adamwarren

DESIGN THURSDAY(?): EMPOWERED vol.8's "Vorpal Sword"

Added 2021-07-15 13:00:07 +0000 UTC

In a rare confluence of this here Patreon and the ongoing webcomic serialization of Empowered, I thought I'd post the design work stages for a key story element appearing in Thursday's webcomic page: namely, the so-called "Vorpal Sword," which my bud Ryan Kinnaird worked up for me as a 3D Sketchup model based on a few initial design sketches of mine:

After Ryan's first pass at the 3D model...

...I suggested a few revisions:

...which led to the final version of the Sketchup model:

So, throughout the Vorpal Sword's appearances in Empowered vol. 8's climactic story, I'd manipulate the 3D model and the Sketchup camera to whatever angle and distance were needed for each particular shot, print out a jpeg image of the model...

...then trace off the image onto the original page via lightboard, and render the Sword in pencil (and ink, looks like):

I probably didn't save all that much worktime via this somewhat convoluted production process (as I couldn't just insert the model's image directly into the comic's artwork, as some artists do nowadays), but using a 3D program in this manner definitely saved me the mental stress and strain of having to work out the perspective and foreshortening for the Sword by trial and error. Yay!

TOMORROW ON THIS HERE PATREON: Stand by for what is probably the last bunch of Vintage Con Sketches from my summer 2012 heyday of B&W linen-finish pieces.