Liberi Gothica

Well, since I've been thinking of old projects, I figured I'd get talking about a project I joined almost 2 years ago, which had been worked on for over a year before I even heard of it. Liberi Gothica, as it was renamed soon after I joined, is a tabletop rpg. Basic concept revolves around magical dolls called foci, which make contracts with children, and give them great power in exchange for vitality, the very live essence of humans. As the most common way to gain vitality is to kill someone and harvest their soul it disappears, you would be right to assume the game tends to be rather dark. The children who make these contracts are Liberi, the cursed children. The game's main board has been really slow for the past few months, which I know I'm partly to blame for due to my inactivity to say the least, but I was hoping to change that and get them all motivated again.

So, I might try to start making a serious effort at the comic I started for the game. It is basically a Dickens or Frost meets Miyazaki tale of a simple soot girl who becomes a Liberi, and embarks on a journey that brings her in conflict with the church, fire magic based monks, and primal forces of the world. I'll try to have more info if I move forward with it, but for now it's just one of the many projects I'm considering. Hopefully this creative high will last through it and many more.

Comic project

About a year ago, a thread was started on the comic board of 4chan, with a single image of a female knight and her princess. From that idea several artists drew some great sketchs, picture and comic strips, but the fire burned in many of us to make a comic. As the year went on I basically ended up trying to take a 'head writer' position on the project, as alot of the older crew disappeared. I wrote, I did outlines and layouts, and figured I'd just have to get off my butt and draw it, something I honestly wasn't sure I'd do.

Thankfully that all changed when an artist who goes by Anderjak came along (I'm going to assume all our internet names are fair to use for talking about this, and I'd feel bad NOT making it clear that I didn't draw the final pages). With a strong drive to make the project a reality, his arrival and amazing test pages spurred me onward again. Once a colorist going by the name Eli showed up as well, we pretty much knew we had comic going! So, despite my normally sloth like pace, I've been trying to do layouts and scripts if possible and do my part to make the comic something we all can be very proud of. Here is a bit of the amazing process from my layouts, Anderjak's roughdraft followed by first inks, and the final touch of Eli's amazing colors.

I think considering the 'timeless tale of love' thing the project was going for from the start, Anderjak's style is perfect. Beautifully thought out, yet with a simple, innocent elegance that I would have been hard pressed to achieve even if I wasn't an aged cynic. Eli's colors added the perfect touch of storybook quality, with a painterly feel I was afraid we wouldn't find in this day and age, much less have come to us. Honestly, I'm amazed and honored to have them both be part of this comic, and glad I kept with it from day one, even if it was just by adding a little post here and there every few weeks. Thanks to EVERYONE who posted and contributed, even the ideas that didn't work for this comic.

Fan Art Reference for Lost Planet 2

First attempt at taking some reference shots for Lost Planet 2. Hoping to have time to work on some fan art for the game later. Figure I can turn my obsessive playing of it into an excuse to get drawing again. With luck, anyway.

Yeah, I'm aware that I have head C or something on most of the images here. I'll have to redo most of it later, but it works for now.