Monday 1 November 2010

Pencil sketch: Arthur


Here he is: the King Arthur you will eventually meet in my comic. The "classic" Arthur is often blond, but I like mine to look like a lion with a black mane :). (I really need to draw a silhouette in which the lion-like quality of his hairdo is more obvious - I'm rather fond of it...)

Clearly, when I say I want a simpler style and more stylised, I am not talking about my characters' hair. A few simple lines simply will not do in that department ;-). I am so doomed.

4 comments:

willborough said...

Hey Ampersand

I like these sketches. I think the change in style is beneficial to the artwork. I don't agree with Dargaud though about your style being immediately reminiscent of children's comics. Stylized does not mean simplified or dumbed-down.

I would try less saturated colors perhaps and use more earthy tones. But of course it could be that you've researched the hell out of these colors...
I taught Sword of kings was a very good and clear read. I'm looking forward to the rest of your story.

cheers,

B

ampersand said...

Hullo B!

Well, Dargaud - what they told me I "should do" was not necessarily bad, but it was more in tune with genre stereotypes than with what I had in mind for my story. It took me some time to free myself from their ideas. And indeed, "stylised" doesn't equal "kiddies only".

Colour schemes - I wish I could say they were so well-thought-out, but truth to tell, I'm just really clueless when it comes to colour. I'll certainly do my best to get something more earthy for my comics pages, especially because all the characters (and their environment too) will have to be in tune colour-wise. When I use colour pencils I am even more clueless than I am with watercolour - I don't know very well how to mix colour with pencils... But I do enjoy using them :).

I think I'll be doing "Sword of Kings" first to try out my new technique. Hopefully I'll find the time soon. *_*;

Cecilia said...

Hi dear,
as you've seen I'm back from sunny & warm Florida, and I'm ready to soccumb again to every day life. Just to not waste the new confidence in English gained after speaking only in English for three weeks (and discovering that my pronunciation is awful, since I've seen many words only in written form) I started a blog in English on blogspot, which will be mainly about comics. Please have a look: http://cecilialart.blogspot.com/

About Arthur, I can't but imagine him with blond hair, sorry *blushes* On the other hand, Lancelot is dark-haired in my mind, and so a kind of contrast is kept.
All the best,
C.

ampersand said...

LOL! For me, Lancelot is blond, so I have the same contrast, just the other way around ;)...

I'm happy to hear you have a blog in English! My Italian is so bad :P... I've added it to my reader right away :).