Somnus Oneirology Specialists

Hey everyone! Welcome back!

Today, I thought I would talk a little about something I've mentioned in a few of my posts about my comic, Dreamwalkers. That is, the group known as S.O.S, which the central plot revolves around. As mentioned, S.O.S, in this case, rather than the usual Save Our Souls meaning, stands for Somnus Oneirology Specialists.

Now, as you probably know from any of my previous posts, Somnus refers to one of the main characters and founders of this group, and I'm sure I don't need to explain the 'specialist' part. However, Oneirology, the middle part of this version of S.O.S, is not a standard word that everyone uses day to day. However, it's not a made up word. Oneirology comes from the Greek 'Oneiron', meaning 'dream', and 'Logia', meaning 'The Study of'. As such, the word Oneirology translates to 'The Study of Dreams'.

According to Wikipedia and similar sources, Onreiology researches the connection between dreams and known brain functions, the mechanisms of dreaming, how dreams can be influenced, as well as how the brain works in dreaming pertaining to memory formation and mental disorders. The aim is to study the process of dreams, rather than analysing the meaning behind them, so Onreiology is a completely different study than that of Dream Interpretation.

Considering that the creatures that Dreamwalkers revolves around, the Onreios, effect dreams on a physical level, enough that it can change brain functions to essentially kill the dreamer from their own dreams, Oneirology fit far more than dream interpretation. That is not to say that some dream interpretation couldn't be added to the specific dreams that each victim might have during the series, but the Dreamwalkers are mainly looking at brain function during the sleeping states of the victims to monitor their state and locate and classify the Oneiros, which is far closer to Oneirology.

In the story, S.O.S is meant to be a legitimate business. A character whom has yet to be introduced, is actually trained in Dreamology, and as such, they can still earn a living, even when an Oneiros-inflicted victim isn't the one walking through the doors, but as mentioned before, Oneirology in this case can only locate and classify the Oneiros. Now, you may be wondering where the 'Dreamwalking' is involved.

Using the Oneirology as a basis, the Dreamwalkers are then capable of traversing the dream on a conscious basis in order to neutralise the supernatural threat. Now, while Dreamwalkers on the level of this story might not exist, there are such things as people who are fully conscious of the fact they are dreaming, and are even capable of influencing their dreaming actions to a degree. This is referred to a Lucid Dreaming, and is the basis of the idea of Dreamwalking, and thus the basis of the idea for those characters that are capable of hopping into people's dreams. It is certainly an interesting idea that you could have this much control over your dreaming self, and certainly opens up interesting story related doors, especially since the trope of 'everything is a dream' is used less as a twist ending, and more as the premise you already know, but doesn't act as a buffer. Rather, the fact that everything is a dream is actually the reason things are so deadly during the waking parts of the story, where it is now 'real life'.

So, the S.O.S team essentially blend real studies with the supernatural aspect of the story to create the events that Dreamwalkers works around.

Still, I am interested in exploring the ideas of dream interpretations as well. After all, there are characters that only appear for a single case, so the fact that you could divine information about them due to the kind of dream they are having seems an interesting way of developing characters in this universe, if only slightly. Of course, relying only on that would make things very open to interpretation in some cases, so regular story telling applies as well, but since comics and manga are a visual medium, it certainly peeked my interest.

The world of dreams and its studies are certainly interesting ones!

Until next time!

Tara

Speed Sketching

 Hey everyone! Welcome back!

So, I've been doing a few things recently. I've been rather busy at my day job, so I haven't really been able to focus on Dreamwalkers much. But I do have some news! I'm going to be going to New Work Comic Con! Not selling anything, unfortunately (maybe one day once there are lots more volumes of the comics done and there is more of a following. Tis a goal!) but it'll actually be my first time attending a con abroad. And considering that it's likely to be even bigger than London, I'm really excited to see how things are done over there. My ticket arrived in the post yesterday, so I'm really hyped now. Less than a month to go!

I'll definitely be giving my impressions of it once I return, but I'll talk about that more a bit closer to the time.

