Merry Christmas!!!

Hello everyone! Welcome back! And Merry Christmas Everyone!

Over the past week I've been doing various pictures over on my DA page - admittedly not overly much to do with Dreamwalkeres, but doing digital versions of some OC characters that are used on a Roleplay forum that I am part of. One of which was also sort of a gift/present for one of the other Roleplayers,

If you're interested in seeing some of those, have a look on my DA page at:

http://chosha-kurenai.deviantart.com/

As well as creating a Christmas avatar, I had also created a mascot character called Luphin, a character that would be used during Pandora. It actually began as a joke during the last MCM I went to with Nadia, where I bought an odd looking cat plushy that I would jokingly call a 'Marshmallow cat' due to its shape. I jokingly thought that, because of its stubby legs, it wouldn't be able to walk, and would only be able to walk around saying 'La la la la'.

This ended up being an on running joke and the start of the invention of the character Luphin, I mentioned it before as an idea for a business card, so I had made a base design in colour of the Luphin.

I had drawn a sketch before, but this is the full coloured version that the business cards would be based on.

As a Christmas reference, I decided to also do a Christmas Luphin as well! While I tell the silly stories behind that on my DA page, I can show you the Christmas Luphin.

One last thing is to do with the logo for Tanra studios. After it was looked into by John Charles, we discovered that our previous logo was a bit off, at least on a graphics stand point. As such, we have, with the help of an external source who has a graphics stand point, created a new logo for Tanra Studios, though it still has the fox and wolf motif from the previous one.

This is now our current logo that we are using:

We were thinking of a similar manner that Dark Horse's logo works, that on a light background it would be dark, with reverse colours on a dark background. The title of the studio was done in a font that would be easier to read no matter what background we have or what colour we choose, something that couldn't really be chosen with our previous logo.

What do you guys think? If you have any thoughts on our new logo, please let us know.

I'm also starting work on the competition entry I mentioned earlier on in the month as well. So far I only have the base sketch, but I'm hoping to have it all done before I return to Uni. I hope it goes well!

Until next time, have a Merry Christmas!

Tara

Pre-Christmas Target Met!

Hello everyone! Welcome back!

Sorry about not posting over the last couple of days. Thursday I was making sure that all my work was ready for my deadline on Friday, Friday, as well as hand in, I was working with Nadia a little more on some timeline aspects of Pandora etc. So....sorry for being a little later than normal.

But anyway, for Dreamwalkers, I had a goal that I wanted to hit before Christmas break, both as part of my course and as I hope to continue Dreamwalkers fully. My goal was that I would have between 16-24 finished pages, a front cover and any prelude work towards it, as well as continuing a blog with once weekly posts on the Dreamwalkers side of things, as well as work with Nadia towards Pandora.

Yesterday, I handed in 16 complete pages, one page of line art, three pages of line art with colour but sound effects and words needed, a front cover, my sketchbook and page sketches up to page 25 and a script for the entire first chapter of Dreamwalkers. Obviously I've been posting up here once a week as well, and have done work towards Pandora, which I have also been speaking about on here.

Speaking of Pandora, there is an update there! We've actually found someone willing to do the music for the Pandora comic trailer that we are hoping to have up and running for May MCM. The trailer, once finished, should be available on Youtube as well, and I'll link to it here once its done, for those of you who are unable to see us at MCM next year

Another update is that Myself and Nadia will be attending the True Believers convention in February and we have a table booked. I will be posting a map of where we will be located a little bit closer to the time. In the meantime, however, they asked us to fulfill a short questionnaire that everyone can read to see what to expect from us. If you're interested, please check us out here:

http://oktruebelievers.com/hauntednerd/2015/10/29/the-5-question-interview-37-with-tanra-studios

Our work is not yet over, however, though we are now off for Christmas. I'll be doing a few non-Dreamwalkers related pics over Christmas, such as my entry for the Bubblegum and Marzipan competition I entered (the deadline being January 30th) as well as working on a few hoped for pictures I've been hoping to do for a while.

It is also my hope to get started on a true portfolio website, rather than just using DA as I currently do. While I will still update DA, I do hope that people will check out my portfolio page once it's finished. I will, of course, be adding a link to it here.

