Panel Three Proof, Revised

I'm very pleased with this:


















Or, alternatively, this, with revised line work on the hills:

Fonts!

So, thanks to the free fonts available on Blambot.com, I have a wide variety of new fonts for use in lettering. Of course, when this book gets published, it will have to officially license the fonts, but that is to be expected of any typography company.

Backdrop Number Two - Work in Progress

If you click on the image, it will be huge. This is because it is easier for me to color the image if I shrink it to 40% of scan size after it's finished than if I do it prior to coloring.


I need to get these clouds to look more alike. Other than that, a good start, I think.

For the majority of the time, that window is going to be unbroken, and have a pretty orange stained glass motif focusing on the insignia of the Order of the Unbroken Circle. (I should clarify that the Order aren't the bad guys of the story, but some of the more important antagonists are members of the Order.) The unbroken window is going to be layered on top of the normal, broken window image shown here. How does it break, you ask?



















That's how.

Also, I am thankful that I won't have to draw or color trees for another few chapters, and that the next time we are outside, we'll be in a wooded area of a very different sort; while I am generally pleased with how these turned out, I really didn't enjoy the process of coloring them at all. Luckily, coloring Uncle Jasper is my favorite thing about this project... which is good, considering that I have about 8 more pages of him to finish drawing and coloring before I switch to a chapter about the children.

The Custodian of Wisdom

(This scene has a pretty elaborate setup, but all you need to know is that Pandora is running through the museum, and Simon is chasing after her... the sequence of panels begins with Pandora running down a corridor, and past a man holding a mop who looks like a janitor. The janitor begins to speak.)
Tiresias: "Greetings, child! I am Tiresias, the Custodian of Wisdom, fabled throughout the land for my unerring intellect and formidable janitorial skills!"
(Pandora continues to run down the corridor, ignoring Tiresias, and runs off-panel.)
Tiresias: "Wait, I wasn't finished!"
(Simon runs on panel.)
Simon: "Hi, did you see a girl-"
Tiresias: "Greetings, child! I am Tiresias, the all-knowing Custodian of Wisdom! There is no question I cannot answer! There is no riddle I cannot solve! There is no toilet I cannot unclog!"
Simon: "Nice to meet you. I was wondering, did you see-"
Tiresias: "I know the three secret words which, when uttered, would halt the flow of time itself! I have calculated the formula for turning lead into sheep! I have wrestled the Mop of Poseidon from the hands of gods and used it to clean the halls of Valhalla!"
Simon: "Nifty. Could you answer a question for me?"
Tiresias: "An amusing notion! Very well, child. I shall provide you with the answers to three questions. Choose them well."
Simon: "Okay. Did you see a girl run by here?"
Tiresias: "...Are you sure you want that to be your first question? You can ask about anything, you know. The meaning of life, how many angels can dance on the head of a pin, stuff like that."
Simon: "No, that's my question."
Tiresias: "As you wish. In answer to your question, I did see a girl run past me right before you."
Simon: "Thanks."
(Simon begins walking away.)
Tiresias: "...And your second question?"
Simon: "That's all I wanted to know. Thank you."
Tiresias: "Very well. We shall cross paths again. Perhaps by then, you will have thought of more questions. Perhaps you might make them a tad more profound."
(Simon walks off.)

Panel Three Proof

I haven't quite decided on whether or not to use this style of text or word bubbles. Any thoughts?

Panels One, Two, Three Foreground - Works in Progress

Growlies! They're So Cute!

(Click on the image to see the full effect of the coloration.)

This picture is as colored in as it is going to be for a while, as I'm trying to minimize the amount of trees I have to do... they take a lot of work.

Backdrop for Page One - Work in Progress

I think the only thing that still looks out of place is the leaf... it is too bright. I might still want to fix the white bits still stuck on the hills, and the right side of the rightmost tree.



































