~ Revolyutsiya... ~

"Lev Tsarya", Ch. I:

........

So that was one way to go about brainstorming for an idea while drawing: Storybooking the whole intro.

I found the importance of coming up with the character design sheets first before settling into a sequential involving several main characters - if for nothing else than to codify their look, uniforms, and getting comfortable with possible facial expressions. Was interesting to go back to page 2 (first one done) after hitting page 15, and realizing that a couple of characters had to be redrawn; "Wait; who's that again? Oh yeah..."

I'm usually pretty good about kicking myself to do the exploratory sketch thing first. (I actually had a couple of full page illos of these characters before this.) Then again, I wasn't anticipating doing a short sequential off an initial loose sketch (second page, first panel).

..Snowball kept on rolling, and found myself just making it up as I went - which probably shows. But I did my best with improvising and not going back to readjust panels (although this happened a few times). First pass, with all the bells and whistles happening as I was drawing. ("Ah wait, this guy could be the angry leader.", "This guy could be the simple peasant that always lifts his hat to everyone.", "This is how the inner sanctum and Patriarch will look."; "These are the two prisoners they release.","This is how everyone gets into a Keystone Cops scenario.", etc)

But it pretty much follows the same theme as the WWII sequence I did a while back (on the portfolio page) - just added a few little things here and there. Stories can be the same as rough sketches - exploring and reworking the look and feel until you get an offshoot that's more refined.

Anyhow, there's hopefully some clarity in the panels. Some of it's pretty crammed, but that's what happens when this stuff's happening in one go. Besides, story's supposed to be organic and all - which is just another way of saying that it does its own thing while having some sort of structure in the meanwhile - kind of like an Amazonian jungle, nitroglycerin, or Windows Vista.

~ Between Drawing and Revolution ~

...Been late in uploading anything this weekend due to being glued to the TV - and no, it wasn't because of the Bill Murray Marathon they had going on AMC (although I flipped over to it a few times - Caddyshack is a good counterpoint to the news).

Watched most of what's been going on in Iran, flipping between CNN and Fox. Even stayed up to listen to McDonald's co-founder and Baby Milk Factory advocate Ali Khamenei give his speech, with the crowd doing a pretty decent job catching their cues to yell "Death to [insert name here]... Death to [insert nationality here] !"

Speech was long, and I only caught the last half hour. Stayed up and took notes:

...Illegible notes. And equally illegible sketches.

............

And yes, I did the Ayin sketches during the speech as well. I didn't consciously draw her "rushing-forward-with-knife" in relation to the Ayatollah giving his spiel. (*cough*):

(I wasn't really happy with this pose of hers in the last sequence, hence the redraw - and I'm not sure I'm really satisfied with this sketch either - and I'm starting to sound like a broken record in these blog posts of mine. I promise, I'll post better sketches with less whining next time.)

.....

Speaking of revolution: Since I'm just about done with a several-page prologue to a story idea revolving around a Russian Revolution, here's a preview panel:

Since I suck at drawing historical details accurately, it's an alternate universe deal revolving around a future Revolution in the Holy Empire of Tsarist Russia. Either that, or it's my lame attempt at making a comic that falls somewhere between August 1914 and Big Trouble in Little China.

Given that parallel, it will have plenty of historic and spiritual motifs. More important will be the huge free-for-all shootouts, running through dark tunnels, freeing prisoners, blind old wizards in catacombs. And wildlife - with four legs and wings. That are as tall as a water tower.

Did I mention that it has wings?...

Fin.

~ Sketch Dump ~

...or more like sketch constipation, since I haven't really dumped anything on here in awhile. But all hail Photoshop, which has decided to work again - and the scanner, which has always been a little trooper.

Ok, onto the sketches. Some randomage, some story ideas. A few are older pieces that I liked anyhow:

(These aren't them, however. From last week I think.)
-Some fantasy samurais. And a white ninja bookin' out of a castle with a TV under his arm. Because I like historical accuracy.

-Oh, pesky female ninja... If Lucha Libre has taught me anything, it's that lady ninjas don't like to sneak so much as they like to do backflips at (*a-hem*) revealing angles in relation to the viewer. Never the (male) artist's fault, of course; he has no choice. Laws of Physics and all...


-Only thing that's missing are the Sun Chips...

-Ballpoint pen on this one. Did this while watching a documentary on an Australian pilot, Valentich, who apparently disappeared on a routine flight to Tasmania. Read more here.

-I like the second one better. Not coincidentally, it was the later sketch of the two. And yes, I have been reading Asterix. In Old Norse. (En kvæðin þykkja mér sízt or stað fœrðehurdygurdy waffles...)

-Some after-studies from the Krupa Troopa piece.

-Part of an idea page. Didn't everybody play with Nerf bats and paper ninja stars when they were in grade school?

-Kind of a treatment for a story idea. I like doing these kind of pages: They help w/ creating story points and w/ the pacing during certain moments, all in a condensed format (meaning that this isn't like committing to a finished comic page, nor does it have to be sequential in a storyboard sense). Plus, procrastination and all...

Colerase, post-it notes, copy paper, etc.

(*flushes*)