I will be continuing my once a week posts over the Christmas holidays to keep you updated.

So, until next time!

Tara

Character Talk: Somnus

Hello Everyone! Welcome back!

Today, we'll be talking about the second of the main characters for Dreamwalkers, and one of those that really gets Rem involved in the story, the mysterious Somnus!

Now, Somnus is fairly difficult to talk about in comparison to Rem, mainly because a lot of information about him would spoil some of the story, but Somnus is the leader of an organization known as S.O.S, sort for Somnus Oneirology Specialists. Unlike Rem, who is the normal character with whom e see through his eyes and learn as he does, Somnus is rather the mentor character who helps to guide Rem until he is ready to stand on his own two feet. He also is the calm to Rem's irritable sarcasm, acting as something of a foil for Rem, despite the mentor-student relationship.

Much like Rem, Somnus was created around the same time as the original concept, though unlike Rem, his name was set almost from the get go. As with Rem and Dreamwalkers in general, Somnus also had some inspiration from songs to help me to create his character. Along with Byssan Lull, the song I mentioned in the last Character Talk, Somnus was also inspired by Prelude 12/21 by AFI, which, if you haven't heard it before, is linked below:

With Somnus' design, I wanted to create a character that seems to stand out, even in more ordinary settings and to give off a feeling of either oddness or other-worldliness. After all, this is the character who, I suppose you could say, is the equivalent of Alice's White Rabbit or Neo's Morpheus, taking Rem out of his ordinary life and into something out of his comprehension. So I looked for colours that weren't as natural as Rem's, going for purples, greys and blacks as his colour schemes, along with a out-of-the-ordinary outfit, with slight differences in features to give reason for Rem to be initially uneasy, or at the very least pay attention to him because of his differences.

Personality wise, I wanted him to give off the feeling he knows more that he seems, to be the kind of character you can't be truly sure you can entirely trust or his motives, yet still seem wise enough to act as both mentor and leader, even if you're not sure who, or what Somnus really is.

He is fun to draw, though, if only because he seems so smug about everything. At least early on. It should be interesting to truly explore the depths of his personality and expressions, however.

Comic wise, I am almost at the amount of work that I will be handing in to be marked, though the story is by no means finished. This means I have 16 pages in line art, all of which are flat coloured. 13 of the 16 are finished with just the word balloons and sound effects to be added, with three to be toned and have sound added. I also have two extra pages done for later on in the comic, with sound effects to be added.

I feel rather proud of myself!

I also have other things to mention. Or rather a couple of people to thank.

I would like to thank both Jade Sarson from Tea Hermit Comics, and Jon Lock from Big Punch Studios. Both of them have helped me a lot with information on business start ups within the comic industry, which will be a big help for Nadia and I in the formation of Tanra Studios. So thank you so much! You guys are awesome!

Also, though my hand in for my work is next Friday, I am going to be continuing to work on Dreamwalkers and continue to aid Nadia with Pandora, as well as hopefully start to create an online portfolio as well, so I hope you continue to to join me over Christmas and into the new year.

Hope to see you then!

Until next time!

Tara

Panic Time! Deadlines and More

Hi Everyone! Welcome back!

December already - time really has been flying, but considering before Christmas can come up, deadlines are getting closer, it's really time to get a rush on. Thankfully, if I keep going as I am, I should reach the 16 pages that I thought I'd be able to get to, though admittedly they aren't in a set order just yet. I can reveal that currently I have 12 pages completed, one page with line art completed and ready for colour and base sketches done to page 25

I thought I would show another page, just to give you an idea of what might be to come. No words or sound effects, of course - we dont want spoilers after all - but I hope that you enjoy!

Its not much to go on for plot, but it at least gives an example of the art again.

Though in terms of content, next week I'll be talking about one of the other main characters for Dreamwalkers - Somnus!