I'm fairly happy with how this scanned in, and how my coloring work is going on it. The road was painted in Paint Shop using a dark brown base and a transparent, less than 50% opaque pattern filter, filled with a lighten blend condition. The sky was made using a dark blue base and a semi-opaque light-to-dark blue blend, filled with a lighten blend condition.

This backdrop is going to be used for the first page and a half of the book, which will consist of a sequence of three panels of this image, with Crazy Uncle Jasper running down the road in the first two panels and the angry mob chasing after him in the third panel.

I've got a long way to go on this, but I think it looks good so far.

Group Images for the first four chapters

Protagonists:
From Left to Right: Front - Sir Moses Weatherby, Pandora, Crazy Uncle Jasper, Simon, Hydra; Back - The Kestrel























Antagonists:
From Left to Right: Torment Spider; Front - The Growlies; Back - Yana, Ignatius

The Vision in the Museum

(This occurs after Pandora and Simon get lost in the museum and end up in the secret room. In the secret room, there are a whole bunch of things that SHOULD NOT BE IN A MUSEUM: an enormous library of history books about stuff that never happened, a glowing blue orb in the middle of the room, and an enormous skeleton of a dragon that pretty much occupies the perimeter of the room.)

Pandora: "Wow. That's the biggest dinosaur I've ever seen."
Simon: "That isn't a dinosaur! It's a dragon! See the wings?"
Pandora: "I'm pretty sure some dinosaurs had wings. What's a dragon?"
Simon: "It's a giant fire breathing monster. How do you not know what a dragon is?"
Pandora: "I'm a girl. That sounds like boy stuff."
Simon: "Dragons can be girl stuff too!"
(Pandora is distracted by the big shiny blue orb. I mean, wouldn't you be?)
Pandora: "Ooh, this is pretty."
(As she touches it, the entire room is bathed in blue light, and shapes start to form. We see a big cavern. In this cavern is the very-much alive dragon. In front of the dragon are three knights of the Unbroken Circle. At this point in the story, the only person who knows what this means is the author. Behind the dragon is a woman, standing, her hands bound by chains to two upright pillars. Very obviously a princess.)
Simon: "What did you do?"
Pandora: "Nothing! I just touched it! Is that the dragon thing? Who is the pretty lady behind it?"
Simon: "She looks like a princess! Those knights must be there to rescue her."
Pandora: "Why can't she rescue herself?"
Simon: "Because that's how it works. The dragon kidnaps the princess, the knights kill the dragon and rescue her, and they all live happily ever after."
(The three knights attack the dragon. Quickly, it shoots fire out of its mouth, hitting two of the knights, knocking one of them off his feet. The dragon then sweeps one of its claws, basically knocking the third knight into the wall like it is throwing a doll. The third knight, amidst dodging the dragon's tail, takes his strange looking sword, and throws it at the princess, who catches it. Suddenly, the princess, previously just standing there, flexes her arms, and literally rips the chains holding her apart. Then, she leaps into the air, onto the dragon's back, and plunges the sword into the beast. The dragon falls down, and the princess hops off of its back and walks towards the cavern's entrance, the knights following submissively behind her. The image disappears, and the room loses its blue glow. Simon and Pandora look at each other.)
Pandora: "...'Hi, my name is Simon, and I'm wrong about everything.'"
(Pandora spots something in the corner. She has some attention span issues. Mounted on the wall is the sword the princess used. It looks ancient and fragile, but still very impressive. She goes over and takes the sword off of the wall.)
Simon: "Ooh, let me see that!"
Pandora: "Sorry. Swords are girl stuff."

Thus introduces the formidable Queen Lydia of the Order of the Unbroken Circle... warrior, dragonslayer and, eventually, Pandora and Simon's main antagonist. We'll go in to that a bit later, though...

