Image Update

I noticed the images on this blog were much bigger than they should have been and it was making them difficult to view in lightbox so I've been through and resized them all so you can see them all properly without having to wait for them to load. It’s made them look better in quality and now they're all roughly the same size. I'll do that with all my new uploads from now on, that way there won’t be any trouble viewing them.

More Character Work

The writing has taken a back seat this past week or so, giving me a chance to get through some more artwork. Have a look and let me know what you think of them.

Filo

Filo For The Hadron Gateway

Filo is from Rheeven's story. I have to say I absolutely love her. I got her exactly the way I pictured and captured her personality. I originally wanted to give her full leg dungarees but I decided against it because her jacket was already covering her scrawny build and I felt she would loose character. I gave her a mismatched outfit to exaggerate the point that she’s not the type to ever look in a mirror. I used green and red to add a bit of a clash and an eyebrow piercing to show her more daring side.

Brendt

Brendt For The Hadron Gateway

Brendt is an oddly polite and colourful rebel in Laythan's story. He will be heavily involved in D'rosk's story too, but I'm not clear as to what part he will play. Like Filo, I managed to peg his personality and draw him just as I pictured. Brendt doesn’t have a scrawny build but he's definitely a short guy and one of the only characters that seems to keep himself looking presentable. He has a kind looking face to suit his gentle nature. Mostly his colours are natural with the exception of the splash of purple, which I added to emphasise his camp side.

I'll leave it at that this week and hopefully by next week I'll be showing you the finished version of D'rosk. And just as an update on the writing - the word count on Rheeven's script is now at 33500 and could do being cut down. I might try and merge some scenes together where possible which will also quicken the pace.

So much to say!

It's been far too long since I last posted! You'll be pleased to know that’s because I've done a hefty amount of work on this VN.

My biggest news is probably that I started Rheeven's script and I'm now at 28725 words. It’s been so strange not writing about Laythan especially since I don't know Rheeven very well yet. Trying to match up the events of each story is even harder than I thought but at least its going well. There's a lot more of the political side of things in Rheeven’s story but its certainly not lacking in action - he's already had his fair share of close shaves. I'm only a few hundred words form the point where he and Laythan's paths first cross and I have a feeling I'm going to enjoy writing that part a great deal. 

I've been working hard to make sure his story has plenty of mystery and doesn’t give too much away too early. It's been a lot more difficult that Laythan's in that there has to be a lot of information given at the start to make it all make sense. I've had to try and find a way of spacing and balancing it out without making it confusing to read. I must be roughly a quarter of the way through so I'll need to go back and cut the word count down a little but that shouldn't be too difficult. 

There was a horrible moment when I lost 6000 words because of a file mix up. I managed to retrieve 4000 but the rest had to be rewritten and any writer knows that it’s never as good the second time. You can imagine my frustration. Still, apart from that hiccup, it’s going very well all in all and I'm thoroughly enjoying it.

So aside from that I'm just waiting on my kind test subject getting through Laythan's script so I can do the final editing and then I can start to code it!

As far as the artwork goes I've got lots to show you starting with one of the main 3 characters. Have a look through them and let me know what you think.

Laythan Joel (L.Joe)

Laythan Joel (L.Joe) For The Hadron Gateway

I first drew Laythan in a dynamic pose instead of the usual dull upright position and I think he looked a lot cooler the first time. I also found that he’s near enough impossible to draw in such a dull pose. I don’t know what it is about him... it took me 5 tries to get it right (even then his legs are too small). Yet when I draw him from awkward angles doing action poses I can do him no problem - it makes no sense! Oh well, its not like I'll be drawing him standing doing nothing at any point in the story so it doesn’t really matter.
I wanted his design to match the others but still stand out so that’s partly why he has dyed sandy hair. I went with purple and blue as his main colour scheme which I think was a bit risky - It’s not often you see a main guy in purple. However, I think it works perfectly. He's got the odd splash of gold here and there to give the colour scheme some life and stop his hair from seeming totally out of place and it’s pulled it all together quite nicely.
His build (when the legs aren’t too small) is quite slender but not the thinnest of the bunch by far. He’s got a youthful sort of body that’s still broadening and filling out so he’s not the most impressive guy to look at. I felt if I made him look to strong, his fights and struggles would seem less believable. As far as the three main character go, he’s in the middle - D'rosk is stronger and Rheeven is weaker.
I think his face matches his personality perfectly; kind natured but ready for mischief.


Denji Javhwa

Denji Javhwa For The Hadron Gateway

Denji (redesign of the fourth guy in on design sheet two) was one of the easiest to redesign. I didn't have to change his clothes so I simply added in the plain black shoes. As for his body shape, I decided to make him more buff to suit his rough and ready attitude. He's Laythan's right hand guy so he needed to have a tall, solid, dependable look about him.
I gave him a long face that’s wider at the bottom and a mess of dark hair. I think he has a lot of character and his face matches his loud energetic nature and need for mischief. I also gave him brown skin to go with his dark dependable theme. The original cast wasn’t varied enough in skin colour and I thought Denji would be a good candidate for a more Asian look.
I really like Denji's design, partly because it turned out exactly as I pictured first time with no fuss and because it fits in nicely with the others. What are your thoughts on Denji Javhwa?


I did have another design to show but I noticed that I had forgotten a few details on him so I'm going to go back and fix that before uploading him. So you should get to see him sometime soon.

That should be plenty for one update! I hope you enjoyed it.