On another note, I've been up to a few other things - we were asked to create a CV and apply for a fake job in order to get used to applying for work in the comic industry. While it might not be fully applicable, since Nadia and I are hoping to take Tanra Studios professionally, it was still an interesting experience - plus it let me update my CV, which I haven't in a while. We are supposed to create a creative CV as well, but considering setting up a business, we don';t think this will be applicable to us. We are, however, in the process of setting up a website and are still working on the sprites for it. I'm also intending to set up an online portfolio over Christmas, which I feel would work out better than the CV in a creative sense. I might do a creative CV if I have time (for experience if nothing else), but Since there is a plan in place along with the deadlines, its not the highest priority.

Not a masive amount to report at the moment because all I've really done other than that was knuckle down to do my work and trying not to worry about deadlines. lol

Still, I hope to get lots more done and that you'll look forwards to my character talk on Somnus next week.

Until then!

Tara

Pages and Progression

Hi everyone! Welcome back!

Well, after spending a lot of time on my report last time, I've started to get back in the swing of working on Dreamwalkers again, despite the fact that the computer has done its upmost to stop me by crashing. I've got a counter measure, though - Save every five minutes! It gets irritating, but not as irritating as losing all that work! A bit of advice for everyone there!

As for pages, I have managed to get almost 9 pages ready for type to be added. If the computer behaves itself, hopefully I'll be on target.

Though if you're interested, I have a page that I can show. Its not spoiling everything for you guys, so I don't mind showing a little of my work in progress.

Sorry its not the most interesting of pages, but if nothing else, it might show a bit on the kind of work I'm doing - So, that is the base sketches, then the line art and the colour as well. All I need to do now is add any sound effects and any speech to this page.

Still, got a lot of work to go, since I have a total of 25 pages sketched right now. So I'll be doing my best!

I'm also contemplating what my business card will be like. I made a business bookmark last year, but people didn't seem to realise it was a business card at the convention. So I'll be looking to make a more standard business card. I have a few ideas, but nothing solid yet.

Though a character I'm considering putting on it is a mascot character made for Pandora that I created, inspired from a silly conversation I had with Nadia.

A sketch of the character is this:

Well, with a silly face. lol! I'm thinking of doing several with different expressions etc.

Its one that I've been enjoying drawing if nothing else, out of the ideas I've made, along with a cartoony picture of myself, but then again, I might use both.

I've done some external work as well! I was asked to design a tattoo. My client asked me to make a Libra symbol, with the words that are usually linked to that star sign inside it, looking as if it was carved or scratched or burned into the skin. This was what I came up with:

My client was really pleased with it as well! He's intending to have it done in December and is happy to have me photograph it once it's done, so I'll be posting that up once the tattoo is finished.

So yes, somewhat busy week this week. I hope to get a lot more done as well.

Until next time!

Tara

Tanra Studios and Competition Entries

Hi everyone! Welcome back!

This weeks has been a little slow for me in terms of the comic itself, mainly as I had a deadline in for the report I'm currently beginning to compile, with a minimum of 2000 words needed for the initial hand in (with a maximum of 4000 words total for the full report). While this seemingly has little to do with Dreamwalkers, it has a lot to do with Tanra Studios, which is the house name that Nadia and I are producing our comics under.

We were allowed to chose our own topic of report. Considering that Nadioa and I are hoping to become a professional comic publishing house, we thought that we should tie our reports into our business ventures. So recently I've been doing a lot of research around business start ups, publishing and comic publishing houses, and spent most of the week working on putting together the research into a logical order.

Honestly, there was so much information that we've been finding out that I'm actually worried that 4000 words wont be enough, since I've pretty much hit almost 3500 words before I even got to the interviews that we're supposed to conduct! I suppose that means that I will need to go over it again to cut down a bit, but I'll be keeping the research either way, as it might come in useful at a later date.

I've also been doing some other things. Similar to last week I've done another base sketch for one of the icons for Tanra Studio's webpage, this time being the image of Mizuki:

It actually took me a lot longer than it did when I drew Huxian. Its a little odd - in terms of design, Mizuki isn't actually the mos complicated of the main characters, but for some reason she can be rather difficult to draw at times. Still, I'm rather happy how this came out. I'm sure it'll look even better once it's scanned up and had a digital touch to it. 

We're also currently thinking about changing our logo for Tanra Studios. The first is a little on the akward side - we somewhat rushed it so we had a logo, but talks with John Charles made us realise it wasn't a particually good one. So, we're beginning to come up with some new ideas. I'll keep you posted on that, once we've made some good progress on that front.

