[gambit]

At daylight CGHub Master Artist Gambit works as a concept artist on films such as THOR, PRINCE OF PERSIA, V FOR VENDETTA or WRATH OF THE TITANS, but after midnight he follows the path of the BLACK IDOL. Check out his upcoming graphic novel:



The Characters






The Story

"Long before our time, when gods walked the earth, a seed was planted into the ground. To mark a new era, they made a pact with humans to spare their lives, for them to guard their brood in return. But greed and selfishness turned the gods against one another. Their rage and fury brought death and destruction and one by one they disappeared for evermore. As the years pass, the memory of the assignment fades…"

The Pages




SUPPORT:
compared to film work, drawing comics can be a laborious and unrewarding task. That is why I am asking for your support and if you like, spread the word or post this on your Facebook pages, twitter or whatsoever…but that is already more than I can ask for.

More images and a trailer are on my kickstarter page.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...-idol-volume-1

Thank you, fellow artists, for your attention.

[dersalamander]

Every image displays the degree to which you have developed your composition skills and, they all work wonderfully as a whole. The simplicity on which you rely to achieve the grid-like development across the page really works for me: The eyes roll naturally through the panels thanks to the way they are diagrammed, and the structure of images balance the workload and need for detail.

… And the palette. I love every decision concerning the color handling you have made!

This is some fine quality illustration that will make an awesome graphic novel with some pretty high standards. Hope it gets the love it deserves. Best of luck with this enterprise, man!

[gambit]

Thank you, that is very encouraging. From my experience, people usually only recognize what doesn't work but everything that works goes unnoticed (actually excactly the way it's supposed to be with storytelling). I assume you have a background in comics too?

[dersalamander]

I've given it a try in the past and I plan to do it again as soon as I have enough time take it up as a personal project.

I study graphic design (though after some time as a freelancer I've decided I will do whatever it takes to become a concept artist/illustrator — I still want all the time and effort I've put into the past years of studying to be worth something, so I want my degree — but I digress … ) and the morphology still applies. The considerations one keeps in mind to craft an image are the same, give or take variables that are specific to a genre (e.g. an object must meet different requirements in order to be recognizable as a book, a magazine or a graphic novel), and I my limited knowledge still lets me try and deconstruct an image to a certain degree that makes it manageable enough to analyze it. But above all, I know what I like, and I love this.

In essence, they are both communicating with images. You could have turned the unconventionality dial up to eleven and gone over the top with the style, or even the quantity and quality of the elements to use to set the mood; but you chose to keep it simple and beautiful. It drives the reader to the plot and it helps them focus on the story. I think you kept it classy. Storytelling is about communication, and this is effective, efficient communication.

I bet you still have lots of resources and tricks to modulate the rhythm and accompany the narration, making some scene radically evolve into dynamic, all-out action; or creating a dramatical downward spiral that leads to a tense climax. I'm sure people will see your work and will be able to appreciate it. Okay. Maybe not all of them will, but this one won't go unnoticed.

[dersalamander]

Guilty. I've been procrastinating for a while and spending some time taking a closer look at these, and I've come across some things I would really like you to elaborate. I'm just really interested, I don't want to become annoying: Answer the questions you want — if you want to answer any, that is.

What appealed to you the most when you decided to embark on this particular project?

The thread is titled Awesome Steampunk Concept & Comic Art. We've already covered the awesome bit — that one's pretty clear, and your illustrations speak for themselves. So, if you're willing, I would really like to know more about the process.

Is there anything that influenced this production in any relevant way? Or did you simply compose around your first impression of the plot?

The "Steampunk" part is there, referenced by the the zeppelin, the smelter, the machinery … but it's an unexpected version. It is not the obvious approach. It's a sort of crossing-over between nordic dark ages and english victorian industrial landscape (I'm not good with tags), but still it feels natural, credible. A lot of that must come from the story and the setting itself (a movie based on a book is never exactly like we imagined it when we read it) but, when you were faced with the story and nothing but a blank page, how did you equalize the resources at hand as to construct a logic upon which you could to build the setting in accordance to the script? What goals did you take into consideration when deciding what a place or a character should look like?

Is there something that you are particularly proud of or pleased about? What part of this comic was the most fun to work on? (The general feel, a particular scene, a certain character, etc.)

Again, I'm just being curious.Anything else you find pertinent, or anything else you want to tell us about your experience with this will be appreciated.

[gambit]

okay, here is the story: The initial idea for the comic dates many years back. At that time I was still working traditionally, particulary working with paint and colored pencils. Instead of white I used black paper and worked the other way round. The results were pretty dark scenarios in contrast to very strong highlights. By accident I happend to come up with a painting way beyond my skills and thought, wow, wouldn't it be cool to do a whole book using this technique.
I sat down with two friends of mine and one evening we came up with a basic outline for the story that seemed to fit perfect for this style. A few month later I literally locked myself in and roughed out all the characters and 45 pages of the plot using black and white only. At that time I was watching many silent movies and became obsessed with the lighting, staging and photography in the early days of cinema. If you get a chance to watch the films of Fritz Lang, Murnau and Eisenstein you'll understand what I mean. Their work became a huge influence on the design of this project.

[foxrenderfarm]

great work!
and since you mentioned steampunk and comic art,
it reminds me of a recently released Hong Kong movie, Tai Chi 0.
i guess you will like it too.
it crossover Chinese Kungfu, Steampunk, comic art and rock'n roll music. very interesting.