Female Warrior Development Drawings

It's been a while since my last update to this blog, but work continues apace on the comic itself. I am about 3/4 the way through the first pass of layouts. Now I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, or at least the first tunnel, I'm finding I'm giving each page less consideration as I just want to get to the end. As such, I've resolved to tackle a couple of pages as a time, which is helping me to focus. As it stands the comic is going to be closer to forty pages as opposed to the intended 22-25 length. I expect to trim it down during editing after I have the first pass complete.

Onto the drawings features on this page, then. Having decided on the sort of look I was after I did a whole bunch of thumbnail sketches in which I played around with different costume elements, clothing and equipment. This sketching process helped me get to know the character a bit better, but I was still unsure and not totally pleased with her. I resolved to get inspiration from one of my favourite illustrators, namely Adam Hughes. I used one of his poses as a base for the top image and this allowed me to concern myself less with getting the anatomy right and focus on the costume. It was upon finishing this pic that I really got attached to the character and sold myself on her aesthetic.

At a later stage I did the page of poses as I was closer to drawing the comic itself. With these images I am again playing around with subtleties in her costume, her cloak in particular. Initially I was going to have her remove it mid-chase and use it as a defensive weapon, but I have decided that it really helps create a sense of motion as well as making her silhouette distinct to that of the knights.

Warrior - Initial Sketches

The warrior character for HILT started off as a man. As with most of my own concept art, it's a case of having a vague idea of what I am looking for and sketching until I uncover the exact look that fits my preconceptions, that matches the feel I am after. The male version just wasn't hitting the mark and so I experimented with a female version.

 I was attempting to make the character look quite formidable and capable while still retaining some sexiness and it wasn't until the sixth sketch that I hit upon a design that I thought had some potential. What I liked about this design was the fluid curves of her hips and legs against the sharp angles of the fur cloak.

HILT Cover Art

This is the cover for Hilt. I spent quite a bit of time getting the composition right. I had initially intended for a more straight on composition with the warrior at the bottom of the piece looking back at the avalanche of knights chasing her, but decided against this because you wouldn't be able to see her face. As such I went for this more kinetic image.

Having settled on a composition the next step was to do the pencilling. I spent a lot of time on this step with the intention of skipping the inking stage and using the pencil scan as the inks. Unfortunately the scan I got was not suitable straight up for the final art and so a fair bit of tidying up was required.

Once the 'inks' were done it was on to the colour and background. This part of the process is great fun as the image comes together. The final act was to increase the size of the warrior herself. This really helped make the image more immersing by exaggerating the depth. Finally, the arrow was added and puts the icing on the action.

Prints of this cover will be available from my table in Artist's Alley at the Brisbane Supanova this weekend. I will be at Pete & Nick's Art Nuggets booth (booth L2) in Artist's Alley.

Check out my parent blog ArtNugget.Net for more artwork...

Welcome to HILT!

This blog is intended to be a development diary for the comic short story HILT which I will be producing over the next six months. Here you will find the collected the artwork and musings created during the process. I hope you find it interesting and entertaining.