Weekly report

One page then another.

What have I done?

This week I have made great strides with Brightspirit. I have almost finished colouring chapter 3. I know, I only started last week, but I've been hard at it and have done some solid work.

I've done lots of dark and moody corridor scenes. I've done bright, outdoor scenes. And I've done slightly more abstract and atmospheric scenes. This chapter is where the characters enter the realm of the fairies and I wanted it all to have green overtones. It's not quite worked and everything is actually gold tinted, but it looks good. I think I will have to lighten some scenes and make others a little less bright, but generally it is pretty much where I want it to be.

I do however need to add sound effects and some extra speech bubbles. I have a dog character who speaks only in emojis, so I need to go and draw all those in. As it stands I have 5 pages left to do. Phew!

Storytelling secrets.

This week I have another tip for you regarding the 5th character.

Detritus. Think about a scene in today’s world, anywhere you like, and if you can’t visualise in your mind, head over to maps and look at street view. In your mind or on screen, look around and see what you can see, and I bet that you can see an awful lot of stuff. Signs, benches, litter, bins, bags, mannequins and lights. All around us in any location there are things. Even in the countryside, there is stuff, and this stuff can be used to great effect when making your setting a character.

The best example of this I can think of is Blade Runner, and the sequel 2049. In the future LA, there is stuff everywhere, from logos, video screens, shops, vehicles, you name it. Pay close attention to the backgrounds and the sets, and you will see that the world is very lived in and very full, and it forces itself into your awareness, making it in some ways the central character of the story. You can watch Blade Runner and never see all that there is to see.

This isn’t to say that filling your locations with random stuff is a good idea, far from it. The detritus and artefacts on view in your locations should A: make sense in the context of the story, and B: tell the history and character of the location. Imagine your protagonist is in a city setting, somewhere modern and vibrant. You might expect to see bins, bikes, maybe traffic cones, probably not a sig for wildfire prevention. And in a scientific lab setting, you might see test tubes and jars that tell you about the kinds of experiments they do, or computer screens with clues hidden in them. Nothing in the background of Blade Runner is out of place or accidental, and all adds to the story they are trying to tell.

Thanks for reading and I’ll see you on Monday for more Silverstar!

Tioraidh an-dràsta!