Coloring Book: This month proved exciting and frustrating. Frank and Charlie's journey has become exciting for me. Truthfully the initial venture was just to see if I could make each month feel as though the same two characters were present and move the journey geographically. I feel confident now in accomplishing this feat and have actually let myself relax. I laid out their journey early on in the initial concept process. No real preconceived imagery but notes on where they were each month and what other birds or animals they might run into. They are about to hang a right and head west at Florida next month and things are going to get a little crazy. I hope to loosen my grip on the same punch line each month. Frank can only get mad at Charlie so many times before even a five year old gets bored.
The real frustration this month was Captain V Space Dog. I've never really known what story I was going to tell. Each month I just came up with something to keep things moving. This month I kinda drop the ball. While the Image of Officer Biernat is fine the second entry this month is a wanted poster for Drogo Blekk. Not very creative. But because of this lack of story I finally outlined the rest of the year and have a story to tell. I know some authors actually work this way all the time but I cannot. I will admit it created given circumstances I had to work within and therefore limited my possibilities for outcomes.
My Dino Story continues on not much to report their minus my editor. The image below was the first created to help show my T-rex's ferocity. My editor (Bridget) said it was too scary for a 5 and 3 year old... she might have a point. I still needed to show my T-rex victorious over the Deinonychus so I went with the image below that. Not as dynamic but a lot less scary. I'm learning.
Station 13 and the Dragons continue in their own way.
First female character: Bridget - Queen of the Dragon Chickens!
Last but not least one of my favorite beasts from growing up, the Hammerhead Shark, was our courier. See last months courier for dialogue references.
Bridget and I wrote a children's story last September. We had it laid out and formatted and I was to finish it by Halloween and maybe have it self published for friends and family... here it is almost June and its not done. While the story has not changed the character and set designs have gotten better. I am a lot better at illustrating the story now than 9 months ago (exponentially). My initial run was more about producing a product and seeing the process through to the end. Well technically we did, and looking back I'm glad I did not rush to completion. The art would have been sacrificed just for speed. While I do hope to have a black and white version self published for Halloween 2010, I am currently spending a lot of time with my characters and evolving them to a less static state. Here is recent character reference sheet to help continue my evolution.
As this progresses I'll continue to update. Here it is the last week of May and I'll be diving back into these worlds for another round of imagery.
