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Inkthinker — Bibliotech batch
Published: 2004-09-03 00:11:15 +0000 UTC; Views: 1903; Favourites: 28; Downloads: 210
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Description
A bunch of sketchbook stuff for Bibliotech. Character costume design, accessory designs, etc.I'm getting closer to the aesthetic I'm searching for, a blend of modern urban fashion and fantasy elements. Just because you live in a world of primitive steampunk technology and magic doesn't mean you can't have an advanced textile manufacturing industry, right? Yeah... just ask Kishimoto.
The belt design goes along with the premise that most people in the City wear something like this, sort of like a purse that you wear around your waist, festooned with pouches and pockets and so on to carry various sundry items from personal toiletries to eating utensils to money and valuables to tools and the accesories needed to maintain them (for instance, if you carry a knife you may also carry oil for the blade and a whetstone).
Enjoy! Feel free to crit as you like.
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Comments: 19
Your "Bibliotech" designs have always facinated me. It seems like an intriguing world and your mixture of modern/fantasy with an asian seems not only functional but extreamly interesting . His modern attire blends well with the urban setting along with the fantastic setting you placed him in. I have not seen any more of the designs though. Did you put the project on the back burner? Whats the whole story going on with this anyway? Was this a comic? or designs for a novel? Will we ever see more "Bibliotech" designs grace your scraps page? All your designs seems almost steampunkish, which is my favorite genre anyway. Facinating and very inspiring too. Keep up the steller work.
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I did put it on the back burner, to some degree. The story behind that was that there isn't a story... so to speak. I realised as I tried to get deeper into it that I didn't have any depth to it, that what I had was a collection of designs and ideas and a couple thin characters, and I didn't really know what I wanted to say or do with them.
I still work on the project in my spare time, but it's become a good deal more cerebral as I try and figure out just what the story is about. The setting was the easy part, and I love coming up with settings. But what I didn't want to do was start a story and then run out of steam after the first few chapters (which is what would happen if I tried to just start it... I know this, because I've done it a couple times now, and what happens is that it runs out of momentum around the end of the first arc). I also didn't want to do a story but have it be weak and two-dimensional... something like that has no lasting value, and rarely returns more than a visceral thrill that's soon discarded.
I want to create something that's rich and deep and enjoyable, partly because of respect and pride, and partly because I believe that only an intellectual property with lasting value can be expected to generate returns long after the work is completed. Considering how much goes into it, I need it to be worth doing.
But it's not dead. If I can do it, I surely will.
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Valid and interesting point. There is no shortage of fantasy novels and comics out there that dip their toes in a vibrant world and then never go any further. The want, nay, need to create something that a reader will want to immerse themselves in is very accute for creative people. Reminds me of Ben Caldwell's "Dare Detectives." Facinating world and cultures, but the story is lack luster and you can tell that he looses interest in his own work. I too love creating settings and worlds and cultures, but sometimes the stories that go with them lack...the depth and interest to make them something memerable and I loose interest and move on to create more worlds and their subsequent histories.
In think that "Bibliotech" might work more as a milieu story though, like Gulliver's Travels or Lord of the Rings, where the story is not about characters or events, but rather about the settings. I mean your setting in "Wall" is facinating enough, why not tell its story and not let it be just background to two dimensional characters. Usually these stories have a central character who is unfamiliar with the world around them, the classic farm boy archetype we see in Frodo Baggins as he braves this new world he is trust into. In a sense the setting, histories and cultures become their own stories with the movements and events of your characters only a vehicle to move them to another facinating aspect of "Bibliotech".
I mean think of Lord of the Rings. The actual plot of the books is not that interesting. Its a story that has been told a million times before. Good battles a faceless evil with the weakest becoming the strongest. Typical in most myth. But what makes LOTR so timeless is the world and how we learn about it. Within the fellowship you have just enough people represented to show the cultures. Thats why there was only one elf and one dwarf, just to show their cultures and traits. Same with having only two men from diffrent cultures. The same can be done for Bibliotech. Have a character who will carry your reader (or viewer) through the world, with companions that only showcase one aspect of a culture or setting. That way, you can show the world you are facinated in, the characters that go with it and if the setting they are in begins to disinterest then you move them on, one step closer to their ultimate goal.
