I’m preparing for a bit of a site overhaul, part of which involves updating the biography section of the website. Especially now that Zack has officially joined the main cast, we need a revamp. However, I’m also looking to get some new artwork up of the characters, more of a midshot kinda look. So here’s some sketch previews of whats coming up for our three protagonists.
So this is coming just a tad early. Chapter 23 didn’t really show off the residents of the Sato fortress all that much. , however we will be showing them off a bit more in the next chapter. There were however quite a couple of scenes with the thugs at the beginning. So right now I’d like to show you all some of the production work because I had a particular idea of how I wanted these two groups to look.
A little bit of an ironic thing is despite wanting to make this story take place in Feudal Japan, I actually didn’t really understand what Feudal Japan was, mostly because I didn’t what feudalism was (oops). Upon researching the topic, this is what shaped my idea of how these two groups would look.
During the Feudal era, Japan was ruled by some powerful rulers who clashed for complete and total control as they raised entire empires. The only way to survive in this brutal age was either to fall under the protection of these empires or have enough power to survive on your own. This was something I tried to reflect in the two groups.
As shown below, the thugs have rather tattered clothing, along with a lot of scars, some of which looking rather deformed. While the Sato residents are mostly clean, this is mainly to reflect on the fact that the Sato residents is in fact a (mini) empire. They have an established fortress and enough defenses to stand strong together and be safe from the outside world. While the thugs are of outsiders who simply travel and pillage. This is also reflected in the fact that they all have tremendous scars and deformities, which they essentially wear as a symbol of pride to show their strength and power through surviving battle after battle. It also is meant to show that they lack humanity and come off mostly as monsters. A future update will also show you some more faces and give you a better reflection of their scars.
So yes, chapter 23 has concluded and currently I’m a bit occupied over on the Green Raptor website finishing up the Amber one shot. So it will be just a little longer till I start working on the official script for chapter 24. But in the meantime I’m here to show you all some behind the scenes sketches and some production stories that go on behind the Kalwa scenes.
We’ll start off with Hideyoshi and Karou Sato (yes I’m saying their names in the western tongue right now). Hideyoshi’s design was kinda decided from the beginning as I wanted a simple stoic and strong looking samurai. I wanted him to have a mustache as it would suggest wisdom and nobility in addition to his strength. In fact his selected name Hideyoshi actually translates to “strong one” in Japan. Mostly when drawing him I was actually thinking of Sango’s father from Inuyasha, except with cleaner hair.
The x shaped scare on Hideyoshi’s face was actually an accident. In reality he was meant to have only a single slash scar, however when it came time to draw him in the comic, I mistook the cheek bone as a second mark and didn’t realize my mistake until about five pages of drawing him (as you can see by the sketch below). So hopefully Ruroni Kenshin fans don’t accuse me of stealing.
Karou’s design was a bit more tricky, as I didn’t really have a specific design in mind for her. I wanted her to look like a well mannered woman who would politely greet guests, but also wanted her to appear fun and witty as she has her own methods of survival which will be seen later in this story arch. My first drawings of her I felt looked too plain, and at the same time I felt she looked a little too old for Hideyoshi. I think I had been looking at Hinata from Naruto when designing her bangs in the final design. The real tricky thing about drawing Karou is that her long hair has to wave in and out in a certain way as it can result in her looking notably different and off model (see second sketch).
One little fact I’d like to bring up is that there is an unused kimono design for Karou. Initially she was supposed have flowers on her kimono, sorta like an older version of her daughter’s kimono. However I missed the sketch at the time I drew her and completely forgot about the design. I’ll probably bring this design in chapter 24 as a clothing change, so be sure to look for than in chapter 24. Anyway, that’s what we got for this entry, more to come.
Giving a big shout out to say that this blog has officially reached 15 followers. So I would like to just give a nice little shout out to all of you wanted to thank you all for following and how much I appreciate all your support.
Running this comic and site can be quite the task despite it also being a passion! Constant hours each night and the process of learning to run a WordPress site. It also brings me such joy to see that people are enjoying my work and all the hard hours put into it. So once again a shout out to all the followers out there.
We are officially there everyone, we are done now with chapter 23 of Kalwa and the Japanese arch is now in full swing. It’s time now for a brief break as the next chapter gets prepped. But in the meantime, get ready for some behind the scenes work in the coming days. As usual, click the thumbnail below and see the end of this chapter, and go one step forward because we have a special finale pinup awaiting.
This is just a little update on what’s in store for the chapter 23. As I’ve said, there’s just one more page left to upload, but I’m also prepping a final color pinup to end this chapter and move forward with the rest of the Japanese arch, so I’m simply giving you all an update on what’s to come pretty soon. Check out the WIP’s down below!
I also want to shout out and give a big thank you to everyone whose been following along, I’ve gotten some pretty enthusiastic comments as I’ve posted pages from the japanese arch online. So big thanks to everyone whose been reading thus far.
Once again I apologize for the late update. As I previously said, I got done late last night and didn’t get a chance to tone. I got up early to do it this morning but didn’t want to rush it without review. So I give you all the late page update of page 25. Only one more page to do before this chapter is complete. As usual, click the thumbnail to read the latest page.
The next page will be up much later tonight. I’ve finished the inking already, but didn’t want to rush the toning last night, I don’t like to quickly tone and rapidly post before I can review the final result. So look for the latest page later tonight, I’ll be posting an update then.
Happy Wednesday everyone, hope you’re all staying nice and safe. As you keep yourself safe, we got a brand new page for you today as we update with the THIRD FROM LAST page of this chapter. This page, we introduce a rather dark and formidable opponent who will be playing a large role throughout the rest of this arch. As usual, click the thumbnail below and check out what we got in store today.
An adventurous manga series about a teenage girl and her time traveling cell phone 