There is something else I'll be doing as well as myself, rather than as part of Tanra Studios - I've entered a competition over on Deviant Art:

http://www.deviantart.com/journal/Bubblegum-and-Marzipan-Contest-572720763

My Deviant Art name is Chosha-Kurenai, so keep an eye out on this contest, as I'll be placing an entry there. If anyone else is interested in taking part, you might want to check it out as well. Either way, fingers crossed for me!

Of course, I'll be doing more with Dreamwalkers again, and I hope to be a bit more productive on that front now that the first half of my report is done (for now), so hopefully next week I'll have a lot more to report for Dreamwalkers.

Until next time!

Tara

Progress!

Hi everyone, welcome back!

I'm really happy! Last time I updated I said that I had made a little goal for myself to have my base sketches to the point I had got to in thumbnails. I managed that and more!

Obviously I couldn't show the pages properly without spoiling everything, but all my sketches are in there. As you can see, its a heck of a lot of paper! I ended up drawing all of the thumbnails and a few more pages as well. And even if I don't end up completing all the pages into colour, I would still have hit my target for hand in. I do hope, however, if things go well that I can reach the end of the first volume completely. If I manage that then by MCM next May, I should have two volumes of Dreamwalkers out rather than the one I was originally planning on, which I'm really happy about!

For a bit of an update, I now have the first version of my front cover, four pages finished and awaiting sound effects/words to be added to them, and three almost finished pages. Here's hoping that progress continues as well as it seems to be doing.

On the front where Pandora is concerned, I've also been doing a little bit of work there as well, mainly helping create the website's 'sprites'. While the majority of the work towards Pandora is still in Nadia's hands, I have provided a base sketch for Huxian:

Nadia will be doing the inking and adding colour to him, however. I also need to do one for Mizuki, the other character I created for Pandora. However, for all that her design is simple, Mizuki has been a bit difficult for me. At least I have the base sketches for several posters done, but unfortunately, they wouldn't quite fit what is needed as the 'sprites' for the website, so I have to keep working on it.

Mizuki, please behave and let me draw you!

Poster wise, I currently only have one done for Huxian, which can be found on my DA account, but I have sketches done for Mizuki, Rodessa, Violet and a character who is something of a spoiler. 

So I think this past week has made quite a lot of progress!

I've also been doing a bit of research recently as well into webcomics. Originally, I was just intending to sell printed copies of Dreamwalkers at conventions and such, but webcomics seem like a viable way of distribution as well. I'm currently looking at different sites that might be good for this, though I've not made any plans into these yet. I'm just making a list of some sites and will be looking at the pros and cons of using them. 

Oh, something else to mention is that Dan Painter had appeared at the Studio, and after giving a talk on storyboarding, did give some really good advice. 

Something we are hoping to do for Pandora is make a trailer to have playing while at MCM. He seemed to like the idea and had some really good tips. Makes me wonder if I should do something for Dreamwalkers. Part of me wants to try to make a semi-animated one, or maybe an animatic in a way I did in one of my early modules at uni, though I'm unsure when I would do that...Possibly after I've finished a couple of volumes? Its a thought either way. Its something to keep in mind. 

We have a meeting later on next week with a potential musician for the instrumental that should be going along with the Pandora trailer. I'm actually really looking forwards to this! 

Still, as much as I'm progressing, there's still a lot to do! Back to work I go!

Until next time!

Tara

Character Talk: James 'Rem' Remington

Hi everyone! Welcome back!

Today, since the majority of my current work is a little spoilerish for the main story, I thought I would discuss something I haven't really touched upon yet - that being the characters. So, to start off the character talks, I'll be discussing the main character of the series, James Remington, who I affectionately refer to as 'Rem'.

"It's here!"

