tutorial: The Red Death

For an advert page I wanted to make a character poster to go with the comic. I figured why not make a villain for the appearance, something to make the character look mysterious but having a devil-like appearance but lacking the horns and tail. I took some ideas and drew a few to build ideas for the character. 

1. I drew this fella to stand straight, one hand clutching to his coat and the other creating a mythic energy in his palm. Was drawing the face and originally wanting to give him a sinister look and

dred-locks but thought giving him a hat to hid the top half of his face to give off a mystery of him. I drew four of the scythe-shaped blades surround him as part of his powers, giving them sharp tips.

2. the background had to have a grey and dark tone to make him look dark as villains don't have light backgrounds usually to make them appear terrifying. Smudging and blending the areas together so they go well together and not make it as though they don't work together on each layer.

3. Working on the coat, giving it a dark brownish colour, adding some shading to make sure the colours  aren't too flat. Adding a new layer for the blades and cutting the areas before I would start painting the blades.

4. Going for the red skin and purple hair, thought it would make him less human as he is one of the antagonists in the New Genesis series. Going for the red colour to relate to his title "Red Death", so I started with the dark red first.

5. Added more red but lighter and pink to give it a reflective light on the surfaces, I looked at some jewellery and shiny rocks to see how the light reflects from them. replacing the black lines of the blades with pinkish red to make it more better as an actual reflection.

 

6. Replacing most of the black lines and added the title above to make it thin and gave the same tone of colour as the character's powers.

Conclusion

For what I've been working on for the last several weeks including the holidays was working on a comic book. This is actually the second time I've done a comic for an assignment and took what I learnt from my skills and mistakes on the first one. Began writing the story down and thought about the characters along with the plot. Decided to go for a science fiction genre with a touch of alternative history and mythic touch, used the name from the original comic but made it more different as it's part of a series I've been working on one for awhile now.

It was hard working on the panels for each part to tell the story and what to draw in them, I had to look into a lot of my comics and manga to get an idea. Keeping it a minimum of pages, depending on the story and add gallery pages seeing it as an experiment for the comic. I didn't want to do anything random so I used one side of the page for the sketches and page layouts and the other for the transcript for what the characters say and where the story goes, that way it helps me remember what to sketch. Did some research on Mars as it is the main setting of the project, about it's popularity in fiction and thought what sort of aliens I could use,

Originally intended to have a group of parasitic aliens but scrapped the idea for another story and thought of making tall spindly humanoid plant-like creatures that have slept for thousands of years and make it seem to them they were invaded rather then the usual alien invasion and make it a bit of a twist. It was a little tricky to picture what they look like, wanting to make them completely alien and each one being slightly different to each other.

What was considered the hardest of the module was printing it out as the printer didn't do what I ask for and had to do it a few times until it was done. SO far I'm glad how it turned out and felt relieved to finish it.

Manga

Japan's comics have been one of the major popular type of illustrations for readers and fans to read from the opposite direction and usually in black and white, but some are printed in colour. They are grouped together in books called volumes rather than issuers mostly.

The medium in maya works in mange ranges of genres: action, sci fi, fantasy, history, romance, comedy, horror, sexuality and drama, etc. Japan has been printing manga books for decades, going back to the 19th century and in the late 20th century began animating them into anime series but usually either go on break or make original episodes not relating to the story until the number of chapters or new plot has been published.

Not all of them follow the same direction of the manga such as Fullmetal Alchemist and Shaman King that usually differ from the plot, create original characters and a new story arc.

They are found in magazines, book shops and places that sell them and have been ground over the decades. Being one of the most popular books in the market for their unique style and being different from comic books and graphic novels. They are translated into many languages for readers that are unable to read Japanese kanji.

