Preliminary Character Designs 4 – Supporting Male Cast

More color Studies! This is one features the male supporting cast members. Of this list, Lord Westercroft will not likely make it into the initial graphic novel. However, everyone else will be there with bells on!

My style has the distinct look of being too “western” for manga and too manga for “western” comics. It was an issue I debated on changing for a long time. Ultimately, I chose to draw my way, allowing it to develop in whichever way it chose and I preferred. I like both manga and western comics and I don’t see a reason to pigeon hole myself into one particular look. After all, it is the melting pot of the west that makes it so exciting and I would love my art to reflect that mix. My own family is a combination of two continents and it shows in my international casts in my stories. C.O.G. Chronicles in particular showcases that. While the story will take place in Edinburgh, the characters come from all over: Scotland, England, Ireland, Unites States, France, Spain, China, the Caribbean, etc.

C.O.G. Chronicles - Male Supporting Cast

 

Preliminary Character Designs 3 – Supporting Female Cast

More Color Studies of the cast! Here are the primary female supporting characters.

Now, what do I mean by color study? Simply put, in my process I generally start with the characters and the world. The plot eventually makes itself known somewhere within this stage. For the characters, I come up with a name and a rough idea of who and what they are. This can change, of course, at any point in the development of the story (sometimes up to the last minute). Usually the “Leading” or “Main” character is the first of the cast to be developed in this way. In C.O.G. Chronicles, that character was Myles (he didn’t have a surname for a long time). He was actually an old character that I had rolling around in the back of my head for what seemed like an age. However, I really didn’t have a world or story to put him in. When I started thinking Steampunk, he instantly popped to mind. Though even at this point, he was still more of a concept, and have never been drawn. The only elements of his physical look that I knew was the he had longish dark red hair and glasses. The way characters look will have a lot to do with how I go about the story. Steampunk in itself has a rich visual iconography and I knew that it would influence and change my world accordingly.

So, I start simply: I draw a good head. I will generally draw rough versions of all the characters I have initially developed. Drawing will often create new ones or delete others as I grasp the first steps of the visuals of my concept. Like before, the leading character sets the tone and is done first. However, I am more likely to go back and redraw that character after I have completed everyone else (which I did here). More often than not, after I finish my first pencil sketches I will go on to do a larger medium shot or full body drawing of the cast. I didn’t do that in this case because unlike other “comic book” stories, these characters will have a variety of different costumes and looks throughout the tale. I chose to do costume designs separately. Since I wanted this graphic novel to be in color (I usually do black & white), I instead inked up the head sketches and did a very basic channel coloring in Photoshop. This helped me get a better grasp of the over all look I was going for, what palette I wanted to lean towards, and initiate any additional changes I wanted to do for the design (for instance Myles hair color lighten considerably from what I originally intended).

As for the ladies seen in this post’s image, Althea will likely no make it into the graphic novel despite being one of the first characters created. Conversely, Clara & Marie were literally added to the cast very recently and almost at the last minute. As for Rosejack, I promise you that you will be seeing LOTS of her in the future, lol!

C.O.G. Chronicles - Female Supporting Cast

 

Preliminary Character Designs 2 – Myles’s Sisters

Here are some more “color study” designs for C.O.G. Chronicles. Today the Chronicler, i.e. myself, would like to show you the designs for all of Myles Ballantyne’s older sisters. Not all the sisters will be feature in the initial graphic novel story. I hope that should the tale continue on a grander scale you all will be introduced in each in turn. Right now the most important are the eldest of the group, Jane Cavendish, wife to Dr. Arthur Cavendish, and the youngest, Daphne Ballantyne, who is yet unmarried.

C.O.G. Chronicles - Myles's Sisters

 

Preliminary Character Designs 1 – Main Cast

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Welcome back to C.O.G. Chronicles! Today we begin to display the initial designs for our Sequential Serial (or more mundanely known as a comic book graphic novel). Today the Chronicler would like to share her preliminary designs for the main cast of this tale. She calls these “color studies” and will be used as an initial guide for their designs. These are subject to change, as it’s early days yet; but it will give you an idea on initial look and names of the main cast.

C.O.G. Chronicles - Main Cast

 

First Post!

Hiya Folks~!

This is the opening of C.O.G. Chronicles creation site! As I create this graphic Novel you will have a front row action to the process and art! I know no one’s looking here just yet but that is the goal, nonetheless. I will be posting content very soon!

mara aum