wrinkled dream

☆★☆★ SOLSTORIA UPDATE ☆★☆★ I swear to god Mr. Scarecrow

Wed, 22 May 2013 10:08:00 -0700

☆★☆★ SOLSTORIA UPDATE ☆★☆★

I swear to god Mr. Scarecrow

twyll replied to your photoset: FANIME STUFF Ill be leaving tomorrow… i rEALLY WANT THAT...

Wed, 22 May 2013 10:01:59 -0700

twyll replied to your photoset: FANIME STUFF Ill be leaving tomorrow…

i rEALLY WANT THAT SARUMI PRINT AND ALSO SOLSTORIA WILL U BY ANY CHANCE BE AT AX??

I SURE WILL BE. That’s my home town convention!

I’ll also have this print ready for Anime Expo

☆★☆★ FANIME STUFF ☆★☆★ I’ll be leaving tomorrow for San...

Wed, 22 May 2013 09:50:00 -0700

☆★☆★ FANIME STUFF ☆★☆★

I’ll be leaving tomorrow for San Jose, so here’s just the list of stuff I’ll have for Fanime one last time. I’ll be at table 237 with Mira so check out our awesome swag if you’re going!!

I feel like there’s so many little last minute things I have to do and it’s driving me nuts but I’ve been working 10-hour days at work to draw beautiful things for video games and I have to keep at it!! Roar!!! I’m still trying to figure out what snacks to bring for the convention and how to pack my drawing supplies but we’ll figure… that out.. at some point.

If I’m not at my table I might be scrounging for ridiculous K Project stuff or stopping people for photos!!

How do you find the best composition for backgrounds? How are you so good in establishing a setting?

Tue, 21 May 2013 17:38:30 -0700

I think the best thing to do is just think of an entire scene in your head. I can’t really think of characters first and then draw a background around them, it has to be the other way around otherwise it just loses any genuine environment for me. ;_;

I think for me, it’s a matter of thinking of a subject for the background. I have a lot of pretty places saved from flickr and from books and stuff just so I can get an idea of what kind of “emotion” and “feeling” I want to convey in art. From there I just kind of try to emulate that feeling, I really want to practice and do more master studies in the future. That’s really a great way to improve and get an idea for why a composition works.

In terms of comics, here’s a future page’s layout and composition. I try to make the characters the central focus but I still want to make the backgrounds interesting (like showing the ends of the trees high up, changing the camera angel… )

OH BOY one of my very favorite things about Solstoria is the magic system, with the power levels and what they mean for people's lives! I think it is SO COOL ok. Would you tell us a little about how you came up with how magic works in the Solstoria world?

Tue, 21 May 2013 16:51:46 -0700

Basic breakdown of the magic system in Solstoria for those who may not be aware :

Everyone is born with magic, except for a small percentile of registered human beings who have no magic. Users with absolutely no magic are unaffected by magic in this world. All things in this world have some sort of ‘magic’ in them, humans who don’t are unique- they are considered the most “human of humans” in a way. Imagine if magic were a chemical compound, basically. The more magic your body has, the less ‘physical state’ you have. They fight to create your existence, basically.

There is a grade system in St. Helena to protect magicians and those sensitive to magic from discrimination and from criminal activities. The grade system classifies magicians by the amount of magic in their body and by their type of magic. Everyone must be registered, there are no exceptions. This is to protect people from the violent nature of magic that is out of controlled.

The magic system ranges from Zero-Grade (NO MAGIC) to Magic Outbreak and the Chimera Condition. People are ranked 0 ~ 8 on the scale, 9 and 10 being the final two.

I came up with this magic system because I like the idea of society having to handle and understand people who are born potentially dangerous but having a benevolent past, the country of St. Helena has to follow the teachings of the Saintess herself and provide a safe, medicinally and magically advanced society for all. I feel that a country with so many humans in it requires a sort of system to make things safe for all- and to understand each other. There’s another country, the Federation of Taras, that does almost the exact opposite, but I don’t know if I’ll ever get to that part of the story…

I like the idea of magic having consequences. I like magic being something that someone is born with and they have to handle it or else it can influence their mental and physical state. Magical insanity is a fear many have- I want this to be a parallel to mental illness, but then I realized there’s also mental illness in this series so it’s kind of a side-by-side issue that the Parliament of St. Helena have to take on seriously.

