Introducing PROJECT 45!

PROJECT 45 IS HERE! 

For the past few years, I've been chipping away at my own story, Project 45, in-between the plethora of logo designs, books and multimedia commissions that usually occupy my time. Now, I finally get to present it to the world!

Project 45 is a science fiction space adventure following a misfit team consisting of Beatrix, Aestas and Taura. They attend an all-girl military school in space called Tidereus Academy, which is built into a large asteroid.

The school teaches intergalactic diplomacy, which assigns small groups of students, called Projects, on missions to deal with conflicts. Project 45 is the worst and oldest group at their school, having been kept back so many times due to their rebellious and often violent way of dealing with their missions. 

With Project 45 struggling to graduate, they face their biggest challenge yet... their first mission with the team's newest member, Carmen.

CARMEN

Carmen is the main character and newest member of Project 45 and the first human to be accepted into Tidereus Academy. As a transfer student who is eager to prove herself, she tries desperately to fit in with the team by using her humor and remains optimistic that she will eventually win their trust. Carmen has limited telepathic powers but her greatest asset to the team is as a gifted sharpshooter. Carmen is also the team’s historian; particularly enjoying Earth history from the 1980’s and always listening to 80’s rock/pop- calling it “classical music.”

BEATRIX

Beatrix is the leader of Project 45 and a member of the feared Danaki clan, an alien race with a dark, uncontrollable power. She is a powerful mage specializing in black magic; able to control the elemental energies of fire, water, lightning, etc. but also has limited healing abilities. Although she is stern and can seem downright cold at times, she is also quite motherly and respected by the other team members.

 

AESTAS

Aestas is the calm, refined, intellectual peacekeeper of Project 45. She is unique in being the only member who is mute, preferring to speak only through mental telepathy. Her telepathic abilities make her the communications specialist and she doubles as the team’s science analyst. Aestas also has the unusual power of being able to manipulate whatever matter she touches for a limited amount of time, called haptokinesis.

TAURA

Taura is rebellious, hotheaded and ill-tempered. The other members typically dismiss her erratic behaviors, as her loyalty to Project 45 supersedes her bad attitude. She suffers from fits of violence due to a traumatic childhood on her war-torn planet. Taura is the team’s mechanical genius and prefers to sit alone, making upgrades to her weaponized cybernetic arm. These upgrades and penchant for bloodshed, make her the fiercest member of Project 45!

FREE DOWNLOADABLE PREVIEW!

In my store I’m offering a downloadable digital preview of Project 45, along with some other goodies, for FREE! So please, check out my store to download the Project 45 #1 Preview Package and use the coupon code: 2PGZRRD1S8KM during check out. Enjoy!

PROJECT 45 © Kaland Mebane and Enigma Resolve, LLC. All rights reserved. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, in any form or by any means, without the express written permission of the copyright holders. Names, characters, places, and incidents featured in this publication are either the product of the creator’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons (living or dead), events, institutions, or locales, without satiric intent, is coincidental. Project 45, Enigma Resolve and the Enigma Resolve logo are trademarks of Enigma Resolve, LLC. All rights reserved.

Katana

Just a personal pic. Done as a promo for a video game I'm designing and playing around with a haiga style.

Colors from last post

A monochromatic coloring theme for the character from my last walk-thru post. I'll get to my coloring style sometime in the future.

Character designs Copyright © Enigma Resolve, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Workflow Walk-thru

Let’s look at my workflow. This changes a bit depending on my materials and style, client needs, etc. but for most of my line art, this will be my preferred workflow 90% of the time. Everyone does things differently so this ISN'T how you have to work but this offers new options. I work with a light-box and I got this technique from an artist by the name of Bart Sears and used it while studying animation in college.

Here, we are looking at a character that I designed to be used for a video game.

The main reason I work this way, is that I'm also a colorist and need my lines to be very precise and open. I don't use a lot of thick, black shading to allow the contrast and lighting to be determined in the coloring stage.  Let's check out the steps:

1. First, I start off with a doodle in my 4x6 Aquabee sketchbook, using my Pilot Precise V5 pen. The lines are unfinished, to focus on the pose. The idea is to be quick and such a small drawing in a small book adds to that. From here, I scan it and blow it up in Photoshop to print on regular 8.5x11 paper. Once printed, I trace the sketch on my light-box in step 2.

2. This breakdown step is usually done in pen- my Pilot Precise V5, but since the character's design was still unclear to me at this point, I used my Zebra M-402 pencil. I was still unsure about how I wanted him to look, so I would erase bits and start again, experimenting with different designs until I stumbled upon something I liked. Again, had I known the character's design beforehand, this step would have been done in pen.

3. Once I found a design I liked for the character, I slapped it on the light-box again with a new sheet of paper on top and ink my final lines. I would correct a few more mistakes and add more details. For this step, I use my Pigma Micron pens.

The PROS and CONS of this method?

PROS: It allows you to iron out the kinks as you go along. You can do damage and quality control and not rush the art. You can go back to a previous step, unlike doing it all in one go.

CONS: The back and forth extra steps can be time consuming. You also go through A LOT of paper!

Character designs Copyright © Enigma Resolve, LLC. All Rights Reserved.