ERS Art Book - Colin C Throm

[CCThrom]

Hello All,

Seems this is going to serve as an introduction as well a process thread. I’ve been a lurker for some time, but haven’t posted until today. There are a few familiar names though.

Empty Room Studios is putting together an art showcase book. I'm more of a traditional artist than digital, and my bread-and-butter seems to be pencil these days, so I will be turning an author’s brief into pencil linework, ready for a colorist. You can follow my progress here if you are so inclined. Heh, enough blather... my brief was written by the talented and versatile Andrew Schneider:

Dungeonpunk:
Man-oh-man, Darla– my wife– is gonna kill me when I get home. If I get home.
I used to be a teacher, see, until a mid-life crisis sent my stumpy bespectacled self packing. I should’ve bought the next model pegasus or had a fling with one-o-them nymphs. But nooooo, I had to go and join the Trenchcoat gang.
Safe and middle of the road, I thought– bodyguard contracts, caravan duty, the like– and stylish. I mean, I always wanted a trenchcoat. So I figured hey, a few years of low-octane excitement and then I’d retire off the spoils. Or that’s what I told the wife.
Which doesn’t explain what we’re doing in the Blight, largest stretch of urban dungeon this side of town, following some round-heeled half-elf chit with a treasure map and a pretty face. But being a junior member, I don’t get a vote.
Bolgar’s the Bruiser, by the way. Seline’s got the Fireballs, and Jes is the Sniper and door-expert. Me? I’m Max, the Talker. I’d say Lover but, again, Darla...
So when the dragon busts through the side of the building and sends half the team flying, I stare him in the eyes and give it all the chutzpah twenty-three years of post-pubescent crowd control can muster.
“You, sir, are in very deep trouble.”
And that’s when things got interesting.

The first step is thumbnailing, starting with at least 3 sketches… I focused on the moment of confrontation between Max and dragon… attempting to show both of them at the same time without losing too much of Max’s character, since that was such an important element in the brief. For me, the brief had a very “Shadowrun” vibe to it, but the final will not be overtly Shadowrun (unless I decide to put troll horns on the bruiser).

After some review and commentary (bigger characters and make the trenchcoats more interesting!) we settled on a further modification of thumbnail #3.

The next step will be working up a more thorough sketch. The main direction I’ve been given is to show more “crashing through the wall” and to make the dragon not so traditional. My plan is for a twisted/mutated dragon, probably with bits of metal grafting and cybernetics. We shall see…

If you enjoy this, check out Jeff Koch’s related thread right here:
http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=218863

And visit Empty Room Studios or the Tangled Muse forum, Thanks for reading!
http://www.emptyroomstudios.com/
http://www.tangledmuse.com/
http://www.ccthrom.com (my site is on development hiatus right now, but you can still see lots more work there)

PS - let me know if I commit any EnWorld faux pas here, thanks.

 

[blobsticks]

Good stuff Colin! When're we going to see the next stage? I love you fine pencil work and want to see it finished

 

[CCThrom]

Many thanks Scott!

I've got 2 other long-term projects to juggle at the moment... but my plan is to start working the sketch up at full size either this weekend or next week.

Should have a progress post by the end of next week-ish.

 

[CCThrom]

Ok, here we go. I had a good chunk of drawing time this weekend, and got kinda swept up in the spirit of the thing... so this has gone somewhat past the "preliminary sketch" phase. Still, should all be good. I still have some things to work out, and can still make changes. I tend to be a very immediate illustrator... don't like tracing paper and transfers... I usually go from sketch to final on the same piece of paper.

I'm working at 8x12 inches on plain smooth drawing paper. My tools of choice are a .5mm mechanical pencil, HB lead, and a "tuff stuff" eraser stick.