8 Seconds to Mayhem – Character Sketches

Well howdy there, fellow cowpokes of the Holmes Inc. ranch. We got us some rootin’ tootin’ initial character designs from Danny for Kathleen’s rip snortin’ rodeo mystery!

I fer one, wouldn’t want to be caught alone kin a box canyon with these here rodeo clown varmets.

And here’s a passel of secondary character studies to fill out the rodeo.

And finally we have a first pass at Edgar II as a cowboy. Dang! Don’t he look fine?

Ty and agree that Edgar looks amazing. Story wise though, we need some more flash to the clothes so he can still embarrass Elizabeth off the top and end up totally winning over the crowd.

These designs are an 8 second ride, Danny. All of a sudden I can picture Edgar in an entire western mini-series. Excellent work!

-Pinc

Trey and the Argentine – Character Turnarounds, Location roughs

Hey there!  More sweeeeet Holmes Inc. goodness to inspire us all.

This time we have Christopher’s turnarounds for the major players in Darius’ lusty tale of Latin hi-jinks,  “Trey and the Argentine”.

Let’s start with our villain – the mysterious, millionaire thief, Gabriel. This handsome cad certianly brings the South American heat!

Next up is Ryan, who cleans up real good for the ball.

And now for Trey, who’s lookin’ mighty fun in her evening attire!

And Chris finishes it out with the sketch above of the ballroom/mansion – the perfect setting for a tempestuous tango – and a revised sketch of the chapel for the final confrontation.

Nice work Chris!

– Pinc (Rob)

Green Blooded Murder – Young Edgar and Dr. Churn

Hello all. So sorry I had to miss Wednesday’s class. But the revised scripts and sketches that have been flying in have helped me keep my Holmes Inc. mojo going!

Rain has done some initial designs for Marshall’s “Green Blooded Murder” tale of mayhem and revenge.

First up is young Edgar.

As Rain says, “As requested, he’s drawn in a Holmsian overcoat with “poufy” shirt underneath. Although he looks like a cross between John Pertwee and Bea Arthur, I think it communicates the basic direction Marshall wanted for the outfit… although I think it needs more detail.”

Wow.  Is it possible Edgar looks even more pompous as a college student?

Ty’s initial response?  GORGEOUS!

Rain let us know that Marshall wanted the overcoat for Edgar’s present-day adventure in New York and we may also look forward to a scarf as well. A touch of the old Tom Baker?

Next up, Rain shared a quickie sketch of the main baddie – the renegade Dr. Churn (despite a small mispelling on the design itself.)

For me, I am liking the small details like the pin-stripey pants, the hospital ID tag, and the somewhat menacing, bushy eyebrows. A very distinctive villain, Rain.

Comments are encouraged!

Pinc

The Family Name – Ashton Crawford turnaround, Brain Booster Machine and Mercs!

Hey there fellow Holmesians! We have some more preliminary designs from Daniel Wong for “the Family Name”.  My first comment was simply “Wowsers”!

First up, a turnaround for Ashton Crawford – the man who collects only the rarest of articles. His suit would put Edgar II’s clothes to shame. Complete with wash tones!

We also some gloriously tough looking mercs for the Homes clan to lay a beat down on!

And finally, Daniel has also done an initial concept sketch for Ashton’s Brain Boosting machine!

As always, thoughts, suggestions and comments are encouraged!

Cheers,

ROB (Pinc)

Spider Queen and her King Spider

We’ve got some preliminary Mind Spider magic from Dawnsen and I can’t wait to share it!  Ty will weigh in with his masterful thoughts later so you’re stuck with me for now!  I am pretty thrilled overall!

This is an example of how we can all push each other to new heights. Dawnsen mentioned he was inspired by the early Spider Queen designs and incorporated aspects of them into his version.

I’ve already told Dawnsen this, but my favourite thing about this design is that while the Spider Queen is quite obviously vile and spider-like, her face maintains enough human characteristics to convey a wide range of emotion and reaction. That way Dawnsen can get a real performance for the character and make her really expressive. But she’s still plenty inhuman and freaky too.

One delightful addition: Dawnsen has added some spines on her back, figuring that’s  how she would connect to the web and give orders! Now I know what my final clues have to reveal!  Thanks for solving part of my writing dilemma, Dawnson!!

Dawnsen also has some preliminary giant spider designs. So the awesome never sleeps here at Holmes Inc.!

ROB (Pinc)

 

LOTS of activity! LOOK AT THE PULLDOWN MENUS ABOVE.

We’ve gotten MOST of the scripts in… either story map or synopsis form, and the mighty Rob Pincombe and myself have spent a bit of time gathering what we have, and trying to get it organized and easy to find on this website.  With luck, we have the most recent form of everyone’s scripts up, with the notes that were most recently given out.  Look above to the pulldown menus on the right (7 pagers and 5 pagers).

The artists for each story should really get their hands on their scripts in this half finished form and start thinking about what it is you’ll be drawing to get your story bibles up and running in the next week or so.  The writers:  You’ve seen your notes, but it’s good to see other people’s…it helps to find the groove of this series and the editing process to see the editing process done to colleagues.

IN general, I’m WOWED by how well this is coming along, especially since we’ve literally doubled in size from last year’s issue.  At twice the size, we’ve managed to up the game as well, which is impressive.

