The Sleeper's Den

Commission

2012-01-04T22:14:00.000+01:00

(click for a large view)

Mary Johnson commissioned this illustration for her children's book-in-progress, A Drive of Dragons. Her request was a rather ambitious one for me, what with there being four characters in it, one of which is a dragon - but it was great fun to work on and I'm quite happy with how it turned out. I was amazed at just how much more 'lived in' and lively the picture became when I thought of adding the saddle, sword, branches and blanket. I tend to forget about these things completely, which is kind of bad. But hey, I thought of them this time! That means I'm improving.

This scene was pencilled, then transferred to Arches Hot-Pressed using a lightbox, then inked with Staedtler pens, and finally painted with Winsor & Newton watercolours. To prove that I can be a leeettle bit professional about art sometimes, I had done a watercolour sketch first to determine the colours before I started painting the final version. Go me! ;)

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-23T17:39:00.000+01:00

Gawain

2011-12-09T15:54:00.001+01:00

Cloaked

2011-11-20T22:25:00.001+01:00

Dead Leaves

2011-11-06T17:06:00.002+01:00

Morgana

2011-10-26T20:46:00.002+02:00

Cover design for The Darkest Hour

2011-10-17T16:57:00.001+02:00

Once again, a (bad) photo because this is A3(ish). I am surprisingly happy with how this turned out. Does it work for you?

I tried to paint without thinking too much - if I think too much, the result never looks good O_O. So I used several colours that I have tried to avoid in the past, not least among which are (ivory) black and Payne's Grey. I love Payne's Grey. I also found that my Chrome Green is not the bad buy that I thought it was. When used with lots of water, it makes a lovely, subdued green. I adore it.

A3 concept...

2011-10-16T00:18:00.000+02:00

I apologise for the bad photo: the original painting is A3 size and doesn't fit onto my scanner.Hence, you get a photo taken in artificial light around midnight. Sorry. This is one for the copyshop... In reality, the colours are much better, I promise.

This is pretty much what the pages of the comic will look like. Well, this is a splash page, of course, but the line art and colours will be like this. Suggestions? Concerns?

All About Arthur

2011-10-01T18:20:00.003+02:00

Have a young Arthur. The gentleman is giving me trouble! I had scripted the passage in which he is introduced, but I hadn't laid it out yet because I felt something wasn't working quite right. At 3.30 this morning I resolved to approach the passage differently and to rewrite it. So that is what I will be doing.

Meanwhile, I'm trying out different types of paper for my definitive art. This is Lana Cold-Pressed. Though this paper has always been a favourite of mine, it seems it cannot take all the rubbing and erasing that went on during the sketch phase, so I guess that rules it out :(.

In case anyone is interested, the process I am using looks like this:

- I sketch my image in watercolour pencil.
- I ink with a Faber-Castell brush pen.
- I take a brush with water to the watercolour pencil lines to disperse them and turn them into a wash.
- I paint the picture.

Loyalty binds me

2011-09-26T17:40:00.000+02:00

Richard III, painted for Cecilia :). I think she is the only Italian member of the Richard III Society... Her Ricardian comic, The Boar, is for sale on Lulu, Amazon and probably a few other places.

Poor Richard. His reputation got tarnished forever because Shakespeare's patrons were Tudors. Then again, he is probably my favourite Shakespearean villain!

Peek-a-boo!

2011-09-17T12:36:00.000+02:00

Gawain Project: short hiatus

2011-08-28T16:06:00.000+02:00

No comic yesterday?

That's because I'm taking a (short) holiday off the comic. I'm busy with work and life at the moment and I feel like I have to churn out new pages inbetween without being able to think them through. So I have decided to take some time off to think about the next few scenes and prepare them at my ease.

I'm not sure how long I'll need - two weeks? three weeks? Not very long, in any case. Trust me, I need to tell this story just as much as I need to breathe, so I'm going to continue telling it. I just need to give it some space because I have temporarily lost my 'oomph'. Just catching my breath here.

Please come back. I promise I'll come back too, with fights, romance, sorceresses and a legendary king :).

Thank you for your patience.

<3

Gawain Project: Sunrise, Chapter 1: Brothers & Sisters 79-81

2011-08-20T14:28:00.001+02:00

What went before

Morgana has been hoping that Conchobarre, a former fianna and now a nun in Morgana's convent, would be willing to take charge of Gawain's combat training. But Conchobarre refuses to do anything that might benefit to King Lot. As a young woman, she was pushed aside to make room for her younger brother, and the fact that Lot has removed his eldest child, a daughter, hits close to home. What now?

1-3 - 4-6 - 7-9 - 10-12 - 13-15 - 16-18 - 19-21 - 22-24 - 25-27 - 28-30 - 31-33 - 34-36 - 37-39 - 40-42 - 43-45 - 46-48 - 49-51 - 52-54 - 55-57 - 58-60 - 61-63 - 64-66 - 67-69 - 70-72 - 73-75 - 76-78

Next week: Of sons, cows and Saxons.

Gawain Project: a small break...

2011-08-13T19:44:00.000+02:00

Life and work interfered too much this past week. No comic today, I'm afraid... But next week you'll meet someone special :).

For today, have my finalised character design for little Gawain.

Check in next Saturday for the continuation of the story!

Gawain Project: Sunrise, Chapter 1: Brothers & Sisters 76-78

2011-08-07T10:55:00.001+02:00

What went before

Lot and Morgana have plans with Gawain, but none of them will bear fruit unless the boy becomes a decent warrior. Because his current training seems to lead nowhere, Morgana brings in an expert: Conchobarre, a former war leader who has taken the veil. But Conchobarre flatly refuses to become Gawain's tutor. Why? Well, this week she reveals her reasons...

1-3 - 4-6 - 7-9 - 10-12 - 13-15 - 16-18 - 19-21 - 22-24 - 25-27 - 28-30 - 31-33 - 34-36 - 37-39 - 40-42 - 43-45 - 46-48 - 49-51 - 52-54 - 55-57 - 58-60 - 61-63 - 64-66 - 67-69 - 70-72 - 73-75

Next week: The fall-out.

Gawain Project: Sunrise, Chapter 1: Brothers & Sisters 73-75

2011-07-30T19:19:00.000+02:00

I spent the last few days in Edinburgh. I had a wonderful time - and sunny weather! (Well, apart from the last day, which was very rainy, but I needed that to convince me that I was really in Scotland...). Of course Edinburgh is a little bit magical for me in any case because it is the site of the capital of the Gododdin, and the capital of Lothian - it's Lot Country and Gawain was born there! I rolled my eyes a bit at the shameless commercial exploitation of what is after all Highland dress in the capital of the Lowlands; I was bemused by the existence of vegetarian haggis and Scottish/Mexican fusion cooking yielding quesadillas with haggis; I wandered through the expanse of Holyrood Park pretending not to know that Arthur's Seat doesn't really have anything to do with Arthur; and of course I also drooled over the Celtic exhibits in the National Museum. I also learnt that quite a few members of the Scottish ruling class in the Middle Ages were of Flemish descent, which certainly explains some of the more absurd aspects of life in Scotland ;-).

Naturally I brought back a lot of books, one of which is a collection of Scottish folk tales. I also (finally) got a copy of the Mabinogion, a small booklet about Pictish fortresses, a history of the Pictish people and a copy of The Last of the Celts, Marcus Tanner's exploration of what is left of the Celtic-speaking world. It makes for gloomy reading. Tanner estimates that one generation from now, all Celtic languages will be extinct. Some of them have been killed off by aggressive government policies (Breton in France, Gaelic in the UK), others are just spoken by people who aren't proud of their language and its heritage (Gaelic in Ireland). All of them have been dealt with in a bad way - measures to preserve the languages have either come too late or have had adverse effects. These things make a Celtophile despair :(.

Well, I'm trying to keep Celtic culture alive in my own modest way (ahem). New pages are below; I hope you enjoy them. Concrit is welcome, as always!

What went before

Lot and Morgana have a problem. They each have their own high hopes for Gawain, but none of their plans are going to come to anything if the boy cannot hold his own in a fight. Gawain is small and not particularly strong. To overcome these weaknesses, he will need the help of an expert - preferably of the female variety. Fortunately, Morgana knows just such a person...

1-3 - 4-6 - 7-9 - 10-12 - 13-15 - 16-18 - 19-21 - 22-24 - 25-27 - 28-30 - 31-33 - 34-36 - 37-39 - 40-42 - 43-45 - 46-48 - 49-51 - 52-54 - 55-57 - 58-60 - 61-63 - 64-66 - 67-69 - 70-72

Next week: Conchobarre gives her reasons. They reveal something about Lot...

Gawain Project: Sunrise, Chapter 1: Brothers & Sisters 70-72

2011-07-23T23:49:00.000+02:00

What went before
Lot is concerned about the fact that he cannot draw the sword from the stone. Does it really mean he is unworthy of the High King's throne? But Morgana points out that the sword in the stone has Merlin written all over it, and that as such it is as subjective a means to appoint a king as any other. Meanwhile, it turns out that Gawain's martial skills are rather sub-par and that something should be done about that...

1-3 - 4-6 - 7-9 - 10-12 - 13-15 - 16-18 - 19-21 - 22-24 - 25-27 - 28-30 - 31-33 - 34-36 - 37-39 - 40-42 - 43-45 - 46-48 - 49-51 - 52-54 - 55-57 - 58-60 - 61-63 - 64-66 - 67-69

Gawain Project: Sunrise, Chapter 1: Brothers & Sisters 67-69

2011-07-17T00:53:00.000+02:00

What went before

The meeting of the kings has not really been a success. Lot tells Morgana of his worries. There is one in particular...

1-3 - 4-6 - 7-9 - 10-12 - 13-15 - 16-18 - 19-21 - 22-24 - 25-27 - 28-30 - 31-33 - 34-36 - 37-39 - 40-42 - 43-45 - 46-48 - 49-51 - 52-54 - 55-57 - 58-60 - 61-63 - 64-66

Next week: We hear something about tiny heroes.

Gawain Project: Sunrise, Chapter 1: Brothers & Sisters 64-66

2011-07-09T16:07:00.000+02:00

Haven't got much to say, apart form the fact that I have just finished another Arthurian novel, Here Lies Arthur by Philip Reeve. It is one of those YA page turners and I finished it in a few hours. I'll try to write an Arthurian Review about it soon.

I hope you enjoy the continuation of the story. As always, concrit is welcome!

What went before

Taliesin has lulled the bellicose kings of Britain to sleep with the magic of his harp music. The meeting has ended and bloodshed has been avoided - but the kings have not made any progress. Queen Morgause despairs, but Taliesin claims that a new High King is approaching...

1-3 - 4-6 - 7-9 - 10-12 - 13-15 - 16-18 - 19-21 - 22-24 - 25-27 - 28-30 - 31-33 - 34-36 - 37-39 - 40-42 - 43-45 - 46-48 - 49-51 - 52-54 - 55-57 - 58-60 - 61-63

Next week: we find out what's up with little Gawain.

Gawain Project: Sunrise, Chapter 1: Brothers & Sisters 61-63

2011-07-04T21:46:00.000+02:00

This is what happens if you post in more place than one: sometimes you forget one of them. Eek. Well, the episode is up now. Sorry about the delay!

What went before
It's clobbering time! The kings of Britain roll across the floor of the royal hall of Lothian. Then Taliesin the bard takes his lyre and starts to play...

1-3 - 4-6 - 7-9 - 10-12 - 13-15 - 16-18 - 19-21 - 22-24 - 25-27 - 28-30 - 31-33 - 34-36 - 37-39 - 40-42 - 43-45 - 46-48 - 49-51 - 52-54 - 55-57 - 58-60

Next week: a Lot-and-Morgana moment...

