Adventures of Erc

[RickZarber]

(Reposting after the Time Skip.)

I posted a lot of this in the sketches thread, but as it's something I plan on working on for a while, I figure why not give it a dedicated home.

So, recap, back around early 2005, even before I did my first NPF comic, one of my friends started a webcomic called The Not-So-Ordinary Adventures of Erc and Friends (Adventures of Erc or AOE for short). Over the course of about a year he managed seventeen updates, and only seven of those were actual story comics (the rest were intro and filler). Thing was, he'd done a whole lot of work plotting out the story and fleshing out the world and the characters. Flash forward to sometime around 2011--after he became my roommate--I got him talking one night and managed to get him to tell me what he'd planned for the story. And I felt robbed. It was good! It was really, really good! It needed to see the light of day. He was considering adapting it as prose, and he finished a whole chapter and started the second, but it was slow going; the story was designed to be told visually. So earlier this summer I tentatively suggested that I could try to draw it.

Now, we haven't decided 100% that we're going forward with this. I'm still very much in the design phase, testing the waters. On top of that, I'm struggling with my joint problems, and my art skills (and the results) are still a bit shakey. But I'm working at it, and that's what counts. (In fact I'm trying to use this as a platform to build myself back up to the point where I can work on my JAQ book illustrations without feeling like I want to die.) But in the meantime, I figured I can share what I'm doing.

These were the most recent character designs done by my roommate, set in the order I tackled adapting their designs:


So first off we get our titular character, Erc:



Erc is a college freshman and a bit of a mystery. He's ripped, but his hair is weird, he loves shōjo manga, he's always been rather standoffish and is considered a weirdo by pretty much everyone but his few friends. Erc went away for a few years during middle/high school, but when he came back he'd never talk about it. The only person who might know what's going on is his closest childhood friend, Dex:



Dex (also a college freshman) is more your typical teenage nerd guy. Sarcastic, shy, pasty, way too into video games. He and Erc were best friends, but when Erc left, Dex had to find new friends. That's where Alicia comes in:



Alicia is a year behind Dex and Erc. She's as geeky as the others but is way more socially acclimated; the guys can be an embarrassment sometimes. She is our audience surrogate character, and all of the (eventual) weirdness of the story is seen pretty much through her eyes. When Erc came back from wherever, she was a bit scared of him. But since Dex was always going to hang out with Erc, Alicia built up the courage and eventually they were all fast friends.

After finishing her sheet, I tried a bit of digital inking and coloring. I'm not very good at inking with my tablet, but I was happy with how the look of the coloring turned out. The eyes were a stylistic experiment, but I think I might stick with it. Her hair is actually the wrong color here; I was working off of my roommate's color sheet, but apparently his monitor back in the day was really... off. We've since made changes.



Here's a group shot I did, based on one of the original comics (sample panel of that):



And also I decided to try a quick sketch version of remaking one of his comics completely.

Here's the original.



Next up we have Megumi. She doesn't actually show up in the comic until the end of the first "book" (no idea how many comics / how long that will be at this point), but once she does, she's one of the main characters for the rest of the story:



Megumi is a high school junior, though she goes to a different school than everyone else does/did. She's smart, hard working, trendy, friendly, and altogether far too pretty. She couldn't be put on a higher pedestal if she tried. And she's miserable.

I had a bit of a hard time with Meg's design. I felt like I got it right the first time (top left) and then couldn't manage it again. She's supposed to be half-Japanese, and I was trying to imply that without overly-stereotypical eye shapes. I've settled for just emphasizing the epicanthal fold.

This next one was mainly to work out body shapes. Though the bathing suits are drawn pretty terribly and I was having some trouble with anatomy, which became blindingly clear once I inked and colored it. I tried to fix some of the problems afterwards, but it still looks pretty bad to me now. Ah well, at least you can see Megumi's color scheme. (Hair and eye colors in this universe are working under anime rules; anything goes). I do really like how Alicia's pool shoes came out though.

Click the picture to swap to the original pencils and back.



This was inked with a brush pen, rather than digitally. As you can see I'm still struggling with control / precision--I end up having to do a good bit of clean-up in Photoshop. I tried inking the hair here the way it was in the original comics, but I don't think I like it. At least Alicia's hair's been restored to its proper hue.

Quick sketches finalizing body shapes:



Next up, we have Alicia's best friend, Lydia.



Lydia is also a highschool senior, same school as Alicia. She tolerated Dex hanging out with Alicia, but she can't stand Erc and all of his creepy weirdness. Luckily for her, she doesn't have to deal with it at school every day anymore. All the same, Alicia wishes she could get all of her friends to hang out together...

Tried a sketch of the girls at school, mostly to work on my backgrounds (which will need a lot of work):



And another attempt at inking / coloring. My arm was super unstable on this one, though, and the inks are a complete mess. Mostly I just wanted to color Lydia. I did the eyes differently this time, more like the original comics, but I'm not sure it really works with my style. Still not happy with the hair either.

Again, click to see the--much better--pencils.



Some more Erc sketches next, this time we get a first glimpse at one of the three main aspects of the comics: crazy martial arts stuff. Meet Erc's Huge Fucking Axe:



Next up is a group shot and my best inking/coloring attempt so far. I think I've finally settled on hair and eye styles. This is not a scene from the story, more just me trying to capture a dynamic. The only things I'm not really happy about are that Erc's glasses are way too big here and Alica is posed awkwardly.

Yet again, click to see pencils. (Pencil version of Lydia here is my favorite.)



Next up is just a random sketch page:



And finally here's a few sketches of Alicia training / working out. (She's supposed to be kneeling on the ground in that top right bit, but I messed up her height relative to Erc. ...Other two are rough too for that matter, but that's just me tryin' to learn.)



