Degree show's finished

Today is hand in for me and it's also the time i have to set up my degree show. This was a fun and stressful day as at first I was unsure wether my work would fit on the wall however, I did get all my intended work up and am extremely happy with how it turned out.

Below is my board ready for marking.
 

I decided to place two interiors and two cipher pages as the both showcase my work on Black Voyage but also me as a creator as all my work includes ciphers and codes. The image in the middle is my cover and I think it brings the pages together.

The Opening is on the 2nd June if you are in the UK and Stoke area between 6pm - 9pm 

Future conventions

Apart of being a comic creator is to attend conventions. Now a day’s comic conventions are popping up everywhere in the UK, this makes it a difficult choice when choosing which one to attend and which ones to leave.  This becomes an increasingly difficult when you’re a student and on a limited budget. 

To tackle this I decided to look for conventions close to me and only one day events.

I chose this as my decision process as it cuts the need to pay hotel fees and I only need to pay for the transport to the event.  From this process, there are three conventions I could potentially attend in 2017.

Stoke con Trent April 9^th 2017 -  

This convention I did attend and sold copies of Black Voyage and the old Transplant. I chose to attend Stoke con because I at the time attended the university so it was easy to get too. The cost for a table was also subsidized because of that factor so I saved some money there. The main reasons I picked to attend Stoke con was that it fit my checklist perfectly. The convention experience wasn’t the best so I am debating whether to apply for the event again later this year.

MCM Manchester 29 -30^th July 2017 –

After doing MCM London last May and enjoyed it I have been looking for another opportunity to attend an MCM event. I would love to do Manchester because I live a bus ride away for the venue and feel Manchester has a better vibe when it comes to the Artist alley. Per their website applications go live soon, I have sent them an email inquiring what day but no reply so far. I also chose Manchester’s MCM as some fans of Covenant of Arcana have been asking if I will be attending another MCM and if it can be Manchester.

Small press day 8^th July 2017 –

Small press day is a celebration of self-publishing, grassroots comics across the UK and Ireland. This event isn’t a convention but a chance for indie creators across the UK to showcase their work in participating stores. I was asked in 2016 if I would like to participate but I turned it down due to my commitments to MCM London. However, this year I have no commitments during this period of time and have emailed Traveling Man Manchester if they are doing anything this year and my interest of being involved.

MCM Manchester and Small press day are event I would love to attend this year; however, they are a luck of the draw. So, if I cannot attend these conventions I will promote and create comics in preparation for 2018s event cycle.

These posts seem familiar

If you are looking at the blog and reading the posts and thinking that these have been posted somewhere else you'd be correct. Most of the posts were originally posted on my main blog and in due time they get posted here.

I post on this site mainly for university as it makes it easier to make posts related to my projects as on the other blog  I also do reviews and posts related with external work.

If you want to check them out you can click the link here. tgcovenantofthearcana.blogspot.com


I have also started a new blog on Wordpress. This blog will link to my university projects but the posts will be in depth and be in a structured manner I haven't been able to get out of Blogger yet.

I chose to create a new blog on Wordpress because that site is deemed more professional to critics and consumers. This blog will not be a place of Reposts but a blog of original posts that will add to this blog.

To see the content sofar click here https://mosbyscovenant.wordpress.com 

Inking - when I first started to now a journey of development

The inking progress is a part of the comic I use to hate as I felt like all I was doing was tracing over my pencils. This thought stayed with me for a long time and it shows in my art as in my early comics which I will analyse later. My latest comic Black Voyage shows my development as an inker and this post will show that journey.

2014 - PIPER

In 2014 I did a comic called PIPER and as you can see the inking is very simple. That's were I was at with inking, I used the ink to go over my simple pencil work so it was easier to color once scanned. This effect my pages as scenes had no sense of depth or personality to them. In panel three the inking is so minimal that it is barley noticeable which is a shame as I think thicker lines would really improve that panel.

In 2015 I understood more the power of inking with my comic Transplant but it still didn't feel like I was 'inking' the pages.

2015 - Transplant (version 1)

 Transplant is by no means perfect as there are many issues with this version. One of the positives with this comic was my inking technique and this page above is a perfect example of this. My line work is still simplistic as I use the same line thickness for a majority of the page and comic. However, in Transplant I explored with shading with black, most of which being in blocks.

This added inking made the pages work far better than they would if I continued to ink the pages like Piper. This is because there is an added depth of detail that enhance the page. There are still elements of this page I change when I was inking to improve them more.

I did not consider these until 2016 when I was drawing Black Voyage #0. Working on this comic change the way I see and produce my inking.

2016 - Black Voyage #0

 

Black Voyage was created in a short time period and due to these time restraints full color wasn't an option so Black Voyage became a B&W comic with selective color. As a result this challenged my inking abilities as before I only used inking as a way to make coloring easier but now I needed the inks to convey tone and shade without the need of color.

From the page above I think it's safe to say the inking on Black Voyage is the best out of the three examples as it conveys detail and has it's own personality. This page and the issue doesn't need color to know what is happening or what they are.

My drawing ability still needs work but my inking has massively improved and I believe if I continue to develop by practicing I will have visually appealing art.

Black Voyage #0 only has selective color as a result, the main article will also be B&W with selective color. This was so Black Voyage had continuity and I believe my work looks better without full color and as long as my ideas work without color that's how I'm going to work.

     The page above is a preview of Black Voyage #1 go give an example of how it will work. The inking on this page does round off the page but I think I over did it on the first panel as I think this panel may of worked better if there was some background to the scene.

