Moving to tumblr

Hi there!

I just wanted you know that I am moving with my production blog to tumblr. Or more acuratetly, I moved to tumblr. You can find the blog under this adress:

http://opera-comic.tumblr.com/

I think tumblr suits the purpose of this production blog better. And maybe it is easier to follow the progress of the comic there. And as I understand tumblr a bit as the twitter of sketchblogs, I am not so ashamed to post a bit messier sketches.

So, we'll see us on tumblr!

Test drawing Christine

After a long time, a new post. I was working on jobs, went to the bookfair in Frankfurt and the games fair in Essen. You can read about those in my main weblog Sara Otterstätter. Here is a small try out with digital media for the comic. But I want to pick up a page from the comic and work samples through. One sample in traditional media, one digital and a mixture from both. Then, I can better decide, what would suite better to the comic.

And I have started to refine the layout for the comic pages from the rough storyboards. More to come soon. :=)

Happy World Cat's Day!

Originally I planned to post the sketch a bit later along with other sketches, I have done. But I saw on Facebook that it is World Cat's Day... or something like this. So, I think, this drawing matches the subject very well. And I added another feature on Erik I though a long time about: FRECKLES!! As a ginger, he needs freckles. And I went away from the plan to do the comic in black and white. I want to do a colored comic. Maybe depending on the atmosphere with a reduced palette, but it would be a shame, if you can't see  Erik's red hair. :D

MDE - Me and my Fez

And after a long time a new drawing on "Modern Day Erik". Now, I have to become familiar with the new Blogger-template. It looks interesting.... Okay, this thime not directly "Modern Day Erik" but mor "Modern Day - the Persian" or as he is named in my series: Mr. Jafari.. In lots of Fanarts, the Persian wears a fez. But in the novel it is depicted, that he wears a so called astrakhan cap. Okay, maybe for the upcoming spring a a bit warm head cover. But I thought, it might be a nice idea to let him wear a fez and maybe to poke fun about this thing. And it seems to amuse Luna.

Another Test Drawing

Another test drawing. This was a rather spontaneous quick sketch I made last night. This time, done with Painter X. The tool for sketchy pencil is very nice. I think, I have a new favorite tool in Painter. :D

Painting technique test - Meg & Christine

This is a technique test. I have something bigger in plan with the "Modern Day Erik"-series. And now, I am doing a test for the shading technique. I want to stay with the water colour, but I want to reducse the greyscales. So, it shouldn't be as detailed as the previous illustration "Tea for you".

And this time I took the chance to draw Modern Day Christine with Modern Day Meg. Okay, maybe Meg looks a bit asiatic. But I like her this way. And as in the orginal novel her father wasn't revealed (as far as I remember), I think it is okay, to imagine, that her modern day father may be from China, Korea, Japan or where else.

Meg is the pushy one, who talked Christine into going to the casting for the TV-Show "Germany's next Idol". And while Christine is insecure and all: I dont't know, if this is the right thing, Meg is all: You go!! Or I'll drag you by your blonde hair into the casting!!

I'll think, this reduced style is the one, I want to do the next comics about modern day Erik.

Modern Day Erik - Tea for you!

First of all: Sorry for not updating the blog for so long. There were some happenings, that kept me from drawing on "Opera" or "Modern Day Erik". You know, it is sometimes in life, when you think you bought a ticket for a calm river trip. And when the trip starts, you figure out, that you are sitting in a rollercoaster consisting only of loopings.

Okay, here is a new drawing to "Modern Day Erik". Erik and Luna, his flatmate, meeting in the park with tea (for Erik), latte and chocolate croissant (both for Luna). They do it every now and then during lunchtime. And of course the dog is also around.

Modern Day Erik - The Persian

In the novel there is the character of the Persian or the Daroga, who roams also the Opera in search for Erik. In my "Modern Day Erik" series, this character appears a whole lot different to the original character of the novel. The main reason is, because modern day Iran is a whole lot differnt to old Persia under the reign of the Shah. In my version, the Persian or more accurately, Mr Jafari fled from Iran, when the mullahs came to power and his homeland became a theocraty.

 I can imagine, that Mr Jafari may have been among the students, who protested agains the Shah and who made the unplesant experience, that they were exchanging the pest with cholera. Now, he runs a Café in the city, were Erik, Luna and Christine live.

 I think, he may like Erik's company, because Erik speaks and understands the Farsi language. That's what I want to express with the drawing: Mr Jafari telling Erik something and Erik....ehrm.... not paying that much of attention....

Originally, the last name Jafari is the name of the persian greengrocer were my mother buys every now and then.