2011-06-25T17:20:00.000+02:00

I'm terribly sorry, but there won't be an update of the comic this week. Papers and theses have taken over my life >_<. I'm also filling in for a colleague who is ill, so I haven't had time to draw anything. *sigh*

Next week should be more comfy.

Gawain Project: Sunrise, Chapter 1: Brothers & Sisters 58-60

2011-06-18T23:52:00.001+02:00

Another full Moleskine journal! That makes four of them so far. Mind you, for The Darkest Hour I cheated and added some loose sheets. Had I known that they would be so many loose sheets, I would just have started a new journal. But I kept thinking the story would be done in, oh, two more pages. As it turned out, I needed 25. One of the four full journals also has sixteen pages with non-comic stuff, simply because - well, I guess that when I started writing and drawing this story, I wasn't sure I would get this far. In the meantime, I know I have barely started ;-).

What went before

If you bring the Kings of Britain together for a debate about who is supposed to be the new High King, you can bet that some nasty fighting will ensue. And so it does. Two little boys are watching as their fathers roll across the floor of the great hall...

1-3 - 4-6 - 7-9 - 10-12 - 13-15 - 16-18 - 19-21 - 22-24 - 25-27 - 28-30 - 31-33 - 34-36 - 37-39 - 40-42 - 43-45 - 46-48 - 49-51 - 52-54 - 55-57

Next week: More! ;-)

Gawain Project: Sunrise, Chapter 1: Brothers & Sisters 55-57

2011-06-12T20:26:00.000+02:00

What went before
The Kings of Britain are debating uther's succession. Lot and Uriens both lay claim to the throne, as they are both married to one of Uther's adopted daughters. The Irish and the British are not mincing words. This cannot end well!

1-3 - 4-6 - 7-9 - 10-12 - 13-15 - 16-18 - 19-21 - 22-24 - 25-27 - 28-30 - 31-33 - 34-36 - 37-39 - 40-42 - 43-45 - 46-48 - 49-51 - 52-54

Gawain Project: Sunrise, Chapter 1: Brothers & Sisters 52-54

2011-06-04T17:10:00.001+02:00

What went before:

The meeting of the Kings is underway. Gawain and Owain, running around the royal hall, meet a strange character who claims to have become the most talented man in the world after Merlin has put him in the way of a magic potion. Gawain and Owain are a little bit sceptical about Merlin's habit of taking children away from their parents...

1-3 - 4-6 - 7-9 - 10-12 - 13-15 - 16-18 - 19-21 - 22-24 - 25-27 - 28-30 - 31-33 - 34-36 - 37-39 - 40-42 - 43-45 - 46-48 - 49-51

Gawain Project: Sunrise, Chapter 1: Brothers & Sisters 49-51

2011-05-28T11:59:00.002+02:00

I struggled a bit through this episode and the next; I hope it doesn't show too much. The trouble here is that I want to show, not tell, and that can be a bit troublesome because I have lots of exposition to share with you. So if it seems like I am introducing characters and stories for no good reason - trust me, there is a reason. It is because I don't want to pull rabbits out of my hat later in the story.

-Anyway, that shouldn't stop you from giving concrit if anything bothers you :-).

What went before:

Lot has managed to soothe Agravain, but is confronted by his wife, who touches upon his harsh treatment of their ... daughter? With the Kings gathering in Lot's hall, his family has to stick together and present a united front to make a bid for the High King's throne. Right now, the meeting of the Kings has started.

1-3 - 4-6 - 7-9 - 10-12 - 13-15 - 16-18 - 19-21 - 22-24 - 25-27 - 28-30 - 31-33 - 34-36 - 37-39 - 40-42 - 43-45 - 46-48

Next week: The Kings of Britain start to do what they are good at: quarrelling!

Gawain Project: Sunrise, Chapter 1: Brothers & Sisters 46-48

2011-05-21T18:39:00.000+02:00

Lookit! We're drawing close to page 50! Yes, I'm really into short stories. (Actually, I really am. It's just when I start drawing comics that things tend to get out of hand...)

What went before:

Lot and his brother Angus are debating about how best to take power in Britain. Meanwhile, Lot has to deal with some domestic problems as well. Agravain is angry because his elder brother is given special treatment, and Queen Morgause has some criticism of her own to level at her husband...

1-3 - 4-6 - 7-9 - 10-12 - 13-15 - 16-18 - 19-21 - 22-24 - 25-27 - 28-30 - 31-33 - 34-36 - 37-39 - 40-42 - 43-45

Next week: Gawain and Owain meet a strange character.

Finally, my first test strip for the definitive version of the comic. In case there was any doubt about this, nobody should ever hire me as a colourist ;_;. Maybe the next try will look a bit more promising... Line art and speech bubbles have, I think, passed the test, though.

Gawain Project: Sunrise, Chapter 1: Brothers & Sisters 43-45

2011-05-14T13:32:00.000+02:00

I like Lot, which is probably very, very, very obvious. Ah well. Too bad I know what fate has in store for him ;_;. For the time being, at least, he and his very long red hair are doing very well.

And that's a lot of 'very' for you. I sound like Niniri in A Distant Soil.

What went before:

The Kings of Britain are meeting in Lothian and the feast is about to start. Queen Morgause has just broken up a fight between her two eldest sons, and Agravain expresses his irritation at the fact that Gawain seems to be treated differently from his brothers. As they go to their quarters to get changed for the feast, the boys walk in on a discussion their father and uncle are having...

1-3 - 4-6 - 7-9 - 10-12 - 13-15 - 16-18 - 19-21 - 22-24 - 25-27 - 28-30 - 31-33 - 34-36 - 37-39 - 40-42

Gawain Project: Sunrise, Chapter 1: Brothers & Sisters 40-42

2011-05-07T12:55:00.000+02:00

I'm really sorry about the lack of update last week. If all had gone as planned, I would have posted early, but as it turned out, I had more work to do than I anticipated, so I didn't get round to assembling a post. Today we return to our regular programme.

What went before:

We have caught a glimpse of the relationship between Gawain and his brother Agravain. The two boys don't exactly get along and pick fights with each other. Their mother interferes, not without a snide remark about the boys' Irish ancestry.

1-3 - 4-6 - 7-9 - 10-12 - 13-15 - 16-18 - 19-21 - 22-24 - 25-27 - 28-30 - 31-33 - 34-36 - 37-39

Next week: you get to see more of King Lot and his gorgeous red hair ;-).

Gawain Project: Sunrise, Chapter 1: Brothers & Sisters 37-39

2011-04-23T19:19:00.000+02:00

Can I say again how much I enjoy sketching these pages? I know they have mistakes, and though I try to avoid making any, I'm not too bothered when they do appear, because I know these are just sketches. So I just move on and draw new pages and simply enjoy telling my story.

Whenever I sit down to draw one of the definitive pages, things get kind of stressful. Well, no, not really - drawing those pages is fun, too. But I don't often feel like sitting down to start drawing them in the first place because the pressure is so high. Those pages have to be correct. So when I've drawn one, and it's not entirely correct, I put it aside to iron out the mistakes. But seeing how slow I am to begin with, I never get round to finishing the thing. Because I'm scared of it. At the moment, I tell myself I'm laying out the rest of the story, so I'm doing something productive. But I really do need to find a way to bring the process of the final pages closer to that of the sketch pages. I need to find a way to make myself comfortable. I think I also need to eliminate one of the stages (maybe do the pencils directly on watercolour paper?). I'll produce pages that are far from being perfect, but I'll be producing pages.

Thoughts?

What went before:

Owain, son of Uriens and Morgana, is visiting Lot's stronghold together with his father because the kings of Britain are having a meeting. Having met Owain in the woods, Gawain has guided him back to the house, where the two boys are met by Gawain's tyrannical brother Agravain. And Gawain doesn't need much in order to start fighting...

1-3 - 4-6 - 7-9 - 10-12 - 13-15 - 16-18 - 19-21 - 22-24 - 25-27 - 28-30 - 31-33 - 34-36

Next week: Agravain asks a pertinent question.

Gawain Project: Sunrise, Chapter 1: Brothers & Sisters 34-36

2011-04-16T18:36:00.000+02:00

Here they are, then: Gawain's brothers. Well, one of them is missing (you'll meet him next week) and another one hasn't been born yet, but the others are present ;-).

What went before

Returning home from Morgana's convent, Gawain has met his cousin Owain, Uriens of Gorre's youngest son. The boys' first meeting does not run that smoothly, as Owain does not seem to think very highly of Gawain's family...

1-3 - 4-6 - 7-9 - 10-12 - 13-15 - 16-18 - 19-21 - 22-24 - 25-27 - 28-30 - 31-33

Click for a readable view!

Next week: There will be fighting!

Gawain Project: Sunrise, Chapter 1: Brothers & Sisters 31-33

2011-04-10T13:18:00.001+02:00

You will be meeting Gawain's entire family in the next few instalments, simply because it's important that you know them :-). But don't worry, I'll be getting to the point. Eventually ;P.

What went before

The kings of Britain are meeting in King Lot's stronghold. Uriens of Gorre is one of them, and he has brought a little boy with him in whom Morgana shows an interest...

1-3 - 4-6 - 7-9 - 10-12 - 13-15 - 16-18 - 19-21 - 22-24 - 25-27

Click for a readable view!

Next week: Meet Gawain's brothers. All three of them.

Gawain Project: Sunrise, Chapter 1: Brothers & Sisters 28-30

2011-04-03T13:33:00.001+02:00

New pages, as promised. After the story of Ygraine, after King Uther's disappearance and the planting of a sword in a stone, we look at the story of Gawain, who is as yet a little boy. Brothers & Sisters is about the ties that will bind him for the rest of his life.

What went before

King Lot has brought his eldest son, Gawain, to the convent of the Valley of No Return, where the child is to be taught by Morgana and her nuns. Morgana clearly has plans for the boy - but whether or not they coincide with Lot's remains to be seen.

1-3 - 4-6 - 7-9 - 10-12 - 13-15 - 16-18 - 19-21 - 22-24 - 25-27

Click for a readable view!

Next week: new pages!

2011-03-27T13:09:00.001+02:00

Part II: Sunrise

Chapter 1: Brothers and Sisters

Blood runs thicker than you would think.

1-3 - 4-6 - 7-9 - 10-12 - 13-15 - 16-18 - 19-21 - 22-24 - 25-27

The story continues on Sunday, 3 April!

I hope it's not too confusing - I'll be picking up the thread of the story that I posted before The Darkest Hour. It is only while I was scripting that story that I realised I would have to tell Ygraine's story first, so I went back in time and gave you the backstory of Gawain's grandmother, mother and Auntie Morgana. Now that is done, I can pick up again where I left off. In case you need to refresh your memory, you can find the links to previous pages above :).

(Incidentally, pages 25-27 need editing, because Morgana isn't being entirely honest about her purpose there. At the time I thought that was a good thing, for some reason, but in the meantime I have changed my mind. That's what I get for posting a draft comic... Sorry about that.)

Cover design sketch

2011-03-22T18:44:00.000+01:00

I had an idea for a possible cover, so I thought I might as well sketch it. I like the result, but I have reservations about the degree to which it represents my story :P. The image shows an essential aspect of Gawain, but I'm worried that it might give people a wrong idea of what kind of story will follow. And I don't know about you, but personally I hate deceptive covers...

Oh yes: I am quite aware of the fact that it is a little ludicrous to be fussing about a cover when there aren't any finished pages yet. But seeing as deciding on a cover image turns out to be quite hard, I think it doesn't hurt to give it some thought before matters really become urgent. *g*

Also, I am clearly not a designer -_-.

Sketchdump! (2 of 2)

2011-03-20T21:51:00.000+01:00

Medium: Damiaanactie pens :-). No preliminary pencils, no means to correct anything. For some reason, that is liberating and fun.