Style Guide - Part One

Character Style Guide - Part One

Crazy Uncle Jasper
Jasper is an eccentric old man who, at the time the story begins, makes a living going from town to town peddling his bizarre kitchen and household appliances, although as the angry mob chasing him has found out, all of his inventions never quite seem to work as planned. Upon meeting Pandora and Simon, he instructs them to call him "Crazy Uncle Jasper". He can be easily identified by his distinctive hat, the purpose or aesthetic of which is uncertain, as he deflects all inquiry into its oddity by reminding people around him that he is delightfully insane, and insane people are allowed to dress however they want. He carries around a large sack, which he from time to time refers to as "the bag of genius", in which he keeps, among other things: a walking, talking piggy bank which is mystically imbued with the power to locate and guide Crazy Uncle Jasper to the nearest town; a kitten, which he received as payment from a man in the last village for his prototype kitten-robot (which promptly stole the man's wallet the first time he was asleep and ran away); a bar of soap which is capable of emitting jets of flame; a number of fully functional electric toasters which double as incendiary grenades; and a grappling hook. Crazy Uncle Jasper is fairly knowledgeable about history and culture, but seems reluctant to go into any detail of his life before he became a traveling salesman.

"What conceivable reason compelled you to invent an exploding toaster?"
"Look, sometimes a man needs to ward off an angry mob, and sometimes a man just wants some toast. I don't have enough room in this sack to carry around both."

...

"Welcome to the Gristlewood Inn. How will you be paying this evening?"
"Do you accept jam as currency?"
"No, we do not."
"What if it's really good jam?"
"No. What else do you have?"
"Let me take a look in my bag... bits of string, self-filling salt shakers... oh! I'll trade you this kitten!"
"Your trade is... acceptable."
"Children! Glorious news! I found a way to get rid of the cat!"

Pandora


"What's your name, dear?"
"Pandora."
"That's an unusual name for a girl. Doesn't it come from Greek mythology?"
"I don't know. My name used to be Ruth, but mommy changed it to Pandora when I was five, because she said I was always getting myself into trouble... I don't like mommy very much."

...

"Boys are stupid. I hate boys."
"Well, you think that right now, but that will change when you get older."
"Why? Do they get any less stupid?"
"No, but you'll start to notice it less."

Simon


"Gah! Monsters!"
"Quick! Hit them with the sword!"
"Okay... oh no! The sword broke! Now what do I do?"
"I don't know. In most of the books I read, hitting something with a sword is usually enough to solve any problem."

The Kestrel




"Hi! I'm Pandora. What's your name?"
"He won't answer you. Kestrels don't speak if they can avoid it."
"Why not? Are they shy?"
"No. The Kestrels speak in a language of musical wishes. Anything they sing about comes true, so they have to be very careful about what they say."
"Oh. Why can't they just talk normally, in our language?"
"Why would they want to?"











The Growlies














"Fear not, children! For in my bag, I possess an object which fills the Growlies with utter terror... a bar of soap!"
"Soap? We're supposed to be afraid of soap? Are you trying to tell us that we smell?"
"Foolish old man, we are not afraid of soap."
"No... it just offends our delicate sensibilities."

...

"Hi! We have come to eat your brains!"
"Aw, the three of you are the cutest trick or treaters ever!"
"Silence, tasty human! We are not cute. We are scary! Watch me be scary! Rar rar rar! Give us your brains!"

The Torment Spider
"He only has six limbs! Spiders have-"
"Hush, child."
"But-"
"Let's put it this way: if you were an extremely violent and generally unpleasant monster named the Torment Spider, wouldn't it be in everyone's best interest not to point out to you that spiders are supposed to have six legs?"








Sir Moses Weatherby
















Hydra

Introduction, Setting, and Detailed Plot Outline

Welcome to my development diary for Crazy Uncle Jasper (working title)! This blog will serve as a depository for line art, fully colored panels, style guides, and commentary from anyone wishing to critique my progress. There isn't too much here now, but tomorrow I will be picking up my new scanner from the post office, at which point the first style guide, containing all of the major characters from the first part of the book, will be posted.

