Death in the family

Quick update for today, got some good news and bad news.

Firstly, the bad news: my computer, my baby, Radical Edward is dead today. Her main hard drive crashed, a hard-drive that has been replaced multiple times already. She was 4 years old, almost exactly, and her absence will be felt for a while to come.

Second, the good news: I had already begun construction on a new computer, Raleigh Vincent, calculated to work 3x better at minimum; however, the schedule of her completion has been drastically sped up due to Radical Edward's demise. Currently, I need to purchase a Motherboard, Processor, and Video Card to get her up and running. Hopefully a trip to Kitchener tomorrow will solve that issue, and I should be up and running by the end of the week. (fingers crossed)

In the meantime, since I am currently denied access to my PC video games, I'll be refocusing my time on drawing Hans, Greta, the Witch, and the House of Rock (interior and exterior design ideas) and posting once a day as a reminder to keep on track.

Decisions

Ok, so I've more or less decided I want to continue pursuing a Heavy Metal style for this project, in particular drawing from Frank Frazetta's work (example: http://youtu.be/5mm65Opc74Y), with a major change being the inclusion of more clothing. An example of a similar compromise would be Brutal Legend by Double Fine, a game I endeavour to get a hold of for reasearch purposes.

The difficulties I will be facing however, will be overcoming my own severely deficient drawing capabilities. My hope is that enough practice between now and the project's completion will result in passable work.

For now, here's some images I've collected from the internet to get started on the conceptual designs.

Discoveries

Within moments of researching music for my Hansel and Gretel + Heavy Metal idea, I discover that there already exists a heavy metal band Hanzel and Gretyl. Not sure if this is awesome and useful or if this is a bad sign of possible copyright infringement... worst comes to worst, I'm not really making money off this idea, so.. lets hope for the best at this point.

Here's the band's page: http://www.hanzelundgretyl.com/

Here's the Band's youtube page: http://www.youtube.com/artist/Hanzel_Und_Gretyl?feature=watch_video_title

With any luck, this'll give me some inspiration while working on the project :P

Hello World!

Cliche start, I know. :P

Alright, this is to be the brainstorming area for my next project, a scene from Hansel and Grethel, given a unique twist of my own design. Working within a a fairly loose template, and already starting with the idea that I want this project to be as dark as I can make it. Making things family friendly comes instinctively to me, so this is an effort to push myself artistically.

The idea that I'm trying to develop is Hans and Greta, two punkish teenagers about 18 and 15 respectively, who get lured to this heavy-metal inspired House of Rock and then entrapped by ... someone. I still need to figure out who/what the witch is, whether they're an evil band (called the Screaming Witches or something) or they're the evil owner of the bar... also have no idea as to what the motive for cannibalism might be...

possibly I could make Hans and Greta really good musicians? and the witch wants to eat them to steal their musical power? It's a start...

Anyways, this blog will consist of me rambling on about story ideas and background, alongside the development artwork. This is all to help me grow, so ANY AND ALL FEEDBACK IS GREATLY APPRECIATED AT ANY AND ALL TIMES (with the exception of the last week before deadlines, which is too late :P)

Here's hoping that I can entertain, and more importantly, make something I can be proud of. ;)