End Chapter 01

Privateer: Wretched Soul Reorganize

It's been uncomfortable admitting this but I have been working and slacking something awful. Most of my comic work has been trying to make the story fit and work. I guess I understand why most print comic artists don't post their work in sequence so that there is a freedom to move things around, then again I also understand why they advise comic writers/artists to work fast since an idea can evolve and change as you work.

I will try and explain what I've been working with and how everything has been/can be moved.

Page 20 (now 21)
I knew I wanted a connection between the orange colored love interest and the purple rogues and vagabonds that arrive on the shore, but I wasn't sure how to show how devastating the effect of her absence would be with just one page of character interaction between her and the protagonist. I also wasn't sure if I needed to explain how she left or how she could leave without our protagonist knowing, but the ship was going to show later in the series and I wasn't sure if I needed it for the story for clarity or if it was just holding me back from working.

Page 20 (redacted)
This would have been the next page. Lots of lanterns and a more oriental sort of look since it would/will become the ghost ship later. I decided that this page was too revealing that she left on her own terms a little too happily and I wanted the reader to decide for themselves or to make their own decision after seeing how the main character felt confronting her again in later books and the look of who she would become as well.

Page 18 (now)
After finishing earlier pages and feeling that there wasn't enough of a connection between the orange and green characters I wanted to add another page of their relationship to help with establishing what they meant to each other before the disappearance occurred. This way the loss could be taken as a kidnapping or more selfish/hurtful to the green character later.

Page 22
This is it, the big origin story page and the reveal of why that amulet has been so important. It's been with us since the tavern in the opening page and that transition from the sepia tone past to the grayscale future seals the time gap. I'm not sure if there's enough of a transition from the dancing around the fire page to the wake-up reveal, but I think there's just enough to make the connection that she was gone the next day.

Only 2 more pages left for this issue to be finished. I think that this story needs more love and attention to be a full series or at least a 72 page graphic novel, but I will at least post concept art of the next 2 stories and maybe even the outline for both "Ghost Ship" and "Devil's Call". I have a few more realizations about what this story means to me since I've been working on it and how to cope with that, but I will leave that for another time.

Thanks for checking in.

Privateer: Wretched Soul Page 19 (and bonus content)

Excuses first, comics later:
This next page is a combination of me being dumb and getting wrapped up in podcasts, streams and also concept art for the next few pages to follow. Truth be told, I had a rough idea of what I wanted these guys (and gal) to look like, but I never really made a final sheet or general color scheme for the rogues and vagabonds that play a big part in the story. They sort of looked like this first time around:

I tried basing them a bit off "The Gang Green Gang" from powerpuff girls (a tall snake-like guy, a cool leader, the short one, the muscle and a wild card) except as middle-eastern pirates. When I got to the next page I realized that being approached by five strange people in the middle of the night isn't as concerning as three people bringing dance and drink and song, so I dropped two of them.

The tall character became less of a side roll and more of a charismatic beauty. I still wanted a cut-throat assassin who was sneaky and dexterous and changed the mysterious robed man to a woman of ??? faith, so that these dudes might have a little more credibility/approach. Also here are some designs of "Gipsy" that I finalized before her page and opening happened:

(Huh, wonder what happens to her, that makes her look that rough afterwards~ OH WELL.) Anyway, I'm sorry for the delay. Still playing with the next few pages and trying to make the story flow and work a little better. I'll try and post my thoughts as I go.

Final product. Thanks for checking in~

Privateer: Wretched Soul Page 18

Privateer: Wretched Soul Page 17

Privateer: Wretched Soul - The Locket - Page 16

Introducing the next chapter in the ongoing series of Privateer. Finally getting around to what's in the locket that Eagen has always been carrying and some of his past.

What started off as 24 pages is more likely to be 26, maybe even 28. Get hyped, get ready and maybe get a little sad in the next chapter starting now!

Privateer: Wretched Soul Page 15

Privateer: Wretched Soul Page 15 Progress & Other Projects

I have unfortunately been playing with this layout more times than I'd like. This was originally going to stop around page 12, but the pacing almost demanded more. I'm even considering an additional page afterwards for better flow.

The consequences that Eagen has to deal with are not something to be shrugged off. Especially someone of his personality and temperment. He has a lot to deal with in order to transition more easily with his new life since he can't go back. We'll see more of who he was in the next segment along with the locket.

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Along with the Privateer comic, I've been reading new comics from Image, Marvel, Boom and playing a few DC games as well. I've been revisiting some hero concept ideas, mostly playing with how to make a wind-based hero more powerful and what it means to be a patriot hero if you don't really believe in your country. A smaller power level super hero using "borrowed" henchmen supplies and a little ingenuity makes to be the punk-rock patriot no one asked for.