In this second batch of sketches, it's all Gawain, all the time!

Sketchdump! (1 of 2)

2011-03-20T19:34:00.000+01:00

...I try to sketch other things than faces (because I need to practice drawing other things than faces - very badly), but as you can see, I can't always get myself to do it ;-).

All Gawain.

Ygraine, Morgana, Cai, Gwenhwyfar.

Gawain, Owain, Agravain, Nimue (2 versions, both unsatisfactory), Morgana, Morgause.

Morgause, Gawain and Morholt.

Between Worlds

2011-03-08T17:00:00.000+01:00

It's been a while... I have been sketching a lot and working on the continuation of the comic, but I haven't produced much that is postable. Unless you like to see my scribbles. It does mean that I'll start posting layouts again soon, so there will be some more reading material for you :).

The picture above is my first ever A4-sized colour pencil illustration. Actually it started off as a sketch on a stray sheet of Bristol board, but when I'd done the face I liked it so much that I thought I had better turn it into a complete illustration. Because it wasn't at all planned, I improvised all the way. The main reason why this turned into a mysterious night scene is the falling star on the left. It wasn't a falling star. It was a few random lines to try out the feeling of my colour pencils on the sheet of paper. And I found I couldn't erase it. So I had to incorporate it into the picture somehow. Disenchanting, eh? XD

I really enjoyed working with colour pencils here, and Bristol board is the perfect carrier, as far as I am concerned - though I'll go for a heavier sheet in the future. However, I was also reminded why my original idea of doing the comic in this medium ultimately had to be discarded. It's so terribly time-consuming. I probably spent about ten hours on this, everything taken together. But it looks pretty :-).

I'm thinking now that I did something stupid buying Classicolor pencils. I love my Caran d'Ache and the colours are great - but they are water-soluble. At the time, I thought that was an advantage, but now I'm not so sure anymore. I probably should have bought Pablos rather than Classicolors...

As for Morgana, I'm thinking this more or less settles her look. You have seen her in purplish/grey and black habits, but I have settled for white. I like the idea of Morgana and her nuns as ghostly (white) Wise Women ("witte wieven", "weisse Frauen", "Dames Blanches"). These legendary beings have the same combined association with mischief and wisdom that I'm looking to give to Morgana. In the picture, she's also wearing the Celtic cross I found for her - not your classic Irish cross, but a continental one, because the Irish crosses that we know so well are really too recent (8th century+).

Finally, I had been thinking about how Morgana does her magic. Magic in my story is mostly organic - Morgana, Morgause and Ygraine make things happen just by being somewhere. Ygraine walks across a field and stuff starts to grow. Morgause ditto, and when she touches a wound, it heals. Morgana can kill with a touch. But she's powerful enough to do magic from a distance, as well. I don't want her to use spells, though, but a special gesture would be nice. Now, I was reading Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle, in which wizards use the index and middle fingers of their right hands as a kind of conduit for their magical power. This gesture looks like a religious blessing in the West. Well, if that isn't perfect for my Morgana, I don't know what is :-). So here we are. Lots of stuff settled in one picture *g*.

Bad photos of first pencils

2011-02-12T15:08:00.000+01:00

The most annoying thing about working with a large format (A3) is that I can't scan my pages at home. The scanner is A4. So you get some bad photos instead. Sorry about that. The light has been bad for the past few days, so that didn't help the quality either. In any case, here is proof of the fact that I'm working on the 11-page episode "The Sword of Kings" to find out whether my new style works - and can be sustained for lots and lots of pages.

Not being able to do my own scanning is very annoying, but on the other hand, I can't remember how I ever managed to draw comics in A4. I have become fully reconciled with A3 - and in fact I sometimes wish my originals could be even larger XD.

(click for full view)

Slightly re-designed Uther, more British and more fifth-century than before :).

The 'Sword of Kings' was based on the sword of the so-called Lord of Oss. That means it is at least 1,000 years old when it comes into Uther's possession. (The original was 200 years old when it was buried with the Lord of Oss, so why not?)

(click for full view)

Look, it's the Giant Herdsman! I love to draw him. The perspective and the beasties were a challenge, though.

Next stage: transfer le tout to watercolour paper, then ink, then paint. Finally: add speech bubbles and text in Illustrator. Clearly, we're not done yet. I'm going to do all the pencils first, though. I like the idea of letting the pencilled pages lie around for a while, to leave room for possible corrections. I rarely spot my mistakes at first sight, so a little distance can't be bad.

YES!!

2011-02-07T13:56:00.000+01:00

We're getting there! As usual, things take time to fall into place, but I have reached the point where I know I am on the right track :).

Two things: I have sorted out my hero's character design, and I have sorted out the style I want for my story. The picture below demonstrates both. Okay, it also demonstrates my trademark wonky perspective, but guess what: I'm fine with it.

So here is young Gawain, sporting a very Irish costume consisting of leine (tunic), ionar (vest) with belt, and brog (shoes). He has a round Irish shield with his traditional five-pointed star emblem and a long sword with a simple design. The ionar counts as protective gear - it is made of leather and quite strong, but much lighter than chainmail.

The picture was painted on hot-pressed Arches paper. I like this paper because it's so very smooth, but at the same time it is more difficult to work with than rougher paper types. especially for washes. So although I'm happy with how this turned out, I will probably be using cold-pressed paper for the comic because it's just a little bit less tricky.

I guess I will be inking after all. This was inked with dark brown Faber-Castell PITT pens - one Small, one Brush - and I like these so much that I can just envision doing the whole comic with them. Despite the fact that they run out of ink disgustingly soon and are not cheap at all around here (as opposed to in the States! which is so unfair!). But I'm very happy with the lines they get me. This combination of clean line art and watercolour turns out to be the thing I have been looking for all this time. Even if it's time-consuming, I'm going to have to go with it. This is my pet project; I haven't got a publishing deal or deadlines, so I'm thinking I'm free to make the comic I want :)...

Heh. You know, this picture really makes me feel good!

Florie

2011-01-02T19:58:00.000+01:00

Sometimes I think that watercolours and I can be great friends. Like now. I'm beginning to know what I am doing with these paints, and I am surprised at the amount of control I turned out to have this time round. I think I'm also getting better at distinguishing between the colours things have and the colours they need to have in order to look good. So this painting of Florie has been great fun for me and I'm happy with the result. The lesson to learn (as if I didn't know it already) is that I should just paint as often as possible. All in all, I have painted 11 pictures this week, and I notice the effects. The happy result is that I am getting less scared of doing the comic in watercolour. I'm not looking for "great art" - just something that looks adequate and pretty and less likeliness for me to ruin a page of line art.

So let's see what I can do in the new year :).

Shine a Light in the New Year

2010-12-29T17:25:00.002+01:00

Inks and paints...

2010-12-12T12:24:00.002+01:00

Cecilia is on a campaign to try and make me change my plan of not inking the comic and painting the pencils instead. She is quite insistent on the matter. What to do? An "artist" (I don't like applying this term to myself, but I haven't so far discovered an adequate English translation for "tekenaar", which I do feel I can call myself, despite not being a professional) like me, whose skills are rather limited, has to make the most of the things s/he is good at. So what am I good at? The first thing that springs to mind is "lines" and "inking". It's certainly not colour. Then why on earth would I cut out the inking? Well, for one thing, it takes ages - I ink very, very slowly. For another, I feel like my pencil originals are more lively than my inked versions. I tried to remedy that by using brush pens instead of my faithful Staedtler pens. But with brush pens, you can't draw the tiny details and microscopically smooth lines that I am so anal about. (Yes, I know, why fuss about that when there are still basics that I don't get right? Well, that's me for you.) So inking with brush pens would mean a) adapting my style and b) overcoming my fears. A third reason why I am inclined to dispense with inks is because I feel that stark black lines don't suit my story. I want something softer and more dreamy.

Now - I have recently done a picture for my sister, inked with two Faber-Castell PITT pens, one brush and one Small. It reminded me how much fun these pens are (even if they tend to lose their shape pretty quickly :/). It also reminded me that these exist in a wide variety of colours, so that I wouldn't have to use black. So this week I popped into one of the two art shops in my street and bought a handful of PITT pens in a variety of colours - Caput Mortuum, Warm Grey, Indian Red and Raw Umber. At first, I was a tad nervous about the fact that these colours only exist in brush pens, meaning that I haven't got a Small pen for details or corrections... But then I thought, what the heck, I'll just have to learn and adapt my inking to the brush like a big girl. Above is my first all-brush inked image, done with the Raw Umber pen.

The lady in the picture, as you can tell by the caption, is Florie. She is Gawain's second wife and the daughter of the Carl of Carlisle. The text of Sir Gawain and the Carl of Carlisle doesn't give her a name, so in a previous incarnation of the character I picked a random Welsh one for her. In the meantime I have changed her name to Florie, which is a name traditionally associated with Gawain. It fits nicely, too, because the sons Gawain has with his second wife are called Florens and Lovell. Okay, Lovell is not so relevant here, but Florens can easily be the son of Florie, right? :-)

Anyway - this image is waiting to be coloured. I hope to get round to it soon.

This little portrait (postcard size) was drawn two weeks ago as an experiment. I wanted to try a combination of colour pencils (for the line art) and watercolour. So this was drawn with a purple pencil and then painted. It didn't work at all. The lines were too pale or not sufficiently defined or something - in any case, the image looked lousy. This may be partly because I used opaque paints - it's possible that the lines would have looked better if I had stuck to transparent ones. I started with a wash of Ceruleum Blue and some orange (made of Winsor Yellow and Permanent Carmine). That mixture produces a lovely, delicate tint (I think), but even though it's pale, it's not transparent. So it was probably not a good idea to use it for washing. In an attempt to save what I could of the image, I accentuated the lines with my Caput Portuum PITT pen, which turned it into something more or less acceptable.

So what did I learn? Well, first off, I guess I shouldn't be using opaque paint in washes. And secondly, it might be a good idea to draw hair like Lot's in such a way that I can colour it in a more straightforward manner in the comic. I have to simplify it.

...And a textured version, because the watercolour didn't live up to my hopes ;P.

The Test

2010-11-29T19:59:00.000+01:00

Next experiment: simple and almost flat colours. There isn't a grey shade in sight - how often does that happen in my watercolours? I tried to forget most of the colour theories I have been pouring over recently and just paint. I did start off with layers of yellow wash before adding the other colours, so hopefully the image looks more unified than the last one :).

And look: it's not a portrait! It's an illustration! ;P Considering that I started this without any preliminary sketches (I just wanted an image to colour), I think the drawing is not too bad. I tried to stylise and to prioritise readability, doing my best to take Walt Stanchfield's lessons to heart.

PS: it's called "The Test" because it illustrates an episode in which Gawain completes his training and his teacher Conchobarre subjects him to the admission tests of the Fianna. That is why his hair is braided. Of course, to optimise the storytelling in this one, you should also see a few pursuers in the distance :).

CONCRIT = VERY WELCOME.

Morgana & Lucy: watercolour

2010-11-21T18:48:00.000+01:00

I did my best to take this small painting Very Seriously. All the paints were mixed in advance, I thought about the contrast between warm and cold, I created my own blacks, I dried my brush regularly and I used a damp brush to blend different layers.I DID MY BEST. So this is probably as good as it gets at this moment. Mind you, I'm not at all sure whether my efforts actually show. Do they? (Please try the full view.)

I made a version with a Photoshop texture as well. It seems like I am drifting more and more towards traditional art + texture for the look of my Gawain illustrations. I like how this technique allows me to choose a paper with which I am comfortable and then add a textured, old-ish look afterwards.

