Making the illustrations for the professor Utagburuagu short stories
Today the fruits of the collaboration I have made with @Nevies, a Nigerian writer and humourist, has finally matured. We both took part in the @adsactly short-story contest, Nevies as writer and I as the illustrator.
And now the first episode of of a series of pulp short stories is finished. You can read it here:
Professor Otagburuagu - Episode 1
Below is a walk-through of how I made the illustrations.
Image no. 1 - Professor Otagburuagu in the dark street
The original focus point was the mysterious criminal Dr. Otagburuagu, and the first illustration I have made was indeed sporting this modern wizard, educated in both the ancient dark arts and in modern science.
The scene in the Illustration is depicting the professor letting some kind of evil magic loose in a dark street.
I made a fast sketch, and then moved to the digital domain where I began looking at pictures from Lagos to find a dark, sinister street. I ended up using this wet road as a reference.
Image no. 2 - Inspector Raymond and his girlfriend Lucy
Most of this episode of the short story takes place in the bed of Inspector Raymond and his girlfriend Lucy, so after having done a bit of sketches to decide if I wanted to make the hurly-burly of the car-chase, the shooting, or the falling out with the supervisor - I decided to go for a calm, moody and sexy bed scene.
I have decided to make my Otagburuagu illutrations creative commons -by. I will post them as high resolution file on my Diaspora page as soon as possible. but until then feel free to use these images as you please. (The image from Lagos i of course not mine and cannot be used freely).
It is always a pleasure to see the process, the steps that lead to a great final result, the decisions made and the problems solved. You always learn something, even if it is not obvious at that time.
In this case, it is the imprimatura for me. I do a lot of fractals lately, and after a point I discovered a technique that in my opinion gives more dramatic feel to the image: instead of a total black background, I use a gradient between the center and the four edges of the "canvas". All these five points may have a different color, or you can use the same ones to create a smoother gradient; that's what I usually do, a left-to-right gradient that takes away the "digital" feeling of a unicolored background. For an obvious example, in the picture of this post, the gradient is red-to-blue (left-to-right) and is mentioned in a comment too!
And now I know that this is an actual official art technique used since the middle-ages! Thanks @katharsisdrill!
The oldest trick in the book! I am benefiting from my days as a painter in this. Funny that you all by yourself has found this in your mathematics image making!
Most times pictures speaks better than voice lessons letters, @katharsisdrill well illustrations of the story which gives the reader idea of the whole story without even reading jt
It does give a lot of extra feel to the story. That is why this kind of suspense literature often has illustration. You should read the story by @nevies though. He writes really good.
It is really fascinating to see the process. The result is terrific!
Lucy looks so beautiful. The light makes her absolutely amazing.
Thanks, I was inspired by the short story. Lucy is kind of a special character. @nevies is good with dialogue and I think he brings them to life with his writing.
Hey, cool to see Prof. Otagburuagu again, didn't expect that! Excellent continuation and also great to see your works-in-progress. I never finished my entry for the contest (but it didn't include the Professor anyhow...)
I was fascinated by this classic pulp-fiction villain who gave advice on peeing, soNevies and I agreed to continue working on the character. The short story will be in 5 or six parts with me making illustrations, and hopefully more. It is Creative commons so if you want to make a painting of the professor or something related to this Lagos Noir project you are very welcome! We will support you!
Cool, I will definately follow up, I was fascinated by the story as well, but didn't find time to finish the art properly. Your work follows the the mood of the story better than I ever could, though, but thanks for the thumbs up! :)
It really is an arduous job that you do! but you see that you do a very professional job. the patience, the effort so that everything goes so well !! regards
Nice post, good illustration and beautiful pictures
Thanks :)
Youre welcome
@katharsisdrill delivers as always, great eye for detail coupled with acumen and Iq. You the man, bro. I told you I used to draw a lot when I was younger, one of these days I might pick up the pencil again.