Page 13 - The Game is Afoot!

A Story–Tier 1: Ridley is cajoled by his mates to climb the infamous oak.
B Story–Tier 2: The Princess and the Old Woodsman trade stories. The Young Woodsman stands back.

As visual storytellers, Guin and I are trying to set up idyllic scenes in two different worlds on the same page. In Ridley's world, the colours are pastel and the sun is out. In the Princess' world, we play with warmer colours with the figures, but cooler colors in the forest.

As writers, this page is designed to mark the warmth and safety in both worlds. On the top tier, the kids are being kids–they feel indestructible (a common concept among kids). On the bottom tier, our players are obviously close. On the entire page, no one has a care in the world. Until the next page, that is.

Page 12 - New Year Resolutions

Welcome to the new year. The break has been eventful... travel through North Carolina (Hi Scott, Dave, Janet), travel through Indiana for Christmas, back to Savannah for the New Year (and new school year). Moreover, back to the grindstone.

It's always an interesting balancing act with things you have to do and things you want to do in life. Beautiful Scars is a thing we HAVE to do in life, and so welcome to the first page of 2010. And the theme of this page is Old Acquaintances (Happy New Year, all!)

Storywise, Ridley meets up with his mischievous chums by the Old Oak Tree. There is only one road leading into town, and these friends are going to be waiting for a new discovery that will be heading down the road. In the B story, the Princess recognizes the Old Woodsman and his apprentice. Obviously there is a lot of love here.

We use a graphic device to help separate the stories and in this page, I feel it really comes through... The black field separates the B story (bottom) from the A story (top). Until next time!

Merry merry!

A very happy holiday season to all of our readers. Thank you all so much for reading our blog and following our journey! See you all next year! There's mulled wine calling my name...

OUTLET Magazine

Whew, it's been a while since we've posted! I do apologize. We've been running around between multiple states, landing in Indiana to visit friends and family. We spent some time in the triangle in North Carolina with friends, ran off to a mini-vacation in Boone (frigid hiking!), and are now in the chilly midwest. Snow is predicted tomorrow. I am thrilled!

I wanted to mention that Durwin and I are featured in the premiere issue of OUTLET Magazine, a brand new publication in Savannah showcasing local artistic talent. We talked about Beautiful Scars, and there are some favorite pages showcased.

About them:

Founded by graphic designer Britt Scott and writer and editor Laura Clark, Outlet magazine is a not-for- profit publication offering Savannah’s creative community an open forum through which to view and display art of all makes and media. As a submission-based magazine, Outlet’s goals are to encourage creation, connect local artists and assist in the emergence of creative careers.

We're very excited to be featured alongside some fantastic local talent! Thanks, OUTLET!

Now, back to your regularly scheduled programming!

Page 11 - With an adorable dog, even.

Hello all you lovely people! I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. Ours was spent quite well, in the relative warmth of Florida, and it was a nice trip. Too much food, of course. 

This week in the studio, we're trying to get a lot of work finished before the craziness of holiday travel is upon us, and I think we'll be able to do that.

This should be a familiar page as well. The bottom panel is the first panel that we completed, I believe. It was such a struggle to get our style down, and to be cohesive, but it's been much easier since then, now that we know what we're doing. Heh. The top panel was much easier to create, since we took the tree form from the bottom and have a pretty good morgue of foliage going. We had to create that frickin' adorable beagle, though. Norman Rockwell would be proud.

Page 10 - Halfway and then some!

Wow! I was so looking forward to reporting our halfway mark, and now it's a spot in our rearview mirror. We're pretty far ahead, so hopefully we can stop working long enough to catch the blog up to where we are.

You might remember the top panel from this post, but here is the completed page. I love seeing the two panels side by side. It's a pretty darn good-looking page, if I say so myself. I love the close-up of the princess, especially with that dramatic far-away scene.

I don't have so much to say right now. It's been a lot of working over here, and my brain is a little fried. Last week was spent in Pasadena, with the Hartford Art School, and I got some great inspiration, especially with a visit to the Disney Archives. Original Eyvind Earle and Mary Blair pieces, right in front of me! So amazing. How could you not want to come back and work, honestly?

My dear counterpart just finished the quarter for the holiday break, so we're having some quality dual working time lately, and I'm taking advantage of it while I can! We'll be updating soon, though, so stay on the lookout!

Page 9 – A New Chapter

This page begins the story behind Ridley's scars. We wanted the book design to reflect both comics and children's books with these chapter breaks: the Knee, the Elbow, the Hand, the Forearm and the Forehead. A block of narrative text will connect the spot illustration to the panels underneath.

We started with the knee because EVERYONE we know has a scar on the knee. It's the price of growing up. The staging of the actors on this page is important, because we intentionally place grandfather and granddaughter apart from each other. They are cordial, but not overly affectionate. As we progress in the chapters, they will interact more.

Art-wise, I personally like their head shots–they both show a lot of personality. Maddie is cute as a button and when Ridley smiles it's like the sun peaking out of the clouds...