I can't believe I've painted a cat. I see one around the house every day, and yet cats remain very difficult to draw for me. This particular cat is Lucifer (Lucy for short), Morgana's pet. I shiver at the thought of having to draw him for pages on end, but - well, I simply must have cats in my story. Here's to hoping my skills will improve :).

Princess-of-Shadows' textures

In which I try my hand at watercolour again...

2010-11-14T15:15:00.005+01:00

I think I mentioned before that I would like to do the comic in pencils and watercolour instead of in inks as I originally intended. The reason for this is that I find that my sharp inked style does not suit my story very well. The tale has a dream-like quality that is better served with colour and pencils.There is only one snag: I am one lousy watercolour artist. I don't master the medium, for one thing. And I don't understand about colour, for another. Then again, I am very stubborn and not willing to admit defeat. I'll just keep trying.

The image below is an exercise - it is an idea I had for a possible back cover of The Darkest Hour. I added the text and frame in Illustrator, having discovered that it is so much more convenient for adding text than Photoshop. I haven't tried it yet, but I think I'm going to use Illustrator for lettering my pages too. It's much easier to draw speech bubbles with it than with Photoshop.

I discovered that adding texture in Photoshop can actually cheat people into thinking I had a half-decent watercolour to start with. But I am going to be very honest with you and show you the watercolour as it was before I started toying with it in Photoshop. As you can see, it's ... utterly incompetent. The dress went reasonably well - I like how it looks. But the contrast is not very good and the colours ... well, they don't clash, but they don't exactly spark either. I also did some damage with the masking fluid. I masked Ygraine's plaits and the contours of her figure when I added the dark washes. Not only are the dark washes a complete mess; as the masking fluid came off, it took some of the underlying paint with it and smeared the pencil lines. *sigh* So instead of having white hair with delicate blue-grey shadowing, Ygraine now has dirty grey plaits. I couldn't simply repaint because the paper had suffered as well.

This doesn't exactly bode well for my comic, does it? I have a LOT of work to do before I can tackle my pages with some confidence... I don't understand. It seems like everyone and their sister can paint with watercolour. Why do I find it so hard?

The above are two small, quick sketches of Gorlois. The bottom one was done some time last year; the top one I did last night. Neither is good, and I completely ruined the top one with my clumsy attempt at shadowing the cloak. But they do illustrate where I am trying to go. Even if I did ruin it, I like the top one in its simplicity. I think - but goodness knows I may be wrong again - that I had better focus on painting as simply as possible, with few layers. And I'm doing my best to study colour.

Opinions and critiques are most welcome.

NB: I have no idea why the "back cover" image has a green hue when you enlarge it. It seems like Flickr and Photobucket do something to my colours!
ETA: Fixed! It was a CMYK image. Screens don't like that...

Pencil sketch: Kundry

2010-11-06T10:46:00.003+01:00

Meet Lady Kundry, Gawain's third wife. She first appears in Chrétien de Troyes' Perceval, where she is not given a proper name but gets a few telling epithets instead, such as "l'Orgeuilleuse de Logres" or "la Mauvaise Pucelle". Apart from having the most alluring mouth in Christendom (as per Wolfram von Eschenbach), she also has a marvellously sharp tongue that she uses deftly to lash out at every knight she meets. She makes no exception for her future husband.

I thought she should have a proper name, so I gave her the one she has in Wagner's Parzival, even though the character in the opera is quite different from my version.

Obviously, I like Kundry an awful lot :).

Pencil sketch: Arthur

2010-11-01T17:48:00.003+01:00

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.

Another small pencil sketch

2010-10-18T09:21:00.002+02:00

A small pencil drawing a week? Let's see if I can keep it up... It would be nice, and I would have a Moleskine full of nicely finished pictures. - I can dream, can't I? In any case, you can see the style I want to go for. I wouldn't colour the whole comic with pencils (I am enjoying the use of these pencils immensely, but colouring one A3-sized page with them would take a full week), but the pencilled line art is representative of what I want.

This is Lady Ragnell, by the way. She is Gawain's first wife. You are not due to meet her in the story very soon, since our hero has some growing up to do first, but doing character concept sketches tends to help me figure out my stories, so here she is already.

A small colour pencil sketch

2010-10-10T12:20:00.004+02:00

I am swamped with work, so naturally I am experiencing an overpowering urge to DRAW. It is always like that: when I have time, I have no inspiration, and when I don't have time, all I want to do is work on the comic. What can I do? Here and there, I try to squeeze a small drawing in. This sketch is one. I treated myself to a new pocket Moleskine for my birthday and did this as an opener. The colours are brighter in reality, but colour pencils don't scan particularly well :/.

The second version has some Photoshop tweaking and I added a texture ("Psychosomatic", courtesy of Princess_of_Darkness). I find that I like the combination of colour pencils with this particular texture. Maybe I can do something with that in the design of the Gawain website...

I don't know if it is at all obvious, but I am trying out for a slightly different style - a more stylised one. I have tried to draw a little more realistically after having been told that one glance at my drawings suggests that my story is targeted towards children. But this increased realism, combined with my inks, doesn't please me at all. The story I have in mind is more poetic and expressive and dreamy than realistic. Sharp inks and attempts at realism don't suit it. So now I'm looking for a simpler drawing style, pencils instead of inks, and light touches of colour (I'm thinking watercolour, possibly with some colour pencils). This will take some experiment - I need to find out whether I can get the sort of effect that I am looking for, and whether the idea is at all realistic. I will keep you posted :-).

Gawain Project: The Sword of Kings 5-11

2010-09-18T10:39:00.003+02:00

"Here, encompassed by Roman ramparts of earth and wood, the fate of Uther's kingdom was to be decided."

- Bernard Cornwell, The Winter King (1995)

Although I like spreading my posts a little, I am posting the rest of The Sword of Kings in one big instalment instead of the two I had originally planned. I think it is best: the comic is short and has no cliffhangers, and I do have it all ready. So today you get no less than seven pages - some sketchier than others, I should add :).

Constructive criticism is, as always, very welcome. I am thinking of drawing, inking and rendering this episode first by way of test, because I am not quite happy with the way my first inked TDH page looks, and since SoK is a short story, I can afford to experiment a little with it. But it would be great if I could get the layout right first.

In other news: I hope not to keep you waiting too long for the continuation of the story. I have been going over my general plot pages and noticed a) how much has changed since I typed them out a few months ago and b) the story is shaping up and making sense. The beginning needs some sorting out and I need to find my Schwung to get it going - but I think I am getting there (finally).

On to the comic, then!

What went before
Queen Ygraine has disappeared and Uther is desperate to get her back. He searches the land frantically but can find no trace of his wife. Having heard that Merlin currently resides in the forest of Cit Coit Caledon, he travels there to beg the wizard for help. He is met by the Giant Herdsman instead...

Ah, wonky perspective. It has become my trademark, wouldn't you say? ;P

Hope you enjoyed it a little, even if it was not much more than a bridge episode. Thank you very much for reading!

♥

Gawain Project: The Sword of Kings 1-4

2010-09-11T12:47:00.003+02:00

"Jetzt, wo der gute Utepandragûn seinen Frieden hat... Er ist tapfer herumgeirrt, aber ich glaube kaum, daß er mich finden wollte. Das beruhte zwar auf Gegenseitigkeit, und doch, etwas weniger einig hätten wir uns diesmal schon sein dürfen."

- Adolf Muschg, Der rote Ritter (1993)

The comic is not dead. Whereas some future episodes are already getting a very definite shape, there is still a lot of sorting-out to do on others. One small step has been taken: a short bridge episode is ready. After three rewritings (you won't believe that when you see the result), I am glad that I can finally show you the eleven-page draft of The Sword of Kings. It is short, but not insignificant in the larger scheme of things.

You know the drill: constructive criticism is most welcome. I am very grateful for it and will certainly take it into account for the final version.

A few words about the current draft:
As per usual, I am posting layouts that I have been drawn on the train. They are by no means finished. The SoK drafts have been drawn with a ballpoint pen in a tiny notebook - less than half the size of the notebooks I used for TDH. That wasn't planned. I had been drafting in my usual notebooks, but I got stuck twice on the same plot element that I could not iron out. In the end, I simply didn't take my comic notebooks and pens with me anymore. But whaddayaknow, one day during a train ride I suddenly figured out how to go about it. The only notebook I had on me was tiny, but I could not possibly wait until I got home to write everything down.

The greatest drawback of the small notebook is that my handwriting is necessarily tiny, and therefore mostly illegible. So to make the layouts readable, I had to letter them digitally. The result looks very odd: you get sketchy drawings combined with neat computer lettering. I'm aware of how incongruent that looks, but I didn't have much of a choice :).

Now, on to the comic!

What went before
In The Darkest Hour, you could read how Uther Pendragon, High King of Britain, fell in love with another man's wife. He makes war on Gorlois of Cornwall and, with the help of the sorcerer Merlin, introduces himself into the castle where Lady Ygraine resides with her two daughters, Morgause and Morgana. Gorlois dies in battle and Ygraine cannot escape marrying Uther, whom she loathes. She bears the High King a son, but the child is given to Merlin as payment for his past services. Morgause and Morgana are given in marriage to King Lot and King Uriens, whose support Uther needs in his military efforts against the raiding Saxons. Then, finally, Ygraine finds someone who will help her take revenge: the mysterious sorcerer Klingsor. And so one night Uther wakes up to find his Queen gone...
(Need to re-read? You can do so here.)

This is how the story continues.

Tomorrow...

2010-09-10T16:54:00.002+02:00

The Arthurian Review, Issue 5

2010-09-04T18:44:00.001+02:00

A few months ago, I received a package in the mail. It came all the way from the States and contained a 104-year-old book – a 1906 reprint of an Edwardian bestseller. My friend Karina's SO had spotted it at a book mall, “sandwiched between Cajun Cookery and How to Clean Most Everything”, as she tells me, and rescued it. I am very grateful that he did so, because I did not know either the book or its author, and as it turns out, Uther & Igraine holds a few surprises.

Uther & Igraine (1903)

Warwick Deeping

It had been a while since I had last read a baroque Victorian novel, and it seems that I had all but forgotten what it is like. Reading the first few pages of Deeping’s prose was a little like receiving a blow to the head. I was dizzy with the overwrought imagery. Here is a taste:

“A wind cried restlessly amid the trees, gusty at intervals, but tuning its mood to a desolate and constant moan. There was an expression of despair on the face of the west. The woods were full of a vague woe, and of troubled breathing. The trees seemed to sway to one another, to fling strange words with a tossing of hair, and outstretched hands. The furze in the valley – swept and harrowed – undulated like a green lagoon.”

Mr Deeping (1877-1950), it is clear, likes his Aesthetes. He harnesses the worst affectations and most artificial phrasing of Wilde and Swinburne to write a romance novel. He adds positively lethal doses of alliteration and superfluous adjectives to the mix. In fact, his writing reminds me painfully of my own prose style :P. To do myself justice, I don’t insist on using “panier” when I could write “basket”, or “potage” instead of “soup”. Deeping does. As soon as I got used to it, I actually found his pedantry funny and went along with it.

Uther & Igraine is pure historical romance. When I say “historical”, I mean it in the widest possible sense. The story is set in what looks like post-Roman Britain, but the author adds all sorts of elements that evoke chivalry and courtly love and do not match the timeframe at all. Everything in this novel serves the romance. Characterisation, historicity and background: they are all (mostly cardboard) props to decorate the stage on which the Passionate and True Love of Uther and Igraine is shown. But if you can accept the novel for what it is, it is quite an enjoyable read, and much less silly than many of its modern counterparts.

