Wolverine is Josh’s dog. Norm had the idea to make him a West Highland Terrier- cute, loyal and with a moustache like a Viking.
First step- Google image search for references.
Here’s the very first sketch of Wolverine..
and an early turn-around.
The first watercolour sample was promising.
This month, you could win a copy of The Call of the Osprey, signed by the author Norman Jorgensen.
Have you seen a good Viking movie recently? Did you start pillaging popcorn and going all bezerker?
Or maybe you’ve read a cool Viking book lately? Did it make you want to grow a beard, jump in a longship and swing a sword at a sea monster?
To be in this month’s draw, write a review of the Viking book or movie in 25 words or less, then add it to the comments section of this post.
Your deadline is September 28!
The fine print: this competition runs from 7 September to 28 September. Winners will be drawn on 28 September at 2 pm WST and announced on the blog on September 30. To be eligible, blog readers must submit a review of a book or movie, that has Vikings as the main subject. The review must be 25 words or less. Employees of Fremantle Press or their families are ineligible to win.
In August, we asked readers to submit a question for Noman or myself.
The prize was a copy of In Flanders Fields, signed by the author Norman Jorgensen.
Two (2!) people submitted questions. It made our lives easier, all we had to do was flip a coin to pick the winner.
And the lucky winner was-
Frances Macaulay Forde.
Congratulations! We’ll get your prize to you soon.
P.S. Norman and I have recorded a video based on the sort of questions we get asked at presentations on a regular basis; we’ll upload it asap.
I started attending a clay sculpture class in November 2008, the year before I started working on this picture book. I find clay a great medium to work with, especially for making models of characters. I’d made one sculpture of Knut already- the big-nose version- but I wanted to make an updated version.
Here’s the big-nose one:
and here’s the newer one, based on the ’round-cheek’ sketches:
The head isn’t very big, it fits into the palm of your hand.
Then I started making the body over three sessions.
Firstly, I got the basic body parts in there. No detail at this stage.
I hollowed out a hole in the bottom of his head so that it could pivot on his neck. This kept the head stable.
The next time round, I added a base to give him stability, and I put in the details of some clothes.
Then in the third session, I put in finer details- his fingers, the stitching and the wool on his ugg boots, and I shaped his shirt a bit.
I’ve left gaps in his hands to hold a sword and shield, and I’d like to make a model of Wolverine to sit beside him (that’s why the base isn’t symmetrical).
I’m glad I made his head separate, because I’d like to redo it. His face is a bit flat, and his nose and eyes are too high on his head. He also needs his viking helmet! Perhaps I’ll also make some cardboard armour.
So, that’s how the character of Knut developed. From next week, I’ll look at some of the other characters in the book.
At this point I had a meeting with Cate to show her my character design for Knut. She gave some great feedback-
Based on that feedback, I revised the character design on my computer, fiddling with the body proportions.
From there I started resketching the character, making the face rounder and the chin less pointy. This version of Knut I call the ’round-cheek’ version.
The body proportions started to look better with this version, and his character was more closely aligned with the text- Knut is a very innocent, sweet and gentle boy. His hairstyle is more consistent now too, with the two little bits of fringe coming down on either side and the little curl at the end. It was a lucky design, because when Knut wears his Viking helmet, his fringe pops out from the front, making him still recognisable.
I had been working on Knut for a long while at this stage- my first sketch had been in June 2009, and the round-cheek sketches were from March 2010 onwards. Here’s how he progressed. Which is your favourite?
Next week- I show you how I made a clay model of the round-cheek version of Knut.
I was in Carnarvon this past week, doing workshops with Primary and High School students. Thanks to the Shire of Carnarvon for having me, and an extra special thanks to Natalie Whitley, Regional Librarian, for organising the trip.
While there, I met our July Competition winner, Rachel Loffler, who works in the library at Carnarvon Senior High School.
Here’s Rachel and I with her prize- 10 books from Fremantle Press.
There’s still time to enter our August competition– you could win a signed copy of In Flanders Fields. But, you’ve only got until the 24th to enter. Enter here
I started working on a new version of Knut, one without the big nose.
You can see here that I’m trying to draw the same face over and over again while keeping it consistent. Well, I’m trying at least! I’m also trying some profile sketches so I know what Knut looks like from different angles.
I was pretty happy with Knut at this point. I had a meeting coming up with Cate, our editor at Fremantle Press, and I needed to show a watercolour sample of Knut. I used one of the big-nose sketches as a guide, but made his face more pointy-chinned…
I do enjoy colouring on the computer for the ease of use, the speed, and the amount of control you get- but you can’t beat the feeling of using a real brush, real water, and real watercolour paint. I reckon the finished product looks a lot better too.
Next week I’ll tell you what Cate thought of the character design so far, and the improvements that were made after the meeting.
The first version of Josh/Knut had a huge nose. I made a small clay sculpture which seemed to be cute… but when I translated it into drawings his nose was enormous.
His character was starting to come through here- alternately brave and afraid, with his faithful Viking dog Wolverine by his side. But the nose had to go, it’s far too big for a young boy.
Character design tip-
Did you know that our ears and noses continue to grow for our whole lives? Babies and kids have small ears and noses compared to their head size, but older people have much bigger noses and ears. If you draw a character with big ears and a big nose, it will make them seem older. Unless of course your character is a baby elephant. In this case I’d recommend making their eyes much bigger than usual. The babies of all animals have bigger eyes than the adults, compared to their head size. Except those blind cave fish, they don’t have any eyes. And tadpoles, they’ve got tiny eyes. And… sorry where was I?
Right, yes, I was getting rid of Knut’s big nose.
The next version of Knut is the ‘pointy-chin’ version, you can see his nose is much smaller:
I’ll show you some more of this version next week, including an early watercolour sample.
So, after building the ship with Nick, I used some of the photos as reference for character sketches.
These sketches look very similar to the final roughs for the book- I’ll show their development in a future post.
From this point I started developing a very early version of Knut, which looks nothing like the final version… I call it the ‘big-nose’ version. Here’s a peek:
More next week!
This month, you could win a copy of In Flanders Fields, signed by the author Norman Jorgensen!
Your task is simple- think of a question you’d like Norman or myself to answer, then add your question to the comments section of this post before August 24th.
We’ll randomly select one of the questions, and whoever submitted it will win this month’s prize!
We’ll also select our favourite questions and record a video interview, which we’ll upload at the end of August.
The fine print: this competition runs from 6 August to 24 August. Winners will be drawn on 24 August at 2 pm WST and announced on the blog on August 31. To be eligible, blog readers must submit a question for Norman and/or James in the comment field of this post. Employees of Fremantle Press or their families are ineligible to win.
James Foley 