Sorry I have yet to have a fully coloured version of Rem when he's not terrified...Anyway, so Rem - or rather James Remington, since the Rem thing is more my nickname for him right now - is the main character for Dreamwalkers - you might recognise his hair from the silhouette on the front cover design. He's an aspiring author who just so happens to be suffering from reoccurring nightmares that are the key point to the Dreamwalkers story. He was also the first designed character for the story, closely followed by Somnus. Its funny, as his design closely resembles another character I made for the Potty Comic (a kids comic that we were tasked to create in our second year under the brand 'Potty' - because it was a comic based in the Potteries) - though perhaps I should say Chris resembles a much younger version of Rem, as I created Rem first, despite having not got around to utilising him until now.

Makes me think I should do a spin off story though. Nadia and I joke that perhaps Rem and Chris are actually siblings. lol. Could be fun to do. Rem, being of age, does live on his own, so who knows, they could be!

I was inspired to create Rem at the same time I was inspired to create dreamwalkers, as he literally came into creation at the same time. The main inspiration for the story and Rem was a Swedish song (a lullaby, I think?) called Byssan Lull, specifically the version sung by Carola. This is the song, if you're interested:

While at the time I didn't know the meanings of the lyrics (not that the lyrics have any terrible meanings or anything. It sings of things that come in threes, which is ironic as I initially made three main characters as the first of the SOS crew before I actually discovered the translated lyrics. lol). I think its because of the lullaby tone in how this version is sung, but it made me think of some kind of dream based world, while its haunting sounds made me think of darker aspects of dreams and somehow I ended up creating the story, and subsequently, Rem and Somnus as the first characters.

I'll speak about Somnus another time, however.

Rem, I wanted to make him a fairly ordinary seeming kind of guy, since he is the one who needs to be mostly related to as the main character who's adventures we're following. So for the most part, a chose a fairly simple design in that he isn't other worldly, while at the same time giving him interesting aspects to his appearance and personality so he wouldn't be too dull either. For example, I gave him green eyes mainly as a personal choice, as while it is a colour that people can naturally have, its not a common eye colour either. I also needed ways for him to be recognized as he doesn't have one outfit he always wears either (again, in real life you dot exactly see people with a wardrobe consisting of a single outfit), so as well as the eye colour, I designed his hair to be unruly so you could tell its him in a silhouette - due to that, the hair that constantly stands up on his head (to use the manga term 'Ahouge', or 'Idiot Hair') seemed like a natural progression.

Personality wise, I tried to make him a personality which would counterbalance the more mysterious and slightly whimsical manner that Somnus portrays himself as. So, Rem ended up being the (usually) more down to earth, sarcastic and suspicious kind of person, although most of this seemed rather tempered when I realized that reoccurring nightmares of being hunted night after night that are getting progressively more realistic might psychologically effect someone. Thankfully, assuming everyone likes Dreamwalkers, once the first volume is over, Rem's personality gets far more time to shine.

I did also mention his aspiring author status. Well, that wasn't just my own ideas trying to burst through there as a comic artist. lol. It actually does have a point to Rem's story, though how, I wont say just yet.

Currently, Rem is the character I have drawn the most so far in Dreamwalkers and is one of the most fun to draw, mostly because while somewhat simple to draw, he is also the most expressive of the characters currently, especially as he is discovering the Dreamwalkers world alongside the reader, so I have a lot of fun expressing his thoughts and feelings, even before I touch word balloons. As they say, actions speak louder than words.

If nothing else, the 'many faces of Rem' will be good for my portfolio. lol.

I'll be showing more panels involving Rem at later times, as I dont want top spoil too much, so dont expect too much context with the images. At least until the comic is released.

On a note about the comic, as an update, I have a rough script to about midway through the story (note this is going to be a long story, surpassing the 24 pages of Susanoo once it is complete - 24 pages is not even mid point!), I have the thumbnails done to page 18 so far, with three pages complete (but waiting text), and 9 pages sketched and waiting for final line art and colour. For next week, my goal is to have all the thumbnails sketched to scan ready stages, maybe having one more page ready for the sound effects/speech to be added. Since 16-24 pages are the minimum I'm hoping to complete for this term, I'm hoping that I'll soon have 24 pages ready to go.

Oh, not sure if I'll have a colour picture for Somnus ready for next week, so might do these character talks every alternate week.

I'll let you know if my plans work out next time, however.

So, until next time!

Tara

London MCM 2015 and CareersFest

Hi everyone, welcome back!

