Back in the spring semester, I took a course called "English Capstone." It's a required course to take for English majors, taught by rotating professors. So, no two Capstone semesters are going to be the same. I just so happened to take mine with a professor who's whispered about throughout the department as someone with some of the hardest tests to take. Incidentally, he's the Old and Middle English professor, and he adores Arthurian lore. The whole semester was based around the idea of adaptations of the lore, especially into movies. It's always nice when watching a bunch of movies is required for a class. And even better: this professor known for giving out 2-4 question exams declared on the first day of classes, "No tests!" Be still my heart! But then, "You choose your own final project." Free reign over a final project--or even just A LOT of reign over a final--can be kinda daunting. I immediately got my base idea: illustrations. Since the idea of the class was to explore adaptations of Arthurian lore, I decided to create characters that drew from the lore in broad strokes. In most of the Arthur stores, the characters all remain the same. There's always the Arthur, the Guinevere, the Lancelot, the Merlin, the Percival and the Morgana. My idea was to take these characters' stories, typical characterizations, and broad, overarching themes, and create illustrations of characters that could exist in a cohesive world that was not about Arthur and his Knights, but about a king, a journey, loyal followers, and more. So, I took existing original character designs that I had floating in a limbo of "no solid backstory or features" and put them in these roles. As I drew them, a more solid story started worming its way out of the back of my brain. As I drew, I figured it'd be really cool to maybe one day write the entire adventure as a webcomic. As it stood then, the only thing I had time for was a series of four illustrations of the main cast. Naturally, the first place to start at was the King Arthur analogue: There is so much about this picture that I love. The pose worked out, the linework is alright, and the semi-painted style was pretty fun to experiment with. Her clothes... yeah, they need some redesigning and recoloring. The sword is one of my favorite parts of it, though, simply because of how well it came out. All of these illustrations are somewhat rushed, I will admit, and I'd like to rework them in the future when I have more time to take care and really plan them out. When, you know, I don't have three other classes and research papers to work on. Since this is (or should be) my final semester, I'm hoping to get on to better illustrations around the new year. Alas, like I said, I started to rush them all as the semester chugged along. This was the only picture I was able to do the semi-painting style on. The rest, I used simple shading to help save time. I did the next two--the Merlin and Lancelot analogues--around the same time: One of the things that intrigued me about Merlin as I read The History of the Kings of Britain by Geoffrey of Monmouth was the symbolism in Merlin's prophecies. One of the first and most striking images is that of two dragons, one white and one red, constantly battling each other for dominance over the land. In all honesty, I'm still proud of the fact I was able to draw a dragon for this. My Merlin character is unlike Geoffrey of Monmouth's, however. She's unused to her power, a little scared of it even, and doesn't know what to make of her visions. If I were to eventually adapt this into a comic, it would start with her running off after having a vision, spending years searching for the one who would lead the nation(s) back into glory and righteousness. This is probably my favorite background in this series. I had this idea of the Lancelot character coming from a place of privilege, insofar as her race imposed their arrogance over others, ruling with a tight grip on their territories. The faceless figures turned out much better than I expected, even if the values of the colors are a little too close together to display properly on different computers. One of the things that constantly characterized Lancelot in a lot of the stories and movies we discussed was his arrogance and ego. Even when his unnecessary self-righteousness was out of ignorance, the Lancelot character always had that sure, focused mind. I think that's why his affair with Guinevere is so shocking and dramatic. Lancelot knows he is one of the strongest, most pure knights, so that sort of transgression would not only ruin his (and her, honestly) reputation, but also severely confuse him because he's never had much experience in sinning. The last illustration was the Guinevere analogue: Okay, I'll admit: this is the character I took the most liberties with. I just suddenly had this image in my mind of Guinevere as the leader of a rebel group, and it became something I desperately wanted to draw. Partly, I think, because Guinevere more often than not gets stuck in the role of "wife" and "queen" and is often a really static leg of the infamous love triangle. It makes sense, seeing as how the stories began at a time when women had fewer options, but it's something that always irritated the hell out of me. I knew I wanted to keep her in a position of power, though. If I go on to develop the story, I might even write her as the hidden heir to a kingdom occupied by the elves. Giving her a much more active role in the story was my goal, and I think this is the illustration that may excite me the most. Probably because I had so much free reign with the character... and because I managed to draw several other, fairly detailed people in it with a good amount of success. I would definitely keep the romance aspect of her, Arthur's, and Lancelot's characters if I expanded on this. Despite it most likely being a ripoff of Tristan and Iseult, written by a Medieval author as commissioned GuineLot fanfic for a countess, the romance angle has been accepted as an inevitable part of the Arthurian canon. If anything, it's due for some updating. In the end, my presentation did not go over extremely well. I didn't fail, I just didn't prepare well, and I didn't explain the idea of "adapting in broad strokes" as well as I should have. Honestly, I'm alright with that. I'd be less fine if I had failed, obviously, but I think the experience was and is the more important thing for me. This was a fantastic project for me to do, mostly because it let me be creative while working with some restrictions. It helped me coalesce some ideas and bring together what were disparate characters. The overall idea definitely needs some more thought, and I still want to update the designs and illustrations, but for now, I'm happy with where it is, and I'm proud of myself for accomplishing this series. Here's to more good ideas, and to further expanding my comfort zone! -EmilyParagraph
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So, I jumped aboard a bandwagon. That Mystery Skulls' "Ghost" video is really well done, tho. I thought Lewis, the ghost, looked a bit like Mike Chilton from Motorcity, so this happened.
I am a writer. I always have been, I always will be. Writing has been what's driven me since before I knew I loved it--storytelling, composing, talking fictions to myself. I had the best fourth-grade teacher, however, and from then on was able to focus what I loved and learn about it and expand my skills.
I drew and colored, too, as children do. But I never thought that I could be a great artist, someone who could confidently or competently draw or do other forms of art. I doodled. That's what it was, and that's kind of what it still is. However, when I got into high school, I met my best friend (well, re-met, but that's an entirely different story). She was and still is a dedicated visual artist. Whereas I was in the Creative Writing department of our arts magnet, she was in the Visual Arts department. As our refound friendship truly got going, I decided that maybe I could learn. I mean, I doodled after all, and I figured I couldn't get any worse. I'd certainly never get anywhere if I didn't try. So I did: |