Back to work, this time on the Magic story, still tentatively called “Careers for Girls”. Here are the pencils for the character designs:
As always, click on the image to see a larger version. This is a very short story and probably a one shot, so the cast is not large. From left to right, we have the Apprentice, the Familiar, the Wizard’s Housekeeper (Mrs. Shuttle), the Wizard (his first name is Nigel, last name still to be determined), and one of the many servitors who do the chores in the Wizard’s Tower. They are made of knotted ropes and are Wolfie’s idea. I appreciate the joke and love them to death already.
This is a one costume story, so I kept everything simple. The apprentice wears the same middy blouse and skirt outfit she wore in the original sketch, and Mrs. Shuttle wears a work pinafore over an Asian style trouser suit. My first flash on the character showed her with chopsticks in her hair, which I guess was the source of the idea. The Wizard’s design references everyone’s favorite sorcerer, Dr. Strange, as well as Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark, since any sufficiently complex technology is indistinguishable from magic. Note the high heels on the boots, which are the only reason the Wizard is the tallest member of the cast. If all goes well, look for the inked version of this drawing here tomorrow.
This will be the first story I’ve done that is based fully on one of my drawings of the day, seen here
in a revised version with my scribbled text nicely typeset in Scribus by Wolfie.
Gorgeous characters!
Thank you very much, Mary. I’ll admit they look pretty good to me too, although there is still a little something funky going on with the relationship between the Wizard’s shoulders and his feet. I am trying to shift it a bit in the inking, and of course a magic cloak covers up a lot of potential art problems!