Planning over
As the title suggests I’ve finished planning the next couple of stories. As these stories are setting up the novel I’m having to do a bit more work threading them in so they make sense and the characters are in the right place but it’s all going well.
To be honest as well I’ve been hovering over the break a little bit as well. I was working really hard on the others and by the time I got to writing “The Frozen Keep” I felt a little burnt out and it was a real struggle to fall in love with that story and add twists that would keep it interesting so I feel like it suffered a little bit and so that didn’t happen again I wanted to break away and come back fresh.
I’ve also started thinking about series 2. (Which is what I’m calling each set of short stories finished with a novel). Some new characters, new locations. Without giving out any spoilers it’s going to be featuring the Elves more as I haven’t really jumped into the Elven culture too deeply and I’ve got a lot of ideas that require a lot of research. The latest stories though are featuring characters that you should be familiar with by now. Exploring the relationships further and creating some adventures.
That’s where I’m at anyway. I promise I’m going to knuckle down and get on with it now. Thank you everyone who has been so generous as to send donations using the “Support” button up top. It’s really incredible that you care so much about this little project and it makes me really determined to develop it and make it into something truly great, so thanks a lot everyone (of course I thanked you individually as well).
Thanks everyone
More stories coming.
We’re all settling in well to the new website. The artwork is looking great as always and I’m enjoying the freedom of being able to post all these things myself.
After finishing the last story I decided to have a little break. I’ve been at this for seven months straight now and inhabiting a fantasy world for that much time is detrimental to ones health I think so I decided to pull back a little bit and work on some other projects. I feel a lot better for it to be honest and whilst I know where the overall story is going sometimes I want to rush to get there and I think that is damaging to the individual stories in some ways, there are many I’m proud of but some that I feel are a little rushed out because I’m to excited about whats coming next.
Having a little break has given me a chance to think about the next two short stories though. The challenge now is to create standalone adventure stories that also link in to my idea of the novel which is on it’s way. But the next two stories have been planned, I’ve started writed number eight (although I’m only two hundred words in). These ones are mostly character based much like the frozen keep I think in that it’s more about how the characters interact and learning more about how they think in a pressure situation etc. I’m going to write some action scenarios in though of course. Although from the look of my notes the novel is going to be heavy on the action, I’m really looking forward to writing that 
.
Well, I’ve rambled enough in here. Thanks for reading everyone and thanks for the e-mails of support, I do try to reply to everyone, if you can’t find me I’m always at mike@storiesofatlas.com.
Silence on the Mountain: Illustration process part 3
The completed image
The image is now complete. You may notice several changes from the last version, being me; I couldn’t help but mess with the composition halfway through the picture. I moved the forground down so you could see more of the valley, which is more interesting. I then added a bit more mountain to the left of the picture to direct your eye down towards the central elements of the image. I’ve tweaked the colours to make it look codler and I’ve added mist to the deep valley floor.
The mains character has been radically changed to have more realisic proportions and hair, hopefully she looks more feminine now. The previous incarnation had the shoulders of a rugby player and arms that were far too stubby. The lighting has also been enhanced with rays of sunlight and a slight glow about the hair.
Overall I’m pretty pleased with it now. It’s certainly a pleasant reprieve from the directness of the last illustration. No gore in this one, just pretty mountains.
Silence on the Mountain: Illustration process part 2
The second work in progress image for Silence on the Mountain
This is the current stage for the Silence on the mountain illustration. It’s pretty similar to the last stage I reckon. I don’t expect the composition of this one to change that much during the process so from here on it should just get steadily more finished looking!
In fact, this one is coming along very swiftly indeed by my standards (maybe I should use Photoshop instead of Painter more in future?) There isn’t really very much to say process wise. I’ve just been attempting to move it along by tidying it up and adding detail. The colour saturation has been lowered slightly to be less garish and more bleak.
One of the most major changes is the addition of clouds,which may be a bad thing as the story describes the sky as cloudless. However, this image could be set later on in the story, and some clouds could have blown over? Without the clouds the picture looks rather empty I think. I may need some more art direction on this one…
Silence on the Mountain: Illustration process part 1
First WIP image for silence on the mountain
The time has now come for me to begin the latest illustration for stories of atlas. With barely a couple of days to recover from the massive strain of painting the Rite of Bloodlet image, I’m back to the graphics tablet for my latest epic endeavour! So basically I’m painting again, it’s time for Silence on the mountain.
The image above shows roughly where I am with this one. I had originally planned to include the crashed airship in the right foreground of the image, but after consultation with my art director (Mike) it was agreed that this way conveyed a suitable sense of bleak isolation and showed things in a more subtle emotional way than just plonking a big airship wreck in the middle.
