HOME | DD
Velven — LMV: Henry and Agnes
Published: 2012-07-13 23:22:22 +0000 UTC; Views: 3941; Favourites: 138; Downloads: 21
Redirect to original
Description
So this has been my labour of love on and off for what seems like forever. It's two of my OCs from 'Les Mort-Vivants'; Henry and Agnes. I'll scrap the old pic of Agnes now that I've given her a bit of a re-design. These two complete Hugo's not-so-merry trio of zombie killers. But Hugo is a lone wolf, so he gets to stay in his own picture. Alone. He only has room for himself and his sideburns in his life anyway.At some point (ie. never) I will try and sort the 31k words of snippets/stream of consciousness that is currently Les Mort-Vivants into something actually readable and coherent.
For now all you need to know is that they're brother and sister. Henry works in an apothecary and spends his time evading the clutches of middle-aged hypochondriac women, reading and sighing with resignation at things. Agnes is a housemaid who spends her time working and internalising mild resentment towards her employers.
I've done a very basic set of progress shots of this as a wip up to doing the background. I'll upload into my scraps in case anyone wants a look-see. Still not sure I like the background yet as I'm unsure whether I prefer it with just a plain background and warm lighting, as opposed to the moonlit version. Hmm. The best part of the background is the trees, which are all thanks to the wonderful brushes of ~deathoflight so I sadly take no credit for them.
Related content
Comments: 53
Thank you! I change my colouring style a lot, and I haven't been drawing much later so it will probably change when I start doing more artwork! You can see a very basic set of WIP images for one of my pics here: velven.deviantart.com/art/Henr…
Basically I use a lot of layer effects like multiply, soft light etc to make my colouring look better than it is lol. Maybe one day I might do a tutorial myself, but for now here are some tutorials by other people that I picked up some great tips from:
velven.deviantart.com/art/Tuto…
velven.deviantart.com/art/Tuto…
velven.deviantart.com/art/Mood…
velven.deviantart.com/art/Mini…
Hope those are helpful!
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
I love the color scheme and the general air of badassery these two have about them
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Thanks! I think you have to be pretty badass to stand any chance in a zombie outbreak!
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
I wonder why I haven't this one in my faves. It's is BEAUTIFUL.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Thank you, I'm glad you like it!
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
so, what is the story about?
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Haha good question, I've yet to make up my mind exactly!
I've just put a bit more info in the description about the characters. Basically it started life as a vague combination of pretty costumes and zombies and has now snowballed to include body-snatchers, science gone wrong, a religious cult and the French Revolution. I need to stop adding story lines...
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
this could develope into an interesting story...
I wish you good luck!
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
SO COOL!!!! I really am in love with these characters! Hugo as well! 
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Sorry for the dreadfully late reply, but I am so glad you like these characters. You're correct in thinking that they are brother and sister. I have about three simultaneous versions of this story in my head at any one time, so I need to just man up and decide on one soon!! Lol.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
ah yes...indecision, death for an artist
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
I hope so! The problem is that the longer it takes me to decide, the more I get attached to my characters. And then I end up feeling bad putting them through hell!
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Hello *Velven. The depth of these two characters and their background is amazing! I can see a lot of depth. Silly but I mean pictorally as well as character-wise. Lovely work!
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Thank you so much, this was a great thing to read!
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Ah! You are welcome as always. Hope all is well in your career!
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
It's going pretty well actually; I'm not getting paid a huge ammount in my current job but am loving every minute of it!
How are things for you?
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
For me, things are incredibly busy. I am happy that I am maintaining my head above water, though, and managing to mentor four great assistant designers. I'm designing the lights for "The Yellow Boat" and scenery lights and video projections for "The Life of Galileo". Teaching lighting design and introduction to stage design, too, of course. So I think that is busy. Somewhere in there I get to do laundry and walk the dog. (grin)
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
I'm glad that you're maintaining your head above water too. It can be hard to do, especially when you have multiple jobs/projects on the go!
We've just had a team of two lighting designers come in to help us redesign our exhibition space at work and I am kind of in awe of what the right lighting can do. I think lighting, especially on the stage, is that last puzzle piece that complete's the magic of theatre, without it the set, costumes and actors rarely look half as good as when they're under the intended lights. I think that's why I always associate lighting with that 'wow' moment where everything goes from looking good to looking amazing.
How are you enjoying teaching? I hope you're finding it rewarding.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Say, does your exhibition space have a website or Facebook page where I can have a look? It sounds very interesting. And yes, I agree that good lighting can really make a piece look fantastic.
As for teaching? I love it, especially when I don't have to do the rest of the academic junk...council meetings, faculty meetings, budget meetings, department meetings...too many meetings get in between me and the students!
I'm glad you got a good job after graduation and your international tour job. It sounds like it is satisfying. That's as important or maybe more important than having a good salary!
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
At the moment I am getting by on what I'm earning (just!) so I'm lucky to be able to do something I enjoy so much. I'm working with a historic textiles collection whose blog can be found here: [link] although there's no pictures of our exhibition space up, although I think there;s som exterior shots of the building we are housed in, which is beautiful and definitely one of my main reasons for loving working there!
I'm glad you're enjoying the teaching, and it sounds like you do have the best deal what with escaping the meetings! It's always really good to hear from people in this industry who are keeping busy and enjoying themselves.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Oh.My. Goodness. I just saw the building on Facebook along with a woman's portrait. THAT is the building in which you work? No wonder you love it so. Textiles! My favourite! One of my favourite textile museums is this one in Canada. [link] and another one closer to where I live is the International folk art museum in Santa Fe New Mexico. It has a costume and textile collection. [link]
Happy browsing!