It makes for much enthusiasm at this end.

———————————————————–

Speaking of enthusiasm:  We’ve had even more design ideas arriving, especially on the Spider-Queen character.  (Dawnson, you’re getting a raft of help from eager designers, and I hope you can incorporate some of this great work into your final turnarounds).

Our next Mind-Spider-Queen comes to us from the already prolific Rae Wells,

Eurgh, that's creepy-tastic.

Not to be outdone, we get another Spider-Queen from Derek Herd…

Ghoulisious I believe. Darn, now I'm starting to sound like the Crypt Keeper.

Derek also sent us this magnificent shot of the Deerstalker in flight…

And Rachael sent us a couple of sketches of the monsters, and machines that populate our mad world.

A version of the emotion lamprey from POLARIZED.

Next:  More Monsters:

 

A graceful version of the monster from IGOPOGO.

and one last devilish machine:

 

I believe this is a take on the device that doesn't work from James' "FAMILY NAME"

WOW!

Okay, as I said, Wednesday night, we’ll figure out who is designing the common items we need for this round, such as the environment suits , the water transportation, etc.) But these designs are a delightful head start, and a rich well to draw from as various creators create their bibles.

Ooooh, getting fun.

Ty the Guy

Some lovely artwork to see!

Hey folks – Holmes Inc II is already generating artwork and the scripts aren’t even past story map form.

We’ve been getting some of the scripts in synopsis form, and I sent out a bunch of notes (from both Rob and myself) about where they need to be tweaked before the story maps on Wednesday.  A map should only take an hour or two to create, once the beats of the story are well set, and we’re closing in on setting the plots in stone for about half of the book already.

And speaking of already, we ALREADY have some design work from Rachel Wells and Daniel Wong, even before the design assignments are finished.  (I figure we’ll hand those out at the meeting on Wednesday).

But since their enthusiasm spilled over and grabbed their pencilin’ hands, I figure it will continue the enthusiasm to show everybody what we’ve got brewing already.

First up is a Mind Spider of Madagascar from the mind-spider of Daniel Wong.  The artist assigned for the story is Dawnson Chen, who will, no doubt, have his own interpretation of this character…but there’s a lot to use here as a jumping off point.

In general, the group-design work will be for outfits, gadgets, aqua-equipment and exo-suits that will run into more than one story (the environment suits from the Reef Pirates, might be useful for the Igopogo and South Pole stories, for instance).  And we’ll try to keep everyone working on their own respective main casts and locations for the story bibles (plenty of work there regardless!)

Speaking of common characters, Rachel Wells has offered us a turnaround on the last of the continuing cast from last ish, that DIDN’T get a design pack.  Ryan was only in Eden’s story, so he never got a full turn for the group to reference…and Rae has supplied it!

I think Christopher Yao is doing the story that includes Ryan this time out, and he’s jumped ahead in his story bible by having this handy.

Until Wednesday, we’ll hold off on new designs, though.  Unless we’re getting bible pages from the already assigned artists, we’ll let the story artists do their own bibles.  Wednesday, Rob and I will have a list of things that need common designs (much of that list was already mentioned above).

I’m hoping to see finished story maps on Wednesday, but for those of you still playing with story elements, you might get one more quick draft asked for after Wednesday.  Let’s aim to have all the story maps up online by Friday of this week.

A typed up story map should look like this by the way:

——————PAGE ONE—————-SIX PANELS—————–

1)  The team arrives in the aircraft hangar, getting off the Deerstalker.  Trey says “Hey, let’s have tea!”

2)  They move into the kitchen…conversation continues about price of eggs.

3)  There’s a sound from behind the fridge, the team is poised to deal with it.  Artie makes a joke.

4)  It’s only the household cat “LeStrade”

5)  Trey picks up the cat and pets it, smiles all around.

6)  The noise continues…it’s not the cat.

—————–PAGE TWO———-etc.

 

Nothing overly complex, but all the beats worked out, and bits of dialog hinted at.  You know….MARVEL STYLE story maps.

See you all Wednesday.  This is coming to a boil…..WHEEE!!

 

The Surveillance Van

Here’s the design for the van as drawn by Rachael Wells.

NEW DEERSTALKER MAIN CHAMBER DESIGN

By Adam Gorham.  I love the new designs, Adam (Ty adopts BAD COP attitude)  but now I need some pages of layouts from your story.

(Now, the good cop)  These are great, and I hope anyone can be moving onto final layouts with these cabin designs.  Gibson and Alex, I think you guys have the Deerstalker in your story, any questions?

NEW DESIGNS for the OFFICE and the TRANSPORT

From the mind of Jeff Rusland.

Sherlock Jr’s office.

THIS is the office of a well traveled, and highly eccentric man.  I love everything about it except the bear skin on the floor.  I admit it gives the room a lovely feel, but a) it steal focus and b) it’s politically incorrect in this day and age, and a savvy host wouldn’t have one out in a public room like this.    I’m thinking a Persian rug, or perhaps a set of two or three steps from a sunken area where one first walks in.  That gives the desk a literally elevated sense of power (as long as it’s subtle, and not about a desk on a pedestal).

We are starting to get the sense of these people  now.  I love this room!

NEXT:  Jeff does a lovely version of the TRANSPORT vehicle that gets the old guys around town.

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