You know what? I don’t talk much on here, but I think I’d like to yap about the work & choices that went into that first Sir Callie comic I made (because I put a lot of little details & things into it)! Let's go!
1.) In order to draw the room, I made a floor plan to know how big everything is & where everything should be! I took Interior Design in high-school, so I actually know how to make floor plans, or at least, simple ones for illustrative purposes!
I drew 7 different floor plans until I got one I ended up using! (Pictured below!)
2.) The design on the lip of the plate is from real medieval manuscript art! I chose it (squiggles with dots in the valleys, not sure if it has a proper name) because it’s easy to draw, but looks complicated at a distance!
3.) It’s a goal of mine to draw food where people think, “I want to eat that,” & my hypothesis is that you have to make it look wet/shiny to make it look appetizing. Since biscuits are rather matte, I added glittery sugar on top! Though the glittery detail was lost on the full comic page… :( At least you can see it above!
4.) The book/sketchbook is red like the Sir Callie and The Champions of Helston (same book this scene is from’s) hardback, though I did this on accident, as I just picked the red color from the plate & liked the balance using the same color creates! I love it I do cool stuff on accident! (Pictured below!)
5.) In hindsight, it’s a little silly, but I tried to make sure the quill was historically accurate (for a non-historically accurate story, lol.) From what I could find, quills were usually goose or swan feathers, & manuscript art depicts them as white, so Callie’s quill matches this accordingly!
6.) I do a lot of research on native flora for my own stories, so figuring out what the flowers on the desk were was pretty easy! I settled on Scotch Broom, as it fits the “Bright yellow” description, they’re ornamental, grow along coastal areas in the UK, & supposedly ward off witches, or at least help ward off evils? (Pictured below!)
7.) The bedposts, tables, & chair ended up being Tudor period inspired, as I couldn’t find much on what 1300’s furniture looked like. While I don’t think the style is from exact time period SC’s setting’s supposed to be (off by 100+ years?), they do give a royal & fancy vibe, so I made do! The desk chair in particular is actually a fusion between some scribe chairs depicted in manuscript art & Tudor style chairs, though I ultimately kept what was visible really simple.
8.) The double doors in the back are inspired by this one door from Tintagel Castle! The inspo door is probably supposed to be an exterior door, but the design is easy to draw but looks complicated at a distance + very medieval vibes, so I used it! (Pictured below!)
9.) The handles on the doors (more visible on the last panel, pictured below) have hearts where it attaches to the door because… you know… ;)
(Are we calling them Callowen or FlameSword? I’’ve always leaned towards FlameSword, but the Callowen hashtag is free real estate, unlike FlameSword, so… *shrugs*)
10.) The mirror is meant to be the same shape as the doorway (which is cut off in the panel), to act as foreshadowing for the secret exit located behind it (a doorway subtly disguised as cohesive room decor)! (Pictured below!)
11.) So, there’s supposed to be a wardrobe in the room, (Page 130), but I didn’t add it for a couple reasons:
1. I already finished drawing the really nice table by the mirror THE DAY I realized there’s supposed to be a wardrobe there. I wouldn’t’ve minded adding it in, but with some research…
2. I realized wardrobes didn’t exist during the medieval period, & I already gave the room a chest in front of the bed for storage + to make the room feel smaller, so, I thought it’d be kinda redundant for two clothing storage pieces!
3. The wardrobe seems to just be a set piece that doesn’t come into play in the story at all. I would’ve been more compelled to keep it if there was a cheeky Narnia reference or if one of the kids hid in there at some point, but since it’s untouched, I didn’t bother to touch it either!
12.) Speaking of wardrobes, I deviated from the book’s description of Callie’s dress, which had puffy (Leg of Mutton?) sleeves + was made of silk. This was mainly due to the dress being one of Elowen’s; I gave my Elowen a closer to period-accurate outfit with the slimmer fit dress made of wool. To keep it consistent, I gave Callie the same style & material of dress. As a bonus, it was way easier to draw the slim sleeves!
While the frilly vibes of the original sleeves is gone, I made sure to take advantage of the change by giving my Callie some light muscle definition! (It’s not much since they’re 12, but this kid’s athletic, there’s no way they wouldn’t have any! It’s a big reason why my design for Callie has a stocky build; it’s to visually communicate Callie’s strength & resilience, + to emphasize their shortness, lol!)
13.) And lastly, the bricks were drawn & spaced out purposefully similarly to how they look on the book cover; not super detailed, just enough to know there’s bricks & to look nice! It’s not a big fact, but I really like how it turned out, so I’ll probably start drawing bricks like that now on!
For anybody who took the time to read all of this thinking, “Wow, that sounds like a lot of work,” it wasn’t that much work at all! (You should see my original worldbuilding documents; my longest is currently 92 pages, & that’s JUST the cultural doc, that's not including the flora/fauna/biomes/etc, which are actually in a separate document, lol! Surprisingly, I'm not much an info-dumper in my stories, at least, I try hard not to be since I know how much of a drag it can be to read!)
I love painting a very specific picture (both with drawing & writing), & research helps make that picture more precise, distinct, & can help make any made up details more believable & interesting (when executed well, of course!)
Anyway, I’ve already started drawing Book 1 Edwyn & he's turning out pretty good so far; it makes sense, most of the hard work has already been done with the previous three Court Kids! After him, I'll probably do a comic; but will it be the next part of that scene from the books, or something original with these characters? We’ll see!
If you got this far, thank you for reading! If anyone wants to know more about anything I did, feel free to ask!
