#199 Seven Wonders Sketches Part Two

No Animalia Post today. Sorreeee. But here's this instead.

For the Seven Wonders Series:

A sketch of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, in large

part inspired by what I remember of Nick's early sketches,

one of which can be seen in my last Seven Wonders post.

I'm very happy with this one, and for the battle, it'll be drawn

very large, with smaller Zeus and Artemis monsters fighting it.

#185 The Alchemist, Pages

Here are the first few pages of The Alchemist, the comic from the previous post. As you can see, the further along in the comic I illustrated, the more complex the drawing style got, to where the first page was about one night's work, the second page was maybe two days' work, and the third, unfinished page was already at about four days' work. And at that point I hadn't even reached the introduction of the protagonist. So the project seemed to be getting a little out of hand, in terms of how long it would have taken. Potentially it is something I can return to at any point, but we will see what happens. In any case, you can see the progression of style to be more realistically rendered, especially comparing the human figures. As mentioned in the previous post, the text and dialogue were written by a collaborator, Jonathan Martin.

Most of the panels on this page are unresolved, both in terms of composition and finish. I wasn't really sure how to integrate everything, especially in horizontal compositions when I wanted two characters interacting (in communion), which felt like it needed a more vertical slant.

#184 The Alchemist - Sketches

About two years ago, I started discussing the idea of making a comic 

book with a friend in the graduate program at SMU. He brought in an

English major friend from undergrad who already had some ideas

about a story, and together we worked more on basic outlines of plot.

It was going to be something like a supernatural comic about an 

alchemist in medieval Spain who hunts demons using alchemy - 

potions and gunpowder and some supernatural things. Knives too.

Like a medieval alchemist version of Guy Davis's The Marquis.

In any case, here are some character sketches.

The protagonist. 

Based his appearance on Medieval/ Renaissance images of alchemists, 

Jews, arabs, etc. (i.e. the 'other'). Thus, forked beard, pointy hat.

Demon sketches.

Based some on Medieval / Renaissance images of demons.

The one at the top left would be the main demons, and bear similarities

to the Angel I also sketched. The little guy with black wings, and the 

goofy wobbly leg guy to his left would have also been in it, I think.

This is the angel's design, based on medieval images and biblical

descriptions. The demon and angel were meant to look like they

were at one point the same race because the bible and stuff.

#182 Seven Wonders Sketches Part One

Back around 2009, Nick Francel and I conceived of a series

of prints - probably silk screened, though we considered etchings -

of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World coming to life and

duking it out in a giant monster battle of ancient and epic proportions.

Back then, we did some sketches and divided up the wonders,

but we never got to the actual making stuff together part.

When we met up again in 2011 in Boston, we did a few more 

sketches, and tweaked the ideas a little, but again, no further.

Unfortunately, the original sketches for most of the wonders were 

lost to time and - most likely - the back of a flat-file in St. Louis.

However, I do have one of Nick's sketches from our time in Boston:

(Here we were toying with the idea of making them worm's-eye-views.

But I am bad at foreshortening so we abandoned that.)

We divided up responsibilities, each doing one Wonder per battle:

Nick:                           Jun:

- Hanging Gardens   VS.   Pyramids -

- Temple of Artemis   VS.   Statue of Zeus -

- Colossus of Rhodes   VS.   Lighthouse of Alexandria -

- Collaborative Mausoleum of Halicarnassus Zombie Apocalypse -

In any case, I loved this idea, and think about it often.

With that in mind, I started working on all of them again last month.

And now I have sketches done for everything except for Zeus and Artemis.

I have also rearranged the battles, so that it is as follows: 

Mausoleum VS. Pyramids

Colossus VS. Lighthouse

Zeus + Artemis VS. Gardens

I am posting some of the sketches now here, but I plan on making them 

into etchings eventually. Unfortunately the Cité does not have etching 

facilities, otherwise I would be making the prints as we speak.

Here are some mock ups made with sketches:

This will also have both sides producing giant waves and boats.

The Colossus's boats will have Greek Fire and he might also be blowing fire 

from his torch. The Lighthouse will also have some arrows stuck in him.

I forgot that in my sketches back in 2009, I also had the Sphinx

helping the Pyramids. I will probably add that for the etching.

The Mausoleum was drawn on a much smaller scale, so in the final

there would be a lot more details of statues and such, and many 

more lions and zombie skeletons.

#168 The Truth is Out There

I did a drawing for an X-Files themed Zine.

Here is the original drawing:

The end product can be seen (and purchased) at

Caroline Tompkins's page; she organized this rad thing.

#167 From Me to You

I forgot to post this when it was completed.

Did a lil linocut for a project on first memories,

printed by the folks at MITCH collective.

Did it in 2012, and it was printed in 2013.

Anyways, the project is online here:

metoyouproject.com

#163 James Harper Tribute

So, when I first moved to Dallas

I went to an estate sale with my girlfriend.

The deceased was one James Harper, and he was a painter.

For $20, we bought a painting that was a copy of a Frederic Remington,

which is in the collection of the Amon Carter museum in Fort Worth.

We also bought his monogrammed wine glasses.

So this beauty – complete with its built in light attached 

to the frame – hung in our living room for two years. 

In the background, there are some mountains
that kind of look like weird white pyramids, and
for a while I wanted to add UFOs coming out of them.
In retrospect, there were a number of other paintings
I wish I had purchased.

Anyways, something finally got added:

#56 Nick Francel Collabs

Met up with Nick today.

Some of our collab plans didn't come to fruition,

and we resorted to exquisite corpses.

Maybe they will get colors someday.

We might meet up tomorrow and work on more stuff.

Animalia will resume Monday.

#4 Two Headed Monster Robot Fight

Finally, some pictures from the show.

The rest are on facebook.

I think its public?

I was planning on having some sort of order to these photos,

but the uploading 5 at a time and automatically putting

them all at the top threw me off.

So no order.

If you liked this

Go to Nick's blog and check out his stuff.

xoxo

jun.