A gllooooorious and magnificent return.

Hi guys, I am so sorry I've been gone such a long time.

This project got derailed by a lot of things. I don't want to list them here, it's not important. Suffice to say the train is back on the track. There is a whole slew of pages I need to post here and despite the time I've spent away from this, it has been percolating pretty intensely in my brain. I'm constantly learning new things to bring to this and I hope that I can start using these more often.

I've even linked this to my email so that I can just post straight from my ipod XD. Yes, I'm a cheat.

Anyway...it's back. There is so much I can't wait to show you guys.

What has happened to this project?

It is not dead my dearies!

I am ever, ever so sorry for the delay and I am working hard to get some time cleared to get back here and update some of the thoughts I have had about this project. This is still something near and dear to my heart, and the very fact that I started this blog as a way to journal the experience and then did not update the blog for something close to a month makes me feel remiss in my duties to the project.

However, I have three fresh pages ready to be posted up here (Which I will need to do tomorrow, I'll need to jump off the computer soon or I'd do it tonight.)

As a way to remind myself to discuss this at some point in the future, I just want to say, I am horribly excited to create certain scenes. One of my faveorite scenes period, which I am immensely excited to script and draw when it's time arrives is called "Live. Love. Live."

Dandelions are also going to start needing to be inserted into things here and there...a sort of, well not a foreshadowing so much as what I'd like to think of as a 'visual buildup'.

Mono and dichromatic color schemes may soon be making an appearance (Well, relatively soon anyway) as well.

I am also realizing how rewarding and frustrating this project is each day. I am constantly learning that I both know more than, and far less then (more often its less than) what I thought I did. There is so very much I need to do to clean up and present this comic in a more professional and appealing format. There is something that does not feel as though I have completely introduced it properly because of how I have formatted it. Day by day this proves to be so much larger than I had thought.

For as much work as I do with this, it needs much more done...I just hope I am doing the story and characters justice in the end.

Page 5...and I explain my absences

Hey guys! Sorry for the absence! I've been working my little bum off to get these comic pages finished for a portfolio. But on the bright side, that means you guys will benefit from my absence. I'll be able to show you more work once I am finished. Much love! See you all soon :)

Page 4

All right, this next week things are going to be kicked into overdrive. I'm trying to get a good 3 or 4 or more pages finished for a portfolio, so yeah. It's going to be an intense week.

Anyway, I realllly, reallllllly, realllllllllllly enjoyed making this page, not sure why, just really dug it. Hope you all enjoy!

(And yes, I will actually be posting this onto an actual comic site soon)

Page 3...now with more cherub ass!

Sorry for the low amount of activity lately amigo's. I'm heading out of town tomorrow and this week has been a mess trying to get everything prepared for that. But, I did manage to get page 3 out! I'm not totally happy with it, but I met the deadline, and I can fix the problems with it later.

Thankfully, this is the last page for a while that will be using color so heavily, so the rest of the pages should be coming out much more quickly.

See you soon hepcats! Oh, and enjoy the continued, gratuitous exhibition of cherub ass. So round and pink and chubby, it's like "Putti Gone Wild!" up in here!

She's alive, she's alllliiiivve!

Page 2 at last!

This thing took for-freakin'-ever, and in the end, there are still mistakes despite my best efforts! The windows by the altar are kind of kattywumpus. Also, that altar happens to inadvertently be Bernini's "The Ecstasy of St. Teresa". Since I first laid eyes on an image of it I fell in love with it, and without knowing it, I slipped the piece into my comic.

As to how it works in their...I'm just going to say it's a dream. That's not a real Cathedral (though it is based on one in Germany), it's kind of a compilation of various elements of rococo architecture.

Anyway, enjoy her!

Clean up

Page 2 is currently in photoshop for cleaning and lettering. Up soon! I'll just consider last week a lost one and continue with the one page a week (or more if I can help it) schedule.

She's on her way

Oh lord, I didn't think it would take so long, trust me guys, she's on her way! Page 2 ahoy!

Ready to get wet?

Kay, so the value's are done and now it's time for a little watercolor.

I'm finding it frustrating that this is becoming more and more a blog about what I have completed in the project as opposed to the process of the project.

That being said...I find myself wondering a lot about a certain character. I can not say too much without spoiling things, but I find myself wondering how concerned you can be about other people when you are in certain amounts of pain. In my personal experience, it seems as though the more pain you are in (physically) the less you can focus on anything outside of that.