Because of it, there’s an entire network of magistrates who handle crimes and situations involving magic. They work with police officers to keep calm among people.

Magic is extremely common, but not many are proficient in it. Everyone can (almost) be affected, but not many can cast.

So yeah! Sorry Feral, I kind of went off a tangent, but I wanted to create a magic system where it affects people on a day to day basis in a society that could very much be like ours. I like modern takes on magic, but I feel handling it in a grandscale is tricky and fun. :> I hope that answers your question!!

whoops, how’d this happen

Tue, 21 May 2013 15:42:00 -0700

whoops, how’d this happen

Yo, I'm pretty sure I asked this before but how do you come up with the paneling? Like, how do you decide to make a panel big, or small, or in a certain shape, etc.? As much as I'd like to start a comic of my own this part puzzles me the most and I have a terrible habit of being unable to start when I have no idea what I'm doing.

Tue, 21 May 2013 14:42:17 -0700

This one’s actually pretty hard to answer because I’m still learning through trial and error, but :

- I thumbnail each page, trying to get the idea out as cohesively as possible. This is pretty hard for me sometimes. Things make sense in my head, but not on paper.
- Thumbnail with action in mind. Character movements and or the focus of the panel. Change the camera angle depending on what would be interesting- it’s almost like storyboarding, but not that intense? You’re not going to show every scene, just what you think is important or show who’s talking.
- I try to follow the rule of no more than 6 panels per page. I also try not to make huge panels because they’re not really all that interesting to me…
- Look at your favorite comics! See how they do paneling! Some people do some really gorgeous stuff that I would have never dreamed.
- Don’t be afraid to break any rules because who cares it’s your comic do what you want.
- Have a script ready and try to imagine what you want to draw, it makes paneling a lot easier.
- Also remember the flow. Think of how people will read the pages and try to envision a line going through all of them. You can create movement in paneling by having something ‘indicate’ towards the next panel, whether it’s color or horizontal/vertical linework/movement.
- Don’t be afraid to not even use panels in certain, special occasions. Let the page pool out if you need to.

It’s your vision!! So just do whatever you see in comics that you like and manipulate it, there’s usually a good reason why some comics work well with you and are easy to read as opposed to others that may seem like a hassle to read. Note what comics you like and start from there!

Hey, how do you chose color for your comic and drawings? How would you go about making sure that the color you chose "make sense" and match up with the rest of the drawing. Y'see I'm trying to dip my hand in coloring things and i'm not sure where to start.

Tue, 21 May 2013 14:28:47 -0700

OH NO I’m the worst person to ask about this. I’m actually experimenting with every page I draw for Solstoria, so I’m totally doing weird things each time.

If I had any suggestions in coloring, it’d be - put down a base color, make sure you have a sketch, put in your areas of value so you can keep them in check, and then go crazy picking out colors that you think would work well. You kind of have to step away from it sometimes and doublecheck. I’m honestly starting to think I might do a greyscale value drawing first before I go into colors, I’m really winging it as it is…

Stick with an area of saturation, too. The further right you go on the color block the more color you’ll have, the further down you go the darker it’ll get. Anything towards the left dulls the color, so it’s always fun to play around with whatever you can.

I had (and still don’t) no idea how to paint ‘night time’ images. Throwing myself into this comic is forcing me to start learning and stop stalling. ;_;/ ALSO REFERENCE. Just look at pictures of scenes you want to draw to get an idea about color, don’t try to remember colors from the top of your head. There’s no shame in finding inspiration in real photographs.

How did you decide on the name Solstoria? Did you story go through many names before you settled with this one?

Tue, 21 May 2013 13:24:00 -0700

I am really terrible at naming anything ever because it has to be personal and meaningful to me.

I had the established story and idea but I had no idea what to call it. I have files that are named after the themes of the story themselves, and files that are just HUXINATUX.TXT EDELNOOOGODDDDD.TXT and siblings.txt but beyond that I had a subfolder called “Solstice”. I knew the story had themes of the harvest festival, of halloween, of magic and just spooky stuff because I really love that stuff!!

