Sorry about not completing it on time, I fell ill on the 30th, they will all come out over the next few days once complete… and I find a new sketchbook. Yes, I filled a sketchbook with 24 days worth anyways, back to the post…
Inktober 2017
This one got me thinking a lot on where to go with it. The Professor I hadn’t actually given to a specific character yet. Nevertheless I still need to design the place they’d do the research. So this will be the theme for today’s challenge.
I’m also getting increasingly worried that I won’t finish this challenge on time, so I’ll do as much as I can, it just may have to overrun a smidgen.
Day 24 – The Professor
Way back when I first had a solid idea for this story was when I went to Jamaica in 2015 with my family. I wrote a small section on it in an old abandoned blog of mine that I used to have called Through the Magnifying Glass (you can look for it but it only has like one post). Regardless, so I wouldn’t forget, I wrote the small section. Copied it over here for context.
“This case was inspired by my recent holiday to Jamaica and dedicated to our chatty tour guide.
We booked a trip to Black River, which also included several other stops. We had a tour guide named Alex, who decided to fill the long journey with information and stories about himself and Jamaica’s culture and history. Whilst chatting about not having a passport, wanting to go to Scotland, trying haggis and getting a kilt because of his surname, he mentioned a historic story about when the British took Port Royal from the Spanish. He told us about a pirate named Henry Morgan, who was named an Admiral of the Royal Navy by the British, since they themselves were unable to capture him. This allowed him to lawfully raid Spanish ships and settlements when they tried to go to the harbor. Because of this, Port Royal itself became a very rich town, and named the “Wickedest city in Jamaica”. The pirates betting, using services and spending lots of their money, was mainly why it was given this name. The city itself was lost in an Earthquake in 1692. The whole city was lost into the sea, as the sand itself became like quicksand, swallowing most of the buildings and killing a lot of people. This left all of Port Royal’s riches and buildings underwater, where research teams have been mapping, gathering and documenting it.
This story inspired and intrigued me to research it more. I soon found out as much as I could, including discovering some of the pirates names and characters being inspiration for story lines in Pirates of the Caribbean, a much loved film of mine. This became all the more reason to use to start up my blog again and created a story line which i’m still developing.”
Using this knowledge I had gained, the Burning Man would occur in Jamaica. So I used that idea to start a ‘research centre’ set design. Sadly can’t tell you too much about this either due to spoilers. Instead, I’ll show you what I found on Pinterest.
Since Jamaica has a rule on the island which is you can’t build higher than the tallest Palm Tree (pretty cool rule if you ask me) then the research centre would be quite small. More long and elongated than tall.
I had a look around on Pinterest to try and find angles/perspectives and see what one gave the nicest feel towards the look I was going for.
I liked the idea of using Tortuga as the island they maybe worked on. Or a nearby neighbouring Island close to Port Royal. I would also expect Tortuga to be in the Sphere, since it played a part in Port Royal’s history.
With the ideas set it was time to combine them all into a sketch.
The Drawing
Thought I’d give Google Earth a go to get a better perspective to draw from Tortuga… turns out there really isn’t much street view at all on the island. Only a photo sphere. So I just did the best I could do using the compass and 3D for the angles I wanted.
Using this I roughly marked out positioning and places with a 4B to start and adding the research centre areas in.
I then went in with some colour, adding accents of green tones within the mountains and layers of blue within the sea.
I then used a bit of water and paintbrush and manipulated the colour to suit the landscapes.
Then, using the markings from the water colour as a cheaty guide, used the ink to add in the directionality and add more dimension and shape to the mountains with 0.8 and 0.6 fine liners.
Looking back, I would kinda like to include more details within the research centre. However, due to the angle of the sketch I decided to eventually do, that wasn’t really possible. So I intend to go back to it at some point to put more detail on it when it’s featured.
Until next time.
HaB_Art
____________________________________________________________________________________________
Inktober List I used: http://memesforartists.tumblr.com/
Reference Images:
- http://stephendanko.com/blog/15617
- https://pratosetravessas.com/
- https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/341569952981095014/
- http://www.caribbeantravel.com/caribbean-islands/haiti
Pinterest board for Inktober: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/beardhelena/inktober-2017/
Pinterest boards for my character references/influences/ideas: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/beardhelena/character-idea-inspiration/
