How It's Made: A Voice in the Woods - 4

 

Ugh, god, isn't that gross. Maggots falling from his big eye hole. Blood all over his face. Anyway, it's time for another behind the scenes look at at This Mortal Coil. In this week's How It's Made, let's take a look at A Voice in the Woods - 4.

Script

I think the most surprising thing about this script is how on target I stayed with it.

1. Hana is looking around at the tree tops. There are a bunch of little broken shrines and shiori all around. Narration: Moments ago… Hana: Oneesan! Natsumi! 2a. Hana is tired and sits down on a fallen tree. 2b. She looks exhausted — her shoulders are slumped forward. 2c. She begins to cry because she’s lost. Hana: Nat-chan! Where are you? 3. View of Hana from the side. We can see into the darkness between the underbrush. Wolf: (unseen) Why are you crying? 4. Hana is startled by the voice in the woods. She has her hand on a rock. Hana: Hu, hello? Wolf: (unseen) Why are you crying, child? Hana: I’m…lost. I can’t find my sister. Is that you? Are you the… 5. The wolf’s snout appears from behind Hana and over her shoulder. Hana’s hair stands on end, and she’s freaked out. Wolf: To me, the whole world is lost. Should I cry as well? 6. Hana screams. Hana: STAY AWAY FROM ME! HELP ME!

Storyboard

Once again I seem to try and cram as many frames as I can into one page, but I feel this one worked out better. This page seems to breathe a bit better than some of the other pages where I crammed to much together.

 

Pencils

No tricks for this page, I drew it all by hand. I suppose I could have gone more with the torii gates and other shinto-esque stuff, but I didn't want to crowd out the entire frame with it. This page of course links right up with where the previous one ended. The page where Hana's hair stands on end was the hardest one to draw. I wasn't even sure how I waned to paint it. As I was drawing it, I kept going back (in my mind) to Spirited Away. I remember there was a scene or two in that movie where Chihiro freaks out and you can see her entire body just kinda frazzle up including her hair. I tried to create something similar to that below.

Final Art (no text)

Painting was straightforward -- this entire page is pretty straightforward artistically, which is not a bad thing. It certainly makes my job easier when it is. Thanks to the brushes I've made in the past doing trees and underbrush are easy. The rock and the stone pedestals were done by stippling again. I actually have made a stipple brush, but I didn't like how it looked, so I did these by hand. It's time consuming but I think the end result looks better.

In the last frame, I played with a new brush type -- one that generates wavy lines. I'm not totally sold on how it looks, but when you're doing something new and you just need to get it done, just try anything and run with it. You can make it better next time.

That's all for this week!