Monthly Archives: June 2016

It Figures: A New Hope

Because in the end you need to show, not tell.

I told you I would, and I did. Father’s Day weekend 2016 I marched into the local craft and game-stores, bought the gear, and laid out a space in my basement to start painting figurines again. I’m honestly quite scared.

WHO:

Not who you might think. My three unpainted immortal-sized figurines are glued and ready as I showed you last time. If I am successful they will be works of art. But come now. Gotta’ take a test run.

Best practice- newspaper upside-down, or else you'll start reading...
Best practice- newspaper upside-down, or else you’ll start reading…

So I riffed my old stock, threw out 95% of the paint, all the glue, and got to the level of the old, unfinished figs. There were MANY more than I remembered: dozens of them. And most not very impressive, a few cool enough but not representative of anything I’ve seen in the Lands. I narrowed it down to a handful both relevant and curious. Then I biased back toward what was of immediate interest and not too tough to start out on. The winners:

NewGear-3New

The Bell-Ringer

Bell-Ringer2This was a can’t-lose no-brainer choice. This unearthly image from a shared nightmare horrified and nearly killed the entire band of adventurers in The Plane of Dreams. That’s a really fun tale, by the way, kind of a hit-parade of heroes from tales set in an earlier period (including Judgement’s Tale and Three Minutes to Midnight). But the cool-factor for the Bell-Ringer goes up since he’s a) larger than life-sized (easier to paint) and b) a kind of horror stereotype with little skin and big “handles” for painting (wide swatches of the same color, not as much detail). I believe I can be very successful with him.

VuthienneVuthienne1

The proud, near-manic Primara of Oncario is an important figure in The Eye of Kog and I do need to address the gender-balance whenever I can, especially when it’s an authority figure. She will definitely be more trouble to paint, lots of small detail, and I might wait until last with her. She’s seen here bearing the traditional office-staff of the Primara, not the Scepter of Law she used to grow her city’s power, and thus destroy it. I really must explore Vuthienne’s characters to reflect her better, and painting could help (two weeks to go until the book is done and her big scene is coming up).

Final Judgement

Final Judgement1I could hardly believe this figure when I took it out. I forgot I had it! The father of Solemn Judgement, equivalent to Sir Not Appearing in this Novel from Judgement’s Tale, is nevertheless an important image and influence on his son through the tale of his subsequent life. Talk about a Father’s Day surprise! That’s the same hat, cape and boots which Solemn took to go adventuring, and of course Final bears both a sword and gun he never allowed his son to hold (but the latter of which Judgement finds in the Lands anyway, and takes with him).

These three will be my warm-up attempts before I attempt Percis, Astor and Stathos.

WHERE:

DaysofK_rpgFor my supplies I took a run into the local game-store Days of Knights, which if you haven’t seen it is well worth a trip. Lots of places have “this store”, and around here it’s The Days of Knights: call me an apple-polisher but I think the displays just get better and better around there. I bought about a dozen bottles of paint to start my new excursion into the world of fine detail and eye strain. The folks there are terrific, there’s a game club in the back, events every week, and more. Maybe I just started up painting so I’d have an excuse to go back here more often.

HOW:

I can already tell, I’m going to make big-time use of my magnifying lens. I used its light and even its magnifying power to hone in on some of the faces and detail work I wanted to

Part-way along, lots of "oops" lines
Part-way along, lots of “oops” lines

show you with these three figs. As valuable as it’s been, though, you have to be careful– the lens annihilates your depth perception, and if the lens isn’t flat over the top of the figure, I actually started to get vertigo! I used water-bottle tops to mix in new shades (wrote the formula on my newspaper in case I had to try again) and attacked the Bell-Ringer in classic “getting dressed” formula (meaning, the inmost layers first, moving to things further out on his body). I couldn’t stop thinking about Geri, the old man who fixes Woody, his arm shaking like a leaf until he starts working. Pretty much the same here! But with the fine points on my brush and the help of the lens, I was able to minimize the going-over strokes. ToyStory2_GeriMixed colors for almost all his accoutrements, the only solid shade I used was the bronze of his outer armor. I wanted him looking unhealthy and yet threatening, nightmarish I guess the best term. In the story he doesn’t carry a scythe, but a hammer which he uses to bash the bell and drive the sleeper to terror. The dream gets worse and worse the more he appears.; but the Bell-Ringer dream was rare and not shared until Nightmare came along…

I mixed black and other dark colors into my lighter wood and green shades, then decided to use grey or black washes on most of the figure to take off some of the edge of reality.

I will likely come back to touch him up in some places you can see here, but this is the essential effect I was reaching for. Let it dry, spray with matte finish, detach from the paper and the Bell-Ringer will be the first new addition to my figurine collection in longer than I care to think about. Maybe I’ll settle him on the shelf close to the Tributarians who I’m sure recall him fondly.

You rang? No, I did!
You rang? No, I did!

