Announcement
We would like to announce the end of collaboration between Design Strike UK and Studio Colrouphobia.
Apart from a couple of images done back in 2013 Studio Colrouphobia has had no further participation in projects proposed and maintained by Design Strike UK.
We wish Paul and his team the best of luck in his future endeavours.
It’s in the air tonight…
…Or somesuch.
Hi peeps, David here.
Seems like the studio is getting quite some attention lately.
Games Workshop released some books with art of mine, I managed to get some shares and features for two other illustrations, and last but not least, Natasja is painting an awesome “Apocalypse” , acrylic painting.
So here are some images to feast your eyes on. In no particular order:
(Original Acrylic Painting. Work in Progress)
(Tau Piranha, (c) Games Workshop 2015. From Codex Tau )
(Aearien, World of Warcraft Fanart)
(Ashur-Kai, Wh40k Fanart.)
Collaborators…it’s not just a dirty word…
So this week, I take the pen (keyboard) to write (type) a little about what goes on in the studio, and how we work together.
It might be obvious to us, mayhap not to those outside but we actually do work together and collaborate on a frequent base.
These collaborations usually do not show, as we both have our individual styles and our own individual ways of working, but it is very much a part of how we do things in the studio, and it is for the better of the art. Most of the time, it comes down to doing digital paintovers, or laying down concepts or composition, and not so much actually working on the piece both of us (though this does happen).
So today I will take you through one of those processes.
But first, thank you so much for the support after last time. We received commissions enough to solve our sour situation, and some fantastic pieces are almost done for it. Some were private, some will be revealed in public.
Process – Cetus
It all starts with a sketch. This can be digital or pen on paper, but for this piece, Natasja was painting it in acrylics on canvas.
So she laid down some simple strokes to show her idea.
The Canvas is 100x150cm big, and the lines have been made stronger by use of photoshop, so that you can see them on the image above.
After the lines are done, Natasja then talks to me and asks for advice on colours and if anything comes out as wrong. These sort of things I ask her all the time for my own work. It is easy to get blinded by working on something, and it is good to have someone you trust who can tell you when something looks wrong, or if you need to keep something in mind.
For this piece the design was Natasja’s, and I saw no reason to change anything (to be honest, I was very curious to see how it would turn out, because I liked the idea).
Basic background.
Natasja lays in a dark blue towards dark purple background, to set the scene as the pair moving freely.
We talked a little about tangents on the tails, but the lines where pretty clear and Natasja had a very clear idea on how they would be separated in the final.
The back creature gets its first colour pass.
Yes. Orange.
The contrast between the blue background and the orange creatures is quite well balanced. At this point, we’re just casually talking about the work. General questions and answers. There is no need to get further into it until the entire canvas has gotten paint on it, because the idea is solid, the colours work, and the anatomy makes sense.
The front creature has gotten its first colour, and the back creatures ‘tentacly bits’ as well.
This is the first point where there is active advice involved.
The top part of the above image is the photo that Natasja supplied me with. And the bottom part is my paintover in Photoshop to show areas I thought needed to be worked up.
As you can see, I added a lot of volume. This was already something Natasja had thought about, but I exaggerated it to show where the points were that I thought would be important.
I also added more light to the tentacly bits, and pointed out where I thought the lights would bounce off of their bodies.
So, the first above is what Natasja did with that.
She added some more shading to separate the tails, fixed the light bouncing off the skin from the tentacly things and made the ones on the smaller. She asked me for another paintover because ‘it doesn’t feel good’.
So I gave it the same treatment again- exaggerated shades, lights and reflections. I added a bit of rim light from the glow of tentacles on the other side of the big creature, a bit of extra bounce light on the snout area.
The entire focus of this paintover was on the snout area.
And the finished result?
Right here-
Cetus is up for sale.
For €679 + shipping and packaging, you can hang this on your wall. And it looks smashing.
Contact us if you are interested. The email is in the column to the right.
–David
The Cult Den Interview about Roadtojove.com and quick update.
A couple of weeks ago, Aaron and David did an interview about Roadtojove.com for the Cult Den, an online central all about comics, art, books, and entertainment in general.
The Cult Den has now ended it’s run, and as the website, nor the interview is available through there, Aaron and David decided to host it here, on Studio Colrouphobia’s blog, for future reference.
