Brian Harold Taylor

New Website

2010-01-29T11:02:00.000-08:00

So I figured it was time to set up a website for myself. Lots of work, but hopefully it'll be worth it...

http://brianharoldtaylor.com

Please update your bookmarks!

Our Story Thus Far...

2009-11-17T12:35:00.000-08:00

Homestead Attack - Page 7

2009-09-29T15:45:00.001-07:00

So I think he should be making some sort of sound or something as he runs. Don't know what though. What's a "breathing hard because you're running and freaked out" sound?

I've been waking up a six every morning so far and working on my book for at least two hours each day. It's been helping me to feel like I'm actually getting somewhere with this. Hopefully this will continue.

Homestead Attack - Page 6

2009-09-24T14:30:00.000-07:00

Cue Freaky Music.

So...

Here's something I've been thinking about recently. What does the term "All-Ages" really signify?

It seems like, many people think that you either do grown-up stories, or kid's stories. They think that the All-Ages stuff, while fun for adults, is still ultimately considered kid's stuff.

The reason I ask, is that I wanna make sure I'm not doing something wrong or classifying my book as something it's not. For me, I guess I'd always thought of "All-Ages" being more about the absence of objectionable content, than about "kiddifying" something. I'm not writing for a certain age demographic or a perceived audience really. I'm mostly just writing this for myself. I want to make the characters, ideas and themes pretty complex. The story itself will even get quite intense or scary at times (as the current page has begun to hint at).

But through it all, I hope to keep the content fairly "All-Ages". Y'know, it'll be the kind of book that hopefully a grown up would wanna read, but one that they can let their kids read too. I feel that too many comics have become exclusively adult. In the process we're losing the younger audience. Just because the content is safe for kids doesn't mean the story can't be compelling.

Just my thoughts.

Homestead Attack - Page 5

2009-09-22T15:08:00.000-07:00

Holy--?!! What does Brandt see?! What happens next?!

I hate that I've been so slow lately. I've had a few problems with the computer and RSI symptoms in my right hand. I think the problem was that I didn't have my Wacom tablet at an angle and so I had to hold my pen tightly in an unnatural position, causing strain. I made a slanted support for my tablet and immediately felt a huge difference. Hopefully this fixes the problem so that I can continue to do computer stuff. Kinda scary though. This also means that I may be able to pick up the pace a bit. I hope.

Wow, so aside from not having a job right now, my life is pretty much going good. I mean, money is tight and I hate feeling panicky because of my unemployed state, but the upside is that I am really making some strides in accomplishing my goals. I've wanted to tell this MYTH story for a long time and would THINK about doing it someday, but never actually did it. Now I am. I'm also working out, jogging and eating super healthy (lots of chicken, fruit, carrots, whole grain stuff, whey protein shakes).

And as embarrassing as it is to admit, when I'm not looking for a job, my days pretty much now consist of working on my graphic novel, and lifting weights...while watching Smallville.

Yes...I know, I know...Smallville. I've always been a Superman fan and used to watch Smallville with a group of friends every week when I was younger. Good times. Then the show got sort of weird and too far-fetched and we stopped watching it. I still bought the seasons though, just because it was Superman. Well, since I started drawing my book, I've watched nearly ALL eight seasons and I guess I've secretly become obessessed with it again. Insane I know. But it's I have to admit, it's been fun to make my way from Season 1 all the way through to Season 8 over these last few months. It's like one HUGE epic movie. It's still increasingly too far-fetched as the seasons progress, but I put up with it and just turn my brain off and laugh.

Anyhow, life is pretty good overall. I feel like I'm getting to where I ultimately want to be, and improving myself along the way.

Homestead Attack - Page 4

2009-09-17T11:39:00.001-07:00

So I've been noticing that my color schemes from page to page are differing quite a bit. Not really sure if this is a bad thing or not. But I think I'll most likely go back and modify everything. Y'know, create an overall color scheme that I'll follow from panel to panel and page to page. Anyone have any tips on how to do this, or how to keep colors consistent? I'm still kind of new to the whole color comic thing. When I drew comics back as a teenager, I worked almost exclusively with black and white.

The good news is that I'm figuring out a method for coloring pages that will probably take a lot less time. Pretty excited about this.

Homestead Attack - Page 3

2009-09-12T10:09:00.001-07:00

So here's the next one. Only 9 left to color for this first set of pages before I can get back to drawing. I'm really still a newbie when it comes to color, so a lot of this is trial and error for me. I'm sure I'll be going back over these pages at some point and make corrections. Mainly with making the color schemes consistent from page to page, I think. I'm happy though with my improvement. I haven't done a great deal of digital painting up until now and I think these comic pages are really going to help me to get better at it.

I've been reading Kazu Kibuishi's Amulet lately and I'm really inspired by it. I love stories that take place in totally made up worlds. But more than that, I love the storytelling style he uses and his method for drawing/painting his pages.