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Well our offices are in what used to be the old stable block, but yep, that's where our collection is kept and displayed. The lady in the portrait is the founder of the collection, who used to live in the hall before it was given to the National Trust. I literally cannot wait for it to snow on a work day so I can see how the place looks with snow (my favourite weather)!
I've just had a look at those pages and instantly bookmarked them! The Collection Director is from Canada originally so she probably knows of that place, she's very well connected and seems to know someone from pretty much every museum in the UK at least!
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Yes indeed! It IS a small world we work in, really. I only know of the Canadian textile museum because I got a chance to visit it during a USITT theatre conference in Toronto. I collect textiles, too, but in an amateurish way. I purchase them from ethinic stores! I am sure I would die if I were to find something truly historic. I have some dresses of my great grandmother's from around 1830, and they are terribly fragile. They are in a trunk in archival paper with moth balls right now.
I'm glad you could actually get to the websites. I've friended you on FB by the way...just so you know that it is me!
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Wow, you're so lucky to have those dresses! I think my ancestors must have been either very thrifty or very un-sentimental - they didn't keep anything! I'm especially annoyed since my great-grandmother used to own a corset shop in the nearby town and I can't believe none of them were kept. 
I think part of the reason it's been so exciting for me working with this collection is because I have gone from having a relatively narrow field of interest, ie. just costume, to now being interested in all kinds of things. As a result I've now started learning millinery, lace-making, embroidery and hand sewn patchwork. So I will definitely be browsing through those museums' collections for inspiration!
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Wow. Wouldnt it be awesome to somehow find the basic slopers for the corsets your great grandmother used? I mean the original pattern pieces. I wonder if she corsetted anyone especially famous? Interesting to consider. My grandmother in her unmarried youth did beadwork for the Chicago Lyric Opera....Seems it is somehow in our blood. You went into costumes and I went into scenery and lighting and costumes although someone else does the costumes here at the univ. The research for all of it is very interesting. After a December 12 when our semester if over here I should be able to pull out one of the dresses and photo it just for reference! And someday I'll really get to spend time at the Victoria and Albert museum. We seem to consider that one the best one for historic costume colections
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Oh I would definitely love to find the original pattern pieces! I have a photo of her outside shop and that is about it. I do think sometimes these things run in the family, on my Dad's side I have a great grandmother who was a milliner, which I only found out after I'd signed up for a millinery course starting later this month! Again, we haven't got any of her stuff, which is a shame as I could have really used some antique hat blocks and millinery supplies!!
I love the V&A, I once went to an exhibition of Queen Maud of Norway's dresses there and I actually teared up because they were so beautiful. The collection I work for keeps getting called 'the V&A of the North' but it refers more to the embroidery, lace and world textile sections of the collection. We have a lot of nice costume pieces but the V&A stuff is just a whole different level!
If you do get round to photographing one of those dresses I would love to see it!
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
I love them!
It isn't easy to come up with characters that tell so much about them and their story just by looking at their faces. Keep up the good work!
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Haha, the default expression for these two is grim. Grim determination, or grim realisation, or grim anticipation, but always grim. You might be able to gather that they don't have a lot of fun times...
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Thanks, I was worried it was too dark, but then I thought, it IS night time after all.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
I prefer this background because it gives more information about the characters (for example, that they are zombie killers, even if you can deduce it from their weapons...) Also, the progress of the drawing is very interesting, nice job.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Thank you, I'm so glad to hear you liek the background!
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Awesome piece! I love the poses and how the weapons are subtle under the moonlight
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
I'm glad you like the weapons, most of the early inspiration for this project came from my love of historic weaponry.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
I can see that--and it's so appreciated! And weapons are difficult to draw 
It's funny how we end up illustrating through our little quirks. I love frills--I always end up illustrating Victorian stuff simply for the joy of drawing the frills on dresses.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Wonderful work! I'll visit your gallery! But why do you call it "Les Mort-Vivantes"? Are you talking juste about girls? Or everybody? Maybe it should be "Les Mortes-Vivantes" or "Les Mort-Vivants"
Sorry I'm annoying XD but I just want to correct your mistake, if there is any...it's just strange French
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Haha, I just checked my original notes and I apparently started off calling it "Les Mot-Vivants" and then at some point a wild e appeared, so I guess it is just my dodgy French adding e's on everything. Oops.
So thankyou for pointing that out, I'm going to change them all to 'vivants', because zombies definitely don't discriminate on gender. They're very equal opportunities in that way.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
That's ok hahaha ^^ Our language is so...annoying anyway
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Well I just realised that I totally forgot to go change them... I will just get onto that right now!!
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Well originally I was going to try making it into a webcomic, but I soon realised that the amount of time it takes me to produce artwork would mean incredibly lengthy times between updates and I personally think it's hard to maintain suspense and atmosphere with long waits between pages.
At the moment I have this massive word doc that is just sat on my desktop, which I open up and add stuff to as and when inspiration strikes. I have the main characters pretty much sorted in my head, as well as a good idea of some key scenes in the storyline, but aside from that it's all snapshots and slice of life type stuff.
I think ideally I would like to do it as a kind of illustrated novel, so the majority of it is done in text but with plenty of illustrations to accompany it. Like, maybe two or three detailed drawings per chapter.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Yes! You have to think about doing something with this. It's too good.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Oh my gosh. This is gorgeous! You've outdone yourself on the rendering in this one! I only wish Henry's coat wasn't quite so dark. It sort of fades into the background.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
| Next =>