This week has certainly been a busy week for me, and not just in ways of Dreamwalkers. As you may or may not have known, last week I mentioned that Nadia and I would be going down to London MCM. Let me just say that, even if we primarily went down there for work related reasons (ie advertising our joint comic, Pandora) we certainly had a blast!

Before I get into the fun stuff, though, I've got to say that the fliers that Nadia made for Pandora went really well. We only had 100, due to money constraints, but we managed to give out all of them, and even had some good feedback. Nadia was really pleased - since she is starting off on the art work first (we are alternating on this), and people seemed to like her art style from the fliers. I'm glad they went well too. Hopefully people will like the promotion idea we gave them and send in those free codes to our joint email - we're giving out free images of the characters to those with a code, you see,

We also did a bit of networking and met several people, We're doing an essay/report as part of our university course. The topic that I ended up deciding on was one that I thought might link in well with what Nadia and I are doing - that is to say, starting up a publishing house (Tanra Studios). So I thought it would be a great subject to write about for our essay to tie everything together, not to mention it would give us more info on what we might struggle with in the future, what we would need to look out for, etc. So, while we weren't handing out fliers, we were also speaking to various people in Comic village asking if they wouldn't mind allowing us to interview them. Some were really helpful - Big Punch Studios were great (they've given us advice in the past and are very happy to help us too. Its great as their work is really good!), and others seem like they'd be happy to talk to us as well. I hope that we learn a lot from them, both for the essay and to help with Tanra Studios, once we have it properly up and running.

Obviously, it wasn't all business (though even the business was fun). We got to see some great things as well.

I got to meet Rooster Teeth, and got signatures. They even gave a little advice to Nadia and I about starting up a small business as well. That was awesome, though I'm pretty sure whoever was next in line might have been a bit annoyed we were taking too long. Even with the holes being glared into our heads though, the guys were cool. There was some pretty awesome RWBY cosplayers around too.

Speaking of cosplayers, There were some really good ones! I unfortunately didn't get to photograph many (I likely would have run out of storage on my phone), but I did get a few. Some of my favorite ones included:

Ruby Rose

Well, I did mention that I saw some cool RWBY cosplays around the Rooster Teeth area, and I got to say, this one was my favorite, along with Yang (I unfortunately didn't manage to get a picture of the Yang cosplayer as they were in the cue in front of us, so thought it best not to disturb her.

I so want the scythe though! I have to wonder if its heavy, though...

Aang Firebending

I love Avatar: The Last Airbender, so I got to say I was really happy to see cosplayers for the show. What I was even more impressed with was how this person could portray the character bending fire. I got to say, that is ingenious!

For this one I had to take several shots because the person cosplaying had to keep moving, but looking at it like this really made it seem as though they were actually bending fire. It was very convincing and she was doing some awesome moves. Wish I had a faster 'trigger finger' for my camera. But that's the best use of a fire coloured cloth, I gotta say!

Studio Ghibli

Well, I couldn't really say it was from one show that was made by Studio Ghibli, but it had a blend of My Neighbour Totoro and Spirited Away and was probably one of the more elaborate cosplays I got to see - I had to wonder if it was hard to move in, though...

Seriously, this thing must have taken forever to make! My hat is of to you! Seriously, I'm impressed!

There were, of course, loads more, but I could spend ages talking about cosplays alone! lol. Unfortunately, we did eventually have to come back home again. After all, I can't neglect Dreamwalkers!

After coming back from MCM, though, the University have this careers week going on - tomorrow is the last day I believe - so I've also been along to that this week. There has been a bunch of different talks on and stands to see people looking for job opportunities and such in the future. Most appear to be in the care industry, but I did find a few that might be useful for me, or rather for myself and Tanra studios. There was a stall based around law, which is important to know when starting a business, there was a stall for the council that took down our names for if anything business related crops up, there was a stall looking for mentors for these summer trips for kids, which would be interesting experience if nothing else. I know there's a few I've planned to look at tomorrow too, Lots of opportunities!

Speaking of opportunities, my friends and I were in the right place at the right time, too - we ended up getting our picture taken for the university and for the Sentinel (the local newspaper), advertising about CareersFest too. We made sure to get one of the copies:

It's pretty cool really that we were picked to be photographed like that. Lucky, huh?