Comics and Graphic Novels are an awesome artform. They're the only medium where a person can tell an epic story and show what it all looks like. In movies, you'd need a $180 million dollar budget to do this kind of stuff. I'm excited to show everyone what the rest of this world of MYTH looks like. The Homestead stuff is just the beginning...

Homestead Attack - Page 2

2009-09-07T12:07:00.001-07:00

Here's Page Two. I'm probably going to switch the sound effect fonts eventually once I find some better ones. Anyone know any free comic SFX fonts? I'm really getting a kick out of coloring this thing, though my hand is hating me for it. I can't figure it out, but I can draw all day long with no problem. However, coloring and especially drawing with a Wacom Intuos gives me Repetetive Stress symptoms.

So, it's looking like I'm going to need a colorist, which is kind of sad, but ultimately okay by me. Coloring is one area I don't mind turning over to somebody else eventually.

Homestead Attack - Page 1

2009-09-03T09:39:00.001-07:00

So originally the plan was to draw and ink 6 pages at a time. However, the problem I've had with this method is that I don't have nearly as much FINISHED work done as I would like. I have a bunch of pencilled and inked pages; but showing them to people in this unfinished state is kind of painful. And when it comes to publishers and agents, showing them unfinished material is kind of pointless.

I want to update regularly, but I want the stuff I show to be finished. I'd also feel a lot better about my progress if I could start printing out finished pages, rather than have a whole bunch of half-finished ones. So I'm switching gears and taking each page to completion before I move onto the next.

Also, I'm considering making the move to drawing comics completely digitally. In the past, I hadn't drawn with a Wacom much because I didn't feel that I had as much control with it that I wanted. I'd usually end up gripping the pen so tightly that my hand would start to hurt. However, I can see how drawing digitally would save me a lot of time as well. So, I'm at least going to give it a try once I get back to drawing new pages. Might decide I still hate it, but who knows?

Homestead Attack - Page 3 (linework)

2009-08-26T16:16:00.000-07:00

Homestead Attack - Page 2 (linework)

2009-08-25T13:59:00.000-07:00

And another one...

Homestead Attack - Page 1 (linework)

2009-08-24T12:03:00.000-07:00

I'm currently inking the pages for the Homestead Attack scene. It's the first part of the story that I ever came up with for MYTH, and pretty much played itself out like a scene from a movie the first time that I thought it up all those years ago. Some things have changed, but overall, it's still pretty much the same scene.

I'm embarrassed to admit that it's taken me this long to actually put it down on paper. However, most of that time was due to me getting sidetracked by filmmaking and animation. I spent way too much time trying to make this into a movie. But it's good that I waited too, I think.

So, there ya go. More pages coming soon.

My Current Progress

2009-08-18T09:40:00.000-07:00

So I've been pretty quiet over the last month or so. I've been crazy busy working on the pages to this MYTH graphic novel in pretty much every spare moment that I get. I didn't want to post again until I could start posting art from the book in sequential order. But it's been so long now, I figured I should post SOMETHING.

So the good news is that I've got about 14 pages pencilled. The bad news is that I've ONLY got about 14 pages pencilled. I was trying for 6 pages a week. I pretty much hit the first week deadline, but for some reason, I haven't yet been able to maintain that level of production. I'm trying to figure out how to be faster and more precise with my drawing. A lot of time is wasted right now just on trying to make the characters look true to their model sheets and how I've envisioned them. Which means, a lot of erasing. Ugh. I'm getting faster though, but still can't quite see how my contemporaries are managing 8+ pages a week. I've seriously got a long way to go.

The plan is still to finish two scenes: 1) The Beginning Prologue, and 2) The Homestead Attack Scene; which is when the story really picks up. Then I'll begin sending out this Proposal/Submission to find an Agent and/or Publisher.

Also, I'm leaning toward finding a person or people to help flat or color this thing. Though I feel I'm a pretty hard worker, I don't think I'm quite prolific enough to manage doing ALL of the art and coloring it too. It's too soon to say for sure though.

Finally, In addition to working on my book, I spent a LARGE part of my last month working on a new Animation Demo Reel. Which is another reason for the long gap in updates and proof that I have in fact been doing cool things despite my lack of an online presence. Check it out!

Starting real soon here, I'll begin posting pages and will then resume regular updates!

Book One - Page 2

2009-07-01T17:46:00.001-07:00

I'm doing everything in a stylized cel-shaded look. But I'm wondering if the backgrounds should be more painted than they are. Possibly?

This scene is supposed to be the emotional core of the story and also show the relationship between Brandt and his grandfather.

Book One - Page 1

2009-07-01T13:30:00.000-07:00

Here's the first page, which acts as sort of a prologue to the story. I also finished Page 2 which I'll post in a bit.

