Jakk is Back.

The second comic of Jakk is finally arriving this Saturday. The characters… well… they look a bit different from the pilot comic. Here are some character reference pictures to show my point. Sorry for the low quality, but it’s the best I could do in the situation.

Kokkoro is Jakk’s best friend, a Japanese vampire. He was not seen in the pilot comic, but he will be a valuable friend to Jakk, always ready to help his buddy out of a jam. An umbrella will still be a key part of his character although it is not in this picture.

Jakk is the main character of the series. He is either a lot less disturbing or more disturbing to look at this time around, depending on what you thought of the previous look. He is neither alive nor dead, but instead walks the earth in an in-between state, unable to perish. To pass the time, he acts as a private eye for paranormal creatures. He has a large amount of powers, such as breathing fire and gaining six extra spider-like limbs.

The Librarian is a rather young ghost – only two hundred years old. Still, it is said she knows more information than any other being, living or dead, on the planet. Although she certainly knows quite a bit and is Jakk’s consistent go-to for information, her supposed omniscience cannot be proven.

Scythe is the newest creature to become death incarnate. After her mother retired, she became determined to find a way to allow Jakk’s soul to rest. Even with her and Jakk doing the best they can, she has been unsuccessful so far.

Valentine is the brother of the poltergeist Psycho. Heavily abused as a child, she eventually willingly became a siren, using her beautiful singing voice to save many children from abuse and “punish” the perpetrator. And by punishment, she means killing and occasionally eating them.

Psycho is the brother of the siren, Valentine. Unlike his sister, he has no interest in saving the abused. He was killed during a particularly abusive situation and became a ghost, a crazed poltergeist. He has no other intent than to terrify and kill his victims. Although he has many run-ins with her due to his psychopathic nature, he has no memory of who his sister is.

As you can see, they are far more stylized this time around. It’s honestly closer to what I originally wanted. I’ve decided to stick with the dark comedy route I originally planned, but it might not be as graphic as planned.

So stay tuned for Saturday! I have a new technique to translate from sketch to computer, so it should look awesome hopefully!

Making a genderless godlike character for the book Dark Soldier is fantastic. It puts so many people on edge. They ask: “Is it male or female?” I reply, “No.”

darkveilbooks:

Senra by Annika Sams.
Official artwork for Dark Soldier, the first of the Dark Veil books.

Book one comes out next year. Follow darkveilbooks to keep tabs on the artwork as it continues coming!

On Writing

So I’m not feeling well, and I’m ahead on a lot of my school projects, so here goes. I’ve done posts like this, but not one that is going to be quite as in-depth as this one.

The question is… why do I write?

I think my goal is, at the surface, something similar to that of most people: my own entertainment. I write for myself. I write because there are things I would like to read, and nobody knows what I would like to read better than I do. And so I ask myself questions. Is there more focus on plot than intensively realistic characters in what I’m reading? Then I write stories with relatable and realistic characters. Are there too much “teenager saves the world” kinds of storylines? Then I write one without as much at stake. Is there not enough POC representation in the books I’m reading? Then I write one that has lots of it. Is there too much concentration on merely entertaining the reader and not enough on making them think about their own life and society? Then I write something that makes the reader think.

And that’s where I have to go a bit past the surface. I think if I get to the heart of why I write, it gets slightly egotistical. I like to think that I can truly change people’s minds. Seriously, I do. I act like I can make society think about itself and its wrongs if I write it as it is, showing all the faults in grisly detail. Maybe I can. I don’t really know. I like to believe I can make people walk back into reality and think about what would happen if they kept living their lives as mundanely as they do. I’d like them to question everything. And most of all, I’d like to imagine that I, a short, scrawny dude from Upstate New York who’s never done anything of consequence, can change people’s minds with a some words on a page.

That’s why I chose my pen name as it is. I do it not as a lie, but only because I like to write as politically incorrect as possible, and I don’t feel like people tracking me down on Facebook to give me hate mail.  So, the name Gabriel Penn was concocted, because Gabriel is a both messenger and warrior angel according to the Bible. I would like to be that: a warrior for what is good and a messenger to those doing wrong. And I’d like to do it all with pen and ink, per se.

