Remember that Tree I threw up a while back?
I was surprised how much everyone seemed to REALLY liked it.
Well, that's a page from a new series I've started drawing called 'Hollows'. Course, even though the Trees will be one a big part of it, there HAS to be more to the story than some Humongous-Wind-swept-Trees- with-whole-Cities build inside the tree limbs, right?
Chris Ryal and I are kicking around some ideas on what this 'universe' might grow into. But meanwhile, I'm just using it as an excuse to go crazy with exploring thee Sam-Trees, (for lack of a better name.)
I had to dig that first main Tree page out so i'd remember what it looks like for this double page spread i'm starting now.
The cool part is nobody can tell me i can't draw trees suck, because they're straight out of my own HEAD, that's what cool about creator owned.
So here's he rough idea.. the empty space on the left is a tree in the foreground. I can't decide it i wanna make the city light and background dark, or visa versa. We'll see once i throw down some color..
Cities the small are pretty boring to do, but they really create a sense of SCALE don't they?
okay, some watercolor pencils helps a little..
Throw in some leaves, again.. to suggest a Tree this big, you can't literally draw every leaf, their too small. So my goal is .... trying to suggest a TON of little leaves.
Where's this guy come from? Sorry, forgot I've also got to get some alien pages off too. Keep jumping back and forth between pages. Hopefully Aliens and Giant Trees don't get all mixed up in the two books.
Here's a woman who appears in the Alien's book. She looks just like the same woman who i drew twenty years ago in the first Alien series i draw, hair up in the back, very Mucha influenced.
Let's start with the teddy bear. Trying to suggest fur, much like with the leaves on the other page. Funny how unless your a photo realistic artists, comics are about using symbolic lines, to suggest things, huh?
always breaks me heart a little, doing comics. Unless you paint every panel, even with a great colorist, something gets lost.
Back to this dude. I tried to add some vein-like texture to the head, but i'm doubt it'll even show up in print. Course sometimes if the artists paints every panel, THEY can screw it up, so sometimes the colorist bails you out. Gotta fix those sloppy back teeth on the mouth, eh?
Okay, back to a prettier face. The thing about a woman's face is... *when* to walk away. Dave Steven's always reminded me... 'Less is more' when inking women and children's faces.
Course i won't think 'less' is in my artistic vocabulary. My style is always pretty polarizing, isn't it? Fan's either Love it or Hate it. Not much in-between.
okay, wasting too much time on that lien head. Better move on.
But first let's dive back into that tree spread. Here's a hint, there a guy who flies in it, (hence the winged figure on the right!) These are naked malnourished trees... their hungry for ink and color, aren't they?
Here's another splashy excuse to throw a Tree into a panel. This one's a little different, i wanna actually blur it a bit,
diffused lighting, hopefully. all this blue city crap will get totally buried. But if i suggest some perspective, i can throw in some city lights to pop out.
hmm... pretty crude city, but it is done in markers. The goal here was to focus the eye on light spilling down, so too much detail will get lost anyways.
Still pretty rough, but that was the point here. The white light was pastels. They smudge a little, but that's fine.
i also added some water to the markers to let them bleed a little This book won't really be colored, so what you see is what you get. Sorta a cross between a black and white and color book.
Sorta a sepia toned book sometimes? we'll see how it shakes down.
wow, i need to get back to this Tree spread, don't i? Maybe next post. I can't believe how much time i wasted so far - but at least i grabbed a few photos along the way for the blog posts!
sam