The interview was done by Liam Salt, who has moved on to another site (which one, he wouldn’t divulge on just yet) and we are sure he will do just fine there.
Without further ado, here is the
INTERVIEW
Interview – David Sondered and Aaron Dembski-Bowden
“Hey guys! Thanks for agreeing to be interviewed. Now, the first question is a kinda political one that I also asked of Patrick Freivald. I know these things can be a bit fraught, and there’s no hard feelings if you don’t want to answer… Anyway, here goes; Jedi, or Sith?
David Sondered: Sith. I’m too unbalanced for Jedi…
Aaron Dembski-Bowden: Jedi. Not that they were right (because they weren’t) but they were a dead interesting idea for a flawed, nuanced caste of a galactic society. They had tyrannical elements (like the ‘kidnapping’ of children) and their philosophies ran against natural human instinct, but that only made them more interesting. Perfect cultures are bori–
I just realised I was about to launch into a 3,000 word essay over a joke question.
tl;dr — Jedi. I like how well-intentioned but flawed they were.
Plus, green lightsabers are best.
Moving on…
DS: Coincidentally, I like how focused the Sith are/where, but with a mean streak.
While I’m more than happy to enter into a dissertation-length discourse on Jedi-Sith pros and cons, Aaron, we probably shouldn’t… So ice-breakers aside, care to tell us a little bit about yourselves and Road to Jove?
ADB: Um. My name’s Aaron, but various family members smugly introduce me as New York Times best-selling author Aaron Dembski-Bowden, which makes me cringe. I’ve written ten (ish?) novels for Warhammer 40,000, which I’ve loved ever since I was about 8. I’m working on some other stuff; Road to Jove is the first focused attempt to get some of my other ideas out into the world.
I like Marmite on toast. I collect Pez dispensers. I don’t like cats. I’m 50-50 on people who do like cats.
Road to Jove is a gestalt entity of a bajillion things that I love – like ancient world mythology – but on a meta-level (and yes, I feel like a tool even typing that) it’s primarily my love letter to Neil Gaiman, Stephen King’s ‘Dark Tower Series’, and the childhood epic ‘The Mysterious Cities of Gold’,
It was also a great excuse to work with David, whose work I’ve seen a bunch online over the years, and usually commented on with breathy, admiring swear words.
DS: So, I’m David Sondered.
Half of Studio Colrouphobia (which I run together with my wife) and the… visual aspect of Road to Jove. I make the illustrations for the comic, and I have been working as an illustrator for about ten years. The admiring swearwords where most likely coming from both ends of the canal at more or less simultaneous times, as I have been a fan of Aaron’s work since the First Heretic, which was the first Warhammer book I ever bought and read.
When Aaron first asked if I would even remotely have any interest in doing something together with him, I immediately said yes, without hesitation.
And I share Aarons dislike of cats, hence my family, of course, own one.. a magnificent beast called Khan… Just so we can call out “Khaaaaan!”. We balance it by calling our dog Balor… he has an evil eye and a mean odour…
Don’t all dogs have a mean odour? Ours smells like the back-end of a cow about 75% of the time…
DS: The cow died, crawled up our dogs backside, zombified and then died again… trust me.. there is a difference!
Ha! Fair enough! So, before I get completely sidetracked – what made you guys decide on a webcomic, as opposed to a more traditional publishing format?
ADB: I went into it specifically thinking “I want a webcomic…” since, well, I’ve kinda always wanted one – just like a million other writers, of course. It seemed like it’d be a simple affair, too.
How wrong we were. That innocent and wide-eyed optimism faded a little when I realised just how much work it was for both of us, considering we wanted it to be as good as we could make it.
DS: At the same time, the hard work has been very rewarding.
I really enjoy working together on this sort of thing. Just the conceptualisation of it all is an extremely rewarding process in terms of finding out what Aaron had as an idea, my spin on it, jumbling things around and coming out at something really worthwhile.
ADB: We’ve already had a few interesting and tempting offers to do it in a more traditional format (and a few of my writer/artist friends are yelling at us for giving it away for free, given the work that’s going into it), but we’re still trying to puzzle out where we stand on the whole deal.
I like the webcomic idea, though. It feels right.