 

 

 

Next up will be Final Judgement and Vuthienne. One more shout-out to The Days of Knights for being my favorite kind of local store!

DaysofK_collectibles
Shelf-envy

 

 

Workers of Art: Collaborating with Illustrators

Nothing matters more to me than the sense that my writing has connected with someone else. Usually of course that’s a reader, and the value of a good review is something you’ve probably already heard (but don’t let my annoying reminder stop you from running out and giving another one). So yes, do that; writers live for it.

BoT_Serpent_Hawk
Serpent versus Hawk, by Teddy Newby

But at times I have been privileged to engage with someone other than directly through the back-and-forth of I write, you read. Other authors chatting at our meet-ups, cresting each other’s excitement because yes we know EXACTLY what you mean. Folks who ask what your book is about and just your little blurb thrills them– hey, what you said is still your words!

But there’s been nothing quite like the thrill of working with an illustrator. Like some other writers, I have a very visual sense of what happened in my tales. I write about it, I reach out to try and amuse, mystify, entertain you. But the level of seeing, for me, is very intimate (not private, just hard to share). Could anyone else really see and understand my tales well enough to DRAW them?

I asked three talented dabblers I know some questions about the process and how they work. First and foremost, I want you to meet them, and be just as thrilled as I was, and later give me the residual credit for the introduction. Hopefully reading what they have to say about their creative process will inspire you. I’ll share contact information on all three, never fear: I’m proud to know them, but not that jealous.

Rachel_McRRachel McReynolds

Rachel is a 20 year old upcoming junior at Savannah College of Art and Design in the Sequential art program. I knew her as a student but never suspected her artistic talent until after graduation (“Online- bringing people back together since 1999”).

I have a passion for drawing and working with animals and pretty much all of my inspiration comes from nature. I love comics and big floppy cartoon animals and my aim is to work in any field I can from illustration, to comics, to children’s illustration, the concept design, to story boarding, and so on. I’m known around campus as the “possum girl”, dress like an eccentric grandmother, and almost always have a cup of tea in my hand.

It was obvious to me when I first saw Rachel’s work that she could do illustration, and I asked about the process of hiring her. She was completely willing to be paid.

Q: Have you enjoyed the idea of illustrating for others so far, and do you think you’d want that to be part of your artistic work?

"I listen to the dead people talk"
“I listen to the dead people talk”

A: I love having a prompt to draw from! It really helps when I’m art blocked on my own personal projects. I often ask my close friends what I should draw for them as a gift. As much as I have my own stories to tell and comics to draw for myself I am eager to work for others on their projects! It feels good to collaborate on something and it always makes the end product feel really special.

After looking over her portfolio I thought Rachel could do a great job with Januelus the timber-man from my upcoming novel .

Q: What will be your process for the illustration I commissioned of a character in The Eye of Kog ?

This reminded me of Last Airbender
This reminded me of Last Airbender

A: I plan to read over the entire chapter and doodle some design concepts before I send them to you for approval. Then I plan to do my sketch digitally so that I can move things around and get an appealing looking composition before I print it out. I’ll transfer the sketch onto my bristol board and then I’ll traditionally ink it with a nib! I’ll scan it back into the computer and touch the file up before sending it off! Feel free to use the image any way you like as long as I am credited as the artist!

I am on pins and needles Rachel! This is what I’m talking about, the sense that someone else is paying such close attention to your work, so they can pull the picture from your mind and recreate it.

And I’ve had the pleasure of this feeling before.

Teddy_NewbyTeddy Newby

Another young artist I came to know years ago, through a different kind of school, Teddy is one of several very talented artists in his family: his mother and father, shockingly, are also artists.

Four years ago I was writing The Book of Tales, a collection of stories from the history of the Lands featuring magical

Cover design Teddy Newby
Cover design Teddy Newby

talking animals and heroes of the elder ages. It occurred to me that a set of illustrations would be just the thing to set it apart.  I contacted Teddy and he jumped at the chance to help (we made a deal to split the proceeds of any sales).

Teddy is going into his senior year of college as a 2D (traditional) animation major at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York.

Prior to college I received a variety of awards in local film festivals in my home city Wilmington, Delaware. In the future I hope to direct my own films, both animated and live-action, and work in partnership with my siblings Billie Rose and Jesse.

Q: Does illustration for stories or scripts where you aren’t the author inspire you or intimidate you? Which do you think is easier?

Flee for your lives, it's a zombie doing calculus!
Flee for your lives, it’s a zombie doing calculus!

A: For me, drawing for my own work and illustrating somebody else’s aren’t really comparable. In my own work, drawing is part of the creative process even if I’m writing. If I’m drawing from someone else’s material, I’m trying to create a piece that conveys the same emotion as the original work. Neither is inherently more or less difficult than the other.

Q: What was your process for the illustrations you did in The Book of Tales? How did you decide what to draw?

