Page 885…
Ok…this is a milestone.
This is the first EIGHT PANEL page I’ve ever done.
🙂
Normally this would have been 2 pages. But…well…not much happens.
I do enjoy the realization that Alex has. You can’t knock on a cloth door.
Â
Also…
We got our booth banners in yesterday. They look FABULOUS!
See?
Â
Oh…and lastly.
I had to submit a cover for next year’s Dreamland Chronicles Book 4.
They wanted more “action” since the last book had too much “kissy kissy”.
What do you think?
Â
@.@ wow he realized that a lot faster then I ever did, I knocked on cloth before…I fell through it.. thank the gods nothing was happening on the other side. On some side notes, if you knock lightly enough it does in fact make a sound…. that only you can hear. This is my first comment AND i am the first comment~ yays
YES YES YES!!! *continues to chant it for a bit* oh, that so says what will happen in the book. just like the kissing pic on book three gave the impression, that gives an impression of ‘action’!!!! *runs around in circles*
I, personally, think the cover is missing something, but I can’t tell you what. It’s like it’s missing fire or “wind” or something… I dunno. Ignore me… >_>
LOVE the panel banners!!!
The banners look WONDERFUL! Can’t wait to see it at comicon.
Also, cover looks great.
I love love love the banners 😀
I also love love love the cover <3
Excellent work as always 🙂
Well, not so sure I love love love the eight panel… it’s too…. square (or rectangle really :P) to strict. Anyway to make irregular shaped panels? Don’t really see a way to combine any 2.
I think the dwarf looks too much like he’s dancing. But I really like the overall concept.
Those background banners look great, and that troll banner, the 4th one on the right, looks almost lifelike!
Cover looks awesome!
Obviously Alex has never gone camping, otherwise he’d know that already. 🙂
The banners are awesome Scott! ^.^
As for the book cover, it’s very good, but I agree that it seems like there’s something missing… Perhaps something to give the two titans some scale of size?
Hmm… Dunno if that’s it tho… Still looks good if you decide to leave it like that.
The 8-panel layout did draw a bit of attention to the “boxy” layout. Nothing exactly wrong with that per-se, tho the even-numbered symmetrical layout does distract momentarily from the story.
I like getting to see more of the story in one shot, but … Perhaps you could take the last two panels and stretch out the last one a bit on the horizontal -making it more rectangular and breaking that centerline some- showing a bit more of the background; and with the smaller panel zoom in a bit more on Alex’s face and fist to make his realization really stand out (because his expression is very funny 😀 )
As always, loving it! ^.^
~Prince Demitri
I agree with previous comments, the couple needs a better sence of scale. Maybe tiny trees being ripped out as they tread the ground?
It would be really amazing if one day someone knocked on cloth and it sounded like wood. XD
The banners look great! *,*
8 pannels… Cannot make out much detail on my tiny laptop screen, but it relays the trip this go around.
The book cover looks a bit too colorful to me. Maybe the fighting scene would look better in a darker environment or less direct lightening.
The dwarf king could be a bit more blue, especially the plates of his armor.
And my final suggestion would be to turn the dragon a bit; his right wing looks like it would be hit in the next moment, which would be a serious injury for him.
Love the banners. Can’t wait to see them at the cons
I liked the kissy-kissy… But then I like this one, too! Good cover 🙂
I love the cover. I don’t know about needing fire or something, but there is something to the sense of scale. Nasty Nic’ should be much larger than a Dwarf (at least that’s what I would have thought). Or is it foreshadowing that NN has a Napoleon complex and really is that short?
As far as making the cover darker, I wouldn’t recommend it. Your work is family friendly and a darker cover may convey something more sinister than your work is. Much like the ‘kissy kissy’ cover may have conveyed a more mature theme in the past issue.
Scott, it is your art and I’ve always found your work wonderful. I am sure that whatever you decide will be great. Thanks for sharing with us.
hugs, bobbi
I love the panels and the cover. Great job on both.
I have to believe that just seeing the richness of the characters is going to be a draw at any event you go to.
Thanks for the comments!
I thought maybe doing 8 panels was a bit…daring.
We’ll see if it makes it to the book.
Great artwork as always…loved the panel today. I’ve actually don’t the same thing and started to knock on a tent door…didn’t work too well. 🙂
The cover…it’s missing something.
First thing I noticed, is that the scale is all off. I agree with Bobbi, that Nasty Nic should be much larger in scale than the Dwarf King.
Secondly (for my taste), there is just too much empty black space on top and bottom of the page. You’re known for your artwork…show it off. Especially on the cover! If I go into a comic book store or a book store, the first thing that is going to catch my attention is going to be the cover art. I read the whole Dragonriders of Pern series as a kid, because the cover art was awesome.
Third, you’ve got all this great detail in all your other characters (look at NN for example), but for some reason, the Dwarf King in this shot looks like a claymation drawing to me. Look at his feet. I know he’s wearing armor, but his legs and feet look like an afterthought.