DS: The fact that we also work very well on a personal level is a very rewarding part of it. But the webcomic format feels, to get back to that, very right indeed.
On paper, working on a comic sounds simple enough, but I imagine it can be quite testing? Has it presented many challenges?
DS: For me, personally, the greatest challenge has been the loss of detail.
I am used to more finished illustrations, to fit a larger format. In comic-form, a lot of the art has to be smaller, and consequently a lot of detail has to be dropped simply to be able to see what is going on in the panels…
Plus, I really like the setting we have arrived at. It really is our own thing, something new, and so I automatically have the urge to want to paint it all out. In a comic format this cannot always be done.
ADB: I admit, I cheated a little. I know a lot of comic writers, and Dan Abnett sent me some of his finished scripts, with annotations, to show me the ropes. So a lot of the problems I was expecting to have – like, say, brevity – were alleviated a little by seeing how it’s done professionally.
Truncating dialogue and description sounds like it’d be really hard for a novelist, but you have the huge boost of the visuals to do a lot of the storytelling alongside it.
Like David says, the hardest part is condensing the finished paintings into the panels. The loss of detail at times is pretty heartbreaking. We’re still learning exactly what makes a page work, as well. Sometimes the script has narrative beats at the end of every page, but fitting all of those panels onto a single illustrated update has been tricky. So there are rewrites, but not too many. We’re getting the hang of it. We hope.
We’ve got over a novel’s worth of notes right now, at about 150,000 words. We’ve only ‘argued’ over two things so far. The first was whether to ink it or paint it. The second was the shape of [DELETED NAME] the robot’s shins.
Now we’re friends again.
Friends in high places, eh? *takes notes for “how to succeed” at comics” article*…
Specifically for Aaron, has it been odd working on your own project, as opposed to working from an established IP such as GW’s?
ADB:It’s refreshing. I know that’s the most boring and obvious answer of all time, but it’s true. Working in IPs is a blessing and a curse. You have structure, and in the case of 40K it’s a setting that I’ve loved since I was a kid. I know it inside-out.
Working within the boundaries of an IP can be restrictive, though. That’s its strength as well as its weakness. As thrilling as it is to get to contribute to something you love, it’s also defined by specific boundaries – a lot of the things I like to read or would like to write about just don’t fit neatly into 40K, so I don’t touch them in my licensed work.
It’s an awesome change of pace to have no limits with The Road to Jove. I wouldn’t say either way is better; they’re two sides to the same coin. Sometimes it’s nice to be a hired gun for a cause you love. Sometimes it’s nice to create the cause yourself.
Have you found your love for, and experience of, the 40k universe cross-pollinating Road to Jove (so to speak)?
DS: It’s no secret that I love the background and visual aspect of Warhammer and 40k, but I think a lot of our thoughts with RtJ have gone to the extent of trying to not go towards 40k. People will draw these similarities regardless, because of who we are, but I think that we are moving quite far away from it.
ADB: I try to keep them separate, honestly. I’m aware of the potential for bleed-over, but that’s kind of the thing: 40K hits so many beats and claims so many narrative tropes within the huge sphere of its setting. Some things are just ubiquitous, like corrupted machinery or power armour, etc.
It’s not that any of it is unique to 40K, but a lot of modern sci-fi and fantasy tropes are so prominent in 40K that avoiding all of them would be impossible.
Basically, I just run with the story we want to tell, in the world we’re creating, and try to keep any 40K allusions out of it. Beyond the occasional similarities, I hope it comes across like chalk and cheese.
Aaron, by my reckoning that’s now books, comics, and a movie you’ve covered – any plans for a song as well to complete the set?
ADB: My singing literally tears the wings from the backs of angels. So… no.
Though I do sing ‘Sugar Rush’ with my 3-year-old about 800 times a day. I draw the line at ‘Let It Go’, though.
One for David – how do you go about your illustrations? Do you have a preferred method or style?
DS: When it comes to illustration in general or to the comic?
I tend to alter my method depending on what need be done.
For an illustration I generally do a somewhat tighter sketch, followed by lineart if the job demands it (it depends on which Art Director or who is commissioning it) and then I block in everything.
With Road to Jove I am a lot more loose with my panels.
