Still here. Still drawing!

Hey everyone!

Been a long time I know, and a lot of drawing has been happening, and I thought it was darn near time to update for you guys.

Although a lot of original work is being done, I'm giving you a fanart post as it's the most cohesive of the bunch.
So, for the majority of my time lately I've been messing around with a group of Kingdom Hearts related drawings (one of my favorite games, so no big surprise, right?). After some time messing around, I started putting together an RP to play with some of my friends (still in the works, I'll tell you how it goes). I began by creating worlds, some actual Disney, but also some original.

Like Cherry Tree Lane here. Base off of Disney's Mary Poppins. But I'm having fun creating a bunch too!

Like "Silver Screen Studios" where everything is Black and White and Sound is a foreign concept.

And of course, Briar Manor makes it's appearance as well, in one of my most successful attempts at the world construction that the game shows (I love those little things bobbing up and down on the maps!)

Along with these is a few attempts at keyblades as well. One was an instant success, and I'm still messing around with others.

Talespin! Who didn't want to fly around the skies of Cape Suzette fighting Don Karnage and his air pirates in the Iron Vulture??? Right? RIGHT?? This keyblade was drawn up at a convention late on night and I was instantly pleased with it. Still am.

Then there's Chim Chimney and Jolly Holiday created recently for Cherry Tree Lane. This pair would be a different sort of weapon achievement, meaning if it were in game, you would only be able to own one.
Then came the biggest one. The "Stations of Awakening" that are played through at the beginning of every game.

I started off by taking an image of one of the existing "Stations" (Snow White's to be exact) and in Illustrator, I outlined each section, starting with the largest circle inwards (getting some of these to line up was not fun). Then in Photoshop, I found a base color and just took sections of the inked image and adjusted their saturation. This makes my base. But I need a subject.
For those, as separate files, I inked Rose Marie from my Briar Manor, and many little images to fill the smaller circles. In Photoshop I put them into the existing template, and applied the same coloring method. Then came the "Stained Glass" look, I made a "clouds" layer, and motion blurred it, and set it as a multiplied layer over the colors.
The results:

And another for a Venice world:

Yep. Well, that's about the limit of the drawn work I've done for this. See you all later!

BREAK OVER. BACK TO WORK.

Hi everyone!

Sorry for the lack of updates, but I assure you, I've been busy this summer!

Today's post will be about Rose.
Rose Marie Briar - My little Southern belle!
 

Rose Marie Briar! And a puffy dress~

 Okay I admit. I love drawing her because of the big puffy dresses.
Now Rose started out as a background character that I created just to fill space. She never branched out past that for a long while...

 

And then Jeffery Sage came into the picture, and suddenly, Rose had a personality. Jeffery is a wise-ass of a Yankee who just happens to grate on the nerves of the proud and spoiled Rose (and truth be told, he does so on purpose). Playing these two off of one another has proven so much fun! I might post some written blurbs of their meeting in the future.

Now, as nice as a story is with a fine couple as these, Jeffery wasn't the only thing that sprouted off out of the development of our little Rose here. In fact, for a proper Southern belle, she needs a proper family line-

Meet the Briars!

Two older sisters (Lillian and Daisy), mother Flora, and father Joshua.
Following this was an extensive design of the family home (Briar Manor is still in last adjustment designs, I'll post that as the next entry), and even the beginnings of the little town they resided in (Somewhere Between, you'll hear of this every so often from me).

One of the longest projects (besides the town and house design), is the Briar family line, going back to just about the colonial era and bringing it down to the American Civil War.

This project is still under works for Rose's family, as it is difficult to track a family backwards in time, adjusting fashions, checking ages and death dates, and making sure everything runs as smoothly as it possibly can.

Well folks! That's what I have for you in this installment! Check back soon for A nice in-depth look into the house everything happens around: Briar Manor!

~Mark Thorne

Hey guys! Sorry for the lack of activity, but things are getting a bit busy on my end and ...

It's Summer. Whatcha gonna do?

~Mark

Coco... in the hay.

WHAT?! Mark?? UPDATING?!

Yes, world. It's true! I've been sketching a lot lately, but haven't had the time to scan it all! But tonight! TONIGHT! I have scanned 42 images from 3 different sketchbooks of which I shall share now!