A lot of people give fantasy a bad rap, saying its just made up junk that really has no merit to literature or art as a genre. I say diffrently. Its tough to get just right without copying Tolkien, or Lewis, or Hulbert or Myazaki or even becoming cliche. Thats why your "bibliotech" designs are so facinating to look at. Because they are not recycled. They are fresh and promise an interesting story behind it. Anyway, this is all just suggestion afterall. Keep up the awesome work.
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Well said. Who knows what I might do, but I know I'd like to do something. It'll come around.
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EXCELENT detail on the weapons and the...well...EVERYTHING!
... Bibliotech sounds familiar, but doesn't quite ring a bell...what is it again? (In other words, will I hit myself when I hear an explanation?)
The wolf emblem belt buckle is pretty good too.
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Several languages have a variation on the word, but they generally all mean the same thing.
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It's a subtextual clue type of thingie. It'll make sense farther down the road...
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very cool character
i like how you go into detail about different attributes of his items
gives me some really cool ideas
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Fantastic design, and that belt would make Batman jealous!
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Very elaborate design! It sure looks like you did your homework with the costume design.. There's so much detail of all the elements you were talking about, however, it seems more predominately fantasy as opposed to modern-wear.. Save for the beanies I think. ^_^ I love the costume designs though. Very inspiring!
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Really? The beanie, sure, but no the jersey, the sneakers, or the hoodie?
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Well, I mean, the modern element is there, but they just seem to be overwhelmed a bit by the fantasy element, if that makes sense.. Sure there's hoodies and sneakers, but there's all this elaborate fancy woodwork and ornate hinges and, and, and.. You get the idea! ^_^
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Yah, 'cause I did it on purpose.
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He's quite good-looking, and he looks asian. Interesting bead necklace thing happening ... like those ones that you put tiny scrolls inside? Nice how you've considered fashion as well, like William Gibson. I like how his sleeves come out of his jacket. You've got a mix of old and new with the sword and the gun so i cant quite tell which timeframe it is in, perhaps the future, but maybe it doesnt really matter because its another world. It's cool how you've taken the city setting and used it as a martial arts type battleground (I'm just making assumptions here, looking at the weapons and designs for the thugs, too. Yeah, their design looks asian and this design is western.) Mix of east and west gives it a blade-runner-ish feel, except that this is more japanese than chinese. Er actually I'm not sure if it's Japanese or Chinese I'm just assuming Japanese because its for the Manga competition. Dunno ... and yeah, with the time mixes too, that makes it different from bladerunner and gibson and stuff. I'm interested in the whole biblio part of it ... i can kind of see a sort of interplay happening with christian and zen(i don't know what you call it). Like he's got a cross, and a yinyang as well.
You've put a lot of thought into the costuming here, and finding the elements to describe the character. I assume that he is someone who will fight for his beliefs.
I just noticed the bag, too. Nice how you put the sword right next to the bible case. I'm assuming its a bible case. Like sword-of-truth thing happening.
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My influences are all over the place, which is how I like it... lately it seems to me that originality is just putting together things you've seen somewhere else in a way that you hope no-one else has seen yet. So I'm purposely trying to mix things up a bit.
Champloo.
You're doing my job for me... I hadn't really thought about what goes in the cases on the end of the duffel. One is certainly a scroll case-lookin' thing, so it might make sense for the other to hold a book... and maybe the small pouch on the side of the larger is for writing implements?
Don't let the time frame worry you too much... I know what the truth is, but I'd like to keep the audience thinking about what sort of world the City exists in. I would definitely not make too many assuptions about the presence of faith and The Church within the world of [i]Bibliotech[/i]... it's certainly a central theme, but (I hope) it's not what you might expect.
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That lower shot looks great. the background really adds to it to. Brilliant!
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