On panel two you may have noticed that the wall behind Elizabeth is fairly blank this is intentional. During Black Voyage #0 I drew alot of walls and in some cases they blended with the characters, and I did not want this to happen in this scene. That is why I went with the minimalism approach as it give the hints of a building without being overpowering.

Black Voyage will be released soon in the meantime you can check out the first 6 pages on Patreon                                                              https://www.patreon.com/mosby

    

Split's inspiration on Black Voyage

The film Split by M.Night Shyamalan main theme surrounds the condition Dissociative identity disorder (DID)and the struggle and effects that has on a person. This inspired me when I was writing Black Voyage to delve deeper into the mind of my characters and their motives.

This is when I discovered the 'conditions' Ego-Dystonic and Ego-Syntonic which gave a name and understanding of Elizabeth and Jack The Ripper's motives.

What do the mean?

According the the medical dictionary Ego- Dystonic refers to  aspects of a person's thoughts, impulses, attitudes, and behavior that are felt to be repugnant, distressing, unacceptable, or inconsistent with the rest of the personality.

This means that a person's thoughts conflict with their own beliefs and actions. This condition is most commonly associated with people who suffer from OCD and know about it and try and control there actions.

Link to this source here.- http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/ego-dystonic

Ego-Syntonic is different as it refers to aspects of a person's thoughts, impulses, attitudes, and behavior that are felt to be acceptable and consistent with the rest of the personality.

This means that a person's thoughts coincide with their beliefs and are never questioned. This can be associated with  people with personality disorders.  An example would be a psychopath as their action are consistent with there personality and behavior.

Link to source here - http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/ego-syntonic

How do they fit in Black Voyage 

Spoiler warning 

In Black Voyage issue 0 (out now) I redefined Jack's victim pool and motives by having Jack only Kill Prostitutes who have suffered misfortunes like a miscarriage or from the Green Sickness. This misfortunes have happened to Jack however she can't accept them so Kill anyone else who has suffered in the hopes that will cure her.    

This results in Jack suffering from Ego-Dystonic.

In Black Voyage issue 1 the main protagonist suffers from Ego-Syntonic that manifests itself after a incident that happens to her in Kew gardens. This incidents affects her mentality and when she meets her assailants again she does a heinous act that she feels right and justified  this leads her to do it again and again without ever questioning her actions.

Why use real conditions?

I decided that having real medical conditions kept the story in the realm of believability. I also think to have these medical conditions adds another layer to my characters personality and gives the readers a better understand of the characters.

Thanks for reading if you have any questions feel free to ask and if you want to support me or my work you can donate to my pateron.

https://www.patreon.com/mosby

Work in progress meeting- How did it go.

A few weeks ago I had a WIP presentation for Black Voyage. Here I will talk about how it went and what I will be doing going forward.

The presentation itself when really well as I was able to explain and showcase my story in an effective manner. I also believed that the panel understood the story and what was going to happen.
However my beliefs were just misconceptions as when it came to the feedback it wasn't the greatest.

The panel did not understand the concept of the story or it's execution. This was disappointing as I have worked hard to make the story the best it can be. They stated that the concept was too much as some elements were over though.

The panel also did not like ideas's I had involving selective color. The main reason for this was because they didn't listen to what I was presenting and presented there own Ideas. I also could be that I didn't explain what I was doing well enough. I will now make sure my ideas I fully explained and understood and due to this I am unsure what they actually think of my selective color idea.

I now have this feedback and will take it into consideration when I finish Black Voyage. I am still going to use selective color as I worked in #0 and will enhance the story (in my opinion). The story will be reworked a bit, however I am not 100% convinced they hated my story as the panel member that hated the story got a bad review by me on their latest comic.

This panel meeting has given me the motivation to make Black Voyage the best comic I have ever produced and prove the critics wrong as I really do think Black Voyage is a good story.

Costume design research

Whenever a new comic,film or TV show is made, the characters have to wear a specific costume. This is really important when the events you are depicting take place in the past, as the costumes have to be historically accurate.

This post will be mostly about my costume designs but some of the information I take about might be helpful to any other designers.

The comic I am currently working on Black Voyage takes place in two different times. Issue 0 takes place in the 19th century, while issue 1 takes place in the 18th century. This means that the costume designs will be different for each issue as the fashion and trends were different during each century.

As Issue one takes place in the 1700s, I needed to research what people wore, which is easy enough when we have google. However, most if not all the clothing are on mannequins this to me doesn't give a full picture of how they fitted on a real person.

So my next step was the research TV of films that were set in the the 18th century, this allows me to see authentic clothing from the century and how they fitted and worked with the human body. There were two properties that caught my attention those were 'The Duchess' and 'Outlander'

These two franchises were perfect as there costumes represent the different classes and style of clothing as when you google search all the images are clothing belonging to the upper class. Outlanders costumes helped with designing costumes for the lower class and male costumes.

Below is a GIF of the moodboard I created from both these shows, to inspire my costume designs.

Now this seems like a rather long and tedious process for costume design you may only use once. Well it was, but from this research I found a better and much easier way of researching costumes that historically accurate.

I found a site hosts a wide range of costumes from films. The purpose of the site is a place of research on movie costumes. I found this site very helpful as they have a section on georgian clothing in films.

This is a great site if you want to research a particular period in time to give the costumes that historical accuracy or need some inspiration.

Here is the link to the site: http://www.costumersguide.com/index.shtml


Another way to research costumes especially historical would be at a museum, as then you will be able to create the right perspective and understand how it looks from a 360 degree angle.

Hope this has been in some way helpful or informative.