I think I just found a new project!
Yesterday, I stumbled across some Ray Bradbury stories and remembered how much I love his writing and his stories. I still recall reading Martian Chronicles and just basking in the poignantly beautiful descriptions and how deeply sensitive his stories felt. Simultaneously, I've also just read my first graphic novel, Before Watchmen (I haven't mentioned it on this blog yet, but I love Adam Hughes' artwork), and it was really amazing to see such great artists tell stories in that medium. So, combining this new curiosity about the form of the graphic novel, and the beauty of Ray Bradbury's stories, I really want to give a crack at doing a graphic novel adaptation of Bradbury's All Summer in a Day. It is a shorter story, but it is one that has always tugged at me. And maybe that's what an artist is supposed to do, just respond to the things that trigger our emotions and delve into those feelings artistically. This will take a really long time, as I want to not just pencil and ink it, but color it as well. I'm fairly confident that I can do a decent job penciling this, but getting the effects in color that I want seems extremely daunting. I might just be over ambitious right now. At the same time, I can't afford to put boarding on the back burner. So I'll spend some time on this and it will probably be a side project that could last quite a long time. Hopefully it's done in a couple of months. I also am wondering why I seem to always be drawn to sad stories. I'll try to find a happier story soon. Maybe my next project...
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A couple more Hansel and Gretel sketches. I'm hoping to ink these up, but then again, I'm a little scared to do that. I haven't inked much, but one of the things I'm starting to realize is that I over hatch and render when I'm unconfident. But I'm excited to get cracking on another scene now. Hansel sits in a cage and offers a bone to the very near sighted witch who thinks it is his arm. "Hmmm, too skinny," said the disappointed, hungry witch. Gretel pushing the witch into the furnace. I'm considering doing a redraw of this, as Gretel's pose still seems to lack that real sense of a push. But, as soon as the witch turned, Gretel, with every ounce of strength she had, pushed the screaming witch into the furnace. I posted another scene of boards for a Hansel and Gretel story. As I finished up my last story, I was struggling to think of another one. That's a major issue with me, as I would like to work more, but usually I can't think of stories to tell and it's frustrating to set aside time to work every day and you're struggling to find ideas to work on.
To break the creative block, I thought about fairy tales. Even if they're all well known, it's a great exercise to try to tell them visually. So I picked Hansel and Gretel. Really I was most fascinated by the setting of the story (famine torn Europe) and the measures that people resort to in those crises. So that was exactly what my first scene ended up being about. I'm still not super sure how the rest of the story will be told, but I think it will be an ongoing process where I continue to revisit the story amidst other various projects. Below is a drawing I did as a piece of concept art. I would love for a short film to have the look of an Arthur Rackham illustration, and that's the look I was going for in this sketch. I'm making several other sketches, trying to imagine the world a little more fully. In storyboards, I want to simplify the look, but this is a good chance to put on an illustrator's hat and give it a more concentrated treatment. |
Brandt WongThis blog shows the progress and describes my thoughts on my most recent project(s). Archives
September 2019
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