Willis Henry Chapter 03 Backgrounds Watercolor

 Willis Henry Water Color Backgrounds 

Top: Proteus Toy House

Upper Middle: Vekks Ship

Middle: Texture Backgrounds

Lower Middle: Proteus Toy House Reject

Bottom: Vekks Ship Reject

The bottom two are mostly rejected early versions. I thought I could do better (more colorful) which lead to the top two.  The top two are not quite done; but are a much better representation of what I'm going for. 

While the middle is a texture sheet that has many purposes, for example when a scene has been established by and establishing shot I can us a backdrop in faded similar colors to imply place. Also extreme emotions like shock a faded yellow texture can work well.

See ya next week

Willis Henry Key Image Color Test

 Willis Henry Illustrator Color Test.  I'm using alternate version of the Willis Henry ThumbsUp pose to test out colors. The hardest part is finding color combination that look good to you, out of the near infinite colors of the digital world. 

Once I find a color scheme I like; then I lock them in with the color swatches beside the character. Then, I can copy and paste the swatches into the other character project to make the process easier in the future.

Have a happy weekend

See ya next week

Willis Henry Key Image and Title Clean

 Key Image and Title experiments complete!  It took some time but these came out nice. There are tweaks,  revisions, and clean up... but I'm proud of the progress.  Done in adobe illustrator for clean vector images that can scale.

Next up is adjustment then colors, but for the blog let's get into some comic pages...

Keep Shining!

See Ya

Willis Henry Title (Work In Progress)

 I have been on the struggle bus for a while with this Willis Henry title design.  This one has been so hard, but I think the corner has turned. Thank Goodness.

I have an example of the Beautiful Beast Kiss title design, which was so much easier to concept and design and seemed to come out fully formed...

As for Willis Henry I think the title design ideas are coming faster, so I think I got it. Now it's time to polish, tweak, and think of variants.

Onward

Trey

Heroes Key Image Illustrator (Clean Lines)

Next step for the Key Images is the Clean Lines; for this I use Illustrator, because not only are the lines super clean, but because the lines are vectors I can scale them up and down without pixelation.  So, in the Illustrator program my usual process; I start with the Heads and outlines of the characters with a bolder thicker line; after that, facial features, then inner lines and details.

Next week let's do some title designs for Willis Henry

Until then Keep Shining 

Willis Henry Heroes Key Images (3 of 3)

 The Trio of Heroes Key Image part 3!

So, the purpose of the Key Images for me is a classic evergreen image; one the can be used to explain the style and tone of Willis Henry Series while demonstrating the characters and their personalities.  Now, that I have the key images, it's time to level them up/clean up in Illustrator... so that is next.

See ya next week.

Willis Henry Heroes Key Images (2 of 3)

  The Trio of Heroes Key Image part 2.  This is a variation off of the image of last week, and the purpose for me is to have the characters in poses that not only reflect their character but also can work if one or both other characters are taken out.  This flexibility means the images can work on their own with or without text.  Overall, the key images are some of the most versatile evergreen images.

See ya next week.

Willis Henry Heroes Key Image and Series Title (1 of 3)

 So, we return to our Key Heroes.  Now, I need to think about Key images and a Series Title Design that could be put on the book cover or marketing material.  So I use these images of Willis Henry, Quiss, Phen, and Love(The little floating robot) to solidify the character designs, expressions, and attitudes. 

The Title is more complex... mostly because I don't do Title designs very often.  I did like how I did the Beautiful Beast Kiss Title Design.  The challenge is designing a title that embodies what the series is about just with title, and currently I have a few idea but finding the ONE... that's tricky.  Ah, I'll figure it out.

Anyways, Take Care!

See ya next week.

Willis Henry Series Influences Color

 Willis Henry Series Influences altogether and in color!  These are not the only influences.. oh, there are so many more.  But for some example that easily come to mind... and is just an excuse to draw some of them.

Later

Keep Shining

Trey

Willis Henry Series Influences: The Legend of Zelda (Part 3 of 3)

 Willis Henry Series Influences set number 03... the Legend of Zelda Series.

The Zelda series, specifically the Wind Waker has a great influence on Willis Henry not only in concept but also design and story.

Willis Henry design, world, and color palette were inspired from Wind Waker.  The Character of Quiss has a lot of elements of Tetra in characterization of being the wildcard free spirit.  Princess Phen has elements of Princess Zelda in the concept and dynamics of the Princess and her Knight. While Medli and the humanoid bird people went into the design concepts of Phen.

For these and many other examples, the Legend of Zelda are great influences on the Willis Henry Series.

See ya next week.

Willis Henry Series Influences: DragonBall and Tetsuwan Atomu (Astroboy) (Part 2 of 3)

 Willis Henry Series has a lot of influences both indirectly and directly.

Tetsuwan Atomu has many many influences the biggest being the introduction of robots and the concept of robots with emotions.  These ideas had a great place in the world of Willis Henry.

Dragon Ball is one of my favorite manga to read, and young Goku and his adventures with his friends and rivals influenced Willis Henry greatly.  From Goku fighting poses, to animal people, robot, and even architecture.  I love young Goku and the pure adventure of early DragonBall, and all of this contributed to Willis Henry.  

