Designing a City... And Imitating Bast??

 Designing a City... And Imitating Bast??

First and foremost thank you to all who have been postin' their feedback and words of encouragement on my previous journal! It's really nice to hear your thoughts on the Edenspell project, it's something that I don't take for granted. Do be patient as in the following months I'll be focusing on building the foundations before I even hit any of the legit sequentials to the story.

I'll be starting off with the most important thing that will connect the reader first-hand - the characters (you would have seen a portion of it for Ashworth as I try to answer the 'Ten Questions To Ask Your Characters To Make Them More Dynamic & Believable').

I mean, why would you even invest your time in my story if you know nothing about them? It is my job to make them feel believable and interesting. 


Also equally important is the premise (i.e. what is the story about it and why am I telling it to you?). I'm starting off with 'characters' because I feel that I can communicate with my readership more effectively with engaging illustrations via the visual development process. I can draw my characters in terms of design and also illustrate scenes that can answer the 10 questions that I've mentioned earlier. However if we look into illustrating the 'premise' - you wonder 'how' when you don't have the players to guide you along. It's possible but I may probably have to illustrate concepts of the idea that can span several pages and I don't think that's time and energy well spent. So characters first! Anyways...! 


If I could sum up Edenspell (at this point in time) in a sentence, it's this:

"How does one ascend from the depths of torment?"

I feel that would be a good start as I'm curious and motivated to find out how my characters who will be/have been experiencing personal hell(s) can find salvation - that very light at the end of the tunnel. I have a personal stake on this too because of my own experiences IRL that have put me through some very daunting times with family (though it's not in the extreme case of perhaps something like suicide but I know what it's like feel hurt emotionally when circumstances in life don't go accordingly to how you see it). I will use this premise as a guide for now but as the story progresses, it may alter, who knows. Perhaps you may be able to find your own meaning behind the story and the characters that live through it, that'd be another interesting prospect to look into too!


Anyways I decided to break away from character development this evening and build a setting for the story. 

Right now as we speak I'm thinking of a periled metropolis that has experienced endless cold wintered nights... The city is vulnerable, helpless, but from what? I don't have a solid idea yet but all I know is that they are feeling troubled and insecure, and Ashworth's story begin in the middle of it all while he is a small child.

During the day I've been Googlin' for specific images and also downloading textures from CGTextures.com that will help me on my quest to building this city. Included in my search were abondoned, church, Victorian/Gothic architecture, angel statues, snow, winter, and Czech Republic (a city I visited way back in 2007!). I find that setting appealing for what Ashworth will be going through along with the citizens who live there. Here are a couple of photos of my progress with different angles of the metropolis of which I named it: Argoyle.








So that's a preview of the thumbnails, I plan to bring them up next time for an upload on DA (whether it be in color or the special sephia/historical scroll & textbook tone) and hopefully it'll reach a standard that is presentable. 


In fact, allow me to indulge you a channel that ALL artists should check out. I can't get enough of Feng Zhu and his awesomeness... Just WATCH and LEARN.







Oh and last but not least... This one's for David and Liz and the Dreamkeepers fans...

I'VE JUST FINISHED DOWNLOADING DK Volume 4!!! (Took about half the day! Damn!! lol)

Oh and will I be reading the PDF? HELL NO...!! I'll be waiting for the real thing, by post! XD Just like the previous three books... I CAN'T WAIT to read it.

For now... Here's my impression of Bast - scarf included