If you are interest in the situation in Iran, I recommend reading the graphic novel: Zahra's Paradise, that takes place in Iran during the great protests of 2009.

Modern Day Erik - Happy New Year

Have a good slide into 2012!! Luna and Erik are celebrating, too. Okay, Luna is celebrating. With Glogg. Maybe a bit too heavy. Glogg can be the seed of satan.

Luna: "Another one for mee!!!!"

Erik: *counts the available aspirin in the medicine cabinet*

The dog (its name is Shah): Mistress is talking funny again!!! :D

The Ladies - Character sketches

I have done some sketches of the female characters, who appear in Phantom of the Opera or in case of my interpretation "Opera".

La Carlotta - I have something of a person in mind, who tries a bit too hard
 to appear like a Grande Dame.

La Sorelli - I think, I make the ballett dancers a bit to thin  related to their time period.
 But La Sorelli is described as something swanlike. And as a drama queen, if I recall that correct.

Christine Daaé - Well, Christine again. In her modern day apperance.
But the character designs from my modern day series and Opera doesn't differ.

Meg Giry, Madame Giry and a random ballett girl. The sketch started as a attempt for La Sorelli.
But I thought, this looks more like a Meg. And Madame Giry is the Giry from the novel.
The Keeper for box five with some missing teeth.
Still don't know, if Madame Giry is that dumb,
as she appears in the book.

And again a little Luna sketch. Sorry for that. It is a modern day appearence.
And I made the sketch yesterday together with the Christine sketch in a café.
The face in the upper left corner didn't turn out, as I wanted. 

Character sheet #1

This is only more or less a collection of doodles, I made last night in Painter X

Some of the character designs or pretty much all of them are pretty rough. This has much reasons.

1. It's the first time after a long hiatus I drawed this chracters.

2. I am still not as good in sketching with Painter X as I am with traditional pencil and paper.

3. I have not really decided yet, if I want to go with a much more realistic style.And I want to redesign a lot of characters. My style has changed over the years.

But here we go with whith the known characters from the novel by Gaston Leroux. And my additional characters.

From left to right, upper row:

Raoul de Chagny: The viscount de Chagny is in love with singer Christine Daaé, who he already met as a boy, when he saved her scarf from the sea. At this time father Daaé was still living and told the two children stories from the north and about the angel of music. Raoul is described in the novel in a pretty androgynus way. Blonde hair, small mustache, almost the face of a young woman. I'll try to stick close to the description. And he is a mopey lovesick stalker. But I consider this behaviour pretty normal, regarding his young age. Erik, who behaves in a similar way, is much more creepy.

Louise Manot (Luna):  Luna is my own character, I put into the story. I have alread told a bit about her in this entry. Because she is a female character, this makes her one of the more complicated characters. Mary Sue alarm. So if you point out, that she is a Mary Sue, I am pretty okay with it, because I think, every fictional has something mary sueish or gary stueish going on. The difference is only, how clever they are written.

Christine Daaé: Singer at the Opera house. After her education at the academy she undergoes futher schooling through her angel of music. Yeah, she believes in angels, who speak to her through her mirror in her wardrobe. On the other hand, she wouldn't even today considered to be odd. Just look, how many angel channelers and angel believers still exists today. And Christine is only about 18 to 20 years old. I think, the real odd part is her foster mum Mamma Valerius. This person is so naive, you really rub your head over her.

Lower row from left to right:

The Phantom of the Opera and Cesar the horse: The Phantom of the Opera, Angel of Music or simply Erik. I gave in this sketch Erik the black mask and added Cesar, the horse. In one scene of the novel Erik steals one of the opera's staff horses the white gelding Cesar, who is refered as the Gray of the Prophet. The Opera's barn manager describes how a shadow jumped on the horse and went off with it. I drawed Erik raising his hand in a way like: "You have seen nothing, got it?!"

The Persian or just Daroga: He roams the Opera house a the beginning of the novel in a pretty similar way like Erik. So some of the staff think, he is the Phantom of the Opera in a different appearence. He knows Erik from the not so rosy Rosy Hours of Mazendran, were Erik killed off some people who were sentenced to death. He saved Erik from a similar fate and organized his escape from Persia. The Daroga was something like a police chief in Persia. So he was part of the regime under the shah. That's one of the reasons, why I never fully got his moral ramblings: Hey! You were also part of this regime!! So shut it and put your morals a bit aside. And on the other hand, maybe he would have got some more information out of Erik, when he wouldn't have got his moral ramblings and yelled at Erik. It wasn't really psychologically smart. The Daroga refered himself as a friend of Erik. I never had the feeling, that this was really the case. It was more like admiration and disgust the same time, what the Daroga felt for Erik. And this not really a base for something like a friendship. And as Leroux described in his foreword, that the Daroga was already very ill and had trouble to remember the story. So I have no reason, to believe everything, that is written from the point of view of the Daroga in the story.

