcome change of pace.

Special thanks to Dylan Meconis for her input! It can be hard to see the forest for the trees in a long project like this, and my regular editor (ie the husband) is often pressed for time. Having a third opinion was invaluable.

Anyway, things are moving along, finally!

Considerations of character design.

I finally got past a crucial conversation scene, but it took me a week and four drafts. The problem: lots of important information to be revealed, but it's talking heads and I'm boring myself after five panels. I used to love doing conversation scenes, but I've come to realize they can easily get legs and run away from you, especially when they serve as info-dump as well.

Five scenes are left to fine-tune before the final go-through.  

A pretty crucial problem is a particular relationship that I, for spoiler reasons, can't reveal yet, but it's at the very heart of the story and the very core of what drives one of the characters. However, it's a past relationship, not so much a current one, and I think flashbacks should be used only very sparingly and then handled with the utmost care. But if the relationship appears too theoretical, the air might go out of the story.

At least the visuals are a little more straight-forward. Here's what's new in character design:

Rada's physique was a little blah, a little ill-defined, a little wimpy, flat and inconsistent, so I got the advice to base it on a real person's, and who better than former MMA fighter Gina Carano? 

(That question is entirely rhetorical). 

So, something like:

I didn't realize just HOW MUCH it helps having a 

solid reference when it comes to drawing characters.

 She's much more of a joy to draw now. 

I have also made a size chart of the most important characters on land:

(Mr. Tall Bodyguard is now called Manfred. 

And here we can see Waldimar's older brother 

The King for the first time - suave and as well-kept as Waldimar isn't.)

With the merpeople, I've been trying to circumvent the little problem of gender distinction without slapping awkward-looking and un-hydrodynamic breasts on the females, so I introduced some curves. Not sure if it's too subtle. 

(Two ladies to the left, gentleman to the right.)

And on I go...

Moving closer

The writing is coming together, finally. I finally feel like the thing feels cohesive, which has been a problem with previous drafts. Oh, and I have a laptop now, which makes everything a lot easier - I can Photoshop or type whenever I waaant!

I've discovered that while some problems can be worked out by doing storyboards, some demand that you pull up a Word document and type them out. I'd write in the form of a mono-dialogue, starting with describing the problem and then reply to myself and it was somewhat creepy how often the answer would just come out that way. Like part of me had it all along and the other part just needed to ASK.

I also discovered that everyone's right about working SET hours. It really does help your focus. Whodathunk, right?

I would like to think that I'm 90% there, writing-wise. Knock on wood, because if there's anything I've learned, it's that patching one hole tends to make two more pop up.

Husband is working hard and doesn't have too much time to act editor, but he still kindly looks through the storyboards I give him. I fear the digital version of the script I prepared for him is very out-of-date at this point, though.

Once the writing is done, I will start on character sheets as well as figure out where to put the thing and how to present it. Page-by-page? Chapter-by-chapter?

Art-wise, I'm leaning towards doing the underwater scenes in ink/charcoal, while the land scenes will be in pencil/greytones. I was hesitant, but my husband insists I am more of a pencil artist (which I think was a very polite way of putting it) and as the always sage Dylan Meconis pointed out: they're two different worlds and that might as well be emphasized.

Underwater scenes, ink/charcoal:

Land scene, trying out pencil/greytone:

Bonus: Inked thumbnail of Rada diving to see the Witch.

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. 

Home of the merpeople.

I wanted the design to be stark and kind of crude, conveying a people that are still at the mercy of the elements and possibly nomadic. Their individual homes are the small holes in the mountain wall and the larger caverns are public gathering halls.

Rada

Our protagonist. Roll the 'r' and say "ahhh".

I wanted a mermaid design that seemed more like something that could actually live in the ocean, than a lonely sailor's wet dream.When I first designed the facial structure, back in highschool, I thought of sharks, but it ended up looking more like a cat's face. Fine by me, it means I have reference handy.

I might add some rank markings eventually, but for now, I like her sleek and clean.

Let's not question the tiny stick - I just wanted her to have something to hold and I haven't designed the merpeople's weapons yet.

The merpeople's eyes are reflective, they can NOT breathe above water and they communicate telepathically.They have very sharp teeth, with two extra long canines that tuck into their lower jaw. I figure that their skeleton is cartilaginous, like sharks, but I have yet to read up on whether that would work well with having arms. (It has no bearing on the story, I just like to know these things.)


Rada as a human:

Not terribly much to add without spoiling things. I wanted her to look solid and strong and worker-ish without making her look like a powerhouse. 

Her face has been giving me trouble lately, especially in inks. Not sure why.

I need to devote plenty of doodle time to it until it's second nature.

Coming up.

Shake it out.

The story didn't really come together until I put on Florence & the Machine's "Ceremonials". It really inspired the tone of the thing and after twelve hours sitting with a Word document, it was done! Well, as done as it can be at that stage. I had the bones and the sinews and a pretty firm idea of what this baby was going to look like.

I did not write a full script, exactly. Instead I sat down with the outline and started sketching full-size (8.5"x11") thumbnails of each page. It might be too time-consuming a process to make a habit, but I wanted to really see how the words and art worked together right away, and solve the worst layout problems before I sat down to do the finished art. 

Right in the middle of all this, I developed tennis elbow and couldn't draw or write for six months. As insufferable as I was, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise - since I couldn't do much more than read, I found myself plowing through books I'd impatiently ignored before; books like "Story" by Robert McKee and "Bambi vs Godzilla" by David Mamet. I learned that Hollywood sucks and that my story needed a lot of work.

For six months, I moped and mulled it over in my head. It improved! Now, the first full set of thumbnails are awaiting review from my husband, the sagacious Jesse Hamm. (Who is also giving my blog the once-over, apparently.) Until he can find a gap in his busy schedule, though, I will have to get cracking on character designs and  scenery. 

What if the little mermaid became human in order to kill the prince?

That was the premise for a graphic novel I wrote and penciled back in high school and, frankly, it wasn't very good. I stashed it into a folder somewhere and went on with life, but the premise wouldn't leave me.

Fourteen years later, I dusted it off and here we are  - the tale of a mercenary mermaid and a deadbeat prince is on its way to being told.

This blog is, in large part, for my own sake. I want to be able to look back after this is done, remember how it happened and maybe learn from mistakes I made. And if others should be interested, too, then that's the ganache on the double chocolate cake. There will be mostly art here; don't be deterred by these wordy first posts. I provide pictures.