Olive Groves

Little Nephi explores an ancient olive grove (it's his first time in such a place). These groves are sacred locations that have been corrupted with pagan sacrifice by the worshippers of Ba'al. This one is one of the few that has not been polluted...

In real life, some of these groves were thousands of years old, even in the time of Jeremiah. Yes, olive trees, when taken care of properly, live for thousands of years!!!

This is getting close to the quality that I want panels in the comic book to be. It's so hard to set (and keep!) standards that are better than you are!

Stay tuned! More coming next week!

Back in Business!

The hiatus is over! Please understand any hiatus from this blog DOES NOT mean I have stopped working on the project--it means I am working harder than ever! Some things I have accomplished in the last two months:

Finished Season 1 script (100pages)--CHECK!
Made some money from unrelated projects (so this one can keep going)--CHECK!
Went to LA for CTNX and made many important contacts--CHECK!
Got professional feedback on my work--CHECK!
Ate some great Japanese food--CHECK!
Designed a totally new website (coming soon) --CHECK!
Designed more of the world--CHECK!
Acquired additional professional talent--CHECK! CHECK! CHECK!

Lots to be excited about. One of the many goals we have made include improving our web presence and our communication with our fans. The story and the project continues to grow! Here's some recent artwork from our design archives:

Jerusalem may look like this...so if you were thinking something less magical--HA! Jerusalem is perhaps the world's most magical city...ever. In its best days it was a city of great wealth and beauty.

Jerusalem's richer sections are filled with architecture like this.

Near Bath-Sheba on the Southern, desert side of Israel is Abraham's Well, a beautiful spring of water that served as an important and vital life-source in the arid Negev desert.

Not everyone is rich in Jerusalem. The poorest of the poor make their homes on tels--mounds that have been created by the repeated destruction of buildings over thousands of years. They have no choice but to live in these undesirable locations...until the next destruction comes along.

Lachish was arguably the next most important Judean city besides Jerusalem, the capital. The Lachish region is verdant green with spring flowers and beautiful limestone formations. Lachish itself was a great fortress...before  the destruction.

The Hebron region lies due south of Jerusalem and consists of hill country blown dry with the hot, East Arabian winds. 

In Jerusalem they build with rose-colored limestone and plants grow in abundance. Despite everyone living within the protection of the massive city walls  that David built, the people have found creative ways to grow gardens in their wonderful mediterranean climate.

The richest parts of Jerusalem are ornately designed--a culture that was annihilated when the Chaldeans razed the city.

Jerusalem was ancient even in the year 600 BCE. There are ruins everywhere--lasting remnants of previous empires.

Thumbnails - I draw these first, then go to a final image.

Growing Pains

My silence the last two weeks has been due to substantial growing pains. The project is no longer a solitary creation, and as such, is in complete flux. My deepest apologies to any of you I have promised to send the comic and haven't! Because of the many changes, which I cannot yet announce in detail, I am unable to deliver the comic book digitally as I had supposed would be possible. If you meet me in my daily life I have a copy of the comic on my iPad and I would be thrilled to let you read it and get your feedback.

We now have a team of 6 people working part-time on the project! Everyone needs a little money to pay their bills, and I had the chance to make some so I took it. Everyone on the project continues to be unpaid. However, I could not have asked for a better team, and I am ECSTATIC about where this project will be in six months.

Here's a concept of Arabia and the cultures that may live there.

The fallacies of youth...

Life is good. An update: my foot has finally healed to the point that I can both walk and drive (I have a manual transmission and it was my clutch food that was broken) which alleviates a great deal of organizational stress in my day-to-day life. 

I have spent the last two weeks working to refine previous work that "wasn't good enough anymore." Part of the problem with being a young artist is your old work becomes outdated...and fast.

The major tackle last week was primarily decision-making. The biggest problem I face is how to take a religious story with mature subject matter and make it entertaining to a wide audience of all ages and many belief systems.

To my knowledge no one has done this successfully with Latter-day Saint material, except for the recent Book of Mormon musical, created by the South Park prodigies.

I was hoping to find a way to get feedback on the story without having to add a storyboard version of the entire comic...and the verdict? I have to storyboard the entire comic. 

It's a lot of work, but I'm pleased to announce it's already 1/2 way complete. I have over 20 pages of storyboards (with the lettering complete!) and hope to finish the next 20+ pages by the end of next week.

At which point I will be seeking beta-testers who will be given access to the story in exchange for their feedback and some free comics. I am looking for people of all walks of life young, old, male, female, Christian, Jew, Muslim--the works.

In particular, however, I need LDS parents with children who are willing to read the comic with their children.

Here's a visual update of where we are:

And some storyboards samples. Have a great week!