This is roughly the center of the piece, just working to try to make it hang. Not there yet.

I need to get down and design the she wolf properly and theres a hell of a lot of polishing, but I'm ready to move on. The style isn't nearly developed enough for me to lock this down, stuff will develop on further pieces so I choose not to waste time now doing stuff that in all probability will be changed later.

Its a good start for the entire series of pieces rather than being an admirable finish for an individual piece.

I have isolated a rough pallete after maybe 5 hours of work on this first piece. I'll save it later. It should have 20 tiles after the first pass through the artwork. Graduations of blacks in 5% increments should give me all the tonal value I need.

Heres a snapshot of how far I've gotten. Mostly detailing for now. I need to get back to pay money work.

The image size is 7x10" for a page dimension of 8x11. I'm thinking about dropping the splash images into stroked boxes with about a half inch to the edge of the page. I know that I need a page dimension thats taller than it is wide because the verses of the 'Inferno' are so bloody long and I'll need to get a lot onto each page if the project is to be contained and hopefully printed.

Oh yeah, I'm laying off a second color for now. I think that setting it up for a 1 color press is the way to go for now. I can add a spot later for highlights on a few chosen pages. If I do decide to accent I want the option of using a few well chosen colors in a logical progression when the layouts start to come together.

Just adding more and more shapes in the background color layer (layer 1)

The method is pretty simple, just drawing like irregular shapes with the odd curve thrown in underneath the ink and highlight layers (layers 2 and 3 respectively.) I've got the middle of the piece well on its way, now I need to start pushing out to bring the whole thing together.

I like my Virgil, its not typically as the charactar appears in classic illustration, certainly nothing like the Gustav Dore version. I think I've based mine more on a Obi-Wan kind of figure, fairly gentle but not without a sharp word. Dante is just the amiable idiot required for the plot to move forward.

I have a lot of real money work to do today so there likely won't be much in the way of forward progress on Project Dante. I'm basically just adding and polishing on the image, it seems to be working out so far, still a long way to go but I'll keep on posting updates.

Adding more and more detail on the top layer in black. I'm liking the look so far, but since this is just a tiny little part of the composition I won't know for sure until I move out and tackle the rest.

Starting to get closer to the artboard to start to lay in some detail. The detail, all picked out in black is all on a new layer on top of all the others. You can see the hard edged shapes I used to put down behind the drawing layer itself, thats the kind of look I want to play around with first to see if I can make it work.

Just starting to add areas of grey to start defining the shapes of all the main elements. All the black is on a layer higher on the stack so that no matter what I draw it will merely color the 'ink' layer above. Almost like an animation cell.

Once the tracing was mostly done I switched everything to black and started to apply styles and brushes to the stroked paths. The wolf will be in the middle, at the back, just kind of a dark shadow on the surface of the tree.

So work continues, its taking a long time but I'm coming up with a plan for how I'm going to layer it for the final image. I just started drawing in the leopard here, I haven't touched the lion or the wolf yet.

Work continues on Project Dante. This is me messing about with an illustration for Canto I, not exactly sure which ways its going to go just yet.

I'm spending the day ferrying my father and his friend around, so I'm kind of glad blogger decided to work this morning (for once.)

I picked a blue line for this because I need it to stand out while I do the tracing. Red would have worked too, but blue seemed more fitting somehow.

Project Dante

Canto III

'Righteous anger made me be 1
My master is divinity'
These words their meaning so unclear
'Abandon hope, who enter here' 4
Inscribed above the gate it read
The words above my quaking head
Had seen and to my master cried
Who looked at me with counting eye 8
'Beyond this gate' he says to me
'A journey through calamity
Now you must set your fear at bay
If you would last this fearsome way 12
For you will see the land of death
Where first to go is intellect
And you must never hesitate
If you would see far heaven's gate' 16
And saying so he took my hand
And entered we among the damned
Whispers strange and dreadful sounds
That seemed to come from neath the ground 20
And beating hands fanned turbid air
For those who failed to choose dwelt there
Then Virgil turned to me and said
With words of fear full dipped in dread 24
'These souls that writhe before your eyes
Are those in life who chose no side
And angels who from conflict strayed
When God and Satan battle made 28
And so from world made black and white
These cowards who chose not to fight
The heavens cast them out in shame
Their greatest sin, they lived in vain'
'But why so loud do these souls wail?'
I asked him with my lips turned pale
He looked at me with hooded gaze
'I'll say it short I can' he says 36
'The world will let no fame endure
Of these poor souls from heaven spurned
Beyond all hope we must disdain
These wretched souls that live in pain' 40
And so the great one quickly passed
As vision on my eyeball cast
A banner moved across the plain
And conga line there chased in vain 44
A million souls and more I saw
And some I knew to break God's law
The sky was filled with wasps and flies
As tears of blood fell from their eyes 48
That rained onto a mess of worms
Which feasted as their bellies churned
Beyond the press of screaming souls
A river cross the landscape flowed
And then I saw the crowded shore
'Who are these souls?' I then implored 54
But Virgil did not answer me
He moved away then beckoned he
And once beside the restless stream
A shape I saw from darkest dream
A boat then sails from out of dark
By Charon helmed with eyes like sparks 60
Then cried he loud in dreadful shout
And gestures as he sorts souls out
'Oh woe to you corrupted souls
By heaven now abandon hope 64
I'll lead you to the other side
To darkness, pain and burning fire'
And then he turns to me and says
'You shall not pass o yee not dead' 68
My guide then Virgil turns to him
And silenced him with sentence grim
Saying 'Charon, don't torment your mind
His passage has been willed you'll find 72
And one should do what one is told
So ferry us cross water cold'
Then silence fell on woolly cheeks
As round him spirits gnashed their teeth 76
And cursed their very lives they did
Then Charon to their fate he bid
I could not grasp this fearful scale
Of evil passed through mortal vale 80
And then the ground began to shake
The red air burned now set ablaze
The burning earth beneath my soles
Was rocking like the Beatles roll 84
And sudden I was in a sweat
As whirlwinds from the pit past swept
My mind recoiled from this fould taint
And keeled I down in sudden faint 88