GoBot
GoBot. I got it after about ten minutes…

A: The very first thing I did when illustrating The Book of Tales was to sit down and read the manuscript cover to cover. When you read like that images of scenes will appear to you as you read. After that I worked one story at a time. Using the images that came to me while I was reading I would create a line drawing, scan it, print a copy, and work on that with colored pencils. When that process was done I was left with the final illustrations that can be seen in the book.

I came away from that project with such lasting satisfaction; it was a wonderful collaboration, allowing me to really deepen the texture of the Lands of Hope. I had several conversations with Teddy where he spoke to me, for example, of which of my constellations should be in the night-sky! Truly incredible- he asked me if I had anything on the zodiac, and I just happened to have that (from my Compendium). I thought “sure, he’ll pick a cool one and slap it up there”. No: he came back and said “I think your story happened in the second month of the year and here’s why”. I still feel a chill when I think about that.

I get the same chill thinking about what wondrous adventures lie in my future as a chronicler.

Christy_SChristy Shaffer

I met Christy online through the usual networking channels, and in person this spring at a library mini-faire in Dover, the state capital. I could see from her display that here was someone I need to schmooze with!

I work for Dover Publications Books in New York. I have illustrated 40 books; coloring, stained glass, sticker, glow-in-dark, glitter and tattoo books featuring a variety of subjects including carousel horses, dragons, unicorns, fairies, nature, frogs, lizards, dinosaurs and prehistoric mammals. I also designed educational book covers for Bright Ideas Press and Book Peddlers Press.

Q: When you take up an illustration job, what comes first? Tell us a little about how you proceed.

A: While working on a coloring book for Dover Publications they asked me to put the project on hold and create a rush cover in less than a month for E. Nesbit’s The Book of Dragons. I had heard of it, but had never read it – after all, it is a classic and has been around for over 100 years. I jumped at the chance to do the cover.

Step One: Ask

… the company what are their expectations and do they have an idea for the cover. Dover’s answer was a dragon. So it was wide open. They didn’t really know what they wanted – but they would know when they saw it.

Step Two: Read Christy_S_DP_cover

I went to the library and borrowed a copy of The Book of Dragons. The company will sometimes send you a few pages describing the book or a scene. I generally ask for a manuscript, so I can read it and jot down details on characters, clothes, background and get an overall feel for the book. The cover should set the scene, give the reader an idea of what the book is about. I talked to Dover’s editor about my ideas for a sketch and got approval. The first story in the collection is about a wizard’s book that when opened, magical creatures escape the pages. I loved the idea of a dragon illustration coming to life and leaping off the page, growing larger and then flying off.

Step Three: Drawing

The initial sketch was drawn on tracing paper so it could be easily changed and transferred to illustration board – just an outline, not a lot of details and no shading. The image was scanned and sent to Dover Publications. My editor took it to the editing committee. They loved the sketch, but wanted me to add the tree mentioned in the story.  I looked up the type of tree, added it to the sketch and resubmitted it. The sketch was then approved.

Step Four: Color

The sketch was transferred to illustration board and Xeroxed. The copy was penciled in flat color, with the dragon in red and the chest in yellow – just enough color for a decision. Dover made no changes to my color choices. They were concerned about the wings, so I sent them a photo of the technique I wanted to use to create a fire effect. This sounds easy and simple, but I had been working for them for years and they were aware of my style of illustration and had an idea how the cover would look when it was completed. They would have asked for more detail in the sketch and color drawing if they hadn’t been familiar with my work. Also, the deadline for this project was very tight.

Step Five: Illustrate

I laid down a flat water color base for each section and went back over everything with colored pencil except the book, which I wanted to look like old parchment paper. I kept the illustration in the book rough so it would look hand-drawn and made the dragon look like someone erased it, to get the effect of it changing from a drawing to looking real to becoming alive. The color pencil goes from simple sketch to layer upon layer until it is waxy and shiny. I went back over that with a technical pen. I love black and white line art and this gave the art a nice finished look. Dover had a hard time deciding about the wings, but I persuaded them to add a dramatic effect. The wings were cut and laid in place. The original art was sent to Dover and scanned for the cover. The original had a dark green background which really made the dragon pop. For some reason they darkened it so much that the final version is almost black. I liked the green background better! But they have the final say on these matters. I really like this cover. In the end Dover agreed that the wings with the flames were the best choice, and everyone was happy.

It does look terrific, and I find the back-and-forth of co-creation really fascinating. I think authors are often a bit lonely about their creations, and when you get feedback (say by beta-critiquers) it really helps your confidence with some external validation. Plus a great new relationship! Working with artists has been like that for me and if you’re not thinking about it, ask yourself why not?

If you feel you’d like to contact any of these fine artists, you can use these links.

For Rachel McReynolds, you can message her on Facebook page or via her email 

For Teddy Newby, try his Facebook

For Christy Schaffer, try her Facebook page; or check out some of her other books online