Atland is back!

Read it here! http://www.realmofatland.com it’s good.

Crunch.

Hello folks,

I managed to squeeze out two coloured pages of The Tower this week. You can find the update here… and here!

Enjoy!

The Tower in Full Color

The Player reaches for the depths…

New coloured pages of The Tower are now online! There were a number of things that bugged me in the original 1993 version so I redid the whole beginning of the story. Now (I think) the beginning is in par with the pages that were added this millenium. =| the time flies. Initially I was a bit hesitant about the colors as I had thought this to be a B&W affair. But as I started experimenting the color schemes they seemed to fit right in. So there you are, colored pages for your enjoyment.

I kicked the new start off by posting the first spread, but I plan to post them one page a week. Watch as the story unfolds in full color.

Tip: Put “Tom Sawyer” by Rush on as a soundtrack and you get in the mood for The River.

 

-Sakari

The Tower characters in 3D

I began sculpting the characters of The Tower in zBrush. Here is the first go at the Messenger head turntable. I am pretty excited about the possibilities this offers. Once I have full 3D models of the characters I can for example print them with stereolithography in 3D maquettes.

Sakari

Come hell or high water…

The first page of “Hell and High Water” is now officially inked! And against all odds I’m doing it with ink and brush! Thanks to the Course I’ve attended I think I just found my new favorite inking style. I hope I’m not painting myself in the corner here, but the first page looks promising. A scan to be added later.

Great book!

I’ve been digging into this book:

http://www.amazon.com/Drawing-Words-Writing-Pictures-Graphic/dp/1596431318

It’s a great book about the rudiments of comics creation complete with lessons of many different aspects of making a comic book. It covers scripting, drawing, layouts, different drawing media and more. There is definitely something for everyone. From beginner to advanced.

The weekly lessons at the end of each chapter can be done by just yourself or with a group of friends, which would naturally be quite educational and rewarding. Also I would not rule out using this as a text book for special art classes. I would have been thrilled about this kind of course way back. Teachers take note!

I personally would strongly recommend this to everyone interested in getting an in depth view to comics creation process–even if you are not even planning to make your own. Who knows, this book might just ignite that spark.

Hokusai and the Big Wave

Katsushika Hokusai: The Great Wave off of Kanagawa

I went to see Hokusai and Hiroshige exhibition in Ateneum art museum in Helsinki. It is evident where for example Herge, creator of Tintin, did get the ideas for his drawing style.

There were numerous woodcut prints on display. Many, but not all, of the 36 views of Mount Fuji including the iconic “The Big Wave”. Hiroshige’s Road to Edo was also well covered.

I especially liked the winter scenes. The weather and the seasons in general were superbly rendered. And speaking of rendition it is quite amazing that the thin reed pen like strokes were all cut out with a fine wood chisel-and mind you the strokes were wood left untouched. The white (non priting areas) were carved. Check out the documentary in the last room.

Strongly recommended!

That’s The Spirit

Looks very much like Sin City and very little like Eisner’s The Spirit. That’s of course the up and coming The Spirit Movie directed by Frank Miller. Being a huge Frank Miller fan I naturally liked the familiar Miller-style scenery in the trailer, but is it The Spirit? It is naturally Miller’s interpretation and no doubt a homage to the great Will Eisner, thus it is interesting to see how Miller’s rather darkish style fits/clashes with the setting and style that The Spirit was originally drawn.

One thing is certain: this is definitely a different Christmas movie.

Hellboy

I read the latest (that only recently has been translated to finnish) Hellboy: Darkness Calls with great interest. The story was familiar Mike Mignola stuff, but the artwork by Duncan Fegredo. Finnish scifi publication “Tähtivaeltaja” opined that the artwork was not up to par with the previous drawn by Mike Mignola himself. I disagree. Not being a die hard Mignola fanatic I in fact liked Fegredo’s work much more. The colours howewer were a bit too dark and murky to my taste, but that might just be a wrong type of paper chosen for the European edition or something to do with colour profiles. The finnish edition was printed in Poland.

And finally kisses to Sirja. Leave a comment if you read this.

Some feedback

I received a flattering note in Comic Space. This from CaptainPanda:

“cool fantasy style!!! and even your story is really well done, with some more love for lanscapes u d be the Finnish Jeff Smith:)”

And if you by chance are unfamiliar with Jeff Smith you can check his stuff out from here.

and here

-Sakari