(Re)designing Audrey Bluewillow

Audrey is the main character in my fantasy novel, Bluewillow. Ultimately, my dream is to create a full-length comic based on the story, but that's still a long ways off. First, I'm just focusing on the first chapter - which will be about 8 pages in comic form. I'm still in the process of designing the characters. About a year ago, I came up with this turnaround for Audrey:

While this is a fairly decent design, I've learned so much more about character design and drawing in general since then. I started doing a bunch of sketches of Audrey (along with her lovable sidekick, Corridor Green), and I realized that my previous design wasn't quite adequate to represent her character fully.

Also, I realized that I wanted her design to be more focused on circles and spirals, not straight lines like in my original turnaround drawings. So I attempted to push those aspects some more, and I came up with this:

I'll still be refining her design, but I think I'm heading in a much better direction for this particular character. I may tone down the exaggerated eyes, for one thing, but I think I have a clearer idea of what I want her to look like.

What do you think of this new direction for Audrey? Could you see her as the main character in a graphic novel or webcomic?

Roverandom Concept Sketches

Lately I have been doing some exploration sketches for my senior project in college. My senior project will involve doing concept art for the children's story Roverandom, by J. R. R. Tolkien. My idea is to design characters, environments, and props/vehicles for an imaginary animated film based on the story.

The main character is a little black-and-white puppy named Rover (later changed to Roverandom to avoid confusion with other dogs named Rover). He rudely insults a cranky wizard, who subsequently turns him into a toy dog as punishment. The story recounts his adventures to the unlikeliest of places as he tries to get turned back into a full-sized real dog again. Along the way, he crosses paths with a little boy who teaches him about what really matters in a dog's life.

So here are some preliminary "possibility" sketches of Roverandom, the Moon Dog, the Sea-Dog, and the wizard Artaxerxes. They are nowhere near the final designs, as I will continue to work out problems and explore the characters.

Roverandom:

Moon Dog:

Sea-Dog:

Artaxerxes (younger version): 

(older version):

"Swamp Temple" Painting Process - Part 1

One of the things I've been doing lately is going back over my old stuff and figuring out what I've learned since I made it. I'm also putting together a new portfolio of visual development art, so I want it to be as good as possible. As I've been going through all this stuff on my laptop, I came across a digital painting I did two years ago for a scholarship application. This is what the original version looked like:

Eh, it's not terrible, but it still feels like it's lacking depth. There's not much story here, for one thing, but also the whole thing feels flat. The environment is not clearly defined, and the colors are a bit cliché. I felt like I could do better.

I opened up my original Photoshop file to look at what was beneath the final painting layers, and I found a wonderful series of color experiments I'd done with adjustment layers. Some of them are a little too wild for my taste, but they are still fun to look at. Here are a few of them:

When I came to the last one, I immediately became inspired and I knew I would have to retry this piece. I still have a lot to learn about art and composition, but I thought I could improve on this design.

Last night I sat down and messed around with the colors and composition in Photoshop. This is what I eventually came up with for the improved composition:

It's rough and unfinished, and I'll still probably tweak the composition as I start painting, but I think I fixed a few of the problems with it. I put the character in the foreground as a silhouette hoping that he would help the image convey a stronger sense of the story, and my hope is that this alternate color scheme is more mysterious or intriguing. What do you think? Is it more interesting? Which of the color experiments is your favorite?

Carewick the Candlemaker

Here's some more concept art for my Bluewillow project. This is Wendell Carewick, the candlemaker. He's a gruff, old widower, but he's got a soft spot for the blue-haired girl who appears under his willow tree. This isn't the final design, but I like it so far. 

A sneak peek at my current project

Now that I'm on Christmas Break from school, I've returned to one of my personal projects: a short comic based on the first chapter of my fantasy novel, Bluewillow. (Read an excerpt)  I've been working on the thumbnails/layouts for each page and designing the characters. Here's a work-in-progress of one of the panels I've been working on.

(Click to view larger)

Another Round of Novel Writing

Yes.
It's that time of year again. November is, after all, National Novel Writing Month.

