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CAPTAIN-CAPSLOCK-PHD β Union main characters early design
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#character #gay #male
Published: 2014-09-14 23:07:23 +0000 UTC; Views: 1218; Favourites: 13; Downloads: 1
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Description
I've been thinking a lot about "Union", my third project that I'm working on, a great deal lately and wanted to do a mock-up of the two lead characters.This is how we meet Trevor (left) and Henry in the first chapter. They both go through a massive transformation (I love heavy character arcing) to the point where they're unrecognizable by the end.
I'm going for a much more serious tone with Union than the others. It basically goes like this:
Josephine Mink - (action/comedy) Goofy Lupin III - style hijinks. VERY stylized. Written as a serial with relatively closed individual story arcs.
Serious Engineering - (realism/scifi) A tone a bit closer to Breaking Bad - sometimes awkwardly funny but can and does get dark. This is easily the longest of the three. Medium stylization.
Union - (distopian/erotic) Unrelentingly dark. When I was telling Vik the plot I kept wondering what the fuck kind of place did this rear it's ugly head from. This has the least amount of stylization for obvious reasons AND is also the shortest with just one closed arc from beginning to end.
This is my first time working with this kind of sketchy linework and this kind of shading. DO you like it?
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Comments: 13
The lineart and shading seem really fitting. Can't wait for Union to be published
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Thank you! I hope to have the script and art style down by winter.
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Thank you!!
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They look like very interesting, deep characters ! I'm so impatient to read their story !
As far as the style goes, love it ^^ I just noticed the little dots along Trevor's neck and arms, and I'm curious... Piercings, tatoos, scars ? I love this kind of little detail that's not visible at first sight : D
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Awwww thank you!!!
I'm glad you noticed the dots. I like adding little things like that
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The shading and lineart work great! And the lineart looks more delicate than sketchy if you ask me
I agree with Vik about colours. It's good that you have your signature palette of mostly blues, browns and greys, and greyish tones work well for creating a certain gritty feel. But maybe try to experiment with them in some works :3 Perhaps a subtle gradient of related but different colours here and there?
You got me curious about this one! Will you be posting it on dA (anytime soon?)
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I'll change Trevor's hair to black and give the skin tones a bigger difference.
I have a tough time with colors mainly because I've never been trained. Hell, I've never taken an art class in my life. All this color theory/photoshop painting stuff is like quantum physics for me. Vik and I talked for a long time last night about how I just don't even notice the colors of things in real life, focusing almost entirely on shape and form, so that colors are less than an afterthought.
I'm glad to hear you're interested! I haven't started yet. SE is taking up most of my focus right now and I don't think I'm good enough of an artist for Union at this point. That, and the plot is so goddamn disturbing that I'm worried it would hurt my career before it even starts. Then again, many successful artists got their popularity boom thanks to a dark, ugly sex comic and went on to do what they really wanted later on, so maybe it's a good idea?
I'll be posting previews and a link to the pages on a separate website due to the graphic nature of the comic itself. I can't afford to build and maintain a website right now so we'll have to
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I haven't studied art either, although the few classes I took did show me some things. But many others I learnt from friends pointing them out to me or from trying to observe them in art and other stuff.
Yes, it's very much a question of noticing and acknowledging! (though it also works this way for forms, I think :3) I think it's good to look at works of people who do paintery but not photorealistic stuff 'cause their use of colour is sometimes surprising at first but then the mind goes thinking hey, it does work!
Also, it's funny how sometimes being less realistic is... being more realistic. E.g. adding colours that don't seem to really be there but they feel brighter(yellow), warmer(again yellowish things), or they give a feeling of depth (blue). Or, what Iisjah kept pushing me to - making characters stand out from backgrounds more even if it means going a abit against how the light works (like in page 5 of the Special Day comic, for dramatic effect). Though you are very good with dramatic effects, so that's probably something you already work with :3
This is all my unprofessional musings here but I might have been taking from some theories without being aware of that.
I think I started getting more creative with colour from doing violet shading/dark areas and yellower light areas, and from adding pink tones to skin and then some more other colours. In the short comic I added the last layer, slightly colourizing, with whatever colours I felt like having - oh, look, this area appears green, let's add even more of it there!
I dunno if you maybe have a different perceptions of colours that I do, but I guess if you like colouring styles you haven't tried, then why not experiment. Maybe you'll come up with something unexpected but new 
With dark and heavy themes I'd only be worried it might have a different effect on people than what I intended, or it ends up accidentaly representing ideas that I would never agree with. Or, like you, that I would not be able to lift it myself. If you feel like sharing the general idea with me, feel free to, here or via note :33
And yup, good idea to differentiate the chars. To me they already look different, but sometimes people have trouble with telling chars apart, especially if there are scenes where their faces are obscured.
Is there something on Trevor's chest other than an outline of well, a chest? (apart from the piercings or whatever they are - nice touch :3)
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This is an unbelievable job. It only shows how far your skill reaches. Bravo.
I would still play with the colors a little, though. For the reasons we talked about.
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Thank you
I'll fix the colors and repost it today as we discussed.
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Thank you!
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