Gothic Tales of Haunted Love

I'm super excited to be collaborating with my good friend, Cherelle Higgins, on a story she's written entitled: Green, Gold and Black. A story set in 1728 Jamaica, on the eve of a slave uprising. A young house slave tries to protect her newborn infant from a pair of vengeful ghosts.

Her story will be part of Bedside Press' Gothic Tales of Haunted Love comic anthology. There is a Kickstarter for it now so if you're into the spooky and romantic, please check it out!

Over the years, I've been fortunate to have read a lot of Cherelle's lush and imaginative stories, from cruel gods and goddesses to demons and angels, undead and other creatures I would never have imagined. She always manages to take a conventional theme and make it her own so I'm very happy she'll be getting another of her stories out there for others to read. If you haven't already, another story she wrote appears in the The Secret Lives of Geek Girls called Cherry where she tackles a past trauma. 

And now, some character concepts: 

Character Designs for a Comic

I've been busy working on a few projects in development but this is something I can share. My friend, Robert Iveniuk asked me to help him pitch a short comic called The Ruins with animals as the main characters. He knows my soft spot. 

Below are my interpretations of his characters: Kirby, a Schnauzer; Penny, a Beagle; and Gordon, an adorable Chow Chow, along with a group of hungry raccoons they encounter. I understand that the story is to be in black and white but I couldn't help but want to see what they would look like in colour. 

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Update: Although our pitch did not make the final cut, (there were a large volume of submissions to the publisher) this doesn't necessarily mean that we won't do something with this in the future. In the meanwhile, I have been busy with other projects and commissions. I hope to share some of them soon. 

A Comic - My Beloved Monster

I'm pleased to be working with Oliver Ho again on another comic project. This time it involves a cat as one of the main characters in his story entitled, My Beloved Monster. It's a romance with a twist. Below is some concept art of the main characters: Darnell, Ella, the Cat; and some of the supporting cast, Susan, Hazel, Joan and David.

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I'll admit that drawing comics generally doesn't come easy to me. It's a whole different set of skills to master: Panels, story flow, leading the eye from panel to panel, following the script, text bubbles, camera angles, inking, action, conveying emotion, and all those tiny little panels sometimes feels a little restrictive to me. I do think the Schoolism classes I've taken so far have made a huge difference because to me my drawings feel more confident and expressive which makes the layout step a much more enjoyable experience. I can't share anything else with you just yet but perhaps a page or two once it's complete. :)

Concept art for a short film 'Insect' - the reveal

I was given the go-ahead by the director to show the full concept art piece so I've attached it below along with all the steps taken to create the piece.

1. Based on the script, I made a number of  small rough thumbnails with various layouts to present for approval.  I was sent some reference photos of character types envisioned for the film.
2. On the poster shoot, the director chose one thumbnail with which to proceed. The model, Alex, turned out to be a candidate for the lead role, so I used her likeness from the photos taken by my husband, the official still photographer. At this point, I moved into blocking in the room, chairs and mannequins in perspective.  Once I was happy with it, I began to make the mannequins look like the characters, adding clothing, wings, bloody stumps, etc. Normally, I would have put the light into perspective but as we were not sure where the light source(s) would be located I wasn't too concerned.
3. The director needed something to show the special effects crew (The Butcher Shop) so I scanned it at 300 dpi and brought it into Photoshop for digital inking, throwing in a brownish background colour by using multiply on the colour layer and another layer to paint in some quick highlights, and sent it off to her to show the FX crew.
4. Later on, the script was further tweaked requiring some changes to the artwork including a complete re-inking. Once I was satisfied, I added colour.

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The film was shot last Saturday and l got to help out on the set as Assistant PA in Craft Services (a.k.a. Food Services).  It was a long 14-hour day spent mostly in quiet and darkness and I now have a new appreciation for what goes into making a movie.  It was quite exciting to be a part of it all and to see my concept art brought to life by Carlos Henriques & Ryan Louagie, the prosthetics team. They did an amazing job transforming Tyler Williams into the Angel.  I can't wait to see the finished film!

For more information about the movie and to get an early look at it please visit www.bull-dogpictures.com.