Just wondering out loud in a way that might slightly affect the script later on.

Stealing from Bernini for Fun and Profit

Well, stealing is not the appropriate term...more like 'borrowing'.

Anyways, I suddenly realized during clean up of page 2 that one of his works (or something very similar looking to it) shows up in there. It's one of my fave pieces, but I didn't realize I'd drawn it in until clean up. Wierd how these things get in your head.

Anyway, she's in process. Up soon :)

Babies got back

I spent the entire morning recovering from flu bugs and drawing chubby angel butts. If there was anything the french rococo style enjoyed it was a red, round, angel ass.

Fetish much France?

Anyway, page 2 is all roughed and being prepped for a clean up atm. I think I can finish it either late tonight, or early tomorrow. She'll be up soon at any rate.

And then I'm going to take a break and make some bread.

For the record...again

Rococo architectural details are still a bitch and a half to draw!

Forgive the language but they are!

Grrr...and then they have to be painted, this sucker won't be done until the weekend at this point. I'll try to compensate by posting two pages next week, which I think I can pull off, considering they are less rococo detail-rific.

Only the French would be sick enough to come up with that luscious style. They knew it would make other countries mad with detail-creation. History should be rewritten, it was not a lackluster government with weak leaders, a severe national debt and a horrific famine that caused the French Revolution! No! It was madness in the peasants, caused by looking at all the recent details in the construction projects of French aristocrats.

Madness (And a disturbing amount of partiotic ferver) are the only thing that can explain this hat, hell, the whole outfit! -

1793-94, Jacques-Louis David, "Portrait of Jean-Baptiste Mihaud, Deputy of the Convention"

Say what you will about Americans. I know we're a kooky lot, but at least we were sensible enough in the 1790's not to to put on a hat like that...

Home again, home again, jiggety-jig

Hello all!

Back from insane road-tripping. Page 2 is nearly finished in roughs and I hope to have it up soon :) The rococo-ness is eating my brain. Maybe next week I can get a few more pages up.

Page 2 is on delay

Due to things getting a bit out of control, page 2 is on hiatus. It's roughed, but I don't think I'll have time between now and when I leave for Denver to see my grandfather to take it into clean up or work on finishing it.

Sorry guys, thanks for being patient.

To Whom it May Concern...

Dear Rococo architects...especially you jerks in Bavaria and Italy, why the hell did you design such beautiful buildings and make them so damn hard to draw!!! Christ! You all were sadists!

Like Butter, Cream and Cotton

Oh Lord! I have been doing more in depth research about 1780's female french fashion. I can't wait to start putting this stuff in the comics. One of the best things I learned was that wigs, while still extravagant seem to have started chillaxing a bit. The height of the hair was no longer stupidly absurd (and I mean that in the 'dip your head ma'am, were entering a room sense). They seem to have become much softer.

I can already feel the soft, curving, lush lines resting inside my hand, waiting to be born through my pen unto the paper. Delicious.

See, here are a few examples.

Here is "The Ladies Waldegrave" by Sir Joshua Reynolds, from 1780-81.

For those of you who have read the first chapter of the text version I have posted on my deviantart account, this painting reminded me almost to a T of the scene in which the heroine is gossiping with her Versailles gal pals and then is interrupted by Marie Antoinette. Look how buttery that painting is. (And if you've ever seen any Rococco artwork in real life, it's just as sugary and milk-fat as it looks in pictures. At least to my mind.)

"Self Portrait in a Straw Hat", Élisabeth-Louise Vigée-Le Brun, 1782

So, in the as of yet unposted (and not likely to be posted anytime soon to avoid spoilers) fifth text chapter of the tale, this woman was meant to make an appearance. She still will be showing up in the comic, in roughly the same role she had in the chapter she was going to show up in. She basically makes a one spot cameo (a lot like the infamous queen who will not be showing up again after the first chapter.) She tells the groom character something that he gets to question later on.