Honestly, the main thought process behind the story is that I really love a lot of mid-western americana (if this is the appropriate word for it). I like the United State’s geography and history (I went to school in a military base in Puerto Rico so a lot of this stuff comes from things I’ve never personally experienced but became enthralled with) and I wanted to base a story around kids like that- from farms who maybe go to the city and see the two sides of the same world. (Except it’s fantasy and magical and whathaveyou.)

Solstoria’s name comes from:

Sol + historia. Sunstory. You could call a fairy tale a ‘cuento’ or a ‘historia’ in Spanish, so I went with historia. Solstoria.

…Although it’s called the “sun story”, it encompasses two trios of individuals who represent the foundation of the Sun, Moon, and Star trinity. There’s no real basis behind this, there’s just a type of fortune telling lore in the story that depicts a central character who is the catalyst of events and brings people together (the sun) but they can’t do everything on their own, their support unit (the moon) supports them emotionally and then there’s the enigmatic one (the star) who binds the three and keeps bouncing ideas or brings a fresh perspective to the table.

So while the sun is important in creating the story, they need the trio to make all of their dreams come true.

All right, I'll bite. I really like some of your visual character designs for Solstoria, from what little I've seen. What were some of your inspirations, and how did you use them to design how your characters looked, how they dressed?

Tue, 21 May 2013 12:52:00 -0700

Thanks for biting!

For clothing I haven’t had much inspiration in the past, to be honest. I know I like dresses and shorts and cute pumpkin pants, I kind of have been trying to design characters dependent on their movement more than anything. Samantha eventually gains a long skirt in order to provide this sort of counterbalance movement when she’s using her spear (which is heavy, but she doesn’t feel that it’s heavy. It does have a pretty ‘heavy’ weight design, though.)

Like that!

For the most part, I take a lot of inspiration for the Country of Belacuna from the Caribbean. My pride and joy :’) As for St. Helena itself I really like a mix of the early 1930s and 1920s US/European, but that doesn’t stop me from including some modern elements too. I personally love the idea of having a stable era of clothing but introducing a few quirky ‘out of place’ items.

Clothing inspirations probably come from like, Valkyrie Profile, Disgaea, and catholic, spanish uniforms for the school portions of the story. Armor-wise, I like a lot of Fire Emblem games.

So yeah, I think about clothing weight, climate, and uh, the character’s personalities when it comes to outfits. Some characters have way more outfits than others (NIRINEL…) and then there’s those who obviously don’t dress themselves (EDEL…) and so on and so forth.

Ask charmwitch (!)

Tue, 21 May 2013 12:27:35 -0700

Ask charmwitch (!):

I’m doing overtime this whole week, so if there’s any questions on worldbuilding for Solstoria or anything in general, feel free to ask! I mean, you could even ask about K Project or myself if you’re honestly curiously, I just like to talk to folks sometimes.

I brought you a flower because I love you. :)

Mon, 20 May 2013 23:54:23 -0700

I brought you a flower because I love you. :)

Photo

Mon, 20 May 2013 16:12:27 -0700

help what am i doing with my life

Sun, 19 May 2013 22:42:15 -0700

help

what am i doing with my life

Princess Knight Samantha and Moon Priestess Oksana

Sun, 19 May 2013 21:24:00 -0700

Princess Knight Samantha and Moon Priestess Oksana

some ideas for Solstoria postcards.

Sun, 19 May 2013 20:32:21 -0700

some ideas for Solstoria postcards.

we are homra

Sat, 18 May 2013 18:19:24 -0700

we are homra

work break drawings

Fri, 17 May 2013 16:57:29 -0700

work break drawings

051601fushimi

Thu, 16 May 2013 17:11:46 -0700

051601fushimi

☆★☆★☆★☆★ FANIME ARTIST ALLEY ☆★☆★☆★☆★ MIRA☆ AND CHARMWITCH★ will...

Thu, 16 May 2013 10:17:36 -0700

☆★☆★☆★☆★ FANIME ARTIST ALLEY ☆★☆★☆★☆★

MIRA☆ AND CHARMWITCH★ will be at table 237 next to the Art Pool??? Suddenly it’s Spring Vacation at Fanime and you’re all invited!!!

We’ll have an assortment of art for you all, from original bishies to not-so-original bishies and idk is there anything else in life but bishies?

We’ll be next to Karen and LMC!!! Let’s sing songs together and cry about animes, everyone!!!