I make really loose sketches, scribbles really. Things that make Aaron rip his hair from any place there still remains after seeing all my scribbles. After that I paint in the background.
For some of the things I have used a lot more reference. Mechanical things like pipes and so on, I tend to use a lot of reference to get the angles correct.
In terms of style, I am moving towards the style one can see among many of the amazing Chinese or East-Asian artists today. Ruan Jia, Fenghua Zhong, Min Yum. It can also be sen wiht some Western painters, to more or less of a degree: KD Stanton, Arnaud Pheu, The Black Frog.
This sort of painterly style is something I really enjoy, and it is starting to show in my art, specifically when it comes to Road to Jove.
But in essence, I am just trying to make it look good. I find that the grittiness works very well for The Road to Jove.
A related question from my editor – what’s an average day for Studio Colrouphobia?
DS: The average day- it’s different between us, since I do this more on a full-time level and my partner in crime is only doing this part-time right now. But this is the general rundown:
I do research and concepts in the mornings, for about an hour or two. Then, generally, I sleep for two hours. The past months, a lot of conversations have happened early mornings with Aaron as well.
At noon I get up and start with the things that are on my list for the day. This will generally be sketching, rendering or finer details of jobs we have on the table currently.
Later in the afternoon, I will do a bit of paperwork, then more rendering.
In the evening my wife comes home and after dinners and family things, we tend to get to our studio “the Library” and work on on different projects we have. We also have studio meetings, where we set everything up and plan ahead.
I then typically work on up until 2-3am local time, after which I will sleep for about 3-4 hours.
Inbetween all of this, I add in Road to Jove, a bit of going to the gym. Need to keep fit, in mind and body.
Wow! That’s a pretty packed schedule, then!
DS: It varies from day to day, but yeah.
There are also frequent breaks. Without breaks my mind melts and my hands cramp up !
Makes sense. I can just about manage one terrible stick-person before giving up! One for both of you – what’s your creative process like? Are you organised and methodical, chaotic, or do you just have an idea and wing it?
DS:For me, it depends-
Some of the absolute best work I do comes from a very chaotic point of origin, where a random idea, or even a scribble, will turn into the best I have produced up until that point.
However, mostly, it is pretty organised and ordered. If I couldn’t keep things somewhat ordered there would be no way to work for Art Directors all over the world. There need be some structure, otherwise you aren’t reliable.
I do, however, keep scribbling at a very high amount. It is one of the best ways to get and keep ideas for future things.
I am also a very Audiovisual person- I need music or some other sound-distraction/inspiration to perform at my best.
Thinking up things to paint, conceptualising, doesnt crave music per se, but when rendering, I really need it.
ADB: We’ve got into the habit of me sending scripts a few weeks in advance, and discussing the long-term storyline and future way ahead of time. David’s keen on the idea of seeding in references to later events or locations as early as possible, so I’ve had to dial back on my usual chaotic approach to just diving in and hoping it comes out all right by the last page.
Working with someone else has done wonders for my organisational skills. When you’ve got someone depending on you for information, you can’t just crash out early and say “I’ll do it tomorrow.”
A few times a week David sends sketches over and I offer feedback, but my comments are usually pretty brief, and more often in the form of “What about if we do…?” rather than “Change this”.
DS: Oh yeah, the working together part has definately upped my organisational skills.
Since this happen outside of the studio-budget, and thus mean I have to do it on spare-time to be able to keep my working situation bareable, I really had to focus on making sure I have schedules for everything.
It usually doesn’t affect Aaron at all, but only side, it is very neat and tidy in terms of when and how I work on Road to Jove, and when I work on other things.
I think, also, the different backgrounds we have, when it comes to dealing with telling story, mean that we have previously worked in a particular fascion. I like to know everything, or as close as possible to everything, up front. That way, I can leave visual keys or hints in my work. Aaron quite early on had to take on my constant questions on where would the story move next, how does it look there, and so on.
At the same time, the way Aaron has built the story and the pace is very intuitive, and I find that sometimes, not knowing what will happend next actually make me evolve.
Interesting! So co-operating has to some extent tamed your collective chaotic natures? I also find it interesting that David, you need music or something to work to. Personally, if there’s any kind of distraction, I’ll end up not doing what I need. Do you work to background noise/TV as well, Aaron?
