Zombie Color

Zombie inked. Now onto coloring and background art!

This is Zombie, a deadly assassin who stay perfectly still in shadow, waiting hours, and days until his prey shows up and he strikes. His weapon is a rusty dagger.

This is a logo I spent a lot of time making. I thought about creating a different title...but I may just keep this.

With background

Black Latest

Re-posted his left arm to be more dynamic

Adding 2 new characters to the roster. First is the Assassin. He's a fearless fighter. His only weapon, a short, rusty dagger. He signature style is killing off his foes in the shadow before they can sense his presence. I created the original concept of this character about 4 years ago but wasn't sure how he would fit in...but now I think it is time to bring him in:) 

New sketch art on the left, old art on the right

Next up is the empowered soldier on the villain side. This is your typical grunt soldier. Their mind and bodies are depraved. They are not the strongest, but they are vast in number. They are also ferocious.

Not liking the look of Cockoo...she looks a bit too generic. Didn't like the long hair and her dress is a little out of place. Here's an updated version. I am much more satisfied with this new one. She's just more defined as a character.

All done and I promise myself to never never, ever ever touch it again!

Final version. Added hair to her arms. Makes her even more savage like.
Just noticed the right shoulder/back is a little wonky. Going to have to fix that. Though the point of these designs isn't to make pretty drawings, it is still worthwhile to make them as presentable as possible. I never know what these could also be used for, other than just getting the designs fleshed out.

Older

sword

For the concept of this sword. I tried a different process this time. I had a pretty good idea of the basic look of the sword I wanted with a lot of straight hard lines and spikey look. Knowing that, it was going to be easier to just model it out in 3D (I used 3D Max) instead of drawing it. Got it done in a little over 2 hours. Overall I am pretty happy with the result. I can see soldiers fighting with these in a lot of unique ways and these will look brutal. The handle may be a bit too thin but I think that's ok for now. 

Soldier - Final

This is the final design of the soldiers commanded by Doygun. They wear hard, heavy armors and weapons. They are pretty brutal and fearless fighters. For the design, I needed something that is unique, but also not overly complex as the armor needs to be easy enough to draw in the comic. It's not perfect but I think this will work out pretty well. I may change the color of the sword to black or a darker color in the comic but for the concept's sake, this dark brown color makes it easier to see.  

Red Sword

This is a design for the armor for the soldiers under the command of Doygun. I imagined something brutish and strong looking. Did different tries and this is one that I like. Weapon of choice will be black metal long sword and/or large black heavy sword. These will be concepted soon.

Work in progress color added

A design for the emperor when he's human...just an initial sketch. I could see him evolving more or even change to a different look.  

Title Logo Desgin

These are different design of the title logo. I made the green version first and make variations based on that. I like upper right version as it is pretty dark. But I like the bottom 3 more. and from those 3, I like the two on the left. They are just darker and still being pretty simple look, and easy to read. My initial approach for the logo is to make something that's iconic, easy to recognize and easy to read. This is not the final design choice for the title but we will see.  

Click to enlarge

Twin Swords - Moye and Ganji

This is a pair of swords that plays important role in the story. They are cursed powerful weapons. I don't plan for these to be used in action in their physical form. For their looks, I knew I had to make something that looks unique and unconventional. I think the green sword is more successful in that, but I like how the purple one turns out in the end as well...though that one took some more reworking to get right. 

This is an earlier version. I liked it but I felt the hilt could be a little more unique and detailed. The purple color version I made later would also go with the theme of certain element in the story better. 

Here is are the earlier sketches of the swords. These were at a stage that I was first happy of their design and shape and could see what direction to take them. 

Final character arts. Still want to refine some of the weapons because they are a little bland...but I will leave weapon design to do later.

Iron The 13

Iron 13 Colored

Cricket (all character names are temporary)

Finished Cricket drawing. It's a pretty dark theme...but I like it:)

Cricket is the last character for the story. He's sort of a disciple of Iron 13. Cricket travels around carrying books for him. He's not especially strong but he's intelligent and often he can get out of sticky situations by outsmarting his foes.

Cricket is an interesting character. After I thought up the story of Demise and got all the story characters figured out, I figured I wanted a character that's different than the rest of the cast. So I thought of having a little boy that travels with Iron 13. His relationship with Iron 13 is an interesting one as the old man is wise and knowledgeable, and Cricket is this little boy that doesn't like to obey his master - he does what feels right to him and sometimes that gets him in trouble.

Cricket's design is more of less inspired by Trix from Golden Axe Revenge of Death Adder. Trix was the character that immediately came to mind when I thought of a boy with unique weapon. Though I never played this game too much and never played as Trix (I didn't even know that's his name until now after looking up for the picture below), I remember seeing him in action at the arcades in the mid 90's and for some reason, he's design just got stuck in my mind ever since.

Finally!

Got sometime to work on coloring over the weekend. No background yet but character is pretty much done. Had to adjust the look of his weapon as it looked little goofy, among other things. Not liking the pants' blue color...pops out too much.