Okay, so I'm only gonna share 3 of them.

This is Coco Medley.

For those who are familiar with her, this is not her normal garb. In fact, she typically wears something along the lines of this:

But one day, I figured I'd concentrate on her traditional village dress which up til recently had remained rather... bland.

Seen here, is my redesign of her dress (on the left there). This was done after some serious research of traditional dresses of North and East Europe.

Well, Although Coco will always have that bit of adventurous life to her... I can't help but enjoy drawing her in this dress!

As a bonus, I decided to add a small picture of the overall theme of her village (a village of Sheep Herders).

Well! Goodnight everyone!
~Mark

The 53rd Butler

A little side project has been running through my head a while ago. A funny little thought about a young butler, taken into service to an eccentric (and extremely wealthy) old man, set in the mid-swing of 1950's America.

The story is simple enough, but no matter where/what/when things happen (some of which completely throwing out "Why" or "How") it all goes back to the butler, Ralph, and his point of view of the people he encounters under the old man's employment.

Designing the characters has been interesting though, as I wanted to mess with small details, hoping to use those details to define the character. Now I started this project with the traditional mass of shapes and forms, of course (might upload those later), but here I am with details.

Although he fits the "Hero" standard, I used particular shapes to create a slightly different take than I normally would; Ralph the butler is constructed using primarily rounded shapes (A wide oval for his chest, and a more rounded one for his hips, following though with ovals for the rest of the anatomy), and I try to avoid any unnecessary sharp angles.

The particular challenge I've set for myself (and have had trouble sticking to) was his sloped shoulders. Every male character I've created up to this point had straight shoulder lines (adjusting as angle/reach would require). So Ralph's unique stature made things interesting for me to re-imagine posing (not to mention adjusting arm lengths). But his sloped shoulders seemed to make him feel... stronger (to me at least), allowing for his rounded chest to take more action, or for him to "Lead" with his chest when he runs/walks and so forth, without him feeling too proud.

Now the old man (still un-named at this point), is another challenge for me as this age group has been left relatively untouched. Face shape was an important bit point in his construction, as I wanted something uncommon, but still "handsome" (at least in his younger years). Body shape also played a big role as various different types resulted in different outlooks from Ralph's point of view.

But I ended up with a short, little man, with a rounded dome and squared jaw. The difference in stature and build created a contrast of character visually that pleased me, and developed an unsuspecting aspect to the old man's character. You never know just what the little guy will do.

Other characters will arise as I develop story around these two, and I shall post more as development happens. Meantime, I shall chastise myself for not updating as often as I should, and apologize to my watchers out there!

Til' later everyone!

~Mark Thorne

Costumes Costumes Costumes!

One thing I hear a lot about my work are comments about my costume designs for my characters.
In fact, this was one reason a good friend of mine (Noah Page~) approached me for a collaboration.

So following are some quick sketches I worked on for this project of ours involving some costume work~

 

Yep! It's always interesting to dive into this stuff.

Til' later folks!

~Mark

Oh dearie dearie dearie dear!

I've been re-reading "Winnie-the-Pooh".

Anyhoots.

I've noticed a particular lack of posting from last week all together! I must apologize.
*AHEM*
Sorry.

Speaking of books tho', a while ago I read the 700+ page book "Arabian Nights" (not bad, had some interesting stories, with plenty to compare/contrast with current popular re-tellings). This inspired me to revisit a little-drawn character I created for a small group forum-RP (in truth, there were only 3 of us playing, multiple roles, but the characters were interesting).
Some of you are familiar with Peterli? He was created for this RP (twice, with different groups each time, but same gamemaster). But in the second RP, I created a best friend for him: Beldev the Ifrit.

He's the second one in this picture here>

Well, as I was reading this book, Ifrits, or the general Jinn population, were overall described as having very extended, and often tight family relations.

So what does Mark do? I draws more!

His parents, older brothers (twins) and an older sister. I had more studies of the bother's dynamics. (still need to scan those in sometime).

In the meanwhile, this family (all but Beldev needing names), will be delved into slowly, personalities, personal opinions and so forth being all sorted out. You might see another entry involving them at a later point!

Til' then folks!

~Mark Thorne