ADB: Stephen King calls it “closing the door”. I do the same thing- I spend way too much on nice headphones to close the door to the rest of the world, and hear nothing but music.
It’s even more important now there’s a tiny version of myself walking around the house all day, breaking all my Space Marines and singing about Spider-Man.
DS: In terms of music, there are some characters that will appear that really come straight out of how a certain piece of music made me feel at a certain point.
It is important to know that whilst I do all of the painting, we actually create the characters, visually, together. I throw ideas at Aaron, but we always discuss the ideas and evolve the characters and environments together.
What’s you favourite piece of work – or the piece that you’ve most enjoyed working on/writing – so far?
DS: Without a doubt it’s [NAME REMOVED], an antagonist that will pop up before the end of the Prologue. I am enjoying that immensely. Aron knows what I am talking about, but lets not skip a head too much.
Cryptic. I like it!
DS: It is very cryptic, mainly because I cant even describe what he/she/it is, but the process of getting the concepts out there is just.. magic.
ADB: Briefly, two answers to that.
I love the panels on Page 5, where you see the Soldier from the Robot’s perspective, looking down at her, and the Robot from the Soldier’s perspective, looking up at him. I really love that contrast.
But I also saw a sketch today of a fight scene coming towards the end of the prologue, where decapitations are involved, hot damn that’s a thing of brutal beauty.
Awesome! Finally then, some quick-fire questions. Feel free to answer with as much brevity or verbosity as you please;
Tea, or coffee?
DS: Coffee.
ADB: Coffee, then tea.
Major influences?
DS: Paul Bonner, Wayne England, Rubens.
ADB: Robin Hobb, Bernard Cornwell, and Stephen King. I don’t write like any of them, but they all have elements that I love and learn from.
DS: Hah, cool, I like Robin Hobb as well, I didn’t know she was an influence of yours!
ADB: (She’s my favourite author. Look at how little we talk about anything except work. That’s dedication.)
True, single-minded focus, clearly!
Classic Rock, or Heavy Metal?
ADB: Melodic Death Metal. But not normal Death Metal. Never that.
I didn’t even realise there was a distinction…
ADB: (Don’t start another 3,000-word essay, man…)
DS: Ooh, difficult. I like both really, but if I have to choose, Metal.
Ranging from Sabbath, through Zeppelin, Maiden and onto System of a Down; Slipknot… I like most things, until it get a bit too …screamy. I like to be able to understand the lyrics, that’s about where I draw the line really.
Movie, or Book?
DS: Book. I enjoy movies, I like to get the visuals, but book always win. My own imagination is so much more wondrous and scary than any movie ever can be.
ADB: Circumstantial.
In the case of I am Legend: book.
In the case of Interview with the Vampire: movie.
In the cases of Watchmen and The Shawshank Redemption: both.
In the case of 300: neither.
Eisenhorn or Ravenor?
DS:Eisenhorn, but only because I (shame) haven’t read anything of Ravenor at all yet. I’ve read very little Eisenhorn too, but still..
ADB: Ravenor. By miles. And I’ve had this talk with Dan a bunch of times, too. Eisenhorn gets a lot of the breaks and one-liners, but Ravenor really, honestly struggles, and I dig that. Everyone loves Eisenhorn, and the reader gets to intimately see how “right” he is from his perspective, despite how breathtakingly wrong he really is in terms of the setting. I think, in contrast, that can make Ravenor incorrectly come across as less interesting or less informed.
Ravenor works harder, suffers more, and struggles to keep his warband together. Eisenhorn gets it all on a plate.
When Patience Kys and Kara Swole show up on Ravenor’s side in ‘Pariah’, instead of Eisenhorn’s, I immediately called Dan and hissed “Yesssssssss!” down the phone at him.
David, that’s not too shameful, if only because you’ve got so much awesome to look forward to.
Aaron, I love that answer, even though I disagree, and would like to add that if you’re ever short of monies, I’m always on the lookout for an inside man to help me ambush Dan Abnett and keep him in a “Misery” style situation, churning out new Inquisitor books for me. I promise there’s only a 40% chance I’ll betray you into a similar situation…
ADB: I like those odds…
And finally, Sci-fi, or Fantasy?