Of course, I've been working on Dreamwalkers, too. I've got a page completely finished now, but I can't really show it without spoiler-ing it right now. I hope that when I have the appropriate pages done, I can show a few teaser pages of what might be expected when its all finished, so there is that to look forwards too. Of course, I've still got loads to do. 

Still, its fun! I'm looking forwards to that.

I'll have more Dreamwalker related stuff for next time, and maybe more stuff as well. 

Til then, see you next time!

Tara

The Nightmare Corridor

Hello again! Welcome back!

This past week has been an interesting one. As well as working on my comic, I've also been preparing for MCM in London. While we weren't able to get a table this time (shame), Nadia and I are still going to the convention, and we have an offer we are doing, involving Pandora, the joint comic that we are creating. We've got 100 fliers with special business cards attached to them. If you send us the information on the back of the card, Nadia or I will send a free limited edition print of one of the four main characters of Pandora.

If you follow me on twitter (@chosha_kurenai) I'll be posting up pictures and such, so if you see us at the convention, you'll know who we are.

On another note, I've been creating one of the backgrounds to my comic, namely what I call the nightmare corridor, which on its own might not be too bad in appearance, other than the monster that lives inside it that hunts the unfortunate within. So, I wanted to look for something somewhat warped, that didn't look quite right, and with nice dark places for a monster to hide.

So I started with a sketch of the place in my sketch book:

As you can see, I was mainly trying to give it odd angles, twisting the floor and walls, making the supports....not so supportive, to try and give an underlying feel of 'this is not a normal place. Well, less underlying, more as if you were looking at a picture through a bended mirror, I guess. I thought it made it look disturbing without putting signs everywhere saying 'look at me, I'm a horror thing - bwahaha'. 

Of course, the sketch is all well and good, but I am drawing a fully coloured comic, so I needed to bring this to like far more.

Sorry for the slightly smaller photo there - it was difficult to photograph the wacom - I'll admit I've got to get the hang of screen grabs. Anyway, I felt quite pleased with how this turned out. Though the shadows are far closer to the front than in the sketch, it still feels as though it fits, and gives me a little more wiggle room for the monster slinking out of the darkness. I tried to give some realistic textures to the walls in an attempt to bring it to life further. In the end, I was quite pleased with it. Now all I need is to add both the characters and monsters in it and it'll be good to go!

I'm especially pleased as backgrounds have never been a strong suit of mine, but I've been attempting to rectify this since last year, so I'm happy that there is improvements.

Oh, also, last week I showed some of the front cover. I've done a bit more to it now!

Admittedly its not much, but I was experimenting a little. So far I added slight shadows and the glowing eyes. I might need to think if the background behind should remain white or a different colour, however.

Of course, suggestions are welcome. Otherwise, I'll be doing some tests and will give you guys an update once I decide. Either that or put it to a vote. lol.

Well, I'll be continuing with my base sketches and hopefully start up a few more pages before my update next week, as well as an update on how things went at the MCM as well.

Until next time!

Tara

Dreamwalkers: The Cover

Hi everyone! Welcome back!

It's been about a week since I last blogged and I've got some updates on how I've been getting on. So far, much of what I've been doing is the planning stages - I've made an extremely rough script (very rough, its just what the characters are saying, though I might play around with the script to fit the characters better later), and I've started to thumbnail the pages. I'm fairly pleased by this progress, as I've now got up to page 16 all planned out. Since 16 pages (plus the front cover) is the minimum I wanted to have done for my deadline, I'm pleased that I know what I'm doing. After that, any extra pages I do just means I have less to worry about next term. Of course, I don't want to rush my work - I've been wanting to write Dreamwalker for ages now after all.

Speaking of the cover, however, that is where most of my progress has been lying. Considering the content of the story is mainly about monsters invading dreams and much of the story being (literally) all in the mind, I wanted the cover to show that. So I began to sketch an idea I had, about monsters coming out of someone's head, or rather, that of the main character. I thought a silhouette might be a good way of doing this, as it's not revealing who the person is (at least until you start reading). I was also thinking of some atmospheric games, kind of like Limbo, where the silhouettes of everything seemed to raise up suspense, probably a kind of fear of the unknown.

