For class, environment sketches based off the Ancient World (Ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, Rome).  Which I turned into something of my own fantasy world. Oops.

Character design sketches for the Cinderella princess character from my would-be comic, The Indigo Thief.  I still can’t decide how I want her dress to look.

Character design sketches for the titular character in my would-be comic, The Indigo Thief.  I have a really mechanical way of designing, probably comes from the comp sci.

This is me regretting the way I design because I’m only this far and class is in 30 minutes…

wellmanicuredman asked:
when you did worldbuilding wednesday last week i meant to send you an ask but forgot so anyway here's a wbw question a week late, sorry. i’d like to hear a bit about "prince"—what fairy tales are you addressing so far? which ones are you most focused on?

Yay! Sorry, I kind of got inundated trying to catch up with homework.

Prince is a series of gender-bent fairytales I’ve been writing. Once I’m done writing, I’ll illustrate them. I’ll use Kickstarter to print and publish individual books. I’m not sure whether to put them online for free or not because I’m not sure people would like them.

The stories I’m addressing are ones with female ‘protagonists’ - largely because they end up in passive story roles due to gender bias. Note that all characters are gender-swapped. Fathers become mothers, witches are wizards, etc.

However, the idea should go beyond making a woman the savior: I wanted to boil down the fairy tales to universal concepts that can be related to by all genders but still maintain an environment consistent with the actual story.  For example, Cinderella is a blacksmith rather than a maid.

Readers of both genders are already familiar with the female protagonist. By reading a gender-swapped version, I hope to help them glean the more universal themes. For example, I think The Little Mermaid is a story about “not belonging” which is a feeling that boy guys and girls experience.

Here’s the slate at the moment, and the current state of each story:

• Little Mermaid - printed and published
• Red Riding Hood - first draft completed
• Cinderella - first draft in progress
• Snow White - outlined
• Sleeping Beauty - outlined
• Beauty and the Beast - outlined

And I’ve been trying to decide if I want Rapunzel or the Snow Queen for the last one, but it’s a toss-up.

It’s kind of on the backburner for now, but I could probably bring it forward to an early 2014 release.

Entirely self-indulgent, character designs for The Indigo Thief, my contribution to a comic anthology about boys who turn into birds.  Featuring myself, Dana, Britney  and hopefully featuring many more artists (not confirmed yet)! For Fall 2013 release.

My contribution parallels The Green Knight using characters from my main story.  The Indigo Thief was a pauper cursed for stealing luxurious, indigo dye from the royal family.  When the pages of a blue book are flipped forward, he becomes a bird, and when flipped back, he becomes human again.  For many years, he’s worked for the royal family.  When the prince is about to marry a foreign princess, he gives her the book as a wedding present.  But she can’t help fall for the charismatic thief and his melodic birdsong.  Hinjinks ensue.  I need to re-do his silhouette, so he doesn’t look like human Mordecai from The Regular Show.  

My first time doing a comic, oh boy!  Sorry, Dana, but I am tentatively tagging this #birdboyproblems because in my head, that’s our working title.

Willow and Rivek with wispy brush pen legs. Meh.

Rosmyne is more conniving than she looks.  Sometimes, I draw my characters in contemporary clothing.

Belsamel is the desert king.  He means well, but he is arrogant and bullheaded.  He has fire magic.

Mirab.  Trying to get more depth in these sketches by mixing up mediums and stages.

Mika.  It was dim, so I accidentally used the wrong yellow.  Now it looks like she has jaundice.

Willow in Akhari garb.  I wasn’t satisfied with the chunk nature of brush pen, so I switched back to my regular felt-tips.  Trying to get better reads shape-wise.

Happy Valentine’s Day from Willow and Rivek!  Nothing like someone who’ll put you back together when you’re down.

Have some ‘Firebird’ - the crackpot pairing between my character, Rivek, and Dana’s character, Elca.

This has been an awful week.  This came out.