ADB: Fantasy on weekdays, sci-fi on weekends. Or vice versa. Either way, I’d like to see more of both on TV. And more daring examples of both genres, rather than the played-safe versions we get now.
DS: I like mixing things up. In fact, a lot of the visuals in Road to Jove are about that. I mix sci-fi with things like stone, cast-iron and wood. I love that.
So yeah. both.
Awesome! Well, that’s all the questions I had, but if you think of anything you’d like to add, it’ll be a few days before it goes up, so feel free to message me with them.
And once again, massive thanks guys! Both for the answers, which were pretty uniformly great, and for all the fantastic work!
ADB: Awesome. Thanks again, dude.
DS: Indeed, looking forward to it!
Aaron Dembski-Bowden is a New York Times bestselling author, and lives in Ireland. His works for The Black Library include The First Heretic, The Talon of Horus, and the Night Lords trilogy.
David Sondered is lead artist at Studio Colrouphobia, and has produced work for Fantasy Flight Games, Catalyst Game Labs, and Prodos Games.
Image from Roadtojove.com
Originally posted on TheCultDen.com
GENERAL ROADTOJOVE.COM THINGS
We are quite overwhelmed with the response we have gotten so far. We are closing in on the end of the prologue, after which there will be a break before the release of the first Chapter. The first chapter will be released a little faster than the prologue, and we are looking into options to bring it even faster. So bookmark the page is you haven’t already.
In case you hadnt already, go over and read aaron’s latest tidbits about the road to jove right here: RTJ FAQ: Acronyms ahoy!
GENERAL STUDIO COLROUPHOBIA THINGS
There are a few exciting NDA’s in he pipeline. and hopefully the items are published soon so we can showcase some goodies.
And for those of you who sponsor us through Patreon: The first Empyrean Champion is bound to be released the coming days: Oberon, king of the forests, is incoming.
https://www.patreon.com/StudioColrouphobia
(For the non-patreon supporters, Oberon will be available as part of our portfolio in just over a month)
Commissions:
We still have spots open for 100€ commissions. Feeling like you need an interesting piece of digital art? (Single character, simple background) Let us know! These kind of commissions help us evolve, quite often our clients give excellent briefs and have creative ideas regarding things we haven’t thought of. So take the chance 🙂
For anything outside of those specs, or if you need any information not covered here, go to the bottom of the About page and send us a message through the contact form, or just email us. The address is right up there, to the right of this post!
Please note that Studio Colrouphobia will not do any paid commissions based on any IP’s not allowing any reproduction and/or derivative work.
Will work for money…
Welcome back to Studiocolrouphobia.net!
This week we have some exciting news, a bit of info on Road to Jove and some sketches to show, so let’s dig right into it!
We started a Patreon!
After doing a little survey Studio Colrouphobia has opened up our first Patreon project!
What’s this patreon thing?
Patreon enables fans to give ongoing support to their favorite creators.
The best way of explaining it is through Patreon’s own video:
In short, so far the system is built so that you can pledge whatever amount you choose in a recurring manner. This means, for Empyrean Champions, that at the beginning of each month you donate a certain amount and receive your rewards shortly after. You can cancel your support at any time and you can access past rewards also.
Will I have to pay to see Your art?
Heavens no!
The result of each month will be available for anyone to see, but if you support it, you get a big lump of goodies. At $1 a month, you get to see the work about a month before we post it anywhere else. From $5 a month, you get to see all the work in progress files as well as receiving some kickass wallpapers made up from these illustrations. And the more you support the more you get.
At $20 you get digital sketchbooks and the fullsized version of the illustrations, for instance, as well as layered PSD’s.
This project will be a fun one, and we hope you will join us and support us as we build a pantheon of Empyrean Champions.
What are Empyrean Champions?
We’re glad you asked.
Empyrean Champions are characters who have a supernatural counterpart, an ethereal self if you will, that can manifest and fight for whatever cause the champion seem fit. These characters come from Fantasy, Contemporary Fiction or Science Fiction.
We set up a variety of backer rewards, including for those who wish to follow the process of creating the Champions, collectible prints for those who like to collect new art, and collaborative for those who want to add their spice to the worlds of Empyrean Champions!