This is a fairly straight adaption of the real Canto from the Comedy. I like the imagary in it, they'res a lot of very obscure but logical ideas knocking around in the verse. (his not mine)
Dante and Virgil, his guide, enter under the gate into the underworld. Virgil tells Dante that the people he sees in torment are the cowards who failed to pick a side in life and angels that refused to fight for God or for Satan at the great rebellion. They are forced to chase a banner, a metaphor for the choices they refused in life. Beyond them lies the river Acheron and the boatman Charon, culled from classic legend.

When Charon sees Dante he tells him that he will not ferry him across until Virgil intervenes. A huge spasm rocks the the plain and foul vapors and blasts of light knock Dante into a sudden faint. Beyond this place lies the first circle of hell proper, this place being reserved for those that both heaven and hell refused to house because of their lack of choice.

Started messing about with the first image for my Project Dante, just laying down lines in a bright color on my original scan.

I want to keep this quite graphic and yet loose. I'm thinking of putting all the black line (ink) on a top layer and placing further layers of quite hard shapes below to get a kind of '101 dalmations' look.

No doubt that the answer will present itself after I play around for a while.

Project Dante

I started writing Canto III last night after skipping II for now. I just need to figure out what the crucial element of II is, I think it might be that Dante is told that Beatrice is the one who sent Virgil to lead him through the underworld and on to the purgatoria etc. Canto III is going well, I've just reached as far as Charon and the river Acheron and his curse and incantation.

This is is a fast marker sketch over pencil for the first page of Canto I. I scanned it inot photoshop and then dropped a multiply layer of a middle grey over it before cutting it back to get my light and dark. The only color will be small splashes of red, a little on Dante himself and in each of the animals eyes.

This is the same page except staged from the other side, looking up into the wook as opposed to looking out of it.

The composition is based on a drawing by Gustave Dore. The leopard is in the tree on the left, the lion in the dark between the trees in the center and the wolf is nothing but a dark shadow against a tree at the top of the composition. Thats the shade of Virgil on the right hand side and Dante is front and centre in the frame.

Project Dante

For project Dante I decided to design the illustrations so they are very stark. Mostly black and white with the odd splash of color. The format I want to use has to be taller than it is wide because I'll need a lot of space for the poem which is long and complex. So I want to panel off the illustrations onto one side or other and use little spots much like my dog book. This is just a quick sketch to try and work out the first page which has to introduce Dante himself and set the scene.

Since I only have the first Canto written so far I'm just to try to get a sense of how big a job this might be. I want to do everything I can to minimize the amount of trouble I experience later on when I get further in. Anyway, the first Canto deals with Dante lost in a dark wood as various visions and metaphors stalk him before he meets Virgil, the Roman poet who offers to lead him through the underworld. The lion, leopard and she wolf are referenced from the Inferno and from my own rewrite.

In an attempt to get a handle on project DANTE I've goon back to polish my dog book from earlier in the year.

I'm hoping to pass it out among some printer friends hoping they might have some suggestions on ways to optimize the process and get it printed as cost effectively as possible. I just want one final 'good' pdf so theres as few problem files as possible. Lots to fix, spot colors and such, transparencies etc.

This is the page spread for Constantine, the top layer is the blood and arm, the bottom is the figure and background and all that jazz.

Snatching Defeat from the Jaws of Victory
The Grand Prix from Bejing was run today, it was an incredible race. Schumacher came from fifth to win and Alonso made do with 2nd after a botched pitstop and a lousy set of tires. I was on the edge of my seat for the whole thing but I loved it, even though Michael won.

The championship is effectively tied, Alonso and Schumacher have exactly the same number of points. Ferrari and Renault are within a point of each other for the constructors championship, it just couldn't be closer with two races to go. I'm rooting for Alonso, but Ferrari aren't making any mistakes and won the race with a perfect strategy for Michael.

Massa is another story, I have nothing but contempt for him as a racing driver. The question for me is how long Ferrari can afford to keep him and his poor judgement and his rotten luck.