As far as I am aware, she and Marie Antoinette are going to be the only two real world personalities who will show up in this tale. I had considered putting Robespierre in there at the end and at first that idea was really fun to play with. I mean, from what I know of him as a historic figure, he had such impossibly high morals at first and then ended up becoming so corrupted and dickish, yet still believing that he was doing the best. It was kind of a fun way to work with history...but you know really, that didn't work...it needed to be cut because it wasn't what the story was about. As far as the overall structure went it brought you back to a weird place. As things go on I want you to feel more and more detached from history, it's meant to start to feel as though you're slipping into dreams, nightmares and otherworlds. When you do wake from this illusion, it's meant to be a new world, but having Robespierre at the end just takes you back almost to the place it began. Even if you weren't going to be encountering him in a real world setting.

Oh, and for all those of you who don't know who Ms. LeBrun was, go check her out. She painted most of the famous court paintings of Marie Antoinette, the most well known anyway, and she was the official court painter during her reign. She escaped from the French Revolution with nothing, she had no other choice but to leave her entire life behind her. She worked in Rome, Austria and Russia for a time, but ultimately settled in England and she was one of the few women (very, very, freaking few) in her time who was admitted to any of the art academies in Europe. Definitely a nifty lady type!

How real does it really need to be?

After much historic research on 1780's churches I finally decided I could mash a bunch of them together since we only see the building in the context of someone's dreams.

Or in other words, I've decided the only thing I want to do at the moment, the only thing that will work after a full afternoon of researching, debating and sketching is some good ol' fashioned bullshitting.

I'm currently sketching out the rough for page 2. It should be retraced and cleaned on the lightdesk tonight and then shaded, photoshop cleaned (and also boxed, that's where I make the lines for the panels) and lettered tomorrow. I hope you'll like it...it signals the return of ZOMG! COLOR! And you best enjoy it as it shows up in these next few pages, because I'm pretty sure it won't be making too many appearances for a while after that. At least, not until the next chapter. (This first one is significantly shorter than the text version of the chapter I dod last year, which you may read here if you like -http://Rosengeist.deviantart.com/art/The-Light-Eater-s-Wife-Ch-1-112504516 )

Also, thanks to my super-awesome Indiana Jones adventure purse (:D) The Light Eater work station (Save for the light desk) is now 100% portable! Yeahhhhh for my art supply capacitating awesomeness bag!

Altruism and the Development of Souls, Now in Technicolor!

Kay, before I say anything else, I know this post may really bother people...lot's of soul discussion and development of souls and what not. I'm just posting because this honestly relates to how things develop in the story and I want to be sincere in this documentation in as much as I am able to be. Even if at times my thoughts may not even feel clear to me.

I've been pondering all day whether or not people can truly be born 'equal'. If there is such a thing as a blank slate. I mean, maybe we all do come into this world with the equal capacities to love and hate, but can you say that a child born into cruelty, poverty and abuse has the same chances at growing up to be happy, healthy and trusting as someone who was born into love, comfort and wealth? Even then...there is some evidence that there are some disorders that people can be born with that can cause violent, hostile or angry personalities.

I ponder this as I wonder about some of the characters the main characters will later encounter. For those of you who have been following this story for a while, these questions apply specifically to Lillith who we will be meeting later.

Once when I was reading about a philosopher (whose name I can't recall, and who evades me despite many searches) I ran across the idea proposed that "children have no souls". (If anyone knows who said this, please, please tell me! I've been looking all over and can't find it!) I don't know if I totally agree with that sentiment, but I think it suggests the interesting idea that perhaps, if children have no souls, but adults do (that was a part of the philosophy as well) that there is something between childhood and adulthood that imbues you with a soul.

Now, I know there are a lot of people out there who don't believe in a soul, but even if you don't I think there is something to run with in that idea. Anyway, this is a historic/romance/fantasy/horror/god what is it?, so let's just run with the idea that in this story, people have souls. I've often heard that in famine and war situations, children will actually exhibit the most vicious behavior in order to survive. We like to think of children as inherently innocent, naive and gentle...but I think if you will recall grade school it's clear that this isn't always true. For much of your early life, you existed only to be taken care of

So what is it then that makes us sympathetic? Where do we go from being creatures that take to ones that can give? Or, if you don't believe in altruism, at what point do we start deluding ourselves into thinking that we are doing something strictly for the benefit of others? (Not saying I don't believe in altruism, but the idea exists that it's just a fantasy and I had to bring it up)

Such thoughts are currently influencing the later chapters...slippery little buggers, sloshing around in my poor old skull.