Support our Patreon right here:
https://www.patreon.com/StudioColrouphobia
Some more info on Road to Jove
As you’re probably aware, our webcomic The Road to Jove is up and running, and we’re about halfway through the Prologue: In Crow Country.
We’re getting a lot of questions about it and Aaron thought it was probably time to shed some light on a few of the recurring ones. Firstly, thank you if you’ve been reading and enjoying it so far. The feedback’s been awesome considering how new it is, and how little we’ve promoted it through traditional webcomic channels.
So head on over to Aaron’s blog to read some answers in regards to The Website, Physical copies, Is it free, and How much do we update.
Coincidentally, Aaron and David had their first proper interview last week. Here’s their first RTJ interview with Liam Salt at The Cult Den.
Some sketches!
As you know Studio Colrouphobia is a two (wo)man organisation. Here are some sketches to show what Natasja has been up to in between commercial jobs:
Bast/Sekhmet- Natasja Sondered, 2015
Beetle mount- Natasja Sondered, 2015
Commissions:
We still have spots open for 100€ commissions. Feeling like you need an interesting piece of digital art? (Single character, simple background) Let us know! These kind of commissions help us evolve, quite often our clients give excellent briefs and have creative ideas regarding things we haven’t thought of. So take the chance 🙂
For anything outside of those specs, or if you need any information not covered here, go to the bottom of the About page and send us a message through the contact form, or just email us. The address is right up there, to the right of this post!
Please note that Studio Colrouphobia will not do any paid commissions based on any IP’s not allowing any reproduction and/or derivative work.
Thunderbolt and lightning (very very frightening…)
Busy days at the studio.
With deadlines passed and more work ahead, let’s take a break and look at how something comes to life.
A page comes to life
So as you know, Aaron and David are doing a webcomic together, the Road to Jove, and the prologue is being updated every Friday.
So how does a comicpage come to life?
In David’s case it starts with a loose sketch, based on the script:
After re-reading the script, David realise that there is one more panel on this page (note to any aspiring comicbook artists, always read the script proper, making sure nothing is continuing on the following page in the script!)
So another quick sketch is made, to make the panels sit better on the page:
After taking the sketch into Photoshop, some adjustments are made to make sure it fits on the page-template:
References for the backgrounds are found, if necessary (in this case, some references for abandon factories are taken from Google and own photos, to make sure all angles of machinery and items make sense), and the background of each panel is painted in:
Discussing with Aaron, it is decided that the figures are to be let out of the last panel, leaving only the crucified people and crows for viewing.
The figures are painted in and now all that is needed are the text-bubbles:
After adding in the bubbles a new page is completed, ready to be published:
Details vanishing
During the painting of this page, Aaron and David realised, for the first time, that the downside about the comic-format is that you need to be able to make sure everything reads. The viewer need to see what is happening, and sometimes this means removing details, or, a lot more time effective, not to paint in details that either removes clarity, or can’t be seen on the final page due to size.
Here is a visually good example of how “details” look on a finished and published page, in comparison to the original size:
The above is the final, published size. As you can see, the panels display the figures, and there are hints at details (click on the image for a full size view).
Here is the original size David painted it in (again, click for the right size):
A lot of the details are very rough, and some aren’t even visible on the published page (such as the markjings on the chest of the robot, which are barely seen on the published page, yet obvious on the original size).
So now you know a little more. If you wonder anything, just ask in the comments and we will try to help or explain.
Commissions:
We still have spots open for 100€ commissions. Feeling like you need an interesting piece of digital art? (Single character, simple background) Let us know! These kind of commissions help us evolve, quite often our clients give excellent briefs and have creative ideas regarding things we haven’t thought of. So take the chance 🙂
For anything outside of those specs, or if you need any information not covered here, go to the bottom of the About page and send us a message through the contact form.
Please note that Studio Colrouphobia will not do any paid commissions based on any IP’s not allowing any reproduction and/or derivative work.
Busy Bees
Road to Jove
In case you hadn’t noticed, RoadtoJove.com went live two weeks ago.
Meanwhile we are busy with commissions, private and commercial. This year might turn out to be the best one so far since the start of Studio Colrouphobia. Look out for things released later this year, beginning next year.
100 Euro Commissions
Here are two examples of how one of our €100 commissions could look (this offer still runs- Single character, simple background).
