Sailor Twain Or the Mermaid in the Hudson

This is a great online comic series that is Victorian and magical. For those of you looking for something different and fascinating this is a great riot. Click on the image to take you to the comic!

Sailor Twain

 

Myles’s Glasses

Here is a quick study of Myles’s glasses or spectacles. They have a variety of moving parts and can fold into themselves for easy storage.

The “sunglasses” disks can move to the inside of the side frames when not needed or swung behind the spectacle portion. The spectacle glass has a hinge on the bottom that makes them swing forward so as to be moved out of the way when needed. Myles is near-sighted, which means he has a problem seeing objects far away but can see things perfectly when close. Since he uses the magnifying attachment on the glasses when working on his inventions, he just swings the spectacle glass down out of his way when he uses them instead of getting a completely new set of glasses to do the job. When Myles wishes to stow the glasses away, the hinge in the center arch swings inward until the sun & spectacle glass lay next to each other and then the ear stems fold in and over until all the parts make a small easily compact shape that he can put in his coat pocket.

I know, complicated. Usually I will have more complete schematics of items, but this image make perfect sense to me so I don’t think it will be likely in this case.

Myles's Glasses

 

A Lady’s Hair is Her Life

Like today, ladies fashion and hair have varied and changed with the times. The 1870’s had it own specific looks.  Some sites that highlights these looks are:

http://demodecouture.com/hair/ – Various eras of hair goodness showcased

http://www.lphouse.com/1870s.htm – More hair of the times with original photos to highlight the looks.

Lime most things in C.O.G. Chronicles, I am happy to adjust and change things to suit my purposes. That is the chief advantage of making and alternate reality. However, I still like to see where it comes from initially so that I can make those changes purposefully, not accidentally.

 

 

Empyrean Industries Logo

What we have here today is the logo design for Empyrean Industries. This is Myles Ballantyne & Dr. Cavendish’s company. They are based out of Scotland, with both Myles and Cavendish living and Edinburgh and their factories in Glasgow. Thus is used a lot of Scottish crest iconography for it. I also used a compass rose image as well because Empyrean Industries specializes in vehicles and transportation. I am still uncertain if I will be using elements of his image as the official Masthead logo for the comic itself.

Empyrean Industries Logo

 

The 1870’s

I have chosen the 1870’s as the era for C.O.G. Chronicles. I’ve made an alternate history for the comic, and thus most of the real events of that era will be glossed over. What will be more closely regarded is the fashion of the time and looks of the city of Edinburgh in particular. I have found some varying resources, but some of the better ones online I found was these sites:

http://amyellecartwright.blogspot.com/2011/07/fashion-in-1870s.html – A london based costume designer who nails the 1870’s with words and photos.

http://www.bustledress.com/cgi-bin/z.pl/index.html – All things bustle and a great resource for looks!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victorian_dress – Never knew Wikipedia could be useful? But it is! Lost of great plates and art form various times frames of the victorian era.

 

Names, Names, NAMES!!

Where do I get the names for my cast? Form a variety of places, including from the air, books I’ve read, people I meet and more. But when the spark of inspiration doesn’t appear, I’ve some staples I like to search:

http://www.20000-names.com/ – This is a great resource even if its drowning in ads and pop-ups. It’s not very easy to use, but give it the time to dig, you will find gold.

http://oobleck.org/steam/ – I nice name generator for steam punk when you’re in a pinch. I prefer to make my own name combos but this someone gives you gems.

http://www.parenthood.com/babynames/baby-names.php – This is a babyname site but the search engine is very useful! It has it’s limits but it’s worth using to see if you can get what you want.

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~poindexterfamily/OldNames.html – This ia a great resource for Victorian names and thus steampunk.

While I use these a lot for C.O.G. Chronicles, most of my favorite names are ones I find randomly and I just sort of keep in the back of my mind to be used for ideal projects like this one. That is where names like Ballantyne & Rosejack come from.