In the meantime, I've just been working on a few random things. Firstly, I was working on creating a portfolio picture for a Naruto OC I made a while ago. I'm going to be creating a full version including different angle shots, different clothing types etc. If the final version goes well, its my intention to do something like that for the Dreamwalker characters as well too. But as its not too important, I've only been working on this version on and off. While all the angles have been sketched out so far, I've only got one of the full body drawings finished.

It's certainly been interesting doing this, so I think it'll be fun to be able to do such things with the Dreamwalker cast, especially considering the interesting clothing styles that Somnus and Ashling tend to favour.

As well as slowly working on that in spare time, I've also been seeuing just how fast I can do sketch/colour drawings. They certainly aren't neat, of course, but I'm mostly using them as warm ups to keep my hand in while I've been busy with my day job (I don't work set hours, so they can change weekly. Normally I have more time to work on my comics). As said, not neat, but they have been quite fun. These are a few of my quick five/ten minute sketches:

Not all of them came out brilliantly of course, especially since I was limiting myself to five to ten minutes to draw and colour as best I could. These two were some of my favourites, but it was fun just messing around, sketching whatever I felt like and just keeping practicing until I can really get back on track again. If nothing else, it was just fun trying out different styles, even if they are only in sketched form. Hopefully, I'll be able to show some more things soon too! It'll be interesting to see what might inspire me next. :)

Until next time!

Tara

The Antagonists

Hiya everyone! Welcome back!

So, I did a ten facts list on the three main characters the last few weeks. Today, I thought I would talk a little about the main antagonistic force in Dreamwalkers, which I had mentioned briefly in past posts. The antagonists are referred to as the Onreios.

The word 'Onreios' is actually from the Greek mythological entities referred to as 'Onreioi'. In the Greek mythology, the Onreioi are the offspring of the goddess of night, Nyx, and the siblings of Thanatos (god of death), Hypnos (god of sleep) and Geras (god of old age). They were said to be the personification of dreams and took the appearance of black winged daemons. These came to be the inspiration of the Onreios, who are beings that are the personification of monstrous nightmares that the S.O.S team have to hunt down within the dreamscape. The name also comes from the word Onreiology, which is another word for Dreamology.

Here are a few of my initial concepts for the Onreios:

I had planned for the Onreios to come in different shapes and sizes, depending on things people might fear, so I practiced with a lot of different sketches, some of which might even be used in a fashion later on. Things that look shadow, unnatural and out of place certainly seemed fitting. A style I chose for the final design of the Onreios that appear in the first chapter I decided to look into more human-like features, such as a humanoid skull-like face, but warped and changed. Something I found was that the closer things look to human, the more unnatural they can sometimes appear. Of course, the additional features added to it also help too. Still, if only to make it interesting, each Onreios that appear in each cake will be unique in their own ways.

I'm considering at the end of each case doing a little Onreios file at the end, giving a bit of information about the creature involved with the case.

There is more involved where the Onreios are concerned, including a ranking system, hierarchy and more, but as it's not yet appeared in the comic itself, I'll bring up that at a later time. Something to look forwards to as the team and the readers learn more themselves. Still, there is a lot of info on the Onreioi online, if anyone wants more information on the inspiration for the Onreios. It is an interesting read, since they aren't the most well known of Greek myths.

I'll very likely make more concepts for different Onreios as the series goes on, so keep an eye out for those too :)

Until next time!

Tara

Ten Character Facts: Ashling Maury

Hi everyone! Welcome back!

To continue the trend of my last two posts, I'll be covering ten facts of the last of the three (currently known) characters of Dreamwalkers - Ashling Maury!

1) Ashling was the first of the female characters to have been created for Dreamwalkers, though certainly not the last. She was created soon after James Remington and Somnus.

2) Much like the reast of the cast, Ashling has a name that is related to sleep and/or dreaming. The name 'Ashling' is a variant of the irish name 'Aisling', which means 'Dream or 'Vision'. It originates from a irish language poetic genre called an aisling, which was developed in the 17th to 18th century, but was only created as a name in the 20th century.

3) Ashling was one of the few names that was chosen from the get go, though her surname was changed a few times before I decided on Maury.