“The true love of Uther and Igraine”? You heard it right. In Mists of Avalon, Uther is young and a hottie, and Igraine falls in love with him because her husband Gorlois is old and considerably less hot. Deeping’s scenario is somewhat different. In 1903, an adulterous love affair could not possibly have a happy ending, and happy endings are what romance novels are all about. The solution to this problem is to turn the source legend on its head. In Uther & Igraine, it is Gorlois who calls upon Merlin to trick Igraine into marrying him when he finds that she is not responsive to his advances. (This despite the fact that he has such romantic notions of wooing, including stalking his beloved, manhandling her, and showing her a lot of crucified Saxons.) If Igraine rebuffs Gorlois, it is not only because he is vain, cruel and insensitive, but also because, just before, she has fallen in love with the mysterious Pelleas. That intensely honourable, valiant and (quite maddeningly) devout knight turns out to be none other than Prince Uther. Igraine and Pelleas part, due to an unfortunate misunderstanding, and do not meet again until after Gorlois has perpetrated his dastardly deed. In the service of the happy ending, the Duke of Cornwall eventually pays for his awful treatment of the heroine by kicking the bucket (forcefully) and leaving Uther free to marry his widow with a clear conscience.

My little summary might lead you to assume that Igraine spends the entire novel playing the part of damsel in distress. If it is true that she has to suffer violence, trickery and death threats, it should nevertheless be mentioned that she is also a brave girl with a sharp tongue who is not content to let other people decide her fate. She fires arrows at Saxons, lies and tricks, jousts if she has to – no, she is no wilting lily. Of course she becomes “as a child” when Pelleas is near, and she goes insane at one point, as Victorian conventions demand, but in general she is rather more emancipated than her sisters in the pseudo-feminist Arthurian novels of the 1990s. Take that, Rosalind Miles!

Should you feel like reading this cute, quirky little romance, I am happy to report that it is widely available in digital form on the Internet.

On the Gawain-o-meter:

Zero! There is no trace of Gawain, which is not surprising seeing as Igraine is very young and has no children yet. If there is neither a Morgause nor an Anna, there is not going to be a Gawain either. I have no idea how Deeping envisions Arthur’s family tree.

To prove how much fun I had reading this book, I doodled three characters while on the train. Please note that Morgan is not Morgan le Fay – she is Morgan la Blanche, who does not seem to have a counterpart in the source legend (or not that I can see).

The Arthurian Review, Issue 4

2010-08-27T16:54:00.002+02:00

(CONTAINS SPOILERS for both seasons)

Merlin Season One

Merlin Season Two

I discovered the BBC series Merlin when it was already halfway Season Two. The first episode I saw, The Sins of the Father, immediately made me curious for more. I ordered the first box set and liked that well enough to get the second one, too. Now, while all Merlin fans are anxiously awaiting Season Three, I’d like to share a few thoughts. Those thoughts are a mixed bag, really. That is because on the one hand, I find Merlin very enjoyable, but on the other, I find it rather disappointing. I guess the mixture of shortcomings and enjoyment qualify it as something of a guilty pleasure.

Merlin features many familiar characters from Arthurian legend, but places them in a kind of alternate universe. Merlin is the same age as Arthur, and Arthur is being raised by his father, King Uther, instead of by a foster-father appointed by Merlin. (One unfortunate consequence of this is that the series must do without the delightfully sarcastic character of Sir Kay – no foster-father for Arthur means no foster-brother either.) True to the original legend, Morgana is Uther’s ward; but in the series she, too, is about the same age as Arthur. In an interesting twist, Guinevere is Morgana’s servant, and after all the well-known images of a blonde Guinevere, it comes as a surprise that the BBC series’ Once and Future Queen has African roots.

Merlin’s Camelot is a land ruled by a king who fanatically opposes magic. Uther prosecutes witches, wizards and magical creatures ruthlessly. This poses a bit of a problem for Merlin, a prodigious magical talent who must conceal his powers if he wants to keep his head. To complicate matters, Merlin is made a servant to Prince Arthur, in which capacity he is constantly under Uther’s nose. Discretion is advised. So naturally, in every episode some magical threat manifests itself that can only be stopped by means of Merlin’s own magic.

The ties between Merlin and the legends to which the main characters’ names refer are really rather thin. If you feel inclined to be critical, you might well ask why the writers choose to call their characters Merlin, Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot and Morgana if they are going to be barely recognisable as the figures of legend. The makers are not filming their own version of Arthurian legend; they are making a fantasy series with Arthurian touches. The best comparison I can think of is with J. K. Rowling’s use of myth and legend in Harry Potter. It’s not deep, it’s not particularly meaningful, but it adds some couleur locale and it’s fun if you get it. This is something you have to accept in order to enjoy the show.

Merlin is an enjoyable show but doesn’t withstand scrutiny. Maybe what I miss most is a clear creative vision. Shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Kaamelott are driven by a creator who knows very well where the characters are going and who write episodes that serve the development of those characters. There are themes and larger arcs that give structure to each season. For Buffy, Joss Whedon worked with a small army of writers, but each script would be submitted to him to ensure that it was consistent with his vision and coherent within the whole. A season of Merlin, on the other hand, seems to consist merely of 13 loose episodes. This is even more the case for Season Two than it was for Season One. Whereas interesting issues and plot points may be brought up within an episode, more often than not these elements will be buried by the end of the episode, let alone that there would be a sign of continuity in the next. One blatant example is of Morgana vociferously disowning Uther in Episode 11. Despite the fact that Uther does not take very will to this kind of behaviour, Episode 12 still finds Morgana living quietly in Uther’s castle and telling Morgause that she “has to pretend to be Uther’s loving ward”. I don’t see a lot of pretending anymore, but that might just be me.

Likewise, there seems to be a sad lack of ideas among the script writers. Twice now, Arthur has been bewitched to fall in love with someone (Uther, just the once, but it lasted two episodes). Twice now, we have been served the same big revelation about Arthur’s birth. And countless times, Arthur is accidentally knocked out so as to allow Merlin to do some hocus-pocus unnoticed. At the same time, the scripts do provide lots of elements that could be taken further. There is Gaius’s past as a magician. There is the fact that sooner or later, Arthur must find out that Merlin is a wizard. Uther must realise that Morgana has magical powers. And what’s with the family connection of Morgana and Morgause (and/or Arthur, if applicable)? All these things are touched upon, but they never seem to go anywhere. It seems as if the writers try to draw everything out as much as possible – if, at least, you can trust them to have sown these seeds deliberately.

The writers have taken the Arthurian characters out of the framework of the legend, but they seem to have forgotten to build a framework of their own – or if they do have a framework, they are not making good use of it. I suppose people will say it’s a children’s show (actually it’s supposed to be ‘all audiences’) and that therefore it must not be too complex, but I find that more often than not, that argument is used as an excuse for laziness. I have read picture books for five-year-olds that have more subtlety and layers than a Merlin episode or, for that matter, a Harry Potter book. It is perfectly possible to create something that can be appreciated by children and yet does not make older readers/viewers feel as if they are too old or too smart to be reading/watching it.

So, why do I actually watch Merlin, and enjoy watching it, if my criticism is so harsh? Well: I guess that a very good reason for watching is the cast and the obvious pleasure they take in participating in the show. Colin Morgan’s Merlin is a sweet, clumsy and very winning young wizard whose chemistry with Bradley James (Arthur) is undeniable. Both Morgan and James are adorable comedians, but they don’t disappoint in dramatic moments either. And it’s great fun to watch these two interact. Angel Coulby makes a very loveable Guinevere, a devoted servant who nevertheless shows the kind of strength to convince you that she would make a great queen. The weakest link in the young cast, in my opinion, is Katie McGrath, who is gorgeous as Morgana but inclined to overact a little at times. The young actors are complemented by ‘old hands’ Anthony Head – formerly known as Rupert Giles, here a delightful King Uther – and Richard Wilson as Gaius, court physician and Merlin’s grandfatherly mentor. Moreover, Merlin has an excellent cast of villains, including Charles Dance, Mackenzie Crook, Adrian Lester and Emilia Fox.

Season Three is being filmed at this moment, and from what I have heard, it will have larger story arcs than Season Two. Let us hope that some of the other issues will be solved too. The actors – and the audience – deserve a little more effort.

And on the Gawain-o-meter...

Merlin simply doesn’t register – yet. Let’s check back after Season Three, which certainly shows promise :).

TDH pages 6 & 7

2010-08-20T17:23:00.002+02:00

Today: a preview of my first two pages of the definitive TDH. No speech bubbles or texturing yet - these things are to be added digitally. Page 6 is inked with Staedtler pens and a Pentel brush pen on A3 Bristol board. I had only just finished it when I started noticing its flaws, but that's how it always goes :/.

Below: pencils for page 7. As you can see, it is decidely less crowded than page 6. I was exceedingly happy with it when it was just done, but in the meantime I think that it probably looks a bit haphazard. Argh.

Constructive criticism = welcome.

Digital painting

2010-07-23T19:25:00.003+02:00

Oh look, it's an update! ;-)

I have been pottering around with Photoshop and came away from a tutorial with a really helpful tip: locking transparent pixels! That means that once you have set down a flat colour for a particular area, you lock the transparent pixels for that layer, and when you set down the shadows, you stay neatly within the right colour area. It makes painting in Photoshop that much easier. So I couldn't resist trying out my newly-honed skill on some old line art.

This girly cutie is Ambiorix from my (long-term) War in Gaul project.

And this big brute is Conan the Barbarian, drawn last year as a birthday gift for the only Conan fanboy of my acquaintance ;).

The contrast between those two almost hurts my eyes. Heh.

Experiments in Illustrator

2010-06-12T17:51:00.002+02:00

My Illustrator classes will soon come to an end... Hopefully I will be able to continue next semester, because at this moment we have really only covered the basics - as you can tell by the attempts below :). The teacher showed me how to import and trace my line art to vectorise it. So far I haven't discovered how to manipulate the paths (*-_-*), but some things I have figured out. The vectorising function itself is great: it allows me to enlarge images without quality loss. The original Morgana picture is the size of a postcard. Now I have turned it into an A4 printable mini-poster. Squee!

SO MUCH still to learn, but I'm doing what I can...

The Arthurian Review, Issue 3

2010-05-24T21:18:00.001+02:00

While on a trip to London in the late 1990s - I was in the middle of my First Arthurian Wave - I discovered Bernard Cornwell's Arthurian trilogy. I bought all three books in one go. The first two had just appeared in paperback; my copy of the third volume is a hardback I found in a second-hand store. Especially for the Arthurian Review, I went back to my mismatched set, to find out whether it is really the exciting series I thought it was back when I was about twenty :-)...

The Warlord Chronicles:
The Winter King (1995)
Enemy of God (1996)
Excalibur (1997)
Bernard Cornwell

A short while ago, asked by a friend whether I thought the HBO series Rome worthwhile, I made the following observation: there are essentially two approaches to historical fiction. The first assumes that people of the past were much like ourselves, with values and thought processes that do not differ all that much from our own. The second assumes that there is a wide gap between modern life and thought and that of the ancients. In his Arthurian trilogy, Bernard Cornwell clearly adheres to the latter approach. And let me assure you that he does it really well.

I don’t know how historically accurate or plausible Cornwell’s depiction of the late fifth, early sixth century in Britain is - because I have a natural tendency towards approach number one, whether or not that is justified - but he certainly succeeds in constructing a coherent and convincing Arthurian world. It is a savage place, ravaged by war and disease, by strife between rivalling warlords and competition between different religions. Ruled by superstition and oaths, it is a fairly alien world that has nothing whatsoever to do with the Arthurian society as we see it in medieval romances. There is lots of spitting to avert evil and scores of lice torment our heroes. There are Druids who perform atrocious rituals, sorcerers who style their hairdos with dung, hundreds of heads are lopped off, the skins of virgins are used as shield covers and magic invariably involves the use of blood, body parts, urine or faeces. Recipes are brought to you by Merlin and Nimue, mostly, and you are kindly advised not to try them at home. Now, one thing that distinguishes Cornwell’s treatment of magic from similar scenarios by other writers is that he leaves it up to the reader to determine whether or not all the crazy business with pee, poo and human sacrifices actually produces the least result. The line between the supernatural and the coincidental is never clearly drawn, a choice that allows Cornwell to have sorcerers without drifting off into the realm of fantasy and the all-too-improbable. The result is that magic in the Warlord Chronicles is actually plausible - even if I do remain sceptical about the spells :-).