That’s it for now.
Tell us about interesting artists and their art!
Should you encounter a great piece of art or artist let us know! We’d love to showcase some more art on our blog. Let us know through the comments, Facebook page or Twitter Page (don’t forget to hashtag with #dontfeartheclown on Twitter!).
Commissions
Above you can see an example of our €100 commission-offer. For anything outside of those specs, or if you need any information not covered here, go to the bottom of the About page and send us a message through the contact form.
Please note that Studio Colrouphobia will not do any paid commissions based on any IP’s not allowing any reproduction and/or derivative work.
By Jove I think I got it!
Hi there!
As you might have noticed, it took us a while to get back.
NDA’s and Commercial work have taken a lot of time. As an effect, the blogposts have been on a break.
As a compensation for our absence, and to generate a bit of variety in the illustrations/sketches we produce, David has a special offer that will run until further notice-
One character on a very simple background, or two on no background (see examples below) for €100.
We charge €30 upfront and the rest upon completion.
This is for a digital copy only! (If you want a print of the art, we offer this for an extra €20, which covers the printing and postage, to be paid upon completion).
Road to Jove
So Aaron wrote a little about Road to Jove the other day and we thought we’d do something similar. But where Aaron mainly talked about where this came from in terms of story and script, we would like to share a (tiny) preview of the art that goes into it.
Leading up to the 6th of February, when we launch the roadtojove.com, we will be releasing some more teasers, but for now, here is a crop of one of the panels already created. It’s “the robot” seen from behind.
A crop from the webcomic Road to Jove, by Aaron Dembski-Bowden and David Sondered
Art by David Sondered, Studio Colrouphobia
Working together, directly, with a writer, has been refreshing in many ways. The input is very direct. The exchange of ideas and concepts, visual or in words (Aaron has mad MS Paint skills) are invigorating and is leading us to a very interesting point indeed. It’s coming together rather nicely, in fact.
Shortly the webpage will come up, we’ll let you know where and when, but until then, why not pop by the Facebook page of the Road to Jove? And while you’re at it, here is the Twitter account.
So keep an eye out on those two places, and right here, for more updates about the Road to Jove.
Tell us about interesting artists and their art!
Should you encounter a great piece of art or artist let us know! We’d love to showcase some more art on our blog. Let us know through the comments, Facebook page or Twitter Page (don’t forget to hashtag with #dontfeartheclown on Twitter!).
Commissions
Take a look in the beginning of this blog-entry! For anything outside of those specs, or if you need any information not covered here, go to the bottom of the About page and send us a message through the contact form.
EDIT:
It has come to our attention that some people really liked the sci-fi example image above.
So until our special offer ends, you will get to download the full image, for the cost of a tweet, FB-share,Google+ mention. Just follow the link below and it will tell you how it works.
You have our permission to use it for personal usage only, meaning that if you want to print it and hang it on your wall, that’s fine.
Below you will find the link to use
http://www.paywithatweet.com/pay?id=e6a5b96c-31e0-4a94-9073-cc4cf13ff003
Please note that Studio Colrouphobia will not do any paid commissions based on any IP’s not allowing any reproduction and/or derivative work.
Merry Teaser!
We hope that you are enjoying the vacations. There’s a treat for you! Follow the Road to Jove on the Road to Jove Facebook-Page Follow the Road to Jove on @theRoadtoJove or read the comic on roadtojove.com The Road to Jove is a collaboration between Studio Colrouphobia and Aaron Dembski-Bowden Studio Colrouphobia will return in the New Year!
The Holidays are upon us!
Season Greetings!
The studio will take a break for Christmas/Hanuka/Kwanzaa but will return after the festivities.
In the meantime, here is a quick update on Roboute Guiliman.
Enjoy!
Tell us about interesting artists and their art!
Should you encounter a great piece of art or artist let us know! We’d love to showcase some more art on our blog. Let us know through the comments, Facebook page or Twitter Page (don’t forget to hashtag with #dontfeartheclown on Twitter!).
Commissions
Unfortunately since the Holidays are approaching at light speed (non-Euclidean) we have no slots for private commissions this week
For more info and contact, go to the bottom of the About page and send us a message through the contact form.
Studio Colrouphobia 