"Darkest Night" Art Samples

[Laocorn]

5 years ago I posted some test pages for a project titled, "Darkest Night"...

Since then, and on the odd occasion I've mentioned it here & there (I believe there's a reference to it in "Operation Funnybone", of all places...). The project was pretty much going to be my next big one, then I got side-tracked with Billy Series Two.

The last year or so I've been working on and off to nail down the concept and execution for the first book, since it was the only thing really stopping the project from kicking off... I'm glad to say, the stars have finally aligned and it looks like I have a new project, that doesn't involve Handy-Saws;





It's still a long way off completion... But it feels great to know it's finally on it's way.

[mrdenmac]

Hey Hayden,

I remember this. It has been gestating for a while, hasn't it? Still, some works have to take their own time and it's usually worth waiting for them. I think this one definately will be worth that wait.

Can't wait to see it completed.

[Laocorn]

Well it is "Post to Pulp Week" after all, so here's Page 3...




Colin, thanks mate, yeah it's been gestating for at least 6 years now...

There was a working draft a few years back, but something about the original opening just didn't feel right to me, so we ended up putting it on the back-burner. In hindsight, I think it was definitely for the better, the last approach would have been a different creature altogether.

[Gerkinman]

That's one easy to brake phone.

[Dean Rankine]

A nicely told story you've done there. Really engaging.

[bluetoaster]

I second that. Reads and looks fantastic. Really gets you.

.

[Laocorn]

Dan, HA!

Thanks for kudos, Dean, Bobby! This is only the beginning, quite literally!

Here's a few more pages...









...These shadows are killing me... Slowly...

[jpaulos]

Shadows will do that to you! Well done, keep up the good work. Your storytelling is really good and easy to follow.

[mrdenmac]

I haven't seen the dialogue yet, but the storytelling in these pages makes this easy to follow regardless. Brilliant work.

[Matt Elder]

Love the use of black, white and grey here. You've got a good balance between the light and dark without feeling too heavy and dark. The first handful of pages are great and work so well even without any dialogue / voice over. The one thing I would suggest would be to move the camera around a little more. Most of your shots feel like they are at normal 'eye level' with the occasional one being a low shot looking upwards. It gives it a very continuous, same paced type feeling (which might be the case).

Throw in the occasional top down shot. I know it might be cliche but in the room, for example, you could have had the camera up on the ceiling looking down through some blades of a fan. This will help to create depth as you'll have a foreground element of the fan blades, a mid ground element of the your character and a background element of the room.

[Laocorn]

Thanks Jase, Colin, good to see you two at Sauna Club a couple of months back!

Matt, cheers, yeah I completely agree with the camera angles. I've moved it around a tiny bit in the next batch of pages, but not enough to break up the monotony of the shots themselves (on the plus side you're right, it is dragging out the scenes a little bit), one thing I'm trying to snap myself out of the close-up shots, I've got far too many there when I could easily pull the camera back... I appreciate the crit, that's what I was aiming for from posting these up!

[Laocorn]

Another one for the road...

[Laocorn]

On the road again... Doomity doom doom doom...

[Laocorn]

Went a little too heavy on the fog...

[Laocorn]

And that's it for the samples, the story blows out from here and is a fair while off completion...

Comments and/or crit very much welcome...