For these reasons and many others, Dragonball and Tetsuwan Atomu are great influences on the Willis Henry Series.

See ya next week

Willis Henry Series Influences: Aesop's Fables/John Henry (Part 1 of 3)

 Willis Henry has a lot of influences both indirectly and directly.  So. let's talk about some of the major influences of Willis Henry Series.

Aesop's Fable was one of the largest and earliest influences.  Willis Henry started as short stories of a boy meeting animal people that had a moral or something both he and the animal character learned in each story. 

So, what changed is when Willis Henry in idea moved closer to another influence of John Henry, the Rail/steel worker and his competition with a machine; this reshaped the story.  Adding more robots and man/machines conflict changed much about the story.

Today, the Willis Henry still has a majority of Animal People so Aesop's Fable is a major Influence.

See ya next week

Willis Henry Main Cast Head Shapes

 What I like the most about the Willis Henry Cast is the Head Shapes.  The idea was to make each character identifiable in silhouette, and while some have similar body shapes (like Willis Henry jr. and Quiss), but the head shape is easily identified.  Also the Simplicity of style has an impact on the look of the world and overall style.  I'm still really proud of what I accomplished with the characters.

Bottom is the most basic shape base

Top: Head Shapes and inner details

Keep Shining

Trey

Nedeians.. Nedeans.. The good folks of Planet Nede (and Full Main Cast)

 I still don't exactly know what to call the inhabitants of the Planet Nede, an alien planet with humanoid animals.  Hm, well I will figure it out at some point.  

It started with the five Queens and the Chancellor, and from an early story view; Willis Henry was to go from place to place meeting the  children of the areas Queen and go on an adventure.  Today, the story has a lot more robots and action... and well is very different.  But the Five Queens remain, and I do love their designs.  They also help to inform some of the wider population, where I tried to go for more graphic and simplified shape language of the designs.

Top is the Main Cast LineUp with size comparison.

 

Vekks and Proteus (Meet the Villains?)

 

Vekks and Proteus the villains(?), but are an odd couple.  Vekks found the Soft-Shell Robot among others sleeping on an alien planet, and after waking up have been companions ever since.  They are both near ageless beings, having been together for hundreds of years.  Vekks is the emotional schemer, while Proteus is calm voice of reason.  Proteus is the first thing Vekks could call an actual friend..

However, after Proteus's sister betrayed him, and stranded them (Seethe Vekks's father, and Ca'aseth Vekks's adopted brother) in space, Vekks began to withdraw. After ages adrift in space they came to the planet of Nede.  Once on the planet, they started repairing the ship, but eventually the family began to go their separate ways.  Seethe, became sullen and despondent remaining on the ship.  Ca'aseth started to learn the ways and customs of the locals, and fit in surprisingly well.  While Vekks met a local child Seer of the Reptilian culture, and began making robot minions of his own, eventually becoming known as a great inventor.

Things changed after the Massacre in the halls of the Stellar League, the world's heroes. Where Seeth and most of the Stellars and the World ambassador Phenallia of the Eten Flam died and the Sol was lost, with Ca'aseth, the murder suspect, disappearing.  

Soon after that event, the War Between Sky and Scales began. Vekks was eventually ostracized, with the only one to remain was Proteus, whom he began to regard with suspicion, and surrounded himself with more and more mindless Vekksbots.

The Story of Willis Henry begins, with Vekks and Proteus coming to Earth to find the lost Sol "Key" now in the possession of Willis Henry...

[Note: Wow, that ah, kind of just spilled out of me..]

Keep Shining

Trey

Willis Henry Senior and the Chancellor (Meet the Parents)

 Willis Henry Senior is the father of our young hero Willis Henry Junior.  After Willis Henry Sr. was abducted by the alien Vekks, looking for the "Key" to the Iron Giant; this event is the catalyst for the journey of our young hero.

The Chancellor of New Ark City, and parent of Quiss and Princess Phen. After the arrival of our young hero Willis Henry and the treacherous action of Vekks; she has her hands full trying to keep the world together.

These are the foundations for our trio of young heroes.

Willis Henry, Princess Phen, and Quiss (The Trio)

The Trio of young heroes: [Top Image] Willis Henry(Center), Princess Phen (Left), Quiss (Right).

These three were the hardest to design.  Mostly because the whole look of just about everything else is made around them.  The looks changed and morphed as all concept does; but most of the changes came in the form of tone of the characters. For example Quiss was a much more straight faces and sad character, but evolved into the beaming, smiling character she is now.

The images below the top image are exploration drawing, including character not to be seen until future comics.  I like creating character in groups because I can more easily contrast one character to another.  In this way their attitudes and look seem to come much easier for me, and story idea seam to flow better.

See ya next week..

Willis Henry Old and New

Willis Henry old and new images.  In the development of Willis Henry as a character; I had to go through a lot of drawings.  Bottom is the oldest drawing from about 2007-2008.  Middle is when I knew I was close to the final designs at that time. 2009.  Top is the redrawing of all of the older designs.  Sometimes I like to redraw some of my older art to see how far I have come.  This was really fun!

Trey