Tag Archives: sailors

Chapter Two — Over the Waves

 

Page 39 — Sami is starting to get the idea that something fishy is going on here.

Page 39 — Sami is starting to get the idea that something fishy is going on here.

Note: I first published this page while travelling and didn’t have a scanner, so I snapped a not-too-bad picture with my iPhone! This is the official scanned page. Since I had the camera going,  I posted some process stuff, too, on my blog. Have a look!

Chapter Two — Over the Waves

Page 38 — Sami and Mr. Jones conversing at cross-porpoises (sorry, couldn't resist).

Page 38 — Sami and Mr. Jones conversing at cross-porpoises (sorry, couldn’t resist).

It’s Monday! And yes, this is a wee bit later in the day than usual, but I am catching up.

I tried something new with this one, in omitting a background in order to focus on the two characters. Then I couldn’t decide what colour to paint around them (kind of boring to leave it just white), so I did something I very rarely do: scanned the partially done page into the computer and played with colour backgrounds. I had thought about a nice sunny yellow, but it seemed too warm to capture the sea air, and eventually settled on this sky blue. It looked nice but kind of flat, even with a gradient, so I went back to my watercolours, which was my intention anyhow. The Manganese Blue Hue captured the look I wanted quite nicely, with enough variation and texture to make it look natural. I’m happy with the clean, uncluttered look here. But don’t worry, I’m not going to dispense with backgrounds! I just think it’s nice to rest the eyes once in a while.

Hope you enjoy this page — next post on Friday!

 

Chapter Two — Over the Waves

 

 

 

Page 37 — Caught between two worlds, Sami cannot believe her eyes.

Page 37 — Caught between two worlds, Sami cannot believe her eyes.

And we’re off to sea! I took some in-progress photos of this page to make a post on my main blog, Karen Gillmore Art — if you’re interested in things like what colours I use and how I apply them, pop on over there.

A Preview, in Ink

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Hello, loyal followers! I have a confession to make — It has somehow gotten to be Thursday night, and I’m a bit behind on tomorrow’s page, due to, well, life, and summer, and so forth (imagine me looking rather sheepish here).  I spent so long perfecting the script that I’m now making up time to create a proper backlog of pages so they will all come out on their proper dates at 6AM PDT (do any of you really get up that early? Of course you do, some of you are even on different continents!). Please know that I am now in Painting Like The Wind mode, and will have tomorrow’s page out… tomorrow. Just not at 6 AM. Sometime tomorrow.

But in the meantime, in case you are going away for the weekend and will miss tomorrow’s page, and will pine away, not enjoying your vacation unless you know what is going to happen, here is a rare look at my inked version, before I slather watercolour all over it! Kind of has a minimalist charm, doesn’t it?

Page one of Chapter 2: Pigma Micron pens on Opus Watermedia paper. Sami is still mesmerized by what she has seen in the water!

Page one of Chapter 2: Pigma Micron pens on Opus Watermedia paper. Sami is still mesmerized by what she has seen in the water!

Interlude: A Map of the Westwind Isles

A Map of The Westwind Isles: from the Redwing Archives

A Map of The Westwind Isles: from the Redwing Archives

What fantasy story would be complete without a map? Since Sami is setting off on her voyage, the first order of business for me was to make a map so we can follow along! I’ll put this in its own tab at the top of the page so that it’s easy to find when you need to see where the action is taking us.

I had a lot of fun making up names — in fact, I had to restrain myself so that I didn’t name every little islet! There are actually a lot of little towns and villages scattered among the islands, but if I started naming them all, you wouldn’t be able to see the map. So  I just stuck with places that will be relevant in the story (probably — we may not get to places like Bear Lake, in this story arc, anyway).

Apart from the original sketch, I made this map entirely in Photoshop. I’m still quite a newbie at it, and every time I use it, I find something new to do with it. This time I figured out how to make my lettering do an arc shape. And I tried a new blending mode for the mountains layer. Hooray! Knowledge increases!

And yes, I know I used Papyrus for a font; but I like it, so there. I may eventually do a handmade version of this, in which case it will be hand lettered.

The actual story will resume on Friday, and I’ll be posting Mondays and Fridays, as I did for the first chapter. Stay tuned!