Okay, sorry for megapost, I'm done now.


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Also, for completion's sake and so's I don't forget:

Originally Posted by rpgdemon "The most vague comment ever?"

Hey I own that shirt.

Originally Posted by Mauve Mage

Really nice work! It all looks great!

[phil_]

I look forward to any creative endeavor you engage in, man. I know that's not useful criticism; I want you to make stuff I can criticize.

[RickZarber]

Thanks, Phil!

Finally drew a new thing:



I saw this post (you should take the time to read it) on Kate Leth's Tumblr and the girl on the left in the third photo reminded me strongly of Lydia, what with the dark hair, glasses, and skirt, so I drew a version with her and Alicia in the picture. For the girl on the right I changed her face a little bit (though I kept her rad clothes) and named her Jacqueline. (She's supposed to be Latina--it's been bugging me how white the rest of the cast is. Like, that's mainly due to the original character designs being done when Eric was young and not yet thinking that way, but now it seems rather glaring. Since I have free reign to design all of the rest of the characters, I'm making it my mission to add some diversity.) So that’s at least one of Alicia’s other friends I no longer have to design.

Alicia would totally be a Valkyrie, though of course canonically she doesn’t work at a comic shop… but she’d support the idea at least. Lydia would probably feel super out of place, but she'd support Alicia anyway.


Next up there's another main character I've been stuck on designing. Hopefully I'll get him done sometime soon...

---------- Post added at 02:33 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:03 AM ----------

Eh, what the hell, I went ahead and inked and colored that piece. This is the first time I've been pretty much happy with a finished piece. I'm sure I'll see a million things wrong with it next time I look at it...



Unfortunately, I think Jacqueline turned out to be too cool, especially for a character who didn't previously exist, because now she's my favorite. So like, big props the girl whose look I totally just ripped off. :P

[mauve]

Jacqueline looks awesome! I like her!

[RickZarber]

---OP 11/18/14 6:04PM EST---

Next character sheet, finally.



This is Blaine. He is a High School senior like Alicia and Lydia, though he goes to Megumi's school. But he goes to the same martial arts school as Erc and Dex and is pretty much their only other close friend. Blaine is the tallest of the characters designed so far (a little over six feet--Erc, though he looks bigger because of his bulk, is about 5'10", and everyone else shorter relative to that). He is supposed to be good looking, and he puts on a show of being a cocky ladies' man. He's the kind of guy that you'd absolutely hate if he wasn't actually a genuine, good-natured guy.

I struggled with his design quite a bit. Eric never got around to drawing him back in the day, so I had no idea where to start. At my prompting, he did a quick rough sketch:



But he told me to take liberties and do what I could with it. I've done my best. I'll probably keep tweaking as I go...

Well, that done at last, that only leaves me two more main character designs to work out. At least, ones that appear in the first "book".

EDIT 12/14/2014 5:49AM EST ---------------------------------------------------------------

I did up a height chart for some of the characters in order to try and finalize their respective height relations with each other.



Originally I had been drawing Erc as taller than Dex and Alicia, but really he should only seem bigger because of his mass. (I did get permission to make Alicia a tad shorter, but that’s just to make the many scenes of the three of them more visually interesting.) Other than realizing I had been drawing Erc with too much height but nowhere near the right amount of bulk, I also adjusted the way I’d been drawing his chin. I need to resist the urge to make it square; it’s mentioned in the story that his weak chin is the feature he dislikes most about his face.

Then I inked it to try and practice my anatomy a bit more.



It’s nowhere near perfect, but I’m mostly happy with the results. I really wanted the guys to all have well defined muscles but still look very individual. Blaine appears about as bulky as Erc here, but I noticed that if I switched them to be right next to each other, the difference is more apparent. Alicia doesn’t have much definition yet, but I will have to design a more muscled version of her later in the story (spoilers, I guess). I’ve also learned to draw Erc’s eyes big enough to color them though, which is a big improvement on my last attempt with him. I’d go so far as to say that this is a finalized design for these characters. (Barring, y’know, me getting better at drawing.)

(Also, I feel that I should add that Alicia is only topless because I wanted to lock down her natural anatomy and then clothe that rather than trying to work backwards from a bra-supported shape. Her expression would definitely not be so care-free if this were an actual situation... Also that hand shape she's doing has no intended meaning, I just wanted to draw something different for practice.)

I have drawn a few more things lately but I can't share any of them because they're all story spoilers.

[phil_]

Glad to see you're still working on this. I would suggest working on drawing feet so you don't have to rely on hooves or convenient asteroids, Liefeld-style.

[RickZarber]

Dammit Phil, they're supposed to be slippers! >:P (Though I did totally forget to shade them. Whoops. Also I put like no effort into drawing them.)

But yeah, your point stands; I do struggle with feet more than any other part of the body. And I am absolutely unable to draw them straight-on as the angle above would have required. So yeah, practice...

[phil_]

Draw feet until you hate feet. Plaster your walls in feet. If anyone asks about the feet, just snarl "Art!"

[RickZarber]

Hm. Instead of doing that, have 20 quick-and-dirty face sketches?



Not all of them are very good, of course, but I just wanted to try to shake some of the stupid out of my fingers.

Also I inked & colored one of those spoilery drawings. It's not serious endgame spoilers like some of the other stuff I've been drawing though, just a punchline, but I'll put it under a swap tag.

IMAGE

Dex's left arm is fucked up, as is the perspective on the GBA, and his and Alicia's faces are a bit too small/narrow, but this was an all-nighter rush job, so...

[mauve]

I like Blaine's hair.