And then, as I think these things I listen the podcast "I Should Be Writing" and I know that all this thinking is keeping me from doing. I must find a way to think and do at the same time. Sigh...well...I will do my utmost to get a rough done for page 2 tonight. I have a kind of scribble for it. Once I get to the 5th page or so I'll post the scribblies, because they're all kind of on one page.

Anyway, to compensate for all the ponderation and to add color to my page, I'll give you a picture too! Enjoy! Here is some of the early color tests for Hélène...though, she may still be called Cosette on the page and yes I know that's not a real name, but it was kind of a 'filler' name I was using for her for a time. I'll do a nice long post about that sooner or later, it's a fun story in it's own right, and it's an issue I should address.

Anyway, picture tiemz!

In fact, have another picture too! This one is gruesome, but it's definitely one of my faves. There is something about this that just kind of feels as though it suits the series. If it weren't for the fact that the story wouldn't allow for this to be the final image, I kind of wish this could be what I close on. Dandelions and decay are kind of a big recurring motif in this.

Left By the Wayside

So...some of my other characters sat down and had a little convo with me last night. It was anything but pleasant. "So like...seriously...what's the appeal of these 'Light Eating' types? Aren't we cool? Don't we have relatively amusing stories and far more character development? We're older we have seniority!" There were other complaints that ran along these lines, but I think you get the idea. The conversations were heated, cruel words were exchanged, imaginary battles took place, but I think I got the point.

I'm not making this post to say that I'm slowing down on Light Eater or anything. Far from it! I'm simply itching to get page 2 to the inking stage. I have to remember I have other stories though, and that I can't keep abandoning those...they get persnickety when I do.

Anyway... this isn't overly relevant to anything...but these are the thoughts that I have about the project at the moment. In my mind, the bride and groom from the first chapter are standing on top of a pillar with the word 'winner' painted on it and making raspberries at the characters from my other projects. Things could get messy though...there are rumors that some of the characters from my other pet project "BatB" have found an axe to take that pillar down.

Be amused and afraid, very amused and afraid...but mostly amused.

Washed Out

So, I'm mostly doing this post to show you guys some of the style tests I did. I experimented a bit with doing Sumi ink washes, pen work and pencil work in various combo's. Here are some sample's of Cosette's head done in different media and why I didn't chose them.

The one at the top was done strictly in pencil and Sumi ink. Much heavier emphasis on the Sumi ink. I like the feeling of shadow this brought to it, but ultimately I decided not to go with it for a few reasons. Mostly, it was because of what I lost with it. It did great shadows, and I've seen ink handled with great subtlety, but frankly, that is a subtlety that I lack when I must work quickly. Also, I felt that it got rid of some of the ability of her face to emote. It makes some delicious shadows, but that's what her whole face becomes made out of. The subtle lifting of an eyebrow, or the hint of a sneer or smile that I could easily and quickly draw in were

simply drowned out by these tones.

Also, I really had to water down some of the ink to get the shallower lighter tones and I think it would be difficult to keep them at a consistent tone. The water heavy inks also kept eating the paper I was using. There are papers that are really made for ink, but I don't really have the budget to but the amount of that kind of paper that a comic would require. This is kind of a low cost venture out of sheer necessity.

Then I have the picture below that that was made up mostly of marker ink and pencil. It's too clunky and the emotions get lost in all that grey without ever providing the rich shadows that the sumi ink did which may have justified its use.

So pencils and inks were really where it was at in the end...I think this is what's working best. It's so much harder to be certain about this than I had ever thought before.

Oh, and also enjoy some scribblies I made while the ink was drying of a horribly historically inaccurate Hélène (which is what the bride's name has become most recently.) on the left side is a scribly of a dress I wanted very much, but which the store only carried in XS...anyway, if Hélène were a modern girl, she would totally want that dress. These were done with some of the heavier pens I ink with.

On a fun sidenote, "The Flesh Failures/Let the Sunshine" from "Hair" really make me want to draw the groom, and I don't know why!

Page One Has Been Redone

All right! She's finished at last! I hope you guys will feel that this is an improvement over the first art style I was using for this project (which you can see in the first post). I think it will allow the expressions to come across more clearly, which is pretty important for this story. The biggest issue I have with this is the lettering in the box on the bottom left corner of the page. It's the best I have to work with at the moment, and I'm looking for something else. I simply haven't found something better yet.

Oh but you shall not defeat me text! You shall not!!!

Anyway, here she is, page one of the first chapter...which is still currently called "Antipode" (though I have yet to make a title page for it). Enjoy!