There’s no accompanying sketchbook work for this one besides a couple of scribbled notes describing the lanndscape. For this I just dived in head first and got down what was in my head rather than worrying about details. I also used a new method of painting; starting with one layer in monotone blocking out the tones and then adding colour on a second layer. Im pretty pleased with it so far, now for lots of tidying up and detail adding…
Rite of Bloodlet: Illustration process part 5
The completed image
A lot has been done since the last stage, dust has been added, blood has been added, colours have been tweaked and everything has been tidied up, along with various other things. The first thing after the last stage that I did was to paint in the chariot correctly. This would be a difficult task to get the perspective right without a reference picture of a chariot on it’s side. Sadly I didn’t have one, but I did have another trick up my sleeve. I modelled a very basic 3d chariot in google sketchup and turned it on its side. I then used that as reference for the proportions of the chariot in the picture. I didn’t include the fallen horse as it would probably have screwed up the composition slightly by intersecting with the edge of the painting. The next thing I did was properly paint the skewered gladiator in the middle ground. I had to sketch him a few times to get the posture and proportions right before I was ready to paint him in. Even then he took a lot of adjusting to look right. The plate armour he was wearing on the last WIP image has changed to leather as it’s flexibility allowed me to give him a more slumped and defeated posture, rather than the rigid torso that plate would have given him. I suppose he kind of looks like he’s had a bit too much to drink now. Once again the back walls of the arena have been lowered, cause I just thought It looks better. The colours have been tweaked to give the impression of the blazing desert sun bleaching everything white and to focus the composition on Gin. Gin himself has had a few retouches, with highlights being corrected and his tattoos being altered. His tusks have been enlarged at Mike’s request. You may notice he’s also covered in a fair amount of blood now. As if he’d severed a horse’s jugular artery, which he has. I wouldn’t say this was my most subtle or elegant work…
Rite of Bloodlet: Illustration Process part 4
The 3rd work in progress image for the Rite of Bloodlet illustration
Time, I think, for the latest update in the ongoing saga of illustration explanations. OK, so since the last stage a lot has happened.
Firstly, I’ve adjusted the perspective in the picture by moving the arena walls further back from Gin to add more depth to the picture. The crowd has been loosely sketched in and coloured and a runaway horse has been added in the background along with an upturned chariot in the foreground. One of the soldiers has temporarily disappeared and other loose details have been added around the image. The whole thing now consists of 18 layers and will soon have more.
The sketch layer I demonstrated on the last layer has now been deleted as it is no longer relevant. The image has changed so much that overlaying it now simply makes things less clear. The soldier who has disappeared will be replaced in a new position later on, probably lay dead upon the floor instead of stood awkwardly in the process of falling like he was before. I didn’t feel that the previous pose was clear enough, and even someone who’d read the story would probably not understand what was happening in the picture, thus the change.
Gin himself remains unfinished and those of you with keener eyes may notice that his hands need finishing and his proportions likely need some correction. He also has an arrow buried in his shoulder that currently lacks flights. Still, all in good time…
Coming soon
I’ll try to add upcoming news from my end as often as possible. The problem is trying to find something interesting to say, I don’t have any pretties like Tom does when he blogs all I can say is I’ve done a bit more writing. But boy have I been writing. The next installment should be ready and published at some point this week hopefully, I hope you all like it.
Anyway, onto the reason I’m blogging (because there has to be a reason). The next couple of stories may take a little longer to produce, I know where the story arcs are going I just need to plan because I think there will be two more short stories before the first novel.
The idea is to have the short stories as stand alone adventures but also that they all build to a ‘cataclysm’, an event that changes the world in someway and might change the dynamic between the characters or motivations. The first one is quite a big deal for me because I’ve never attempted a novel before and I’m not sure how it will turn out so I want to spend as much time on it as possible and plan it quite heavily. As it will be almost four times bigger than the other stories as well it might take a little longer to write, second draft and publish so I hope you can forgive the slow release. I’m looking for ideas of content to publish in that time though, thinking heavily about maybe character bios or maybe something else, any suggestions would be received gratefully.
That’s the near future anyway, hopefully I’ll have a novel to show you guys for the 1st anniversary of Atlas in October but it will be ready when it’s ready.
Rite of Bloodlet: Illustration Process Part 3
2nd work in progress image image for the rite of bloodlet illustration
Portrait sketch
Part 3 is here! And this is where I’m up to…
Since he’s the most important part, I’ve blocked out and painted Gin on a new layer in Corel Painter. I made a quick sketch of Gin’s face so I had something to work from. Since I’m not yet perfect with muscle structure I used reference pics to base Gin’s chest on. So now the Ork gladiator has the body of an Olympic swimmer! (those pictures do nothing for your self esteem I tell ya)
All the layers from the sketch stage are hidden so they don’t distract me during the painting process. I occasionally turn the line sketch on to see where things go. I’ve made this image an animated gif so you can see exactly what I mean, every 5 seconds it should swtich on/off the sketch layer.
As you can see Gin is nowhere near where he is in the sketch. This doesn’t matter, the sketch is just to give me a rough indication of how the scene will look.
You can see an extremely rough version of the recently deceased gladiator on the left, he’s in the very early stages of painting at the moment.
Still a lot to go yet. Even Gin isn’t finished, I hate painting hands, so fiddly. But even so he’s going to be covered in scars tattoos and blood when he’s fully painted, so he’s not even near finished…