Actually, the Warlord Chronicles contain quite a few story elements that have the potential of giving me allergic reactions. It has barbarous rituals and a society that seems barely civilised. It has a violent conflict between Pagans and Christians. It proposes a ‘realistic’ look at a society about which we know too little to make accurate assumptions. It uses medieval French and English names of Arthurian characters like Galahad and Agloval and mixes them with old Welsh names like Hygwydd and Emrys and Mynydd Baddon. But reading this trilogy did not give me a rash. The books are skilfully written and well-plotted; the story simply took me along and it worked. I enjoyed it when I first read it more than ten years ago, and despite having become much more critical since, I had a great time rereading it.

In Cornwell’s version, Arthur is not a king and Mordred is not his son. Instead, Mordred is King Uther’s grandson and the legitimate king of Dumnonia, whereas Arthur, Uther’s illegitimate son, is a warlord sworn to protect and support Mordred until he comes of age. Unfortunately Mordred turns out to be less than suitable to rule, and almost everybody urges Arthur to usurp the crown. Arthur, ironically, does not want the crown at all. He has very definite ideas about how the land should be ruled, and as a powerful and successful warlord he could easily seize Dumnonia, but all he really wants is a simple life. Throughout the trilogy he is torn between the oaths he has sworn, the dictates of reason, and his personal longings. He is a man who always acts for the best, but his decisions invariably bring him on a collision course with someone or other - whether it be his clever and ambitious wife Guinevere, his enigmatic former teacher Merlin, the cowardly and vain prince Lancelot, the conniving bishop Sansum or his own best friends Culhwch and Derfel.

Derfel Cadarn is the story’s narrator. Saxon and slave-born, he survives a Druid’s death pit and is subsequently adopted by Merlin, Druid and Lord of Ynys Wydryn. Derfel grows up to be a hardy spearman and warlord staunchly loyal to Arthur. Due to circumstances that I cannot reveal without spoiling a few good plot twists, he eventually becomes a monk, in which capacity he commits Arthur’s story to parchment at the behest of Queen Igraine of Powys. (A Wikipedia search has taught me that there is actually a Catholic saint Derfel Gadarn who was a companion of Arthur’s before he became a monk - I adore that kind of thing.)

The idea of an old man writing down the story of a hero he knew in his youth may not be amazingly original, but in this case it is one of the things that add charm to the series. When Derfel tells of the events he has witnessed, he doesn’t leave out the gory details and refuses to glorify people and events. His benefactress, Queen Igraine, belongs to a younger generation that has already begun to fantasise about Arthur, his reign and the people surrounding him, and she frequently takes Derfel to task for not embellishing his tale or for not telling it the way she has heard it from the poets. As a reader, you get an amusing contrast between a reality that could have been and the legend that we all know.

In my opinion, the story gets better as it moves along; the first book is the one I enjoyed least. As you read on, you see the plot elements come together and situations and characters become more nuanced. Cornwell has a sense of humour that serves to lighten up some of the gloom of his story of a decaying society and he creates several memorable characters - his version of Arthur, Guinevere and Merlin are among my favourite interpretations of the legendary figures.

And the Gawain-o-meter says...

Which Gawain?

Name:
Prince Gawain of Broceliande

Family:
His father is King Budic of Broceliande; his mother is Anna, sister of Arthur. There is an Agravain in the novels, but he is not mentioned as being related to Gawain. Gawain is Arthur’s nephew, but we never see the two of them interact.

Presence:
He only appears in the last volume. Though he is of crucial importance to Merlin and Nimue, he is only a minor character and doesn’t get a lot of page time.

Character:
Very gentle and very innocent. Merlin considers him ‘tedious’ and ‘stupid’ because he wants to improve the world. In a nice twist, Cornwell’s Gawain has promised Merlin to preserve his virginity :P.

Looks:
Very beautiful with a slim figure and long golden hair. Looks and sounds kind and has a lovely voice. He is only fifteen or sixteen and has no trace of a beard yet. Though rather ludicrously attired in cheap armour, his beauty and bearing ensure that he does not look ridiculous.

If this description should give you the impression that Cornwell favours Gawain, I can disclose that this is a delusion. Poor Gawain has rarely been treated worse! He is nice and very good-looking, but goodness, the fate the author has reserved for him is terrible. Wah.

For future issues of the Review (in random order):

Gillian Bradshaw’s Down the Long Wind trilogy
Der rote Ritter by Adolf Muschg
Chauvel & Lereculey’s Arthur series
Camelot 3000 by Mike W. Barr and Brian Bolland
Merlin, the BBC series
Merlin, the 1998 mini-series
Kaamelott Livre VI, the M6 series
The Winter Prince by Elizabeth E. Wein
Uther & Igraine by Warwick Deeping

An Emblem

2010-04-15T11:25:00.001+02:00

Do you remember my Virgin Mary? I traced and coloured her in Illustrator. Last Monday I had a go at designing an emblem for my Gawain site, taking into account a few things I had learnt from the Mary Experiment. This time I didn't trace, but made my own design, once more based on the Book of Kells. It was fun, though I suspect there must be better ways of doing the knotwork than the process I used ;).

Well, I hope you like it. Personally, I find the wide-eyed, never-smiling Celtic look rather endearing *g*.

Ale & Wenches

2010-04-12T12:29:00.003+02:00

Especially for Wim: the same page lettered with Ale & Wenches. Please do let me know how it reads. I like this font a lot, but personally I feel that Red State, Blue State is easier to read. Would definitely use Ale & Wenches for captions, though - the medieval feel is just great.

PS: try the full view to see the page at the size it will be posted in :).

More test thingies

2010-04-11T12:59:00.002+02:00

I am, as you know, very busy experimenting with all sorts of techniques for the final version of the comic. Below are two pages from the storyboard that I used for testing Photoshop stuff on. The first page has been coloured digitally; the second one has been lettered digitally with a free font from Blambot.

Please let me know what you think!

I coloured this in a very simple way, and relatively quickly. The result is not too bad, I think. But next, I tried to colour the page below and soon discovered that everything gets really complicated and time-consuming once there are several frames on one page :/. Part of the troubles originated from my use of vector paths as panel frames. I won't need to *draw* frames in Photoshop in the final version, so that's a bit of mess I wouldn't have to worry about, but still: my skills are not quite up to scratch.

I rather like this font. It's not difficult to letter in Photoshop, and to be honest, I kind of enjoy getting neat letters in neat lines. I never draw lines when I hand-letter, just because it's too much of a bore. But the result tends to be a little bit ... well ... amateurish :). But ... do you like the digital version?

A Test with Morgana

2010-04-08T18:35:00.003+02:00

File under: Experiment.

I am trying to figure out how best to go about drawing the comic. The questions are many: colour or monochrome? Pencil or ink? A4 or A3? It is important to get everything right, so that I don’t run into trouble at some point in the future.

I had more or less decided on inks and monochrome, because black and white is what I think I do best. Colour still gives me trouble. I adore watercolour, but I am not good enough at it to paint a comic. I have seen digital colours that I like, but I don’t have the Photoshop skills to achieve them myself. Nevertheless, in a comic in which the colour of the hero’s hair and, occasionally, the colour of his enemies plays a part in the story, it would be kind of nice to have colours.

Now – one way of colouring that I do feel up to is with colour pencils. I like what I can do with pencils on the pages of my Moleskine notebook, so I sought loose sheets on which I could more or less reproduce that effect. The paper that I think comes closest to Moleskine is Bristol board. So I had a try with that. The result is this:

The original is very crisp and, I think, rather pretty (if I may say so myself). I think it reproduced fairly well… The skin tones are very delicate, and some of their subtlety got lost, as did the blue of her eyes – but all in all I think the scan is not so bad.

In order to judge the effect in a comic page, I will have to actually draw and colour a complete page, I guess. Still, I’d much appreciate your opinion about this little test. What do you think?

I also made a version with texture added in Photoshop. This is not difficult and could easily be done in the comic too, I suspect.

One disadvantage that colour will always have is that it is more expensive to print than black and white. That is in case anyone besides myself would like to hold a paper version of the story .

Anyway: I would love to hear your opinion on this – on the feasability of a comic drawn entirely in pencils, a comic coloured with colour pencils etc. Please let me know what you think!

Say Hi to Gawain

2010-04-07T00:15:00.003+02:00

Because once in a while, he actually comes out looking more or less the way he should look. Now for a nice colour scheme...

No, seriously: why on earth is it so difficult to draw my main character properly?! *sigh*

This was drawn with mechanical pencils in a Moleskine sketchbook. (I am liking the combination of Moleskine and pencils more and more.) It took several hours. (Don't ask.) No reference used. (Bad habits die hard.) Finally, the sketch was slightly pimped in Photoshop. (No cleaning; just added texture and some highlights.)

So there.

Site and Stuff

2010-03-24T21:37:00.002+01:00

This journal has been a bit quiet lately. I haven't got very much to post as I have been busy with my brand-new website lately. The site, www.gawaincomic.com, will be the home of, well, the Gawain comic. Quite a few people told me that they were interested in the comic, but did not follow it because they don't find the format sufficiently reader-friendly. They are right, of course: this blog is meant for blogging and not particularly suited for posting comics, especially novel-length ones. There were only two options to remedy the problem: either the comic had to be printed, or it had to move to a comic-friendly website. I looked into printing possibilities, but if you want a decent-looking book, it will cost money, and I don't have a very wide readership, which makes a print run a little ludicrous. So I finally became convinced that the best thing to do would be to give the comic its own site, where you can easily read the story chronologically, consult the archive etcetera. Hopefully I will be able to draw a few more readers with a real webcomic, and eventually a small print run may be a possibility.

I don't know a lot about website building or coding, but I have managed to set up a WordPress-based comics site with a lot of help from my friend Rembrand, whose own webcomic you ought to check out ;-). The site needs quite a bit of work: the Inkblot theme for comics is one that you need to (well, site-savvy people would say 'can' and be happy about the fact *g*) customise by adapting the CSS stylesheet. That means I need to get into coding and that I have some massive figuring-out to do. I have a few ideas about how I would like it to look and am at the moment tinkering with design stuff. As I am not very design- or Adobe-fluent yet, that is very much a discovery and trial-and-error process. Fortunately my Illustrator classes do help a little.

Here is a first little thingy that I put together in Illustrator and Photoshop:

I am ridiculously proud of it because it combines 1) using the Pen tool in Illustrator, which I have only just learnt to do, 2) using texture in Photoshop, which I'd never done before (yes, I know), and 3) colouring in Illustrator, which I figured out all by my lonesome and consequently am likely to have done in a very inefficient way, but hey, it looks the way I wanted it to look, even if it did take me hours and hours ;P.

What I eventually want with this madonna is to make a kind of shield emblem. As per Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, there is an image of the madonna on the inside of Gawain's shield. Because I wanted an emblematic and Celtic-looking Virgin, I used my newly-acquired Illustrator Skillz to trace an image from the Book of Kells.

I am also trying to establish what the definitive shape of the comic pages should be - A3, A4, pencils + Photoshopping, pencils + ink, with or without colour patches, Photoshop or other. It's SO not easy and SO very important.

*ponders*

And with that, I'll disappear again.