This will be my 7th year participating in NaNoWriMo, and hopefully the 7th time I "win," ending the month with another 50,000-word novel. I'm preparing to block myself from Facebook, lock myself in my dorm room, attempt to avoid any and all distractions, and write like there's no tomorrow.

Call me crazy, but this is my favorite activity of the year. This year I'm doing something totally new: I'm trying the seat-of-the-pants approach. No outline, no extensive worldbuilding, no research. Whee!

So what am I writing? Having been thoroughly inspired by books such as 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Airborn, and Leviathan, I'm going all-out Steampunk!

Y'know, like this:

Or like this:

Even though I don't have an outline, I do have a general idea of where I'll be heading with the plot. Here's a short teaser for Silver Sky:

"In an imaginary world where all compasses point to the Queen's palace, an awkward, bookish young woman named Sylvianna is shocked to find that her rich family is actually made up of feuding sky pirates. She's kidnapped by the worst of them all, a man named Sean Fletcher... her long-lost father.



As she reels with this discovery, she struggles against her family history, social expectations, and her own secret desires for adventure. But eventually, she realizes that she must become what she most hates -a pirate- to stop the empire from destroying itself."

Want to join the writing fun? Head on over to the NaNoWriMo website and get yourself signed up!

What I've been up to lately...

Ack! I know I haven't been blogging much. Life has been BUSY! Here's some of what I've been doing:
-Writing two different novels, one steampunk/fantasy, and the other YA mystery
-Writing a screenplay as a part of Script Frenzy
-Applying for scholarships
-Visiting colleges (more about this later)
-Learning how to use my Wacom tablet
-Cleaning & organizing my room
-Making a gift for my new niece
-Planning a short film with my siblings

And... I made this video.

It's just some piano improvisation that I recorded the other day. Enjoy!

Those of you who have been following my blog for ages might remember how much I love altered books. I posted some pictures of my first altered book here and here. Now I'm working on my third project! The theme is simply "Blue."  I connect things with different colors (and I think I have a form of synesthesia), so I thought I'd make a book of those things. Here's the page I did today. You've got circles, ferns, a butterfly, and lots of glazes.  It was so much fun to make! When you take art too seriously, it takes all the joy out of it. Art is supposed to be fun. Do you agree?

Script Frenzy Elevator Pitch!

Check out my *first* YouTube video, featuring the plot of one of my screenplays, "Merrily!" For more info, see this post.







Ha, I just realized how dorky the preview picture is. *slaps forehead*

Diving into Script Frenzy!

Sorry I haven't posted sooner. I've been back for over a week now, but things have been so crazy!  And I now have 40 followers! Thanks, Margaret Rowena! :)

I'm right in the thick of Script Frenzy right now. It's a fun challenge to write 100 pages of a script during the month of April. I did it last year, and loved it, so this year I'm doing it again, this time with a goal of TWO screenplays! Heh. I may have bitten off more than I can chew. Here's a brief summary of my two projects:

Project #1
"The Twin Confessions of Melody and Harmony"
A screenplay, teen/family (and a hint of comedy)

Melody is a friendly girl with an academic mind, a gift with people, and a love for the great outdoors...  and she's clumsy.

Harmony is a solitary girl with her own ways of doing things, usually with her computer or a paintbrush, but she's socially awkward.

They’re both stubborn, creative, competitive... and they each have their secrets.

Filmmakers. Rivals. Twins.

Project #2

"Merrily"

Another screenplay. This one's a humorous fantasy action thriller. *grin* The kind that makes you want to eat Milk Duds while watching.

Merrily is a girl with a secret. She’s on the run from the FBI and a group of maniacal killers, even though she’s completely innocent. But that’s not her secret. 

Phoenix is a boy with a secret. His adoptive father works for the FBI, and his own inventions are sometimes purchased by the government. But that's not his secret.

They can fly.

When Phoenix is sent across the country on a mission to catch Merrily, he discovers that she's a whole lot more than anyone could have imagined. Together they search for the truth, and along the way, find that they're part of a much larger plan.