Book One - Cover (Revised)

2009-06-25T22:39:00.000-07:00

The current state of my ever changing cover design. I keep making additional changes to it based on people's feedback. It's slowly getting there though. Aside from this, I've been drawing a lot and should have Page One and Page Two up soon!

Book One - Cover (Colored)

2009-06-19T01:09:00.001-07:00

Well, here it is. Obviously, there's still a few little things that aren't finished about it. It'll probably be in a constant state of revision, and I'll update the image as I make the changes. But I think the majority of the work is done. I also worked a bit on a more painterly version, but I finally decided that this style fits the linework better I think.

Wow, I'd forgotten how long it takes to color these things. Hope I can have the stamina to color the interior as well! Otherwise, the plan will be to do grayscale for the rest of it. I really hope I can figure out a faster way to do color though. It's gotta be in color to do the story justice.

Again, I was going for sort of a "Star Wars movie poster" look with this. I'm pretty happy with the way it came out!

Book One - Cover (Final)

2009-06-13T17:47:00.000-07:00

Here's the final line work for the cover. I'm really glad I can ink in pencil now, it's much more fun and causes me much less anxiety. Now I move on to coloring. This is a big decision making point for me. I've been debating for a while, how I should color this book. Whether to color it in the traditional 2D animation, cel-shaded look; or to do it in more of a painterly style. Any thoughts?

Book One - Cover (Rough)

2009-06-11T16:25:00.001-07:00

So I recently finished the pencils for the cover. My initial idea was for it to look something like the Star Wars movie posters (the ones illustrated by Drew Struzan).

The world of MYTH has existed for so long in my head. I've known what all of the characters and settings were supposed to look like. It's exciting to finally be able to show what it all looks like to others.

Well, now I move on the inking the cover. I'm "inking" with a 2B pencil, so hopefully I don't completely destroy the thing. I've always hated inking because it NEVER looks as good as the un-inked art. But at least with pencil it's harder to mess up.

If you're bored, compare the finished cover with the rough cover for the dummy book!

Concept Art - Herd Animal

2009-06-10T17:44:00.000-07:00

Just some quick concept art for the "Mussetti", a herd creature that roams the meadows near where the dragon followers live. Trying for a super-stylized look, especially with the backgrounds. Really no idea what I'm doing. I should probably spend some more time on the trees, I don't like them.

Prologue

2009-06-03T11:59:00.000-07:00

The above image is, more or less, the first page of the prologue. "There was a time when dragons walked with men..." was the first thing that I ever came up with for MYTH. At the time I had absolutely NO idea what the story would be about.

On a completely whimsical, non-serious note, it'd be fun to someday see this as a movie poster or "collected series" book cover, wouldn't it? Hey come on! Let a guy dream, will ya?!

So I finally decided that, rather than illustrating the ENTIRE first act for this story proposal/submission, I'd instead illustrate the prologue and an action scene. The prologue sets things up, shows the main characters, and establishes the emotional core of the story. The action scene, which occurs late in the first act, is the moment when things really start to get scary and exciting! I figure these two scenes will be enough for a potential publisher to get a feel for what kind of book this will be.

Premise

2009-05-30T22:07:00.000-07:00

"In a world where people no longer believe in fairy tales, a young man begins a journey to find dragons; the only creatures that can end a great war."

Well, I didn't get nearly as far in my "dummy book" as I'd hoped to get. 15 pages. Still working on it though.

As it stands now, I'm trying to decide whether to illustrate the first act entirely, or just a single scene; before trying to find an agent and sending it out to publishers. I want to have the strongest story proposal possible, but I wonder if illustrating the ENTIRE first act might be overkill. I originally thought it'd be a good idea because it sets up the characters and shows what kind of story it'll be. But I'd hate to do all of that work, only to revise something at a later date because of publisher/editor feedback.

In other news, I did a quick concept painting. It's one of the main images that I had in mind when I was figuring out the premise to the story. I also re-worked the dragon hieroglyphic in Adobe Illustrator to make it all professional and stuff. Now I can put it on T-shirts and my car! ...Once I have money again, that is...

Progressing Steadily Toward Awesome

2009-05-21T12:10:00.000-07:00

So I haven't posted in a while. Not because I've been lazy though. I've actually accomplished a LOT.

I got about half-way through the script I'd written and realized that it didn't have the tone I wanted. Somewhere along the line I'd gotten off track.

So long story short, I went back to revise the outline. Overall, I've been working seriously on this thing for over a year now. I started way back in March 2008 when I set a goal to accomplish my dreams in a serious way. There have been some awesome, illuminating moments. There have also been some bleak, hopeless ones where I doubted that I had any amount of talent at all. But finally, having done an amazing amount of writing, along with countless days thinking about the story while jogging along a canal road (also serving the dual purpose of getting me in shape)...this thing is finally coming together.