Armand de Chatée Roge:  This is another character by myself. He is the manager of the Opera house prior to Debienne and Poligny. After he quit this job, he stays at the Opera house as a conductor. He is a former Opera singer, which may be a bit odd, because of his noble ancestry. But the house of Chatée Roge is one of the minor noble houses. And to be true, Armand don't give a crap about it. He stumbles more by accident into the happenings around the Phantom of the Opera. He knows the spooky stories about the Phantom. But who the hell believes really in ghosts besides some ballett rats, when they had a bit too much liqueur?!

A random Ballett rat.

Ramon de Chatée Roge: Ramon is the twin brother of Armand. Well, he is some sort of Don Juan. For real. He loves the women. Okay, he is a married man... But it is not an odd thing to have mistress. He is a pretty self centered character. When I have to portray him as an animal, I would choose an andalusian stallion. One of his quotes could be: "If I wouldn't exist already, somebody should invent me." Well, you are welcome, dude. A little side note: His character was the base for the character development of Nikolaj, a darkelven shaman from my second comic project Darkelven Tales.

And here is the musical support for this character sheet:

MDE - Happy St. Nicolaus Day

Just a small introduction to the ones, who are not familiar with St. Nicolaus Day. It is the day here in Germany (and some other european countries), were St. Nicolaus brings chocolate, sweets and other small gifts to the children who put the night before their polished boots in front of their doors. It isn't a official holiday. But many still do this custom with the boots filled with gifts. And because "Modern Day Erik" takes place in Germany (Just because I am most familiar with the modern insanties in Germany...). 

Funny note, until today, I can only think of St. Nicolaus as a differnt guy from Santa Claus, who is refered in my family to as "Joulupukki" which is the finnish word for Santa Claus. And I am very sorry to my american readers. But I have to say it: The real Santa Claus lives in Lapland on the mountain Korvatunturi (which means "ear mountain"). And from there he hears all the children in the world. Well I don't know, who the guy up there at the north pole is.... Maybe, maybe it is Joulupukkis twinbrother with the same job or it is the same guy and he just has two workshops!! One on the North Pole and the one (and main, of course) at the Korvatunturi. 

But aside from this. I hope you like this MDE-episode. And for all, who are not familiar with the Phantom of the Opera. It is basically a story about an ugly musician, who falls in love with a beautiful young singer. And who stalks her.

Sorry for the delay

Sorry for the delay in the blog. I am working at the moment on another illustration jobs and hadn't the time to work on Modern Day Erik or the main comic. But the job will be finished soon, And I will show more on my project. In the mean time you can get a climpse of one of Erik's cats in his household. 

Sketchy Monday - "Trick or Tr...."-Sketch

This time on "Sketchy Monday" a sketch to a "Modern Day Erik"-Episode. In this case, the Halloween-Page: "Trick or Tr...."

The final page was already rough. But the scribble is even messier. But sometimes it is easier to get the expressions in the faces. In this case, I like Erik's expression here a bit more.

Modern Day Erik - Living Corpse vs. Zombie Boy

I already mentioned Rick Genest or the Zombie Boy in my first entry about Modern Day Erik. I personally think, this is an extremly interesting tattoo he has. I think, he got some of the inspiration of an old irvory sculpture depicting a corpse in an advanced state of decomposition. Along with cadaver insects crawling over it. I figured out today, what this little humps on Genest's brain part of the tattoo are meant to be. Exactly those little insects. Unluckily I figured this out, while I was eating and looked at a print, I used as a reference.

Okay, I somehow loke this concept of the tattoo. But this is not "Modern Day Sara", this is "Modern Day Erik".And his opinion is far different. I can imagine, that Erik will be weirded out to just flatly pissed off, by Genest's appearance. A point of Erik's character is, that he yearns for a normal face. And this Genest guy get a face tattooed on his normal face, that make him look like a cadaver!! That is really some sick kind of charade, isn't it?! It would be really a weird kind of meeting between them. I am convinced about it. Here is again the picture, what my character design of Erik looks like without a mask:

And again a small disclaimer (because sometimes I have the feeling, we live in times, were everyone gets offended by everything): No, I have nothing against Mr. Rick Genest, as hopefully explained above, I depict not MY opinion about his tattoo. I try to figure out, how a fictional figure with this exact cadaverlike appearance of Mr Genest reacts to him.

