The largest (and hardest) part of a good collaboration between a writer and an artist is communication. There’s nothing like seeing the story and the characters you imagined fully realized on the page, but there are lots of points along the road for that to go wrong.
Think of the last time you saw a movie based on a book you had read. How much did the person on the screen vary from what you thought you read on the page? Description is largely about degrees and while it’s easy to overdo it and leave your artist no wiggle room, it’s also easy to underdo it. If you forget to tell the artist the color of the character’s hair or the way a character stands, you may lose something. Worse yet, somebody may have to rewrite or redraw something when the two visions don’t gel.
Jules Rivera is one of the most communicative artists I’ve had the pleasure of working with. When she was designing a younger Bedelia for her short story, she wanted to make sure that I was happy with the way things looked and that it didn’t conflict with my vision of the character. What resulted was a great short story and collaboration.
Jen Vaughn is awesome. I just wanted to assure everyone of that right away.
She’s illustrating one of the short stories for next years short story collection and when I asked her if I could have some process pics to share on tumblr with you lovely folks, not only did she send me her thumbnails, but she sent me this picture.
Here, you can see Jen working on lightboxing one of her pages to take it from the quick and small thumbnails to more refined pencils.
It’s almost here!
Princeless: Short Stories for Warrior Women #1 is coming out at the end of the month. Are you ready? Have you ordered #2? It’s in Previews right now! How about a sneak peek of what you’ll get inside.
Kelly Lawrence is the new colorist starting in Princeless Vol 2, but you’ll get to see some of her work on pencils as well when you pick up Short Stories for Warrior Women #2. Kelly is working with a familiar failed prince and a new cellmate who’s about to make his life even more interesting.
If you have a local comic book shop, be sure to stop in today and let them know you want the book. If you don’t, pre-order it now online and get it the same day the comic stores do! Do that here: http://www.dcbservice.com/search.aspx?search=princeless
Also, to see more of Kelly’s work, check her out:
Deviant Art: http://crazyfox.deviantart.com/
Tumblr: http://thesweetprince.tumblr.com/
And be sure to pick up Princeless Vol 2 to see more of Kelly’s radiant colors!
Hey everybody! Sorry, I fell off there a little bit, but we’re back and we have fresh art for you from Ms. Jules Rivera.
If you remember, she’s doing a story in our short story collection called “Meet The Smiths” featuring our beloved you blacksmith a few years before we meet her. What does this page have to do with Bedelia? Well, if you can’t tell then you probably haven’t read Princeless Issue 3. You should get on that.
The Black Knight!
Had you forgotten? Had you lost count? Were you too busy reading your free copy of Princeless Issue #1 at Bleeding Cool? We were still short one baddy for the upcoming volume…and here he is!
The Black Knight is fierce, he’s strong, he’s the best swordfighter there is…and no one has ever heard his voice or seen his face. In the War of Succession he fought by the side of the young Prince Ashe so that he could take his place on his father’s throne. There is no one as trusted or as feared in all of Ashland.
Here’s what the King has to say: ”And my fiercest of friends, a man who none have seen in years, but whose tales are told by gorgons to scare their children. The Black Knight.”
So that completes our character sketches for the upcoming issue 5! Now don’t forget that for every 25 followers we get, I’m leaking the amazing artwork of the fine artists doing the Princeless short stories. Go recruiting, because we’ve got things to see! (BTW we’re at 290 right now, get us ten more followers and we’ll get you some beautiful news character designs from Jules Rivera!
Hey what was that sound? It sounds like somebody’s following me. Maybe even two people. You know what that means?
200 followers! Yay! Just as a point of interest, this Tumblr was at 26 last Friday. Just saying. Now that doesn’t mean we need to stop or anything. I’ve got plenty more up my sleeve and the more people follow the more I’ll post. Not to mention, we’ve still got one more baddie left after this. So let’s get to this one!
Sir Walsh is a master swashbuckler and first class ladies man. He is also a thief, a braggart, and sometimes a 1st class scumbag. He is known far and wide for being handsomely dressed and ruining all of the best parties.
Here’s what King Ashe has to say about him: ”Sir Walsh the Braggart, a man whose escapes are nearly as legendary as the indecent acts that necessitate them..”
By the way, be sure to follow actionlabcomics.tumblr.com for more on Princelees and all other upcoming Action Lab projects.
Okay, so, we’re still two followers short of 200 on Tumblr, but something magical has happened elsewhere. My dear friend Sue at dcwomenkickingass (on tumblr and twitter, if you’re not following her, correct that) retweeted me and my twitter suddenly jumped by fifteen followers, putting me above the stated 200 goal there! You know what that means?
Art reward!
Here’s the next in our lineup of baddies and this one is dangerous. His name is Gahiji and he is a hunter of men and beasts. He is a tan man with a tightly muscled body a reputation for being reclusive. Gahiji is the prince of the southern deserts and known far and wide for his tracking skills. He could track a falcon on a cloudy day. He can find you…or maybe that was a different prince.
Either way, here’s what King Ash has to say about Gahiji: ”Sir Gahiji the Hunter, who is said to have slain a giant elephant with only a pair of brass knuckles.”
Get those last couple followers on tumblr here and we’ll get you the next one as well!
Hey folks,
I’m in a particularly good mood today, after the Eisner news broke today! Seeing as we just reached 150 followers, I thought it was high time we shared another one of our baddies with the Princeless faithful, so here goes.
Sir Raphael is the most handsome and romantic of all of our princes. He loves poetry, roses, and tragic love. Neither woman nor man can resist golden tongue, his long braids, and his high cheek bones. But don’t let his good looks distract you, he’s as dangerous as they come.
Here’s King Ashe’s intro of Raphael straight from Volume 2 Issue 1
“Sir Raphael the Handsome, rumored to have actually seduced and killed a Siren, both with the same rose.”
That makes three, which means we’ve got three more to go. Get the Tumblr followers to 200 or Twitter followers for @jrome58 to 200 to get the next one!
Okay, so it wasn’t officially a goal but since we hit our goal of 50 followers this YESTERDAY we have now DOUBLED THAT NUMBER!
You all rock!
So, here he is, baddie number two: Sir Zachary the Pure.
Zachary is by far the youngest of the knights which King Ash is recruiting, but don’t let his baby face fool you. Zachary is good in a fight and believes his hand is guided by the divine will of the gods. He has an unearthly glow about him and something to say about how women ought to act.
When we first meet him in issue 1 of volume 2, King Ashe introduces him thusly: ”Sir Zachary the Pure, a man so pure of thought and intention that he has tamed wild beasts with a touch of his hand.”
There he is ladies and gents, now be sure to go over and follow actionlabcomics.tumblr.com if you want to see the next one.
Yay! Our first goal has been met and the Princeless tumblr now has 50 followers!
And that means it’s time for your reward…you ETERNAL REWARD!
Just kidding, actually, our first reward is the first of one of our brand new villains set to debut in the first issue of Volume 2. His name is Sir Rocks and for those of you who read a lot of comics, he may look a tad bit familiar. Rest assured though, Sir Rocks is no pushover, here’s a snippet from his introduction:
“Sir Rocks the Mighty, a man reported to have bested a troll in both an eating competition and a wrestling match…simultaneously.”
He’s a nasty customer and only one of the many trials awaiting our brave heroines (Adrienne, Bedelia, and Sparky) and they embark on a quest to save Adrienne’s sisters.
There are several more baddies to unlock on facebook, twitter, and still one more on Tumblr (hint: if everybody that is following this tumblr were to also follow the actionlabcomics.tumblr.com site, we would meet our goal there too)