My thought? Stick with the DK and NN in a fight. Add some scale and lose everything else. Have them fighting in a mountainous field somewhere or in the Hall of the DK. Give some detail to the background, but bring out the two main characters, with a feeling of impending doom to the DK…like maybe because of NN’s size, he’s overmatched and about to get clobbered?
Just my $.02. I used to be a graphic designer, but I could never claim to be an artist. You do great work and I hope you know this is all trying to give you constructive feedback, not meant to tear you down. Keep up the great work.
Good advice.
Thanks.
One thing I should make clear. This image has a LOT of bleed. Meaning that 10-15% of the edges will go away when printed.
So that’s why there’s extra space around.
The design is to keep the same theme as the other books. Just look to the right of the page (you might need to scroll up) to see the Amazon links for books 1-3. You’ll see I’m going with a “theme” here.
🙂
Yeah, I agree totaly with Capt. Tract. Especially about the Dwarf Kings legs….
Heya… well.. hm. I totally didn’t get that he was trying to knock on cloth =P I thought he was hesitating for a different reason altogether.
I like the cover 🙂 I remembered the themes from last time and like that you’re sticking to it. Plus–the banners are much easier to absorb on a large scale. On my computer screen when you were first planning them, they seemed too busy, but now that they’re ginormous (and we have a person for reference 😉 ) they seem much more reasonable (and high quality too! Great find..)
Thanks for the continuous updates, Scott 🙂 You’re pretty awesome.
I really like the cover! The flow and movement of the composition are particularly fascinating! It is full of tension which draws the viewer into the scene and leaves them wanting to see more. That is what a cover is supposed to do. If you are captured by the picture and want to see more, the cover has done its job.
Those banners ad cover look awesome!!!
And lol at Alex. I saw the panel where he was about to knock and thought: what do you think you are doing?! It`s cloth! 😀 lol
yay for 8 pael-pages!
I didn’t even notice the 8-pages until you pointed it out. 🙂
Well the eight panels certainly convery a lot of action and saves us two pages of shifting from one scene to another. Alex and the cloth realization is awesome. I’ve done that a lot, usually so far apart that I forget to not knock on cloth.
But most importantly, are we approaching the “Hell no” scene from your interview? 😀 It sounds like a fun page.
Ha ha.
Yes Kitsunewolf85. We’re getting close.
Maybe still 20 pages off.
I’ve not looked up the “profanity generator” site to come up with something suitable for Dreamland yet.
Maybe I should take suggestions in the Forum?
🙂
The prairie tribes had a similar problem with their Tipis. For the Sioux people, etiquette went like this: The owner (the woman of the family) signaled when visitors were welcome. If a tipi flap was open, a visitor was welcome. If the flap was down, a visitor had to rattle it a bit or announce his presence and wait to be invited in. If the flap was closed and two sticks were crossed over the door, no visitors were welcome.
But, of course, the traditions could be different among the centaurs, and Alex wouldn’t know them in any case, unless he’d visited as a kid.
Can’t wait til the 4th book comes out. My library has all three so far 😀 Definitely going to recommend that they get all of the rest!
Scott it looks they both look great.
My first response upon seeing the banners: That looks EPIC!
And yes, the cover of Book Four also looks lovely. Alex not knocking on cloth is…well, smarter than I would be. XD
Nothing wrong with kissy kissy! :p
Usually when I want to announce that I’m there when there’s no wood to knock on, I kinda tap the fabric to make a noise.
Cool eight panels.
As for the book 4 cover it looks good, though I do not see why the last book was too ‘kissy kissy’. It was cute. ^^
I agree with what has been said before about the cover. I think it is the positioning of the DK and NN that is ‘wrong’. As NN is by far the larger, if he were placed where the DK is and vice versa then the sizing would work. Also it would bring NN into focus as the main antagonist not just a walk-on character as he seems in this version.
Love the story and art so far though, thanks for making my days so much more enjoyable.
sco3tt — LOL! soo mean!! but funny. 😀
Everything looks good Scott. As for knocking on cloth doors, we just slapped the canvas tent flaps and yelled “KNOCK! KNOCK!!” Usually worked for us.
Thanks Betsy, not sure anyone read that, heh.
Total 😉 though.
i would have knocked on the cloth forgetting it was cloth. also at camp we did the same thing as Radical-Knight.
Hmm, 8 panels…actually, this strip http://thedreamlandchronicles.com/?p=91 has 9 panels, though 5 of them are Paddington staring.
Alex’s head is a bit large in the third panel 😛
Those banners are SWEET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And Alex’s realization face is hilarious. XD If I lived in a tent I’d have a little bell for people to ring.
Man, I love seeing Dreamland at night. It’s so beautiful, the glow, the sky, everything.
You know what’s on the other side of that tent wall? Nastaja and Felicity, getting it on. That’s what.
I find that knocking on a cloth door to get someone’s attention is not nearly as effective as lighting the door on fire.