Lettering

Jeebus...I have to make a confession...lettering is giving me one hell of a time at the moment. There is so danged much you can communicate with lettering to the audience and it's hard for me to know what it is exactly that fits the mood of this piece best.

It's cold, it's dark, it's paranoid...but at the same time, these are the sentiments expressed by a woman who grew up at Versailles, surrounded by political bigwigs and the court intrigue...she wouldn't crack under that sort of pressure.

Blargh...At the time being I think I may simply post it with the lettering that works best and then replace it later on. I mean, the lettering is on a completely different layer than the image, so it's not that hard to fix. I know that if I just fret about these things and don't put them out there, they'll just stay locked up on my computer forever. So it's probably better for me to get it out there and then go back and make changes later.

Time for posting then!

First Chapter's Title?

I'm going to try and get this sucker properly up on SmackJeeves and DrunkDuck soon (I tried earlier, but both sites were persnickety with me.) Before then, I need to come up with a good, strong lettering style for the title.

Anyway, I have been thinking that the title for the first chapter should be 'Antipode'. Mostly because it's about somebody getting the exact opposite of what they expected and wanted, and there is some play between fantasizing and realizing.

Page 1 will be up soon, she's finished art wise, but she needs lettering and clean-up in photoshop. I think I will be posting some of my style tests too, just for fun.

Ello, Ello! What's all this then?

Hello blogging world! Nice to meet you, I'm Rosengeist.

Sometimes when I look at art, or engage myself in a story I wonder "what did it take to make this? What was the process?" I can't be the only one out there who has felt this. There are many books and films and websites that chronicle the creation of a work after it has been completed, but few that document the process in real time, showing the thoughts, influences, rough work and beliefs that make it up. So much of our memories about things are changed by the passage of time, the erosion of memory and the influence of outside forces and emotions. It is difficult to sincerely relate experiences as time goes by. To that end, I would like to start blogging about my thoughts and experiences as I create a web-comic called "The Light Eater".

I am both the author and illustrator of this comic, and it is finally starting take on a concrete shape. Currently I have a finished cover (though I hated the lettering on it and removed it). Though I did have a first page that was completed, I was not ultimately happy with it, and I am currently in the process of reworking that first page.

There are those of you out there who are already aware of and interested in the story, and I am sure there are some questions as to why I changed the style so early on. Now that I have stated the reason why I started this blog, allow me to address this issue. This story began it's life roughly a year ago, at the beginning of last February. It was at first a short story, than a kind of 8 chapter illustrated novella, and eventually it became a comic. She just couldn't quite find the shoe that fit. Throughout all of these different incarnations however, the added and subtracted characters, the changes in setting and personalities, one thing remained consistent...the darkness punctuated by bits of light.

There was something that felt too airy, too soft about the original art style. It was done in primarily flat watercolors with some color pencil work...quite frankly it was too fluffy for the sort of story I wanted to tell. I pushed ahead with the style anyway, convinced the story would grow into it in time. However while discussing the issue with SuburbanBeatnik http://suburbanbeatnik.deviantart.com/ http://www.joannerenaud.com/blog/ who encouraged me to try a different style since I felt this way.The result was something darker, something sharper, more menacing and bleak. The first chapter of the comic is about a girl who marries a masked man in a small, dank chapter to escape her homeland, and as she walks down the aisle, she feels no joy, only anxiety that she has left behind a boy she loved very much, and that she does not know what has become of him. The original art style was all bright colors, soft edges and bright light. There was nothing in it that suggested her paranoia, her regret, her tension, or the tension of those around her. This was a decided miserable wedding, more Goya or Munch in tone than anything else, and I was treating it as though it were a Renoir garden scene as far as the color and light went (by no means do I compare myself to any of these men. There skills all surpass mine...even if Renoir was a tad over-rated...) It didn't even match the cover artt which was macabre and a bit sharper visually.

Also, I figured it was better to change now and simply redo one page, than to decide to do this 20 pages in.

You can see the cover (which I am pretty happy with overall) and the first page that no longer is part of the comic below.

Here's the cover. Sans the hideous text (trust me it was uck, I had no other choice but to end it!) -

And here is the original first page. The softness...it is too soft!

The re-working of the first page should be up soon, within a day or so. It is almost complete! Well, hope to hear from you guys soon and I hope you'll enjoy! :)