Background color test. Don't like this try much...character upper body gets flattened a bit too much. 

Cricket

Cricket inking almost done.Next on to coloring!

Played with the look of Cricket more. The legs were pretty wonky. Had to fix that and give it a new look. I like the style of weapon he has now but it looks too generic right now and will need to be better designed/rounded out - I usually fix stuff like that when I do the inking part. The way it is, is good enough for me to move on to next stage of the drawing:)

Where the title, Demise, came from...

I played World of The Warcraft for a couple years and the game has a weapon named Demise. I always though that was such a cool name. few years ago I did this drawing and I named it Warrior's Demise. I later drew another event related to this (the sea battle bottom below). At the time of these drawings, I was thinking of making a comic book of my other character, Jan, and so I connected these drawings with the comic book story idea and these 2 drawings became major events in the comic book story.

Everyone has dreams. I have one too.

A bit of a background on myself and comics. I have always been interested in making comic books as far back as I was 10 years old and I always made attempts at drawing them. I read Hong Kong comics. I didn't know how they were made but I tried to figure it out by studying the comic books I liked. I also tried to study how to draw like the pro (so I admired crosshatching).

I remember when I was 15 I drew my comic book that was over 50 pages, and few years later I drew one maybe 30 pages (but this time I drew it on large papers. For some reasons I thought comic books were drawn larger, scanned, and then scaled down using printer printouts so I did the same). I kept trying to make my comic books and every time I gave up before they were completed - the reason, I never had actual plans. I just drew the pages as I develop the stories. In total, I drew at least 6 different coimcs (and always gave up somewhere in the middle:).

My last attempt of a comic you can read the pages here (from 2004) http://crosshatch.info/comicdemons.html

here's another comic book attempt but I only have the cover with me to share: http://crosshatch.info/images/artwork/2006/core cover.jpg

This was a shot 7 pages comic. I have the first page http://crosshatch.info/images/artwork/27.jpg
and last page http://crosshatch.info/images/artwork/13.jpg

I have been working professionally for almost 7 years and my job involves storytelling. I have learned a great deal on creating dramas, emotions, character interactions, and much more. Moreover, I have learned a project, a production, needs real planning. And this time, for this comic, I am going in with a plan: I am making a full roster of characters, a story outline, a script (looking for a writer), various designs (design of various backgrounds, weapons, logos, and much more). Only after I have these done will I move on to draw the comic.

Emperor Vexx (all character names are temporary)

Emperor of the Xxetholeh. Died in the Battle of The Deepest End. He's a fiend (you can think of fiends in my book as undead, sort of, but with mythical power. I want to give them a cool name than a generic name like fiend, or undead, but I haven't got one yet.)

His role in the story is somewhat of a mystery in the beginning and he doesn't really show up much. But he does play a pretty important role. 

For his design, I wanted to give him an outer-worldly feel, something that's more creature and alien like. So while I was designing him, I kept thinking of Aliens and the way they would animate. Their body parts that would seem a lot more flexible than human beings - and you can see the influence in the arms and legs in this design. His headdress is his crown. I want to give him a visual remark that says, "hey, I am still an emperor".  

The tentacles...well, I think they speak for themselves:)

Dogun (all character names are temporary)

General Dogun was a ruthless military leader of the Xxetholeh empire. Died in the Battle of The Deepest End. Dogun is one of the villains. He's a powerful fiend. He's your typical big bad. He's desire is to rebuild the Xxetholeh empire and rule the realm. 

For his design I went with a rough, tough and gritty look. I also gave him armors since he was a great general. Everything is meant to make him big and intimidating.

Qi The Corruptor (all character names are temporary)

Left-hand man of Dogun. A powerful fiend. All I can say about Qi is he's cunning and worthy of a villain. Dogun killed him and Gyu'en, turned them into greater fiends, and binds them to his command.

for his design, I drew his corrupted version first. It wasn't intentional but he's design is obviously inspired by the likes of great fighters such as Akuma.

Gyu’en (all character names are temporary)

Right-hand man of Dogun. Gyu'en is a grave thief. He was killed by Dogun at the Great Weaving, the burial site of emperor Vexx, and Dogun. Dogun then merged Gyu'en's granddaughter, Cuckoo, with his cat (I swear it is evil) and binds them under his command. Though Gyu'en wants to save Cuckoo, he's unable to resist Dogun's command as Dogun has the power over Cuckoo's life.  

For Gyu'en's design, I gave him fish hook with a long fishing string. It's a deadly weapon. Dogun destroyed Gyu'en's right leg. After he's turned into a fiend, Gyu'en hooked a scythe to his right thigh as a weapon and amputated leg. Doesn't look much, but it works:) I also gave him goggle because as a grave thief, he uses them to examine valuable from the grave he digs / dug...this one is bullshit. I just gave him goggles because it looks cool on him:)