Ygraine

2010-03-07T22:11:00.004+01:00

I don't want to count the hours I spent working on this small picture! It measures 13 x 21 cm and I started it on the Thalys to Paris. (I have a little something with trains and drawing, don't I?) All that remains from what I drew on the train is the nose, the hand and the rose. All else was reworked again and again. All that to end up with such a flawed drawing... But somehow I like its flaws. They give Ygraine something a little bit otherworldly, which is quite appropriate to the character.

I didn't expect I would be happy with the colours I got from using colour pencils. But it turns out that I am. Maybe my colours skills have improved, because when I tried colour pencils in a Moleskine sketchbook before, I didn't like the result at all. Now I am actually looking for a type of paper as close in texture to Moleskine as I can find, because I want to do this again in the future on loose sheets :-).

I spent more time and effort than usual researching the costume and jewellery (even though you don't see a whole lot of it *g*). That is because this drawing is part of my concept pictures for the final version of The Darkest Hour. More will follow.

King Emrys - for Sien

2010-02-15T12:38:00.003+01:00

Bren Emrys, or King Ambrosius, is one of those half-mythical kings who are said to have ruled Britain after Rome left the island to its own devices. Legend (and John Morris) has it that Ambrosius Aurelianus succeeded King Vortigern, who notoriously invited the Saxons Hengist and Horsa to Britain. Ambrosius' reputation is as good as Vortigern's is bad - because it was Ambrosius who is said to have been successful at pushing the Saxons back.

One of Ambrosius' clever moves was to befriend a sorcerer born from the union of a demon and a nun: a young man called Merlin, or Myrddin in Welsh. It was at the request of Ambrosius that Merlin used his stupendous magical power to transfer from Ireland to Britain a monument known as the Giants' Ring. Nowadays we call it Stonehenge. Merlin's association with Ambrosius earned him a second name, and he became known as Merlin Ambrosius, or Myrddin Emrys.

When King Emrys, scourge of the Saxons, lay ill, a Saxon spy disguised himself as a priest and, pretending to offer the King medicine, poisoned him. Emrys was buried in Stonehenge and succeeded by his younger brother Uther, called Pendragon, who would soon father Arthur.

So that is the story of Emrys in a nutshell :-).

King Emrys doesn't actually appear in my comic. He is only referred to on page 9, ushering in his brother Uther, one of the main characters of The Darkest Hour. This portrait of the king was drawn at the request of my friend Sien, who earned herself a gift picture by being the 3000th viewer of this blog. Sien's adorable baby boy is called Emrys, hence the subject :-).

It is my first painting in Photoshop, so I beg your indulgence. The linework was done in pencil. By my standards, this portrait is unusually realistic. I don't go looking for realism, normally, but I found that painting with Photoshop somehow invites it - at least for a beginner like me. I lost count of the hours I spent working on this, but it certainly was great fun.

My first digital painting...

2010-02-07T14:02:00.003+01:00

Used my tiny new Wacom tablet to do a 'pastel'. It looks more like paint to me, but it was fun :-).

Gawain Project: I. The Darkest Hour - Master List

2010-01-20T18:02:00.007+01:00

Hit befel in the dayes of Vther Pendragon, when he was Kynge of all Englond and so regned, that there was a myghty duke in Cornewaill that helde warre ageynest hym long tyme, and the duke was called the Duke of Tyntagil. And so by meanes Kynge Vther send for this duk, chargyng hym to brynge his wyf with hym, for she was called a fair lady and a passyng wyse, and her name was called Igrayne.

- Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur (1485)

I. The Darkest Hour

On a dark winter's night, the Queen of Britain tells a sorcerer of the wrongs she has suffered at the hands of a man. The woes of Ygraine will determine the lives of her descendants.

1-3 - 4-6 - 7-9 - 10-12 - 13-15 - 16-18 - 19-21 - 22-24 - 25-27 - 28-31 - 32-35 - 36-40 - 41-44 - 45-47 - 48-50 - 51-53 - 54-57 - 58-60 - 61-64 - 65-66 - 67-69 - 70-73 - 74-75 - 76-81 - 82-84 - 85-87 - 88-90 - 91-92 - 93-97 - 98-101 - 102-103 - 104-108 - 109-111 - 112-114 - 115-119

Next:

II. Sunrise

The Darkest Hour 115-119 (Epilogue)

2010-01-17T18:59:00.003+01:00

Oh frabjous day! Callooh! Callay! We have made it to the end of the first story arc! I hope you have enjoyed the ride - and of course I also hope you will tune in for the next episode :) . It's actually going to feature the hero of my tale.

I'll post a master list with links to all pages soon. Then I have to start thinking about the future of this comic. It will go on, to be sure, because I have a lot of tales to tell and take an immense pleasure in telling them. The question is rather what form the comic will/should take.

But first I'll have a bit of a break. I have been writing, drawing, posting almost non-stop since April 2009. This story was easy-peasy compared to what comes next, so I need to reload a bit.

Meanwhile, BY ALL MEANS let me know your opinions, sentiments, constructive criticism etcetera regarding the Darkest Hour storyboard. I will start on the definitive version of the comic soon, so now is the time to offer your advice for improvements!

For now: have an Epilogue.

(As always, click the images for a larger version.)

Thank you very much for reading along!

The Darkest Hour 112-114

2010-01-10T21:35:00.001+01:00

Next week: the epilogue!

The Darkest Hour 109-111

2010-01-03T18:10:00.003+01:00

Nearly there.

In other news: my new computer has been ordered. That means I should soon be able to start learning about digital stuff, and that is vital to the future of the comic (read: the definitive version of the comic). Wheeee! Serious post about The Future is forthcoming.

Meanwhile I still welcome constructive criticism. Let me know what you think!

Gift drawing

2009-12-28T23:57:00.003+01:00

You know what: visitor number 3000 (see the counter below in the right column) can claim a free drawing if they feel like it. Show me a screencap of the counter @ 3000, leave a comment with your e-mail address or send me a mail, and you get a picture.

Neat or not?

Good luck!

:-)

The Darkest Hour 104-108

2009-12-27T19:14:00.002+01:00

This week we have a pretty wordy update. This episode was not easy to script. I guess the tricky part was to condense everything and still keep it comprehensible and credible. If it doesn't work, please let me know :). I spent more time on some of the art than is reasonable for a storyboard, but, you know, I do want to have something worth looking at - that is more enjoyable for you and me both. Some of the faces came out so well that I'd gladly use them to accompany a cast description :-). I may just do that.

At the comics festival in Turnhout at the beginning of this month I was told that my storyboard is much too elaborate art-wise. That is true. But if I had drawn it with stick figures, I couldn't very well have posted my progress. The storyboard has been my main occupation, art-wise, since April of this year. Take out its pages from this blog, and there will be rather little left. I guess I could have progressed faster if I'd spent less time on the art, I suppose - but I don't think I would have been able to assess how well (or not) certain set-ups would work if the pictures had been strictly basic. That, and it's always a good thing if I enjoy myself while working on something, especially on a project this big.

Famous last words?

Maybe.

In any case, we are in the meantime getting very close to the story's end indeed :).

Season's Greetings

2009-12-24T00:34:00.002+01:00

Have a very merry Christmas, or whichever festival you celebrate at this time of the year :D!

And at that holy tide

2009-12-21T12:53:00.003+01:00

"And if the wars were unwelcome, the winter was worse,
When the cold clear rains rushed from the clouds
And froze before they could fall to the frosty earth.
Near slain by the sleet he sleeps in his irons
More nights than enough, among naked rocks,
Where clattering from the crest the cold stream ran
And hung in hard icicles high overhead.
Thus in peril and pain and predicaments dire
He rides across country till Christmas Eve,
our knight.
And at that holy tide
He prays with all his might
That Mary may be his guide
Till a dwelling comes in sight."

From: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Part 2 (translation by Marie Borroff, 1967)

I'm trying. But clearly I still have a loooong way to go. Why is colour such a difficult matter to me? Painting this was so very hard. And in my head the colours looked better :/.

The Darkest Hour 102-103

2009-12-20T21:40:00.003+01:00

I had intended to post extra-large updates from now on, so that The Darkest Hour would be all told by the end of December, and here I am with an extra-short update -_-. It is all because of the snow - the snowy skies inspired me to do a full-page illustration with watercolour, the colours of which I couldn't get right and spent a lot of time worrying about. So now I have only two pages of comic. At least I did finish the illustration today, meaning I can devote myself entirely to the comic now :). I may end up doing middle-of-the-week updates - I'm thinking about it.

Meanwhile, I hope you enjoy the continuation :).

As always, lcik the images for a readable view...

The Darkest Hour 98-101

2009-12-13T20:14:00.003+01:00

I have the feeling that this week's episode has finally cleared the road towards the story's ending - there are some minor things to figure out, but King Uriens rather unexpectedly showed up exactly where I needed him, so now the waiting is for the last two guests of the Grand Finale. It would be great if I could finish The Darkest Hour this month... That would require Extra Large updates, though, because I have only two Sundays left before the new year :-). We'll see.

This week: VIOLENCE! BLOOD! WALKING DEAD!
(Just trying to attract an audience - don't pay it any attention. But there is a bit of blood and a walking almost-dead, so I don't feel guilty about stretching the truth a little bit :P.)

Watercolour sketch: young Gawain

2009-12-08T12:47:00.004+01:00

Yesterday evening I was pottering around with my watercolours. I 'potter around' much more often than applying myself seriously - mostly because, though I love watercolour, it also makes me nervous, and I have to overcome my fear before I can paint something 'for real'. It is just so easy to ruin a picture if you have as little skill with watercolour as I have :/. And yet it's fun!

What I was actually supposed to be doing is to paint Christmas cards. Trouble is, I haven't got a design yet that I like enough and can replicate a dozen of times. So instead I started to mess around. That is when I decided to do a little try-out for Gawain. It's very frustrating: he's the hero of my comic (even though at this point in the narrative he hasn't been born yet), but I have such trouble getting him to look right. One thing that annoys the hell out of me is that I never manage to colour his hair properly. Gawain has glorious red hair, and it's sort of important. Now, I used to start from a basis of cadmium red because I reasoned that real red hair looks a bit orange-y. But it always looked awful on poor Gawain, and it was also pretty difficult to combine with greens and blues. It was garish. Now, I'm pretty sure that much of the failure is due to my own ineptitude at mixing colours. But, well, there's no one but me to do this, so... In my experiment of yesterday, I started from a basis of crimson with some raw sienna. I have never seen anyone with this hair colour, but it gets the point across and it is easy to combine. I like the result - even though there is, as usual, lots of other stuff wrong with the picture :s.

For the record*:
- I used very cheap watercolour paper - 175 g/m² and with a texture like ordinary drawing paper. Not pretty. I wouldn't use this for a 'good' drawing, but it serves for a sketch.
- The drawing itself was done in lilac watersoluble pencil (Caran d'Ache Classicolor). This was fun and I think I'll do it again. The unnecessary lines just dissolved with water (I draw very lightly) and I was able to do some corrections while painting, most notably on the nose and mouth.
- The paint is Winsor & Newton and some Cotman. I mixed it on the page, because sketching serves as an excuse for the most awful laziness. It's a miracle the skin tones turned out as reasonable as they did XD. Colours used: raw sienna, Winsor yellow, Alizarin crimson, permanent carmine, permanent mauve (my new favourite! it's such a great colour for mixing), cerulean blue, Winsor blue, Winsor green. (You can tell by all the Winsor colours that I bought them all together in a box, I guess :P.)

*I need to keep notes, because otherwise I forget how I got a certain colour/effect, which is stupid.

I made a complete mess of the shadows, the nose and the placement of the eyes. So, um, suggestions for improvements are always welcome :-).

The Darkest Hour 93-97

2009-12-06T15:53:00.002+01:00

I guess this week's episode can be summarised as, "Time passes" :-). But I tried to make it pass nicely.

