Charcoal: Where are they now?
1st September, 2007
I tend to be very secretive about my personal projects. I get easily embarrassed about the work that I do. So as I take my first steps into breaking the silence around some of my projects, I apologise if my writing reads a little forced. It's not something that comes very natural to me.
Over the past year the project that has garnered most of my attention will probably be Charcoal, albeit I don't exactly have anything solid to show for it. I just have lots of writing, scribbled-out scenes, sketches of locations, diagrams and house floor-plans.
If you're new to my web site, Charcoal is one of older comic characters. She's a tall girl that normally dresses in black, or rather a very dark grey. There are various pictures around, she's not hard to miss.
Charcoal has had a fairly strong story-line for several years now, not that anybody could notice. That's what I've been concentrating on. I've been putting events into chronological order, adding narrative, filling in plot holes and making everything flow as seamlessly as possible. There are some that would argue that I'm actually going about things properly for the first time. Scripts and planning? What a crazy idea, that'll never work! I must admit, it's a nice feeling having all the pieces fall into place.
The story as a whole is split into books and chapters spanning two epochs, although only figuratively at this point. As much as I'd like to go into specifics on the plot-line, it wouldn't exactly be wise to do so at this point. Would it?
I've also done a large amount of work developing the cast of characters, which I think has gone really well. Characters have picked up their own quirks and mannerisms. It's almost come to a point where I can place characters into a scene and they'll write the dialogue themselves.
So that leaves the area that still requires the most work; the artwork. Quite a strange concept for me.
I have a fairly clear vision of how I want the end result to look and feel, although I don't believe I'm capable of recreating it on paper just yet. I've done work on increasing the accuracy and complexity of my construction lines, as well doing a lot of work on improving the anatomy of my characters and scenery.
I'd like Charcoal to be a visual showpiece of what I can achieve; because to be honest, I don't really know for myself. All in all, I want to make something that's really beautiful.
The artwork posted above is still very much work in progress. Characters tend to look different on a month by month basis at the moment, but it should give you an idea of where things are heading. It's a picture of Charcoal's sister by the way, probably best know as 'Sharp'. The hairstyle is a little throw back to her original design.
So that leaves the area that still requires the most work; the artwork. Quite a strange concept for me.
I have a fairly clear vision of how I want the end result to look and feel, although I don't believe I'm capable of recreating it on paper just yet. I've done work on increasing the accuracy and complexity of my construction lines, as well doing a lot of work on improving the anatomy of my characters and scenery.
I'd like Charcoal to be a visual showpiece of what I can achieve; because to be honest, I don't really know for myself. All in all, I want to make something that's really beautiful.
The artwork posted above is still very much work in progress. Characters tend to look different on a month by month basis at the moment, but it should give you an idea of where things are heading. It's a picture of Charcoal's sister by the way, probably best know as 'Sharp'. The hairstyle is a little throw back to her original design.
