I'm So Excited!

Hey everyone! Welcome back!

I'm really excited for the coming week, which I've spent most of last week prepping for! While I was still attending university, before my graduation, me and a few others had signed up for a trip to New York! It's the first time I've ever been to America before and its one of those places I've wanted to go for a long time, even before I started the Cartoon and Comic Arts Course (The other place I've been wanting to go for years being Japan), so even if its only for less than a week, I'm really happy to go!

So, what does it mean for you guys?

Well, it mainly means that I wont be able to blog this coming weekend, but instead, I'm going to be taking los of videos, maybe filming a bit on my phone to show you all what we get up to in NYC. Considering one of those days also includes the New York Comic Con, I think there'll be a lot to report! I'll be posting these pics and videos on my Facebook page, the TanraStudios Facebook Page and both my own and the TanraStudios twitter live, so, if you happen to be in the area, so if you follow any of those, keep an eye out!

Oh, for those who just read my blog directly, here are the links to mine and the TanraStudios Facebook and twitter:

My Twitter

My Facebook

TanraStudios Twitter

TanraStudios Facebook


I'll also be doing a blog post once I'm back in the country again, including all my thoughts and feelings on the trip, too, so I hope you guys look forwards to it, cause I know I'm pretty pumped!

Sorry that this post is a fairly short one this week. As mentioned, I've been running around making sure that my ESTA, insurance, money and belongings I'll be taking with me are all sorted, along with my day work, so admittedly I've done little in terms of art work, which sucks. But hey, I'll be making it up with all my photos and thoughts of the trip

So, until then!

Tara

Random Stuff!

Hey everyone! Welcome back!

So, I'll admit I've been a little busy this week with work and planning out part two of Dreamwalkers, but since I can't really show any of the sketched comic images without spoiling things right now, I thought I should show you a few other things I've been working on in the meantime. It's not quite the same, I know, but I hope it'll be interesting anyway :)

So, the first thing was something of an experiment in inking and also in doing more fine details, such as doing hair. My usual style is, admittedly, a little more simplistic where hair is concerned, and admittedly, I was a little unsure how it would come out. While the image is currently unfinished, this is what I have so far:

It looks a tad weird when its unfinished, especially since it looks like there are horns growing out of the character's back right now (Spoilers: they aren't horns, just something unfinished. lol), but I have to admit that the hair did come out quite well. Though admittedly, it did take me a while. I started by drawing the outlines of where the hair would flow, before adding in the shadows/inking to each section individually.

Admittedly, this likely isn't the most productive manner to do this in comics, and there is probably more efficient ways, but I'll admit that I prefer to experiment a bit before I actually look up tutorials. Again, its a bit of a weird way of doing things, but I am a bit weird. I guess its just it feels easier to adapt tutorials into whatever I learned from my experimentation, rather than trying to use tutorials and then trying to experiment with them when I've now got a full 'this is how you do it' in my head.

But that;'s just me, and I know I'm odd. lol

Either way, I'm quite pleased with how its turning out so far, and I hope that the trend continues as I work on it more. There is still a lot to do. Like finishing the armour, the wings, and....well, the lower body.

Still, this isn't the only think I've been working on. I've also been asked to do a continuation of a tattoo that I did last year. This time, I've been asked to make a pocket watch over a cracked part of skin, which will have words underneath, with various words such as freedom and liberty, etc. There is also going to be a broken chain coming from the pocket watch.

This is currently my progress on that.

 Have I ever mentioned before that drawing circles by hand is difficult for me? Still, it's not as bad as it could be, right? I didn't want to rely on the circle tool, especially since I'll have to work on thicknesses on certain sides of the circle and such. I do think that what will take the most time, though, is the cogs on the inside of the clock. There is a lot of detail there after all, and one of the requirements I was given was to have a pocket watch that showed those cogs in the middle. Still, I'll persevere! I do hope the rest of it will work out, though, as I want it to go well. It is for a client after all. Hopefully, once I'm done I can show the final result and how the client liked it too :)

That's all from me for now!

Until next time!

Tara

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