Ha! I finally have a plot! Yay! *ahem*

So, what do you think?  Can you picture these two ideas as movies?

I'm Editing Right Now

Sorry I haven't been blogging much lately-- I'm right in the thick of National Novel Editing Month, a.k.a. NaNoEdMo. It's inspired by NaNoWriMo, but instead of writing a novel... you edit one.

You can read last year's post about it here. Last year I failed. I didn't make it to the goal of 50 hours, even though I did make quite a bit of progress in my plot. This year I'm working on The Shadow of Rebellion 2-4 hours every day.

Anyway, I should get back to editing now. I just thought I'd let you all know what I'm up to.

Cheerio!

A New Adventure

I have taken the leap and created a new blog.

Evergreena's Journal will continue to be my "main" blog, for my poetry, writing stuff, and other creative endeavors. I've done some things with photography here. But I began to realize, especially after seeing Hannah's new project for the year (which you can visit HERE), that I wanted to do more with photography.

The new blog is (tentatively) called The Adventures of Evergreena and Her Camera. You can visit it at camera-adventures.blogspot.com  It's still under construction, but I would love it if you would comment on it and follow me there.

What I Gave for Christmas

Instead of focusing on what I got for Christmas this year, I’ll tell you what I gave to other people, since that was more exciting for me this year.

To my parents, I gave audiobooks that they can listen to while they are driving. Both books are radio drama done by Focus on the Family’s Radio Theatre. To my mom I gave “The Hiding Place,” and to my dad I gave “The Screwtape Letters.” (Did you know that Andy Serkis is the voice of Screwtape? He’s insanely creepy!)

 

For my oldest sister, I got a candle. But this is no ordinary candle. It’s an artificial one that flickers either yellow or blue, and to turn it off, you just blow. And you also blow to turn it on. :)

For my next oldest sister, I made a recipe box, collaged with cooking-themed papers. She’s a great cook and loves culinary arts. I made recipe cards to go with it.

To my brother, who has his blog here, I gave the game Risk, but with a twist. It’s set in the year 2210 A.D. He played it with our cousin on Christmas night (stayed up until 3 in the morning!), and they both like it better than the original Risk game. Then I played with him… and lost. But I will triumph eventually!

And for my youngest sister, Hepzibah, who blogs at Beauty of Christ (among other places), I made an altered book about fairies. The book used to be "The Thousand and One Nights," but now it is all about fairies, with lots of colors and glitter. It’s my second altered book, and I learned a lot of new techniques for this project. This is probably the present I worked on the most. She loved it, and kept flipping through the pages in delight. I’ll try to post some pictures of it soon.

And for the whole family, I made a photobook. The title is "Faces: Looking Closer at the Personalities Around Us." You can view it here.

Swine Flu and Novel Writing

Yeah... I'm sorry I haven't been posting at all during November. I wanted to keep you guys updated with my word-count goals and excerpts from my novel, but less than a week into the month, I got really sick. I never went to the doctor to get tested, but I had all the symptoms of the H1N1 swine flu. I had a fever for nine days, and felt poorly for over two weeks.

Of course, that didn't help with the novel writing. I've never been sick during National Novel Writing Month before, so it was a frustrating time for me. I wanted to make it to at least 75,000 words, and hopefully finish the whole story, but with several days in there where I didn't write ANYTHING, I was really behind. My parents kept telling me to give myself a break, but it was hard when I've been planning this book for months, and looking forward to NaNoWriMo all year.

It was also hard to accept that I would be writing alone this year. In all the other years of NaNo, my brother was writing with me, and then my dad tried it and my younger sister did it for a couple of years. But this year, the others weren't able to write novels for one reason or another, so I was alone. (And since I was sick, I couldn't go to any write-ins with local Wrimos.)

I did make it to 50,000, though, and then for the last three days of November, I wrote over 5,000 words a day!  Yay! My final count is 70,213 handwritten words. So even though it felt like a terrible month, it was not totally unsuccessful.