4) Ashling's clothing style was originally going to be more like a school uniform. However, I actually made her a little older later in comic development, bumping her up to collage/university age. Her clothing is now inspired by a 'punk' style.

5) Ashling, similar to James Remington, has an art based passion. However, rather than creative writing, Ashling instead is studying fine art.

6) Ashling is 18 years old at the start of Dreamwalkers, with her birthday being on March 2nd. This makes her the second youngest of the team.

7) If a colour was associated with Ashling, then her colour would be red.

8) Out of all the Dreamwalkers, Ashling has worked with Somnus the longest.

9) While a member of the Dreamwalkers team, due to her course, working for S.O.S is a part time job, though she still takes it seriously.

10) Ashling first appears in the second chapter of Dreamwalkers

I hope you enjoyed the last (at least for a little while) of character facts. Though next time I'm going to do a little on some of the Lore of Dreamwalkers. Either that or I'll be shoeing some of the art that I've managed to do lately now that I have my new laptop :)

Until next time!

Tara

Ten Character Facts: Somnus

Hi everyone! Welcome back!

Last time I gave ten facts of James Remington, the main character of my comic Dreamwalkers. This week, its now the turn of Somnus! So, lets get the show on the road! :)

1) Somnus was one of the first characters created for Dreamwalkers, along with James Remington, his creation beginning with the original concept of the comic. 

2) Somnus' name, much like all the cast, has a link to dreams and sleep, though his is the most obvious in origin. Somnus is the name of the Roman god of sleep. It is also the origin of the word 'Somnolent' - which means 'sleepy/drowsy' or 'to cause drowsiness/sleepiness', the latter meaning fitting quite well with his main role.

3) Somnus had a few alternate names which also had links to sleep and dreams. However, after thinking about it, those names later were used for the name and ranking of the Onreios.

4) There is an object that is carried by Somnus that he is never without. That object does end up the point of a joke or two, though it does have an important role.

5) Each character appears to have a colour associated with them. For Somnus, his 'colour' is purple.

6) Somnus is the founder of the S.O.S group. S.O.S in this case stands for Somnus Oneirology Specialists. As such, he has the most knowledge of the Onreios

7) Somnus's birthday is February 1st and seems to be in his mid twenties at the beginning of Dreamwalkers

8) Appearance wise, Somnus originally was supposed to have straight hair, while James had curly. This was later switched, though his hair length remains the same

9) Somnus favours a more Gothic Victorian appearance, despite the fact it stands out, as he feels that it is far more stylish than more modern styles. However, while he might wear a different variety of these over the course of the comic series, the colour scheme remains the same

10) Somnus is the most mysterious of all of the characters in Dreamwalkers, though his story comes through during events of the comic itself.

I hope you enjoyed the ten facts about Somnus. :)

Next week, we'll be covering the last of our current known main cast of Dreamwalkers: Ashling Maury

Until next time!

Tara

Ten Character Facts: James Remington

Hi everyone! Welcome back!

Currently, other than one picture I had finished before my initial computer struggles, I've not really managed much in way of digital art - though I've been gathering research, so I should have a new laptop soon. Thank you everyone on Facebook that helped me with that! It was a great help :)

So, I decided to do something Dreamwalkers related for those of you interested in my current comic, until I have my new computer and get really stuck into Part Two. So, I'll be doing some posts giving ten facts about characters in the series These can range from facts about the character's creation, to aspects of personality, interests and interactions. Only ten facts, mind, which will hopefully not spoil anything too important.

So, today is about the main character of the series - James Remington

1) James, along with Somnus, were the first characters created for the Dreamwalkers series, having been created as the concept was made, and was the first character to be finalized in terms of his appearance and personality, though oddly, one of the last in finalization of his backstory.

2) James' appearance was actually based off a short comic I made at university as part of a 'kids comic' series, 'Potty' which was created by the course. Initially, they were supposed to be the same person, but as time went on and his design changed, they ended up two different people instead.

3) James, like many of the Dreamwalkers cast, has a name based around dreams. Unlike the others, however, this is reflected in his nickname, Rem. Rem in this case, coming from the term R.E.M, or 'Rapid Eye Movement', a period of sleep where the sleeping person is thought to be dreaming.