The opposite of air is rock, so a guy who is all about his country and no-nonsense makes for a good antagonist. Super powered people hunting power powered people for non-supers.

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I'm also working on a new role-play game universe that's a little tongue-in-cheek. It's basically Tron and mixed with a fantasy universe. Programs like Video Players (Illusion Wizard), Audio Players (Bard) and Torrent Applications (Rogue) are re-purposed for fantasy classes.

(New programs get put in an old server. Things get real.)

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Hopefully there will be more to Privateer than a few simple updates but if I can't deliver then maybe some concept stuff can smooth it over.

Privateer: Wretched Soul Page 14

Privateer: Wretched Soul Page 13

Privateer: Wretched Soul Page 12

Privateer: Wretched Soul Page 11

Privateer: Wretched Soul Page 10

Privateer: Wretched Soul Page 9

Privateer: Wretched Soul Page 8

Privateer: Wretched Soul Page 7

OK, so we're still doing this progress thing. Mostly because I don't want to be stuck on this page and because I owe you all more than I'm giving. The main character is colored in and the background has a little more detail, but I think the main character is a tad too dark to read from the background. Ill add some color and see if it's enough of a difference, and if not then we'll lighten the character layers... also the sky looks really weird without a darker gradient to the almost black sea, so that'll be another addition.

 Final

The gradient in the sky works much nicer and the color certainly did make the character pop, but it was a tad too saturated for this page layout, so we drop it down to 90%. Lighten the character layers, drop the background down to 90% opacity as well and make sure that poop joke in the last panel makes sense... it's very classy.

If these pages keep taking me too long to put out, then I might keep this process up if only for my state of mind... this is a blog after all. I promise to keep updating even if it's all filler, I owe myself and you crazy readers that.

Privateer Wretched Soul Page 7 Progress

I'm going to start posting the process for how I do these pages. You can see the linework from last week in a previous post, currently this is the base color for both characters and background. (Yes, the seagulls count as characters and yes they are also on separate layers.)

Next is the detail and texture of the background/ship. The sky has been given a light gradient except for the clouds and the water is much much darker with emphasis on the cresting waves. The ship could use much more variance and value along with the ocean, so I'll call this background texturing a "first pass". Keep in mind I wanted this series to be 'simple' so I don't want to make it too realistic, but it does look much muddier than earlier versions. Next up is the texture/value on the main character, some minor tweaks and strokes on the ship. The last step is color, which is all fairly easy and loose as well.

Privateer: Excuses & Filler

It turns out that I may be biting off more than I can chew with art-related materials.
I'd love to tell you that Privateer is only in the ink stage because I'm busy working on other art or something dire happened... but it's mostly because of Towerfall releasing for steam. It's super fun and the pink archer is clearly the best character.

I am working on a podcast with a few of my good friends about Tropes in T.V., movies, video games and the occasional anime. It should release in 5 weeks or so. I just need to find time to edit and post 'em on Youtube and Soundcloud.

I'll release a step by step for the next filler and a full 7th page of the story. So don't hit me too hard, ok?

Privateer: Wretched Soul Page 6

I am very surprised and also hopeful at how quickly and well I managed to make this page turn out. Only two days with around 4 to 5 hours of line-work and coloring. If this first chapter turns up before June I'm buying everyone Beyblades (and not the cheap ones, either).

That locket keeps showing up and no one even knows anything about it, except maybe Eagen. The next 7 or 8 pages show what this ship is all about and how they break in new deck-hands. Maybe we'll even get some dialogue out of them (probably not).

Privateer: Wretched Soul Page 5

Thus ends the prologue story of:

Pint to Port

Next Up:

Heart to Black

The next section is around 8 pages and should get more into the actual conflict of the story with a prequel about that locket we keep seeing hanging around. When I end up printing this, I'd like to included these section dividers between stories, then again I might just include all of them at the end... for funsies.

Privateer: Wretched Soul Page 4

Everyone needs a little overly close contact and dinner while being paid too much for cleaning, but hey that guy seems  happy. The main character's name is Eagen, the guy in the green. Certain colors and their meanings are getting played with more and more, but I think I have a good direction for the next subchapter.

Privateer: Wretched Soul Page 3

Privateer: Wretched Soul

This story is something very new. I'm experimenting with different color and value techniques, but hopefully making it simpler in design can help with speedier production results.

What I'm hoping for is three books with 22 to 24 pages. The whole series is called "Privateer", but it will be split into three parts, Wretched Soul, Ghost Ship and Devil's Call. More updates as they come, but the first book (Wretched Soul) should be done by June.

Wretched Soul

I promise that the Wonderlocke comics aren't done, in fact I have 20 more to draw. For now, I'd like to sing a song of a privateer sailing outer seas.