I am getting everything aligned for the story's ending, finally. Mind you, I think that it may take another twenty pages until The Darkest Hour is told completely and in a way that doesn't feel rushed. Keep reading :-)...

As always, click to enlarge!

The Darkest Hour 91-92

2009-11-23T14:45:00.002+01:00

Just two pages this week, because the nearer I get to the end, the tougher the writing is...

Click to enlarge!

King Lot sketches

2009-11-20T11:25:00.002+01:00

Until I get round to doing a complete King Lot painting, these will have to do :-). Does it show that I love his hair?
*grins*

Click for a better view...

The Darkest Hour 88-90

2009-11-15T18:12:00.002+01:00

This week in The Darkest Hour: boats! Horses! And King Uther has grown a beard!

Uther is pretty dreadful, but I so love writing him. I'll actually miss him when the story is done. Fortunately I'll be able to console myself with Merlin, a series currently running on BBC, in which Uther is very much alive and ruthless, looking and sounding like ~~Rupert Giles~~ Anthony Head...

As for the comic, it may have to do without Uther in the future, but look, that's King Lot on page 89! Three cheers for my favourite Irish macho king! ;-)

The Darkest Hour 85-87

2009-11-08T16:53:00.002+01:00

I can't really explain why, but the dialogue for these three pages gave me quite a bit of trouble. That is the main reason why the drawings are sketchier than usual. I wanted to post on time, but had to do a lot of work at the last minute because the writing was difficult.

One funny thing about doing a comic is that it is easier to "show, not tell" than it is when you write prose. Nevertheless, it's still an art in itself; the sequence with the nuns held quite a few pitfalls in that respect. Please warn me if you think I'm "telling" too much. It's a thing that I hate in comics. It rather baffles me that published authors get away with very flagrant instances of "telling". I mean, sometimes you need some to move the story forward quickly. But I am absolutely horrified by a comic like the latest XIII Mystery, Irina, which is currently being published in the free newspaper Metro. There is hardly any dialogue in the book. 80% of the story is told in captions! Maybe other readers don't mind, but personally I find it boring. For me, a good comic tells a story in pictures; it's not rows of pictures to illustrate a piece of prose. A matter of personal preference?

For a readable view, click the images!

The Arthurian Review, Issue 1

2009-11-06T16:53:00.003+01:00

It seems like fun to review some Arthuriana from time to time. I have been reading, re-reading and re-watching parts of my collection, and I thought I'd share my impressions with you :). The first item on review is a novel I bought a few months ago.

Idylls of the Queen (1982)
Phyllis Ann Karr

“When Patrise put his head down on the table beside me and started groaning and twitching, my first thought was: and they call me the churl of this court.”

That is how Sir Kay starts his tale. Queen Guinevere hosts a dinner party at which one of the guests is murdered with a poisoned apple. The kinsmen of Sir Patrise, the unfortunate victim, accuse the Queen herself of the crime. The lady will be burnt at the stake unless someone proves her innocence by vanquishing Patrise’s kin in a joust. Alas! Sir Lancelot, the Queen’s champion, is away from court! And Sir Kay, the one knight who is free - and willing - to take up her cause, happens to be better at using his wits than at using weapons. So he sets out to unmask the killer by looking for someone with a motive and an opportunity to poison the bowl of fruit.

Idylls of the Queen is a kind of Arthurian detective novel, with the unlikely duo of Sir Kay the Seneschal and Sir Mordred as his sidekick setting off to discover the why and wherefore of the poisoning of Sir Patrise of Ireland. If you have read Malory and/or books based on him, the murder mystery is not especially exciting. The murder of Sir Patrise is an incident in the Morte d’Arthur, and Karr does not deviate from the murderer and motive as revealed there. The exciting part of her book is that she uses the poisoning as a starting-point for an exploration of the Arthurian court, its intrigues and main actors.

As Kay and Mordred, two outsiders, go around questioning knights and ladies, they uncover rather more unsavoury histories than they would have liked - all of them Malory’s, but now seen through the eyes of Phyllis Ann Karr. Karr’s own interpretation and the way in which it twists Malory’s plot (and several conventions of medieval romances) will not perhaps strike those who are unfamiliar with the Morte. But for them, too, the interaction between Kay and Mordred, each with their own reasons for wanting to track down the murderer, is reason enough to read Idylls of the Queen. Malory adepts, however, should consider themselves warned: Karr’s book does not share the Morte’s sympathies. Malory’s favourite knights do not come out looking good, and those Malory does not show in a positive light are the heroes of Idylls of the Queen.

Which brings us to…

Which Gawain?

Name:
Sir Gawaine of Orkney

Looks:
Handsome, broad-shouldered and blond, with an unscathed face despite his having fought many a battle. In his forties and slowly going white.

Presence:
Low. Kay and Mordred send him off to find Lancelot. There is a lot of talk about him, though.

Character:
Absolutely sweet, in a knightly sort of way. Kay reflects that it looks as though Queen Morgause and King Lot spent all the virtues they had to give on their firstborn son, so that unfortunately there weren’t any left for the other three.
Basically, Karr’s Gawain is the opposite of Malory’s. He is very courteous, patient, protective, honourable, honest, modest, unassuming, decent - well, see Kay’s comment about the virtues. In this novel, we get a pre-Malory Gawain in a Malory setting. A particularly delicious characterization of Gawain comes from Mordred: he says his elder brother “believes in Heaven, but not in Hell”.

Rating on the Ampersand Scale of Arthurian Favourites: ****-

The Darkest Hour 82-84

2009-11-02T09:35:00.003+01:00

This week: a regular three-page update, mostly drawn with my small Faber-Castell pen. I rather enjoyed it, so I guess I still haven't decided on the way to ink the definitive version. It's about time I get an epiphany though - we're finally nearing the end of this prologue...

Yesterday I was browsing one of my manga to get some idea of what about a hundred pages of intro amounts to in manga format. It's not that much. The manga in question (Mushishi, in case you were wondering) has about 220 pages per volume. In a multi-volume manga, it wouldn't be so odd to have a prologue of about a hundred pages, I think. And yes, my story is definitely multi-volume :).

I don't suppose I have mentioned the term 'manga' before when talking about my comic, but I have recently realised that manga is really pretty close to what I am making. Obviously my layout and way of telling a story are far removed from the classic European pattern. But I haven't consciously chosen the manga way. It may partly be a consequence of my sketching in an A5 notebook... That, and I just like the Japanese way of telling stories - it suits me too.

So, with that I leave you to the next three pages :). Hope you enjoy them!

For a readable view, click the images.

The Darkest Hour 76-81

2009-10-25T18:19:00.004+01:00

To make up for the fact that there was no update last Sunday, I am posting a double dose today. Here are six pages for your pleasure :). Well, pleasure... As usual, life isn't fun and games for poor Ygraine. When, oh when will Uther get his comeuppance? Keep reading! ;D

Click the images for a readable view...

No update today...

2009-10-18T22:16:00.000+02:00

The last three days have been alternatingly 1) stressful, 2) nerve-wrecking, 3) hectic, 4) crazy and 5) amazing - but most of all they were busy. As these three days happen to be crucial to my ability to post an update of The Darkest Hour, I'm afraid there will be none this week :/. There is plenty of material, but I haven't got round to preparing it for posting. Hopefully that means that there will be an extra large instalment next weekend :).

The Darkest Hour 74-75

2009-10-11T19:07:00.002+02:00

This part is less than ideally executed, I'm afraid. It's a bit clunky, and pretty short for an update :/. The difficulty is that I have to skip ahead to the next great event and I don't seem to manage to do that elegantly. I could have let it lie longer and looked for a less clumsy way to handle it, but I don't want to delay the end of the story. My priority is to get the tale finished. I'll go back and edit later. I'm sorry for not giving you a better read this week... I'll do my best to make up for it next time :-).

The Darkest Hour 70-73

2009-10-05T13:25:00.002+02:00

A while ago I estimated that the story would probably end around page 75. Seeing as we have arrived at page 73 now, that's not very likely anymore. 95 then? :-)

The Darkest Hour 67-69

2009-09-27T20:55:00.000+02:00

I would have preferred to post more in one go, but unfortunately I had no time to draw more this week. Also, we are nearing the end of the story and I need to think very carefully about how it is to be wrapped up nicely. There are still a few important events to be told, but the difficulty is that they require leaps in time. Making those smoothly is always a bit of a challenge. So: three pages this week.

The Darkest Hour 65-66

2009-09-20T18:58:00.003+02:00

Ygraine does not find it easy to cope with her new responsiblities. Look what happens...

The Darkest Hour 61-64

2009-09-13T19:26:00.004+02:00

It's that time of the week again :-). Click for readable views!

The Darkest Hour 58-60

2009-09-06T19:29:00.002+02:00

I so hate having to kill characters. But sometimes there is just no escaping it ;_;.

Also, after sixty pages my brush pen is empty. Is it me, or has it run out of ink really quickly? All the large areas of black, and the lettering and the thin lines were done with another pen, too, so... I dunno, but sixty A5 pages of pure line art doesn't sound like a lot to me. *frowns at Faber-Castell*

You know the drill: for readable text, click the images :-).

The Darkest Hour 54-57

2009-08-30T22:18:00.002+02:00

These pages have been really difficult. I took a bit of time over them, but I'm still not happy with them. This episode is important, but hard to get right. I chose to continue with the tale rather than to linger over the difficulties; I'll edit later. Suggestions are welcome!

As always, click the pictures for a readable view.

Kundry

2009-08-28T22:37:00.003+02:00

Because sometimes I need to use a pencil, an eraser, a Staedtler pen and some watercolour paint, to prove to myself that I can still do more or less finished pictures.

The Darkest Hour 51-53

2009-08-24T21:23:00.003+02:00

I'm sorry about the delay. Here are the next three pages. They are inked in a few different styles, with pens and brushes, just as a try-out. I still haven't made up my mind at to how to ink the definitive version :/. Opinions?

As always, click the images for a readable view.

The Darkest Hour, 48-50

2009-08-16T19:08:00.002+02:00

So here we are, at page 50, and the less-than-nice beginning of the Arthurian epic. It's probably not much of a consolation, but Ygraine will have her revenge one day.

Hm. In the first panel, Ygraine is a giant, and in the second she is a giraffe. But it gets better from the third on :-).

As always, click the pictures for a readable view.

The Darkest Hour 45-47

2009-08-09T15:10:00.003+02:00

There was a time when I posted three pages in an update. Then I posted more. Now I'm back to three :-). Mind you, there may be more next time - it depends on how I tell the story. Today's set of three happens to fill the last three pages of my current notebook. And next week's update will include page 50! That's quite a milestone for me :-).

Oh, I must add a correction: on the second page, in the last speech bubble, please replace the second "battle" with "fighting". I didn't notice this until I was cleaning up the scan :/.

We are getting to the ugly crux of the story. I wish it were more cheerful, but it isn't. We have to wait for Gawain to get to the fun bits of my tale.

As always, constructive criticism is very welcome!

(Click the images for a readable view.)

The Darkest Hour 41-44

2009-07-26T10:22:00.003+02:00

The (more than usually) lamentable quality of the art on the second page is entirely to blame on the Belgian railways, who saw fit to give the commuters on the way to Antwerp a very old, very shaky train in the morning. It was impossible to do any decent work and I had to give up entirely because my lettering wasn't legible. Fortunately in the evening we got a different train and I could finish this instalment on time :-).

Oh, and Merlin has a beard now. I decided that he really looked better with some hair on his chin.

As always, click the images for a readable view!

Ballpoint pen studies

2009-07-24T22:42:00.000+02:00

Have some sketchies :-).

I usen't to like drawing with ballpoint pens, but if I have paper that is smooth enough, I enjoy it.