And yet, my book is not yet completed. *sigh* Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to write I go... And when I finish, I'll come back and post a few excerpts for y'all to pick on and admire. :)

Our Award-Winning Movie!

My computer is still not working, but now that the film contest is officially over, I can let you see the movie that my family made. There were 68 entries in the "Quiet on the Set!" film competition, and they were all shown over the weekend at the Central library in Minneapolis. Then the top 12 films were shown at the awards gala last night, and surprisingly, our film was one of them! We received an Audience Choice Award as well as Honorable Mention for "Best Special Effects!" We never expected something like this!

My cousin won "Best Film," but she went to school for this, so that's no surprise. :) The whole event was exciting, almost like being at the Oscars. Anyway, enjoy our film, and let me know what you think!

County Fair Project #2- Photography

I turned in all my open class pictures today. *Gulp* It was a lot of work to select, print, mat, and enter all 29 photographs. And the fair registration website wasn't working right, so I had to fill out almost all the entry labels at the fairgrounds! But it was worth it, because I love it so much.

I'm only entering one picture in 4-H. It's of some seed-pods that grew by our pond. Here it is:

I'm hoping to go to the State Fair with photography this year, but there's a LOT of competition. I'll have to wait to see if I get picked. In previous years I've gone to State with performing arts (piano), self-determined (a display about writing a novel), and fine arts (a large-scale digital collage I made in Photoshop). Now I'm shooting for photography.

County Fair Project #1- Photo Book

I thought I'd give you a sneak peek at my projects for the county fair! This is my photo book "A Jaunt into the City: Exploring Minneapolis with a Camera." I'm going to enter it in 4-H photography.

Click here to view this photo book larger

It's Done!

We turned in our finished movie today! Yay!

It's titled "Imagine That!" and it is 4 minutes and 52 seconds long, credits and all. We don't have it up on the web yet, but we're hoping to sometime in the next few weeks.

I haven't posted in a while because I was crazy busy writing the music for our movie. It was my first official scorewriting experience, and though it was a bit stressful as the deadline approached, I had fun and learned a lot. And I had the joy of writing it on my new keyboard!

I've been saving for a LOOOONG time to get it, and when we realized that I needed to have something in order to make music for our movie, I finally had my chance. Here it is in its new home under my loft bed (which was built with this in mind!):

It's a Korg M50-88 music workstation for those of you in the know. And I love it. Right now I don't have any really great programs on my computer, just GarageBand. It was enough for our movie project, but I've got my eye on Logic Studio.... *drool*

Now I need to get back to work. Our movie may be done, but the County Fair is coming up next week, and I have a bunch of 4-H projects to work on!

Making a Movie!

The mystery project is revealed-- We're making a movie!

I mentioned it a few months ago, but now we're actually doing it. My family is entering a short film contest at the library called "Quiet on the Set!" We started filming on Saturday, and we got lots of great footage at the library.  My mom is the main character in our film, and a friend from church agreed to be the dreamy librarian, who imagines my mom as characters in the books she checks out. So my mom got to be a scientist (hence the chemistry), a detective (wearing a trench coat), a cowgirl, and a spacewoman (what the white gloves were for)! We made the books shown in the last post, one for each of the aforementioned characters. 

We had to have one scene where all of these characters are in the same shot, so we needed a few stand-ins to pretend to be my mom. I ended up being the scientist for that scene. I don't know if I'll show up at all in the film, but it was fun anyway. :)

Honest Abe watched us the whole time. I believe he thought we were quite entertaining.

We spent four and a half hours at the library, but we still have a lot of filming to do. The finished product has to be less than five minutes, including credits and such. And the deadline to enter is July 15th, so we have less than a month to finish it. *Gulp*

Here's a picture of the cast and crew:

The Mystery Project...

Here are some snapshots of what my family is doing today:

Spray painting a pair of gloves white-ish...

...a little chemistry...

...and some light reading!

How are all these things connected?  For mystery like this, I had to break out my trusty trench coat. (Which is also related to the other things, by the way)

So, what do you think we're doing?