How it started?
It was around spring of 2020. A friend of mine had written a short story, with only a couple of character. Characters that I found really fun and interesting. Meanwhile I was working on a steampunk world.
So we decided to combine the two projects, we added some details, a restricted magical system, and we found ourselves planning out a far bigger project than we initially intended it to be...
While we were thinking of the outline of the story I did most of the building designs and different parts of the city and most of the designs of the main characters.
Once we had the script I did the thumbnails for the story. Everything was going smooth up until that point. Once I started doing the pencils of the pages, that is when something felt just a bit off...
Experimental stages...
So... have you ever wondered how to make your project more time-consuming? Well I have a simple solution for you, just try out doing the same comic in different styles...
I wasn't sure in what direction I wanted the project visually to go. In order to choose I did between 2 and 5 pages in a couple of different styles.
I decided to take a rest after couple of months work because I had the feeling that the project was going nowhere.
I started reading a lot of comics that all had different styles.
Inspired by them, decided to go in a different direction. I tried adding bold shadows. It made my compositions clearer and more readable but still it felt like I had drifted way to far from the original look...
Finally this is the style that I ended up choosing after all...
Traditional sketch with Digital ink and Digital colors.
Work in process...
On the left you have the pencils of the pages that were done traditionally on A3 paper. And on the right you have the ink that were made in procreate.
The project is still in its production stages but the end is at sight. I hope I can share more details soon...
Mock-ups by www.customscene.co