As for the monsters themselves, I tried to influence the appearance based on things people are wary or frightened of. Spiders, holes (I didn't know there was a phobia of those, but I discovered that recently. Its an interesting concept, even if its probably a difficult phobia to have to live with), demons and monsters. ~Then with them being black, its also that added fear of the unknown and gives some surrealism to the image. After some sketching, I came up with this:

That, on itself, of course, isn't the final of it, it was just more simple to have the outline drawn so that I would have a basis to work on when I got into the digital side of things - I like drawing my base sketches by hand, I just feel I have a little more control that way. Obviously, I can then better refine it digitally.

I had a little help on my typography with John Charles, who is a well known comic artist himself, and he gave me a few tips. I'm very much thankful for that - I'm still a little new with digital work, so getting a few tips from a professional is very helpful. Again, because of how the comic is - being based in the mind, and at times pretty surreal, having just a simple type just wouldn't work, so I warped the text and tweaked it, so it would appear to be coming from the silhouetted image, 

I also gave the monsters a few hints of colour as well, to make them seem to stand out a bit more. Of course, I'm still testing out a few ideas to see what may or may not work, before I add in my name and such. I have a few extra ideas, but need to check to see if they work.

As such, this is what I currently have for my front cover:

 I still need to consider if the background should remain white or not. I'm also considering giving a glow to the eyes and mouths within the monster mash (to borrow a song title. lol) 

There's still a bit of work to do - perhaps fading the shadows a bit more etc, but so far I'm fairly pleased with how its going.

Oh yes! As I mentioned in my first post, I've also done a bit of work with Nadia towards Pandora - There is now three podcasts (the links can be found on Nadia's blog) where Nadia and I discuss places the characters will visit, and two out of the four main characters. They can also be found under the title 'Pandora Chat' with either 1, 2 or 3 at the end. We should be doing another one soon for the third of the four main characters as well.

Perhaps I might do that for Dreamwalkers a bit later on? I'll have to see.

Anyway, for now, I should do more on Dreamwalkers - hopefully I'll be able to get through doing my first full sized drafts for pages before my dog attempts to, yet again, somehow manage to steal my eraser from my desk again. He's a sly little ninja dog. lol

Until next time!

Tara

Beginning a New Project!

Hello everyone! I'm Tara Washington, aka Chosha Kurenai and I've begun a new comic project. I've made some comics before, but this project is not only something I've been wanting to do for several years now, but is also one of my final projects for my graduating year in Cartoon and Comic arts at Staffordshire University.

One of the things we had to do was top present six story ideas to a panel, who would question the ideas and eventually vote as to which idea was preferred. Of course, this could be ignored if the artist wanted to, or they could go with the most voted project. For me, as I want to do all the stories I have at some point, I decided to go with the most voted project.

As you can likely guess from the title of the blog, the story I decided to go for is called Dreamwalkers, which is a pilot for the longer series I want to do which will either continue with the name Dreamwalkers, or be called Dreamwalkers SOS.

This blog will be covering my work towards Dreamwalkers from now until completion, with some additional information concerning another project I'll be working on alongside this with a fellow comic/manga artist, Nadia Williams. While she is mostly in charge of Pandora for the first volume, I am co-writing the story and will be drawing art for it and will be part of various podcasts until it is my turn to be in charge of it for Volume 2. For the main information on Pandora, however, please check out Nadia's blog:

http://pandoradiaryz.blogspot.co.uk

As for Dreamwalkers, this is my main project, which is a minimum of 24 pages (though it highly likely that it will go on for much longer), in colour, which tells the story of a young man plagued by monsters ravaging his nightmares until he is approached by a mysterious team known as SOS, who reveal the monsters in his mind are far more than jut plain nightmares.

On this blog, I'll be showing sketches, discussing ideas and developments, eventually until the full story is complete. After that, hopefully I'll be able to reveal more information as well, including where to fine the completed works and any future projects.

I hope you enjoy the journey into the realm of Dreamwalkers - I know I will!

Until next time!

Tara