Crazy Uncle Jasper uses a composite style of artwork, which is to say that the background art and the characters are drawn independently of each other, with the character art inserted onto the background art using a scanner and Paint Shop Pro. The current plan is to color the book and add the dialog using Paint Shop Pro, but currently my primary focus is finishing the inking and adding the characters onto the backdrops. Note that this isn't a "sprite" style of artwork; even though the backgrounds may be consistent between panels (which adds a uniform style from page to page) each character is redrawn for each panel... after all, everyday people don't look exactly the same from moment to moment when they are engaged in conversation, so why take the lazy way out and draw in such a manner?

The bulk of the book takes place in a fictional land which evokes notions of medieval Europe, early 20th century Venetian city life, and the more positive elements of antebellum Southern culture along the Mississippi River. The basic plot of Crazy Uncle Jasper is as follows: the titular character is an eccentric old man who makes a living going from town to town peddling his highly temperamental household appliances. At the start of the novel, he is on the run from a mob of angry villagers whose money he has obtained through commerce of dubious legality. He takes refuge in an old abandoned citadel that is eerily preserved and maintained. In this building, he encounters two children who are being attacked by a trio of adorable brain-eating goblins known as the Growlies. After quickly dispatching the creatures, Crazy Uncle Jasper learns that the children, Pandora and Simon, are from our own world: on a class trip to a natural history museum, they got lost and wandered into a secret room, containing a strange suit of armor and an enormous dragon skeleton. Next to the suit of armor is a sword with some very strange properties; upon being picked up, the sword flooded the room with blue light, and the forms of a mysterious knight, wearing the aforementioned suit of armor and wielding the sword, fighting the very-much alive dragon, begin to take shape. After the blue light ceased, the sword opens up a portal to Crazy Uncle Jasper's world, which the children go through, and they emerge in the citadel, only to be attacked by the Growlies. As the children try to defend themselves from the creatures, the ancient and fragile sword shatters, leaving Pandora with the hilt and lower third of the sword. Crazy Uncle Jasper dispatches the Growlies, and they flee into the portal into our world, the door closing after them. With the sword broken, the children cannot open another portal, leaving them trapped in the fantasy world.

At this point, the angry mob bursts through the front door, and Crazy Uncle Jasper frantically searches for an escape route. He is successful, and opens up a trap door under the children's feet, who he follows after. The trap door is of course magical, and deposits our protagonists far away on another part of the world (Uncle Jasper realizes how far away they are due to it being night when he entered the house and the middle of the day wherever the trap door sent them). Using his ambulatory compass/piggy bank, Crazy Uncle Jasper and the children find a way to the nearest town, where Jasper negotiates passage on a riverboat ferry captained by the honorable Sir Moses Weatherby, an old man who is fond of jam, which Crazy Uncle Jasper of course has in abundance.

However, Crazy Uncle Jasper and the children are not the only passengers on the riverboat. Weatherby is also transporting a mysterious Kestrel, a race of giants who ordinarily prefer to remain silent, as they speak in a language of lyrical wishes, and reality reshapes itself in response to their spoken melodies. Upon a quick visit onto the riverbank to explore, Weatherby, Crazy Uncle Jasper, and the children are all captured by the sinister Torment Spider, a creature of pure malice who takes pleasure in the pain of others, and the Kestrel must find and save them with the help of the ambulatory compass/piggy bank, which since its introduction has developed sentience and the will to live.

Meanwhile, far away but closer than one suspects, a shadowy woman known only as Hydra has broken into the cathedral of the Order of the Unbroken Circle, making off with an ancient relic which bears a striking similarity to the broken sword which Pandora is still carrying. Pursued by two winged beings named Yana and Ignatius, she is charged with bringing the amulet to the one man crazy and brilliant enough to decipher its true nature: Crazy Uncle Jasper.

This brings us to the end of chapter four. The background art is done for the prologue and chapter one, and the dialog is written for the prologue up to the end of chapter two. To reveal any more plot than this would spoil the surprise...