At the Helm for Trio of “Proclivity” Chapters

by Juan Arevalo

Getting involved in the vast universe of VILLIKON CHRONICLES was rather by chance. I first heard about it on ComicSpace. Sometime later I got an email from Bryan seeking artists to contribute artwork for the film’s ending credits. Once I researched the characters, I fell in love with the concept and where it was going. Mystere was an amazing character to draw out along with Tabina, Adonia, Kymri and the rest of the cast. I have a love for pin-up art and artists like Vargas, Ballantyne, Elvgren, and Olivia as inspirations. Having such beautiful women cast as the characters in the film to use as reference has truly made this project a lot of fun. I forgot it was work! Bryan asked me to take some artistic freedoms with some of the characters and sets so that also helped the creative process on my end.

The Process

Before I even get started let me say that a good breakfast is a must for any artist, or at least for me. Without it I can’t function, weird, insane? Maybe but I noticed I can go without lunch or dinner if I have a good sized breakfast. ‘Kay so after all that grub I plug in my ears turn up some Evanescence, bit o’ Trance and a good portion of soundtracks (Hans Zimmer is the MAN!) and I’m off. I particularly enjoyed drawing PROCLIVITY to Hans’ tunes, many of the sequences with the Wiccan Huntresses were drawn to his scores.

Well first off in order to get started my technique is a bit odd from most, I do thumbnails of each of the pages. I break it down to where I think the word balloons will be placed, however when I start to layout the pages I don’t use the usual 11x17 board to draw on. I will start with the figure work on one sheet and develop the background elements based on the thumbs in another sheet. I’ve learned very quickly that acetate paper is my friend. I began doing this because it took me longer to illustrate a background than most artists I know. I love drawing the figure, so that took no time at all, but when it came time to draw up the background I hit a roadblock. I’ve gotten a lot better at designing backgrounds, but the habit stuck and so for most of my drawings I will have them in pieces instead of in one single sheet of Bristol.

I mainly use Photoshop to color in my work. I tend to be sporadic when it comes to the use of layers. I’ve heard many artists work with like 3 layers tops, some will have as many as 50 before collapsing them. The way I color is somewhere in the middle. I tend to have about 10 to 20 layers labeled and as I progress I decide on which ones need to be merged. I’ve found out through experience you have to have confidence in your art. Once you’ve finished a certain panel or page you need to just collapse and keep going (Saving out your project at different stages helps tremendously!) it’s helped me be aware of my mistakes and where I need to improve as a storyteller and artist.

I also use 3DSMax for some of the more challenging backgrounds. I’ve figured out a few techniques but one in particular I used during PROCLIVITY was to render out a scene in Max using a shader that made it possible for the shot to look as if I had drawn it up by hand. It came handy when I had to draw up various angles from that one scene. Using both these programs along with Illustrator for some verbiage and sound effects, seem to just work best for me. I have tried Painter and WaffleDog as well and I would recommend any artist to expand their knowledge of these and so many others that are out there, but I simply keep coming back to Photoshop for most of my coloring jobs.

My favorite part of drawing up PROCLIVITY was the freedom I was given as an artist, from the sets to some of the locales. Bryan just let me loose and I thank God he liked my work. Speaking of which Bryan is probably one of the smartest yet most humble people I have met. Working with him was a delight, I don’t think I can give him enough praise as an author and director the guy is in a class all his own.

Another amazing talent to work with was Roy Young. He made my line work really look amazing. Seriously I could not believe how good the pages looked after he colored them in. He really brought them to life, Roy is top notch talent! The gorgeous women in the VC universe were a highlight as well! All in all I can’t say there were any heartaches as far as drawing up the pages for PROCLIVITY. Again the support and reference material was in abundance that also made a world of difference when it came to re creating some of the actor’s features.

I hope I can revisit the VILLIKON CHRONICLES universe in the future. It was an exiting adventure and I hope the reader will enjoy it as much as I did drawing it.

©2009 PulpFantasy.org/DVTVFilm.com    All Rights Reserved.   All material property of original artists/authors.