Sketchy Monday - La Carlotta

Sketchy Monday again. And here some bits from my storyboard. The first two pictures belong to each other. The third is from a bit later scene. All three show La Carlotta in all her glory. I don't want to show her as a fat ugly bitch. Actually I envision her more as a quite attractive woman in her mid 20s, early 30s. And she doesn't sing awful. She had her not that small fanbase. And they couldn't all have been deaf. I think, her 'problem' is more, that she sings after the notes. But without passion and soul. My idea of her is more of a singing automaton, without any own interpretation of the music. Nice, but nothing really remarkable.

La Carlotta - Diva and total drama queen

La Carlotta - not necessarily a fat bitch

Character sketches: Luna Manot

Originally, I planned for today another episode on Modern Day Erik. But I got hit by a drawing blockade. I am having the ideas and all. But not the nerve, to put it on paper. Which is quite unnerving. Okay, I made a storyboard for an upcoming episode. But that is really messy. The messy style, were only the drawer sees, what is meant to be shown. And even that not all the time.

So, I decided to show character sketches. Oddly enough, I didn't start with character sketches of Erik, but with his friend (in a non sexual way) Luna. Luna's name is actually a nickname, dedicated to her crescent moon mark on the cheek. Her real name is Louise. You already met her, in the "Trick or Tr...."-Comicstrip, were she appeared as some sort of goth girl. She is not really a goth, but she like odd costume ideas. And this costume idea was "Goth girl, who get killed off first in a slasher movie".

In the "Modern Day Erik" Comics she is Erik's flatmate and works as a photographer. In the comic project she is -as already mentioned- a friend to Erik, works as a singer at the opera house (nothing remarkable, but it pays the rent). She and Erik met each other already, before Erik went under the Opera house.

Sketchy Monday - A bit from the Storyboard

So, I thought, I should start "Sketchy Monday". On Monday you will get to see random sketches, bits from my storyboard. Because I do not want to give away too much of the story, only the pictures without text. Okay, lots of my readers here, won't understand the text, because I write the textes in German. :) But I hope, the sketches keep you interested. As sketches are, they are rough and messy. And only with the Otter-Stamp, it is the real deal!

Modern Day Erik - Tea, Turtleneck and Cat

I had this blank page with letter-paper glued on it. It's not really good for watercolors, but I like the illustration. Erik may look a bit younger related to the previous drawings. But that is not something, I would consider as a mistake. I still envision Erik as a cat person. But it doesn't necessarily have to be a siamese cat. Since Susan Kay's novel the Phantom it has become some sort of fanon, that he always owns siamese cats. But there are also so beautiful domestic cats. Especially the red tigers X3

The writing on the cup says: "Undead".

Modern Day Erik: "The Music Geek", "Stranger Danger" & "Oh, Christine"

I dedicded, to post the first three pictures about my "Modern Day Erik"-Series. So, they are all complete in one blog.

Modern Day Erik - The Music Geek

 This idea started my series of "Modern Day Erik". I stumbled one day over the facebook profile of a webcomic artist, who runs the profile as Erik. And Erik or more likely the artist wastes his or her time on playing Sims. And this while writing in the role of Erik. This arose the question in myself, what would Erik do in our times. Certainly not playing the Sims. I thought, that it would be more likely, that he would look through antiquaries on the hunt for rare and exquisite recordings. Erik would still cause lots of attention. But compared  to lots of Body Modyfication Artists, he looks rather normal. But yeah, there still would be lots of people who would be irritated. Just like the little girl in the Background: "Mommy!! The man wears a mask!! Why wears the man a mask?!" And the mom is just like lots of other parents: "Yes, dear. And he said what?!..." Failing in multitasking.

Modern Day Erik - Stranger Danger

This was the second picture. Commenters on Deviantart suggested, that Erik would still cause with his apperance lots of attention and fear. Especially in post 9/11 times. In my opinion, it depends, where Erik lives. Maybe in Europe the situation might be different to the situation in the USA. Authorities wouldn't see a threat in Erik. He isn't a radical muslim, he doesn't belong to a radical group from the left wing. And most importantly, he has a far too prominent apperance. But this won't keep his paranoid neighbors from calling the police, every time, Erik walks the dog. 

Modern Day Erik - Oh, Christine....

And in modern days, Erik still loves (or is obsessed with) Christine. To add a bit more drama, I think, Christine would make a good pop idol singer. Something like the early Britney Spears or even Miley Cyrus. And I think, this would give Erik enough reason for an extra deep sad sigh. Besides, the dog doesn't belong to Erik. It is Luna's dog (the girl with the knife in her head and the bat earrings in the "Halloween"-episode). Luna is an original character. And she will appear in the planned comic "Opera", too.