Guilty little girl.....

The old 'try-to-get-out-of-trouble-by-looking-innocent' routine, eh? Wonder what this little girl did...

"Tales of Lyla" pages sneak peak

If you haven't joined us on the magical journey in "Tales of Lyla" yet, check out these samples from issues 1-3!

I'm the color stylist on the crew; which means I color the pages and put in FX using color. I receive pages that have only black linework, put in base colors, then shading/mood and of course the sparkly FX depending on what's happening in the panel. The time it takes to do each page varies depending on environment, lighting and mood. The page on the far left is from issue 1 and has a very detail intense design and many, many areas in need of FX such as glow for the windows. That one took a few days to execute from start to finish because of the level of detail and needed FX to set the mood.

The page in the middle had a simpler color approach that I had already established in earlier pages from issue 2 so there was less planning and more executing. There were a bunch of FX to take into account though such as bubbles, steam, water, dirt, dust and cobwebs. In the final panel, there were several light sources on the far left from specimen jars so each has their own lighting and how that lighting affects other shapes surrounding them like the walls.

The page on the far right is form issue 3. The last panel on this page has a lot of FX in the form of clouds, lightning and magic. In order to achieve depth of swirling dark clouds in the sky, extra layers of varying darkness needed to be added.

Tons of love goes into every single page from all of us on the Lyla crew : )

Every issue is easily available for download for a mere couple of dollars or so:

Easy ordering for issues 1 - 3

Spirit of ice - COMPLETE!

Behold my all time favorite animal as the spirit of ice!

Next up for digital render is...

Here's a screenshot of the next design up for color. This guy will be representing the ice element running through a snowy landscape. Had to do a wolf since they're my my favorite animal! Full render coming soon : )

Earth Bear - COMPLETE!

Bear attack!!! Representing the strong and endurant element of earth/land/soil is this bear. Currently, I just refer to him as the "Earth Bear." On his gauntlets and head ornament are 2 forms of the precious stone: topaz. The crystals that grow on his back differ from location and season. Right now, they are the pure amber variety of topaz. Eventually, they'll chip off or fall off like deer antlers. Fallen gems become part of the soil. The shapes looking like the letter "I" on the gauntlets are "Earth" in Kanji (Chinese characters).

Sneak peak at new design coming to full render

 

This is my take on a being to represent the element of earth and all things in the soil such as crystals, rocks and the like. This guy's about twice the size of a polar bear, which is between 8 to 8.5 feet long, making this guy around 17 feet tall when he stands. On his back grow the purest crystals on the planet. Depending on the environment he's in will decide what sort of crystal will grow. The current batch are topaz crystals that gleam amber. As he lumbers about, pieces of crystal fall off and add to the soil. Huge as he may be, he has a very calm/quiet temperament. Some mistake this nature for being harmless but when this guy gets truly upset, the earth violently shakes. Looks like some unlucky fool managed to piss him off....

Leaf bringer - COMPLETE!

Oh, thank goodness my cold is finally over and done with :) Back to the drawing and coloring board! Hope everybody had a great 4th of July holiday full of fun. I couldn't wait to get over my cold so I could color my "Leaf Bringer" design. Also threw in some grass as an experiment.

Luna - COMPLETE!

"Luna" is one of several names for the spirit of the moon. This lunar personification comes from Roman mythology. Other names include Diana, Artemis, Phoebe, Selene and many others across the decades. A simpler design this time but minimalism can be a beautiful thing :)

Undine - COMPLETE!

 

Whew~ This one took awhile. Lots of research and color experiments were done for differing textures. She's finally done! We finally have Undine, the water spirit, in full color glory : ) Think it took maybe 30-ish hours to complete over several days. When you get locked in rendering something like this, time just passes in a blink.

The "Leaf Bringer"

Keeping with the current theme of spiritual beings for the elements, this is my take on a tree spirit. I call him "The Leaf Bringer". He's a red fox in Japanese wear with a very full backpack. This pack contains an enormous variety of tree seeds from oaks to maples to gingkos and so on. He's a solitary little fellow but he will aid those lost in the forest he's currently walking through by showing the way back to civilization. The short sword at his waist is used primarily for chopping dead branches or felling trees so they can return to the soil.

Luna, goddes of the moon(another work in progress)

A page from Roman mythology. Luna is one of the names used for the their goddess of the moon. She holds a mirror because the moon's bright white color is reflected light from the sun. I see her as a small being, maybe child size, with an eastern flare with the kimono and type of mirror she holds. Her hair flows long and dark like the night sky with some ethereal FX (the spheres floating around her hair) A color version will be following soon after I finish the Undine design render.

Undine, spirit of water (work in progress)

Now we arrive to the final design that I will be taking for color. It's taken at least 5 or 6 retraces to get to this point over the course of a couple of days or so. Undine, the water spirit from Greek mythology, will have a full render coming soon : )

Undine now has a more interesting costume with much more detail. My favorite part are the pearl beads that wrap around her waist. The theme of water was still kept with the clothes transitioning into water beyond a certain point. Also added a forehead ornament and reverted her hair style back my first design.

After looking at my Undine design for a bit, I thought 'Man, this is boring....I can do better than this!'. Thus, it was back to the drawing board so to speak. Having clothes made of water for a water spirit is fine but it's also been done a million times and leaves very little for the viewer to take in without the fancy render and FX. Also, the hair was boring too! (what was I thinking?)

This was what I thought was going to be my final design for Undine. Being a water spirit, I thought it only right that she be made of water and the clothes made of water too.

This one is the starting point for the Undine design. I always start with pose first before worrying about any costumes or details. If the pose fails to work, no amount of detail or fancy rendering will fix it.

Help this project reach 350+ backers on kickstarter.com!

Woohoo! the Bane tabletop card game has reached its funding goal on kickstarter.com but why stop there? If 350+ folks back this campaign, the Tales of Lyla team at 10 Forward Productions will be signed to doing an amazing 4-page comic to go with the game! Follow the link below to back the project.

 Only 4 hours left in this campaign; let's make them count!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1283899359/bane-tabletop-card-game?ref=nav_search

BANE tabletop crowdfunding project on kickstarter.com

Please spread the word on this project, folks. Share, or better yet, donate to help this great project get funded. We need more tabletop card game.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1283899359/bane-tabletop-card-game?ref=nav_search


Click the link above to watch the promo video : )

Issue #3 of Tales of Lyla available for purchase on comixology.com!

Tales of Lyla, issue #3: Settling the Score

And it's available to read on just about any digital device for only 99 cents! Click the link above to be taken straight to the 3rd issue. While you're there, check out the first 2 issues that are also available!

This one was a coloring challenge for me and it's come out awesome! Show me and the rest of the great 10 Forward Productions team some love folks : )