Warming up to illustrate book one. Like I mentioned yesterday, I'll be editing book three and cranking out the drawings for book one over the next few months. Yesterday I drew my favorite supporting cast members, the Grubians. Those of you who have read the webcomic will be familiar with these rapscallions. And if you liked them there, wait till you get a load of them in the novels.Fair to say, these guys are my Shakespearean clowns, although they play a pivotal role in the first three books. My inspiration for them goes well past Shakespeare. My magician friends will notice a similarity to another tall and short magic duo. Except my big guy is the non-talker. Yep, Penn & Teller. Two of my biggest influences in magic since the third grade. They were the starting point for these two.Halfway through writing book one, I realized another influence for this pair were Mr. Croup and Mr. Vandemar. If those names aren't familiar, google them and then get the book that pops up in the results. I also recommend getting the comic adaptation and the BBC tele-play and of course the BBC radio drama version. Trust me on this.Lastly, the names. Was it too obvious? My devious Grubians are named after Clive Barker and Neil Gaiman, the two writers I can't live without. Well, also Susan Hill, but I have another character based on her we'll get to later.That's it for today. Back to editing book three and sketching up the art for book one. I'll be sure to post my progress on both.
Illustrating the Novel
Shooting a small flock with one stone here. I used this shot not only to highlight the mood of this scene, but to visually set up a few things for later. Avoiding spoilers, so I won't point them out. However, they are not necessarily plot points I am foreshadowing, but more like markers that will demonstrate how much has changed a little later on.