 

Cast Inks

Today I show you the Pin-Ups fully inked. I did these images separately on A3 / 11 X 17 paper. They were hand penciled and hand inked. However, they were cleaned up on the computer. Generally I use a blue pencils (which i turned grey in the previous post for easy viewing) and then use various inking techniques to get the desired effect. For these drawings, I mostly used repidographs for my line work and I just a brush pen for the dark hair. I twas inked in white paper and the ink was black. I turned the ink brown and the paper beige on the computer for effect.

Added to this list is Eddie Youngblood. Eddie is one of the villains in the story and technically is NOT one of the major ones. However, I REALLY wanted to design him and went ahead and splurged myself one extra character just for the hell of it, lol!

Cast Inks

 

Cast Pencils

Today I am featuring the pencil lines of the initial cast. These do not include any of the villains, just the “good guys.” These drawings were done for 2 reasons. The first being costume design of the principle cast. The second is that I would have full body images that could potentially be used for pin-up illustrations. These will be the only ones of this nature I will likely do for awhile. I won’t get to the rest of the cast until I complete the other design aspects of C.O.G. Chronicles, such as Gadgets, Weapons, Vehicles, & Environments. I also intend to feature a variety of different costumes and looks for each of the characters in C.O.G. Chronicles. Thus, if I did a completed drawing for each and every one of those looks, I would never get around to drawing the actual book! So, for the purpose of these pin-ups, they are simply for me to get the hang of the principle cast.

From left to right we have Dr. Cavendish, Delyth, Myles, Rosejack & Mrs. Applegarth.

Cast Pencils

On with the fashion show!

Dr. Cavendish is a dapper dresser and has all the ear marks of well to-do gentleman. He’s very much a capable sort (hence the gun) and is very charming, which essentially makes him an action oriented Mr. Darcy.

Next is Miss Delyth Gwynne. Far too pretty for her own good, Delyth’s wearing her Sunday Best. Most of her clothing is a lot simpler and plain that this one. She will likely be dressed more simply in maid attire though most of the initial story.

Now we have our Hero, Myles Ballantyne. He is dressed in his “Work Outfit,” meaning this is usually how he dresses when inventing in his workshop. He also wears his hair in a tail when he’s working to keep it out of his eyes. His arm apparatus helps him with his work and is a weapon when it’s required (which is often).

Rosejack does make a statement wherever she goes AND in whatever she wears. Then again she would likely look gorgeous in a burlap sack. She is currently being showcased in what I call her “Adventure Outfit.” Which means that when she’s not playing the stylish lady she wears this when she knows things are going to get to the nitty-gritty. Even so, she looks stunning!

Mrs. Applegarth is more reservedly dressed in one of her day dresses with light jacket. Nonetheless, it’s never a dull moment for the housekeeper of Myles Ballantyne, so she’s come prepared, pistol in hand!

 

Preliminary Character Designs 8 – Occult Villains

At last! We come to the final list of head shots. These are officially the first villains introduced in C.O.G. Chronicles. However, they most certainly won’t be the last. While the Hellfire Club’s hayday and it’s ilk is earlier than that of the Victorian Era, occult and psychic phenomenon was becoming more wide spreadly recognized. It was only natural that I play the sinister dark arcana card for this tale. Unlike the other sets of villains, I can assure you, that no one on this list is redeemable.

C.O.G. Chronicles - Occult Villains

 

Preliminary Character Designs 7 – Underworld Villains

This post features the Underworld Villains. These are the mercenary types, where coin is the only true agenda. So good or bad can be relative. Madam long, however, is the queen of the underworld and she’s all bad, all the time, lol. This groups came about by the huge opium trade going on at the time in England. I didn’t want to ignore such a rich possibility for villains and anti-heroes. In fact, I can promise you that there is one anti-hero listed here today!

C.O.G. Chronicles - Underworld Villains