I think it all comes down to what a writer, or any kind of artist, is meant to do. Writing surely must entertain, or nobody would read it. But aren’t we called to do more as artists? Are our works not supposed to change society, or at least represent it as it is? And maybe we can do the former by doing the latter, who knows? I’d like to think we could. So entertain your audience. Write epic fight scenes. Paint beautiful lacework or pure abstraction. Write tales of dragons or aliens or 19th-century romance. Construct sculptures that take twenty minutes for people to realize what it’s supposed to look like. Write stories of vampires, ghosts, ghouls and demons. Draw original, goofy characters or hyperrealistic celebrities. Write about everyday life, for all I care. But to end it there, that would be a tragedy of Shakespearean proportions. Do more! Be more!

We bear a massive burden as artists. When you make art, the audience hangs on your every word of your pen and stroke of your paintbrush. When you make art, both poor and rich, both commoner and royal, are all equal. So whatever you’re going to say, make it count.

All the Swords

Finally, all the swords for the series are in one place… Facebook!

Each blade will make an appearance, but only two (technically three) will be in the first book. Those ones are Enlightener and the Leviathan Killer, or Leviethen Killer, as we are considering re-spelling it. Why? Because we made a typo once and it looked cooler than the original. That’s the thing about fantasy. If you make a typo, you just roll with it.

From 12 o’clock and clockwise, they are: Regal Blade, Royal Elegance, Crescent Moon Blade, Enlightener, Celtic Elegance (working title), Elect’ic Blade, Leviethen Killer and finally, page’s blade. Page’s blade is only referred to, as it was the sword Malkeon – the main character – used growing up. BUT YES! They are all here, and I cannot be more proud of how badass they look.

Also, not all the proportions are up to canon. That was purposeful, so that people could see the detail in each equally. Leviethen Killer, for instance, is 5’6″ long, or 168cm. It’s a very, VERY big sword, so if we’d done it at it’s height there would be much less detail in the rest. And a 4’10” tall (148cm) person wields Leviethen Killer. Kinda fun.

As some of you know, I don’t just write. I paint and draw as well. Here’s a work in progress to prove it.

New Things Coming

I don’t intend to leave WordPress, as the people here are way too fun. But I will be doing some things differently. For instance, because I am a Fine Arts student, you’ll get to see some really sweet artwork. Like this!   Now because not everyone was able to get the meaning of the piece, the painting that I sketched this for will look a bit different. But I loved this sketch so much that I can’t…

View On WordPress

New Things Coming

I don’t intend to leave WordPress, as the people here are way too fun. But I will be doing some things differently. For instance, because I am a Fine Arts student, you’ll get to see some really sweet artwork. Like this!

 

Now because not everyone was able to get the meaning of the piece, the painting that I sketched this for will look a bit different. But I loved this sketch so much that I can’t just throw it away. I’m not sure what I’ll do with it, but I’ll figure it out. 
In other news, I am excited to announce that my first planned agency for the novel I’m working with is the same that did City of Bones! The second would be the agents behind Emmanuel’s Veins. It is easily one of my favorite books of all time, if not my favorite. Never heard of it? No worries! Because that will be this month’s “Read and Review”!

Fan Art!

I officially have my first piece of fan art! One of my fans on Tumblr heard about a certain character, new to draft two of the novel, who goes by the name of Addom. He heard about it mainly because it’s the character he asked me to make for him, but that’s not the point. The point is that I feel super awesome because I have FAN ART!

I’m not putting this up on any other network, just to you WordPress followers. That’s because I want the main audience to see my illustrator’s stuff, and the fan art later. But now that I’ve whet your appetites, here is Addom, done by theangelstarot on Tumblr.

Not quite what I imagined for the character, but it is, after all, up to the reader’s imagination. The things that are described in the book are the spiked mohawk-like hair, the freckles, the scarring on the side of the face, and the moon tattoo below Addom’s neck, as shown in the upper left. Another characteristic not seen in the image is that Addom is a redhead. That’s all for today, folks!

That’s all for today, folks! For illustrator images and writing updates, be sure to follow us on the novel’s Facebook page, the author’s Facebook page, and on Twitter!

fantasyartme:

fantasyartme:

Christophe Vacher

Follow me!