Page 1 of chapter 2

My next page is going to be so pretty *_*

The Flower and the Nose got featured.

Hello, this morning I discovered that The Flower and The Nose has been featured by Drunk Duck. I hope more people will discover it, now, I know I have been pretty slow on this one. I hope to catch up a bit during the winter holidays. Oh, I also have plenty of photos to show you about... the location (did you know? Lani's house really does exist?) :D

Coming soon some more photos

I took some more photos when I went to Sicily, I will upload them soon,
and I am sorry I am so slow at realeasing this... we reached chapter 2 nevertheless.

I'm back: Page 13

Hi guys, after an absence of one week I am back with the Flower and The Nose.
Here's the link to page 13.

flowerandnosecomic: Page 13

Stay tuned as I have many surprising photos at the end of chapter one :D

Is this a work of fiction?

It could be... then again it might be a real story but no one would ever believe it to be true...

My apologies for late update (check Comic or click here to read the latest page).

I believe it to be fundamental to put ourselves and what we know in the stories we write. We are an endless source of experiences and ideas. We definitely have opinions and it's good to show them.

Some times we need to sort things out and we need good characters to figure them for us.

The flower and the nose is more real and true than you'd ever imagine.
It deals with a lot of things I am pretty sure we all go through in life.
Sorry for the slow pace release/narration but do stick around and hang in there.

Lani's story is about to begin.

Happy Monday.

Hi guys,
today is monday so the comic is updated! :D
I know I haven't been keeping you good company on the blog,
I promise I'll show you something interesting in september! :D

It's release night.

Come and read page 7 here! :D
flowerandnosecomic: Page 7

Another page!

It's release date, guys,

Click on Comic to go and read the recent update.

Release

As you may know, by now, release day is monday.

Click on "comic" to see the page in full size.
The 3D look doesn't show up very much anymore after I save the file for the web.

It's a pity.

Anyway last night I had a huge accident on page 9, I hope I can fix it fast.

I hate when markers spills, they can be removed. T_T

New Inked Pages

It's been a while since I showed some Work in Progress.
These are the next 2 inked pages I am going to color: page 10 and 11.

The beginning of the comic is a bit slow - I seriously need time to establish certain thing and do my set up after all this is the story of a Villain so you need to know why she became one.

Page 2

Happy July 1st.

Today is the day.
We can finally start releasing.

The appointment with the comic would be, at the moment... weekly!

The first page is out!

Click on | Comic | on top of the page to see the page in actual size.

Promo 3

"Three rules you must follow to be Happy in life...
....n3.....

Page 3 Working Process

From a rough sketch I do clean pencilling, then I ink it using acrylic ink and a quill pen, I scan and do some quick color tests in photoshop and in the end I color the original one with markers and add white touch ups.

The ink is waterproof and somewhat marker proof too, it depends on how you rub the marker.

 I am drawing this directly on my sketchbook because I really like that paper and it takes both markers and ink very well and the way I like it :D

Pencilling 

Inking     

Color test

Coloring

Promo 2

"Three rules you must follow to be Happy in life...
....n2.....


The Flower and the Nose (coming in July 2012)

Dancing

Lani and Fiore dancing.

Color illustration done with markers and acrylic ink.

The comic is coming soon.... so soon! :D

Page 1 WIP

Page 1 Inking and Color test.

Promo 1

Color mapping

And after the value studies come the color mapping.

This is a very fast procedure, takes less than an hour. Exploits the value studies (and it helps figure out if the value study needs to be tweaked).

Pencilled Illustration

From rough sketch to pencilled illustration... to be inked. I will fix the lamp post to the right first though.
You can see the tweed pattern here.

Cover pencil sketch

Color scripts

Color scripts are something you need to go before you start anything in color, from comic to cartoons to movies.
They help you decide the mood of each scene and how the color transition from one scene to the next one.

Some scenes need to be represented by particular colors... pink for happy scenes, purple is something leading to a murder and dull color scenes depict the unhappiness, the lack of color in the life of the protagonists.

The bottom six are the ones I have chosen and the tiny arrow indicate in which order these colors should rotate.

Synopsis

A "nose" is the expert whose fine sense of smell and skills in smell composition brings forth the creation of perfumes.

Lani's nose did not come with just the ability but with a physical disability as well: the size.
It was forced on her, as a child, by the curse of a flower that only bloomed once every thirty years.

Growing up with a huge nose did not prove to be easy but, eventually, Lani managed to turn the disadvantage to her advantage and created a perfume industry whose perfumes and essences were number one in the world.

Nevertheless power and success did not take away loneliness and that lingering feeling that something really important had gone missing.

After thirty years it was time for the flower to bloom again.
The flower she hated so much, the flower she wanted to cut down... that's when strange things begun to happen and a mysterious man appeared in her life with the firm intention of changing her ways for ever!

Thus begins the struggle between the Flower and the Nose!

Fiore vs. Dan

My initial color study for Fiore vs. Dan.
I want of them to be quite handsome because, for the first time in a story, I'll have a love triangle.

Fiore Sketches

How about I share with you some random sketches for Fiore.
Now Fiore is a very mysterious character.

He is very cheerful and positive, most of the time and doesn't loose hope not even in the worst situation, not even when everything goes wrong, not even when confronting death.

In a way he is very straight forward and might seem a bit too linear... but he has a secret and it's an unbelievable one.

His personality is quite overwhelming. He is drunk with life and very passionate.

If you like sweet, understanding guys (kinda like Cat from The Pirate Balthasar) he is a bit like that too.

Character's color scheme

Some initial color tests for the main characters.

I am still torn on the color of Lani's hair though and I'll probably give Fiore white hair instead.
But here you have them: Lani, Sylvia, Fiore, Dan the Designer and the two chemists.

Initial sketches

Initial sketches. Characters lineup and some drawings of Lani. In the lineup: Fiore, Lani, Sylvia (the secretary), Lorenzo (the designer).

                               

 

Shape exploration

Shape exploration for the characters.

From the left: Lani (triangular shape), her secretary (round shape), Fiore (square), the Designer (triangular), the two chemists (two squares) and the elephant peanut (round).

Shape exploration is very important to determine the personalities of the main characters, shapes are the first visual approach with the audience and they psychologically connect to the main shape first before a character even talks.

Triangular shape are usually typical of devious characters with a strong/twisted personality. It's more common to be found in Villains. The angular look of these characters makes them feel sharp, cruel, cynical, vain and evil. Sometimes they are just misunderstood.

Round shaped characters are used for cute and reliable characters, thing about Mickey Mouse. They can be adorable and strong willed, cuddly and super sweet.

Square shape characters can either be super strong, straightforward, righteous... like a super hero, like Superman. It's usually linked to strength but it is also used for boring characters, a bit more plain, very linear with their thinking.