Dragonfly WIP

Jade Vaughan

Progress update! So I wanted to try something different and keep the pastel/pencil look to soften and add an air of mystery (plus its fun to play with). Still deciding how to treat the last panel.

@aska I’ll check out your comic

aprilshin

Love how you treated the coloring, Jade! I really get the sense of magic here. I'm guessing that the last panel is showing a stone portal/gateway to another land? I would try to make this more apparent. Maybe have some dragonflies flying into the doorway or maybe have some runes around the opening, or maybe show a glimpse of what's on the other side of the portal? Love what you have so far!

korilynneillo

@Jade-Vaughan

I love the coloring on this SO MUCH! It's really magical!

Lovsey

@Jade-Vaughan I love the luminescent quality of the diffused pastel effect on black I agree that the portal door needs more detail added to gain attention and give more clarity to the story. I’ve enjoyed seeing how your idea has developed, thanks for sharing your process

Jade Vaughan

@aprilshin Yay! I’m glad it does have that kind of atmosphere. And yes it’s a portal to somewhere unknown. Actually funny you mention runes- so I have an idea to paint a dragonfly wing pattern on the rock similar to a rune and perhaps shape the rock to crudely resemble a wing. We’ll see how that pans out. Thank you for the suggestions!

@korilynneillo ️ Thank you!

@Lovsey Yes! The doorway really does need more attention- I’ll be adding some glowing rune effects and play around with how to make this scene interesting. I feel comfortable drawing characters but environments are tricky for me. Thank you, I haven’t really shared my process til now but hope to progress and have fun shop talks along the way

aska

beautiful

cszoltan

@Jade-Vaughan Wow the atmosphere is so "ethereal", love it!
I think the only thing I would change would be the last image. It has great buildup and it has also a very dramatic reveal, but the payoff isn't that strong compared to the rest, maybe you could try something that has more of a punch to it in the end, maybe a portal to another world, to realize that the dragonflys were coming form "the other side".

JessicaStauffer

I love the chalky texture you are using! Such a magical piece!

JoshuaDages

The black background makes this piece so perfect. Really love what you're doing with this challenge!

Jade Vaughan

Thank you for the feedback! So I was rethinking my concept and decided to make a dragonfly out of stone. Ok, I wanted more interest so I broke it down further to display the wing detail but not sure it’s stone anymore haha xD

I’ll leave it for now and look again tmrw. Been staring at it too long.

Lovsey

@Jade-Vaughan Is your character in a cave now? To my eye it does look stone and the more detail you add in the smaller stones the more purposed and man-made it looks, but the positioning of it prompts a lot more questions rather than closing the story in the grand final reveal moment. Laying partially submerged in the water against the wall makes it kind of seems broken like it has fallen from where it should have been displayed once upon a time. My preferences would be to see it vertically on the cave wall like a monument/plaque or what you have raised out of the water mounted standing in full on a stone - something whole and majestic and wondrous!

Jade Vaughan

@Lovsey Thank you for reviewing You make a good point- the narrative is slowly unfurling as I continue to work on this piece but you made me realize it won’t end on that last panel. I want to continue the story. This is not a grand reveal of something still intact.

I like your suggestion of a complete monument/plaque and actually had a sketch of it earlier on but there’s something about ruins, of something existing before, that makes me curious to explore myself as I continue to draw the scenes out. In my mind the background could be in a cave or out in a dark mire, for now I’ll keep it open to interpretation.

I’ll be continuing this exploration on the side, beyond this months contest. But will turn in what I have just for fun

Lovsey

@Jade-Vaughan said in Dragonfly WIP:

@Lovsey the narrative is slowly unfurling as I continue to work on this piece but you made me realize it won’t end on that last panel. I want to continue the story. This is not a grand reveal of something still intact.

How exciting! I wondered if that was the case because there is definitely a broader story here and your vision is translating well in these panels.