Ogopogo Preview Art

A quick "Preview" art for the Ogopogo comic. I did this rather randomly and really quickly a couple days ago, the day I finished the actual comic, I think. I decided to do it when I did a rough image like this (of Daimon climbing out a nasty mouth) for the actual comic, but had to trim it and it lost a lot of its vigor when it actually ended up on the page. I sketched it up all nice and decided to put the titles and dates in because I couldn't think of anything else. It actually scanned in better than it actually looks, I think the colour in the real image ended up too dark to read the letters.

So yes, the Ogopogo comic is all done, all thats left now is a cover which I am doing roughs for while I'm on holidays at home. It will be up some time in March, I just don't know when. Before that I will finish the rough concepts, today I did locations, next week will be objects, after that page roughs and extras.

Location Designs - Lake Okanagan

Here are some rough sketches of the locations and scenery for the Ogopogo comic. There was only one location for this, which was Lake Okanagan in British Columbia, Canada. The lake is obviously quite large, so it's divided up into two minor "sets" one being a general view of the lake, the other being a small cove where the action takes place.

The general view is based on a picture I found on Google. For the comic I trimmed parts of it, removing the mountains in the back and fudged it by putting in a bridge. There is a bridge over Lake Okanagan, just not in this part.

The cove is almost completely made up, I basically assembled it from parts I found in other various Googled images. So no, it isn't an actual part of the lake, but you know, it COULD be.

Monster Designs - Ogopogo Part 2

Just a quick update whilst I rest between working on the last page of the Ogopogo comic! Gotta rest or my back starts to hurt :(

These are the last bits of concept art for the Ogopogo Monster. We've got a final line sketch, a colour drawing and some detail sketches. I think I covered most of what I wanted to say about Ogo in my last post. But to add to the details about him being inspired by totem poles and Native art from British Columbia, I tried to use colours I commonly saw in those things in the colour sketch. This, actually, also made doing him in black and white and greys in the actual comic a lot easier, since I could divide up the three colours easily.

Next week I'm not entirely sure what I'll do, it will either be scenery concept art or I'll just lump all the last bits of concept art together - that would be scenery, objects, and details. I'd like to post up all this stuff before I post the actual comic, but the comic ended up finishing earlier than I expected - which is a good thing, really. Either way, next week.

Monster Designs - Ogopogo Part 1

I suppose this actually counts as the last character design, since Ogo is technically a character. I prefer to think of it as monster designing, because he doesn't really do much besides destroy stuff and look cool.
This is Ogopogo, the legendary monster of Lake Okanagan. I've talked a bit about him already in my research notes, so if you want to know more about the legends and whatnot, check out those links I posted.
Sightings of Ogo have been rare, but most people agree he is a serpent (as opposed to Nessie, who most agree looks like a plesiosaur). I've collected a few images of popular interpretations, I'll post them after my designs. The most famous is probably the statue of him in Kelowna, which is green and red and really rather silly looking. Obviously, I needed something fiercer than that.

I used the popular art as my springboard, knowing I wanted something colourful, with ridges and horns. I use simplicity as much as possible in my designs, I don't like over thinking my monsters. I want them to be original and interesting, but also easy to draw. Nothing worse than making up a super awesome design for a character and then getting bored and frustrated with it halfway through the comic. I looked to the folklore and artwork of the area I was researching for inspiration. In this case, it was Native art from B.C. and the famous paintings of Emily Carr. So, totem poles. Lots of totem poles.
I ended up with the idea that Ogo was basically just one big mobile totem pole. I liked the idea of him being an armored serpent, having a hard shell-like exterior and being made up of different sections. I made the sections easier to see by putting random designs on them, and symbols I made up.

Next time I'll post the colour images of Ogopogo and some of my cleaner detail designs.