Saturday 30 August 2008

Arthuriana

Just throwing a few pictures at you... I have been doing too many Arthurian sketches to put in one post, so I'm giving you the more finished ones to get a taste for my new project ;-). The others require some text, because they are mostly character studies. Have these first, in a quick post :-).



(...if you needed more proof that I'm bad at drawing kiddies...)


(Making a mess with watercolour, YAY! This is SO not thought out... *g*)


(Happy with my inking. This is done with a brown Faber-Castell PITT pen.)



(My new favourite couple :P... It's Lot and Morgana!)

Tuesday 12 August 2008

Veridicus!

I have once again not been able to do any of the things I *wanted* to do this evening, but I don't want to wait any longer to share this:

Veridicus, all coloured!

Nout, a.k.a. the Comics Expert, gave me the little gem on Saturday. It seems that he keeps putting subtle (?) pressure on a real colour artist to make my lines look a bit more presentable... The great colours gracing my modest pencils are the work of Bartel Bruneel, whose art you can find on his blogspot Willborough, and the same artist who did the colours on Comm here.



Thanks a million, Bartel :D! This is absolutely wonderful - Veridicus looks alive! It's incredible how this colour art gives him substance. In my picture he was simply flat. I would never have believed that he could look so real, and the skin tones and facial muscles are gorgeous...

*swoons*

I told you, didn't I, that Veridicus was handsome? Well, you have the proof now! :P

la la la lalala la la la la lala lala la la la la laaaaaaaaaaa...

G'night!

Sunday 3 August 2008

Gawain Again





I am not sure how it happened, but I have suddenly found Gawain again. Between the ages of fourteen and eighteen, I was absolutely obsessed with this one knight of the Round Table. I thought Lancelot was a bore - he didn't seem to have a sense of humour, and he was universally acknowledged as The Greatest Knight of All. Blah.

Now Gawain, he is quite different. Somehow he gets into the strangest adventures of all, usually involving a wide array of ladies (young, old, seductive, distant, pretty, ugly, lethal, protective, possessed of magical powers or not) and really weird opponents, like green blokes on green horses or even the devil himself. He is at once the most courteous and considerate, as well as the most savage of King Arthur's knights. That is, he does not anger easily and never seems eager to fight; but when he gets into a rage he seems to lose control entirely, much in the way of ancient Irish heroes like Cúchúlain. He also has a kind of superpower: his strength waxes and wanes with the sun. This is a striking thing, because it shows clearly that his origins are more ancient than those of most other knights in the medieval romances. His ambiguity of character also shows in the fact that though in British romances (the notable exception being Malory's Morte Darthur) he is always a hero, while in French romances he is either used in contrast to the central hero of the story (mostly Lancelot and Percival) and portrayed as not living up to their standard, or he is simply a villain and a thug. I can't think of any other characters in medieval Round Table stories who serve both purposes.

When I was fifteen I started to write my own Gawain trilogy - yes, even then I never settled for small projects ;-). I actually made it through the entire first book, and with characteristic naïvité showed it to a teacher, who told me I should try to get it published. I did try, twice. Of course the manuscript was rejected, and when I look at it now, it is obvious why XD - so obvious, in fact, that I'm rather relieved that nobody can produce a copy and confront me with it... But, well, I was only fifteen after all. The great thing was that one of the publisher's professional readers, an author of young adult books himself, invited me to his home to give me tips about writing. I am still grateful for that, because even though I lost courage after the two rejections and stopped in the middle of my second Gawain novel, it dawned on me much later that this writer thought I had it in me to write a good novel one day. The novel is still not written, and my attention has for a large part shifted towards comics, but his encouragement has strengthened my belief in my capacity to tell a story - a capacity that I do my best to hone, even if, like everything else, it takes me a lot of time.

Now, why did I start about Gawain again? It is just that a few pieces about his character fell into place, like that, out of the blue. It crossed my mind that, unlike with my Gauls, Gawain might actually furnish material for short comics. That means that I could take on something that can be finished within a limited timeframe. Also positive is that the settings would be rather similar to the ones I need to picture Gaul, and so these short stories could provide good exercise. I already have a lot of material in terms of plot. And a new version of Gawain just found its way to paper, so...

Here are the first sketches, mostly in bic pen. I wanted to try drawing with bics because I see that lots of artists do it, with great results, even though the medium never really attracted me. Trying it out has warmed me to it, though I'm not really projecting any finished pictures in it.