Comic book design

So I took thought what my characters are gonna be, some would be human and alien. Working out what their appearances will be and weapons or abilities they possess. I will only show a few pages and drawings of my comic so far what they are about. To explain about the story I will add some backgrounds about the comic to save the confusion for readers on the back and in the advert page



Alien species:

The aliens that would be encountered on are something I took thought of, originally I intended them to be some hostile forces before an invasion but been given alternative ideas and suggestions, decided that Mars was once home to an ancient civilisation. I took thought of my alien and went with them being a sentient plant, as Mars has a lighter gravity then Earth they have to be tall and slender built.

Given various appearances but many would be humanoid but some minor differences like extra limbs, lacking a face to express physical emotions. Wanting to give them features of many plants then just roots.

I had decide to give them a name, Dryads from the Greek folklore of tree spirits or tree nymphs as I wanting to add some ancient astronaut genre as I have always been interested in that sort of stuff since watching Ancient Aliens that gave me new ideas.

I decided to have a full page to show an introduction to this species, it was not easy getting all the details on their bodies and create strange forms, like the one on the right has a large pincer-shaped appendage and a blade for arms. The one on the left that stands near the three would be some sort of organic-like growth that would display a projection of the planet, either it be mars, Earth or something else.

So for this character in the page is taken by surprise by the appearance of tendrils coming towards him, but reacts instantly by drawing his sword and cuts them before they could reach him. Howeevr in the panel on the bottom, more are coming out of no where and they are decide to run for their lives or fight.

Characters:


Ryac Long-Blade
Ryac Long-Blade was born on Earth before his family left for the Ark colonies when he was seven years old. Did not entirely enjoyed being on a colony with no natural air and only seeing his home world from orbit until when he turned 13, Ryac immediately developed special abilities and classified as an Edre when it was revealed that his grandmother was exposed to a Genesis Artifact some time ago and was offered training in the academy for people with abilities. Took the offer immediately as he wanted to see many worlds and travel across the system and beyond someday.

Developed kinetic abilities to control Earth-based elements and skilled with a sword, Ryac earned the family name Long-Blade to distance himself from his estranged parents due to their view on ‘non-purity’ ideals but didn’t affect him on wanting to follow his own ideals.

Sereene Hirian
A Lemurian female of the Hirian Clan, born on the Martian colony during its terraforming process until she was assigned to the Society to help learn to defend her home colony on Mars and to the Lemurian Empire like many of her clan has for generations. Like Ryac she has developed psionic abilities that have helped her earn a high rank status and earning the name "Siren" by her comrades due to her beauty and aggressive behaviour in combat.


K’Te
K’Te is a Djinn who was born in a military family that served the Djinn Regime for centuries. When he was 12 years of age his home was attacked by Purists but were saved by the Society’s selfless act of protecting them and other races. Inspired by their ways and respect they earn by the Djinn, K’Te saught to become a Samurai soldier to strengthen the relations between the races after their part in fighting the War of Ignorance.

K’Te had became very skilled and rose to the rank of commander in the few years and service to the organization after the Charon Skirmish. He was fascinated of human history and mostly towards Japan’s history of the original Samurai with their code of honour that almost relates to his people’s belief system, including their mythology and respect towards dragons then their western counterparts.



Panels:

It is important for the comic book, a major huge impact for readers to understand what is happening in each one and get a feel of the experience. Like if for example you see a huge giant towering over the character, or a vehicle in a dramatic entrance, or a fight the readers would feel more anxious to know what happens next in the comic. Not everyone realises that panel arrangement/size/position is one of the important things when making a comic and makes a good story, pictures and writing isn't enough to make a successful comic.

I knew it is important when I read a few comics and manga see why the panels were important so I had to know where the arrangements go and what happens in each one of them. 

Story plot:
In this issue, it focus on three main protagonists who landed on Mars to investigate the disappearance of the researchers a while ago. When they arrived to the outpost, they find the place torn and in a state of chaos but no sign of anyone. Until they were recently attacked by living vines and tendrils trying to snare them, possibly what happened to the missing colonists. While they manage to escape and figure out what they were, the colonists deep below have been held prisoner of the aliens, proclaiming Mars as their home planet and them being the invaders upon their 'awakening'.