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:)

Cuckoo (all names are temporary)

Gyu’en's granddaughter- Dogun infects her with corrupted blood of his evil pet cat and commands her. She's agile and fierce.

For her look, I wanted a bit of a feral like wild appearance. And I also gave her long limbs for a ghastly look. Her design is based on this older drawing of her.

Iron 13 The Wanderer (all names are temporary)

An observer and recorder of history and events. Iron 13 wanders the land with his pupil, Cricket. He's a man with a past, also kind of a wise-man.

He's design is roughly finished (for this version at least). Still have to work in a background for him (by the way, a lot of the backgrounds I use are places I imagine would be used in the story, so they are not just there to look pretty:)

Sing (all names are temporary)

Sister of Pao. She tails her sister, Pao, tracing her every move and following her. Her personalities are very much opposite of Pao's. At one point Pao encounters Dao and fights him. Sing enters and saves Dao.

For this design I wanted to give her a look fitting for a close quarter combat fighter. She uses her dagger/sword to disarm/stagger her enemies and she counters their fighting moves with her bare hands.

Pao (all names are temporary)

She seeks Dao for vengence. Her whole existence is to kill Dao and she has reasons to.

She's one of those tough big-boned female characters. And so the weapons she uses are both pretty heavy and big. She mainly fights with her lighter sword (unnamed yet) but she uses her heavy stone sword to crush her enemies. Her stone sword attacks are so strong that she's able to destroy most enemies weapons in one hit.

Since she's going around the land seeking Dao, I give her almost a vagrant look. Since her weapons are heavy, she only wears light armors where they would be needed to protect her.

Dao (all names are temporary)

A man with a mysterious past. He's sort of an ancient detective. He works for the O'ethla empire. In the story he's an accused criminal and is being sent to his execution. 

After a certain event, he escapes his fate and became very much involved with Jan and the gang fighting the villains and discovering the whole mystery of the rise of the fiends. 

He was a government official so his design has a sturdy look even though he mainly wears cloth. He's head dressing is part of his governmental identity, so are the decorations on his weapon (it's a O'ethlian military weapon). He also wears light leather armor under his jacket. The red cloth on his lower body symbolizes his patriotic root.

Jan (all names are temporary)

Jan is the main character of the book. The inspiration of this book and this character's story as well as her design come from 2 drawings I did 2 years ago (see below). At the time I was inspired to do these drawings in the style of ancient art almost like woodcut. I really wanted to illustrate a strong sword wielding woman using a long sword, and a short sword. After I drew Qiān Jian (translates to Thousand Swords), I was liking the style very much that I then drew another, Yuki. These 2 are the same character. I used wood photos as textures to color these drawings to give them that old style drawing look. So these 2 drawings gave birth to the idea of telling a story of her.