4) James' birthday is August 15th. At the start of Dreamwalkers, James is 23 years old

5) James lives alone in his own apartment, where he also works as a freelance author.

6) James' room actually has a few cameos within it. If you read Dreamwalkers, see if you can spot them.

7) Oddly, despite James being one of the first characters developed, his name took the longest to be settled on. In fact, his nickname had been decided on before his finalized name. As such, other names that were considered that began with Rem, James could have had included Remus, Remuda, Remone and Remmer. However, I found the surname Remington worked a lot better than having it as part of his given name. His given name followed soon after, mostly as it flowed well, but also as I liked the name, despite the fact he would mostly be referred to by his nickname.

8) Family wise, despite living alone, James does have other relatives, including a kid brother who lives with his father. His parents were divorced, but are both alive and all get to cameo, if only briefly, so no oddly missing/ died of unknown plot disease parent here. lol,

9) As James' concept was created at the initial creation of the plot concept, James' inspiration comes from the song Byssan Lull, particularly the version by Carola, though more in the tune of the song, rather than the lyrics. Though he is also inspired by the song Prelude 12/12 by AFI

10) Oddly, in the first concept of James, he was supposed to have curly hair, and Somnus was to have straight. This was switched soon after,

Hope you enjoyed the ten facts for James Remington!

Until next time (when we should be covering Somnus)

Tara

Tech Attack

Hi everyone! Welcome back!

Is it just me, or does it seem that whenever you're getting somewhere with work, there are technical hitches? ...Well, admittedly some of this particular 'hitch' is my fault. Sentimentality perhaps? Or me just constantly saying 'it still works, it'll be fine!' despite dubious looks from everyone else?

Essentially what I'm saying is that, after a good....nine years or so, my laptop (which I use for all my digital work) is starting to die. Though it's probably been on a decline for a while. The fans in the computer broke a while go, so I've almost burned my finger on the mouse pad until I got myself a computer cooler pad to put underneath it, and it seemed to have been holding out. It also, for some reason, has problems remembering that I have a pen driver for my tablet installed, and I have to keep reinstalling it once, sometimes twice a month without warning and seemingly for no reason. The battery doesn't hold charge for longer than half an hour, so it has to remain plugged in when in use as well. But lately, it seems that the charger wire is also having some issues. Part of the wire, if it doesn't sit in just the right position, seems to disconnect to the plug, so the charge wont get to the computer. It literally cut out on me yesterday because I wasn't paying attention to the lack of charge symbol on the bottom corner of the screen.

It was annoying, since I had been in the middle of working on the picture for the competition for Foxhat that I mentioned a few posts back and literally lost all the shading and highlighting that I had done. I was really sad about it :(

As such, while this particular computer isn't completely dead yet, I'll be looking out for a new computer, one that's probably more suited to digital art than my current one, which I got way before I began any digital art.

I'm currently looking into what kind of computers would be best on my current budget, though it'll certainly be a good investment, I think, especially since I'm working on part two of Dreamwalkers. If anyone has any suggestions on good laptop types for digital work, or even must have programs for the new laptop, please let me know, I'd really appreciate the help :)

Oh! I do have some good news, however, in relation to TanraStudios. Pandora, our main show runner and currently drawn by Nadia Williams, my partner in crime, so to speak, is now completed and printed.

If anyone is interested in Pandora Chapter One, Dreamwalkers Chapter One, Unbound or Susanoo, you can email us on tanrastudios@yahoo.co.uk for more information, and, if you're interesting in buying any of them, we're also happy to ship them out to you. :)

Well, hopefully next post I do will have a bit more in way of productivity without technical issues causing....well, issues. lol. But if I do still have a lot of issues, then I've an idea of what to do! I'm thinking of doing something similar to what I've done on Deviant Art in the past, which was giving out some character facts for the Deamwalkers cast. Nothing to spoilerish, of course, but still, so you can learn a little about them :) I'll also do some pencil sketches until I have full digital capability back.

Until next time!

Tara