This is Orpheus and Alessa, two characters Nora and me are playing around with! Both from Lemro, if anyone remember that place hehe - if not, go check it out you fools.
Alessa being seeeexy in the sand..
and the text is from the Avett Brother's song!
--> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTZhJ5Di4bE <--
The last one's a hot Teixeiran! ..kinda Asian if you get me? mmm =u=
One of the reasons for why I wanna be a writer is because of the experiences I've had with reading really good books myself. I really love being dragged into another world and completely immerse myself in it! Right now it's only 9 days until I'll watch 'The Hobbit' and I'm going to a Lord of the Rings-marathon this weekend - wuhu!
'
So I thought this could be an occasion of explaining the main lines of my evolution of nerdiness:
Of course I love lots of other books and movies, currently I'm kinda obsessed with 'The Godfather' and I'm watching 'The Walking Dead', which is good fun. Gotta love zombies, they're just so stupid and clumsy! I guess 'The Walking Dead' isn't the show around with the deepest dialogue or best story (I'm a big HBO-fan), but it's really entertaining and it looks like they've put some effort into it. Gotta hate Lori though...
Well, keep on nerding folks, see you at The Hobbit!
When you're working on something like a novel, it's always tempting to throw your sociology books out of the window and roar FRRREEDOM as you run into the sunset. Especially when you're in your 12th year of this endless institution and kind of wanna do something else than sitting in a room with no air and take notes about a subject you're not really interested in. Still, we stay. Yeah, Bill Gates dropped out of school. But I'm not Bill Gates. I can probably write and draw okay, but the truth is that finishing this stuff will take time, and in that time I'm going to need a 'proper' job. And in society today one does not simply get a job without education. That's why we grit our teeth and keep on to finish our 13 years of school, so we won't end up like this:
Anyways, these are my methods for not going insane:
However, as Hannah pointed out, we're not really sane. Sometimes we do rage and burn something or sacrifice a goat, but you know, I think we'll make it. Hopefully.
It's quite common for children to have imaginary friends. I had one myself, and we had some great fun together. We usually put off these friends when we grow older, and so parents usually don't have to worry.
However, you might want to start to worry when the imaginary friend refuses to leave.
One of our characters have that problem, and here I thought I'd show you some of our inspirations for particularly stubborn invisible friends.
Schizophrenia is a theme that is very popular in movies and such, the best example is probably Tolkien's Gollum, who after being corrupted by the Ring develops an evil personality that tries to take control over him, like in this scene, portrayed by (a very animated) Andy Serkis:
Another reoccurring theme is people, particularly children, who see ghosts or spirits around them. Sometimes they don't understand that the people they see are ghosts, such as the boy in Guillermo del Toro's 'El Orfanato'/'The Orphanage'.
Whoever sees the ghosts can be used to them, but for others it can be a little creepy when someone talks to someone invisible.
"I see dead people."
- The Sixth Sense (duh)
I guess the next step here is when your imaginary friends actually become so vivid that other people can see (and feel) them too. An inspiration for us was the three Alessa-s in 'Silent Hill' (only watched the movie though).
In this movie a little girl is tortured so badly her hate turns into a demon that looks exactly like her (only dirtier and in need of sleep). The good part of her is reincarnated in another little, very innocent girl, who grows up with foster-parents, unaware of that her evil twin is currently wrecking her hometown and filling it with monsters.
Normal kid: Not so normal kid:
So, putting all of this together, you get Eliah. She's a tiny, clumsy thing who's really shy and socially awkward, but always sees the good in people. Unfortunately she was born with more power than her body can handle, and this creates a second personality that is pretty much pure evil. Yay. Eliah aslo sees dead people now and then, but the major problem is this second half that she has to keep under control at all times.
I can pretty much guarantee you more stuff on Eliah! Until then, here's a link to a short comic about her on DeviantArt: The Broken Mirror
Okay, so Hannah told you guys about Leonidas. Well, there's another collection of states as well in the south-east, called the Empire of Teixeira. It's smaller, but still pretty hardcore, inspired by ancient Japan and China, Arabia and Africa. To begin with Teixeira was under Leonidas, but they decided to break free and form their own state. The climate is warm, especially in the desert, and they are a really proud bunch of pretty different people. We'll come back to Teixeira later! Thought I'd show you a rough map of the continent to kind of get things in place:
So hopefully you can read that. Most important thing is that Leonidas is the blue blob and Teixeira is the orange. If you can spot a place called Eum, that is the one state that overlaps the border. This is because the Eumese are pretty stubborn and want to stay neutral in the war. They're our Switzerland so to speak. ... did I mention that Leonidas and Teixeira are at war? They are anyhow. To make it simple, Leonidas wanted Teixeira back under their control, but the Teixeirans weren't very keen on that. The war has been pretty calm (if you can call a war that) up till now, with confrontations limited to the border. The lands around the border are pretty harsh now though. So now you know more or less where things are! We're currently developing this world as we almost know our characters better than ourselves now, so keep a lookout for further updates!
Actually, Leonidas was the heroic king of Sparta in ancient Rome, his name meaning "son of the lion". I used his name to create a whole new world, even some characters. So, Leonidas is both the name of a union of states and the king ruling them... like a mofokking dictator. Funnily enough, the capital of Leonidas is named Leonidas, because someone likes themselves very much. The capital is cold, very cold and has a strong segregation of rich and poor. Basically this means the ones living close to the Crystal Citadel on top of the hill has smooth houses of stone and shit, with turkeys and big fires. The rest of the population lives down below the river that runs through the capital. Let me tell you one thing: it's not nice there.
What made me come up with this idea? Weed?
NO. I do not smoke weed, I have a broad spectre of experiences and imagination. My name is Hannah, and I'm from Norway! Our summers can be hot and our nature is beautiful... but dammit the winters are cold. Imagine four fucking meters of snow while the wind howls right through your flesh. Our country is old and proud with a lot of history, and it is not long since we were both poor and even colder. Now we are the wealthiest country in the whole world! Do we have the happiest people? Noooo... Norwegians are as cold as the weather, deal with it. So I would say Norway and Leonidas have some things in common (not the size as Leonidas is gigantic!).
Here are some proud, cold and inspirational pictures:
Rawr rawr motherfuckers
The splendid capital! (don't look below...)
Damn it's cold
Oh, how uplifting my dear coast
Now that's our unselfish, merciful and non violent king! Hurray~
Keep going here and follow if you look forward to meeting the people living in Leonidas!
oh well, what can I say? I'm not too good at focusing on homework I guess. This is what happened on Monday when I had a looong history essay due in two days that I hadn't even started:
By the way (in case you're reading this mum & dad) I DID deliver on time today because I woke up at 5:30 am and wrote like a maniac for two hours!
Hey, thought I'd share how I work when I make a comic! I'm far from an expert, but I think comics are great fun to make and really want to get better. First of all you've got to have an idea of course, a story to tell. For my part, there are loads of stories within the story that we're working on, for example from the childhoods of our characters. Just make sure it's a story you like, since you've got to spend quite a lot of time working details! As in any story, character is important in comics. Just that in a comic, the appearance of the character is crucial. I've found that it really pays off drawing all the characters separately a couple of times, just to settle on a look. Here's an example from my current project: The character is the older brother of my main character Adreana, he's called Fredrico and the son of the local mafia boss, the Don. This has made him pretty over-confident and, well, a good old-fashioned bully. Inspiration:
Sonny Corleone (From 'The Godfather')
Turiddu (character from the opera 'Cavalleria Rusticana')
That's all for now, next time it's all about setting :)
'