The turning point was when I realized that the tone of the story had to be simple, fun and timeless; almost like a fairy-tale. I had this certain visual image that represented, to me, the heart of the story. Every part of the story and where it would go had to be driven by this image. If it wasn't true to the feel of that kind of story, I'd throw it out.

For a long time this story has gotten to a certain point, near the middle of it, where I didn't know what would happen next. Finally, I have a middle (and a finished outline) that I'm completely happy with!

I then went about creating a crazy amount of character designs for all of the main characters. I've really been trying to push the designs further than what I'd done previously, hoping to give them more "appeal". The look I initially wanted and still want is something like, "Animation meets Star Wars". Obviously, I can't show them all (don't wanna give away the story), but here are a few main characters...

With the concept art done, I then began scripting out a screenplay for the first couple of chapters. My plan is to illustrate these chapters totally and then submit it to various publishing companies...

Finally, with the screenplay done, I began work on a "dummy book", which is basically a rough version that I'll use as a blueprint for the final pages. It makes it easier to see how the story will flow and works out storytelling problems. I hope to have these first couple of chapters roughed out by next Tuesday for my art critique group...

MYTH Short Story- Page Four

2009-01-06T19:28:00.000-08:00

Here's Page four to a short MYTH story I started a little while ago. I've put it on hold while I finish writing the screenplay (50 pages so far! Yay!). I realized I really shouldn't be illustrating any sort of additional story until I finish the ACTUAL story. It seems, no matter how much one plots, plans and outlines a story, you really can't KNOW what it will be like until you actually WRITE the dang thing. I'm realizing this more and more as I continue writing. But the good news is that I'm still steadily working toward FINISHING a screenplay! I'm moving through it, even though it's not perfect. Then comes the arduous task of re-writing and editing. Which, I've been told, is when you look at the mess you've written and the REAL work begins. I'm sure there will be substantial re-working of the entire thing at this point. I'm planning on it.

Character Design- Squish

2008-11-17T17:16:00.000-08:00

Okay, so this isn't a character for MYTH, but I thought I'd post it here anyway. Squish is a character a friend and I came up with back in high school. We made lots and lots of comics with him and even a movie complete with a CG Squish as the main character!

Anyway, I hadn't drawn him for a while and was feeling nostalgic. I kinda like how he currently looks, I may actually do something with him someday.

New Blog Header

2008-11-13T20:39:00.000-08:00

So I changed the header of this blog to something a little more specific. Since the majority of the posts are going to be about my current project, it probably makes more sense to have the theme of the blog reflect that.

Character Design- Penchack

2008-11-11T18:03:00.000-08:00

Here's what I've currently got for the character design of Brandt's Grandpa. In future drawings I'll be trying to make his hands a little bit bigger and his body shape a little more caricatured and stylized. Overall, I've recently decided on more of a stylized look for the story, rather than realistic. Something like you might see in an animated film.

Character Design- Brandt

2008-11-08T09:49:00.000-08:00

So here's the current design for the main character, Brandt. I've been drawing these guys for so long. They've definitely gone through a lot of different styles and iterations. I think I've finally settled on something that works though, but we'll see.

Brandt's character has been more firmly established in my mind as well. For a while I was having difficulty trying to find a way to make his personality feel authentic and likeable. But recently, I feel I've been able to make him into a character that people will be able to relate to and identify with.

I hope so anyway.

Character Design- Grey Wolf

2008-11-06T16:44:00.000-08:00

Here is the buddy/pet of the main character. I want his design to be as far from the typical "bipedal humanoid with a wolf head" as I can. I want him to be more like a huge wolf that just happens to be able to stand on two legs. Some type of genetic hybrid out of science fiction, and not like one of those stupid "furry" characters. And no he's NOT a werewolf.

Right now I'm trying to decide whether or not he should be able to talk, and also where in the story he should be introduced. Originally he was going to be Brandt's pet/friend from the beginning.

But introducing him that way, he really didn't have a strong motive. Recently I've begun to think that it might be better to introduce him later in the story as a character Brandt meets. This seems to give him a better motivation and more of a chance for his character to come through. But I really did like him being life-long friends with Brandt, so I'm still unsure.

Logo Design

2008-11-04T23:44:00.000-08:00

Designed the dragon hieroglyphic along with the MYTH logo. The fun part will be putting this on T-shirts!

The Plan

2008-11-04T22:42:00.000-08:00

This blog will be used to update my progress as I write and draw my graphic novel, "MYTH".

Currently, I've finished plotting out a detailed outline of the first book, and a rough outline of the following two books (there will be three all together). I also have a scripted and thumbnailed short story which I'll do first for practice. Once I finish, I'll begin work on the screenplay.

Finally, I'll be updating with character designs and concept art as I design the world that this story takes place in!