My first big mistake/lesson

Being too eager can be detrimental.

Kia ora e te whānau!

So it's been over 3 months since my last newsletter, and I have to put that down to nerves. This being my first real comic project, one with an actual deadline, along with normal life duties of a father and a husband, I struggled to let my energy go anywhere else.

Regardless, I would love to let you know how I am going with I Am Māui.

Last newsletter, i had just done a ton of character designs. This comic has many characters and getting them all looking cool takes time.

So here's where I went wrong.

The writer is the creator and owner of the IP I Am Māui and I am the artist and financier (Creative New Zealand). During our early meetings I was showing the writer many images and references depicting the style of the comic and some character designs. He didn't say much but thought they were cool. I took this as approval and did a large amount of expression sheets and turnarounds for the characters only for him to say the characters weren't really there yet.

So I went back and drew each head and body getting them checked off before going any further. And this is what you should do too and what I'll do in the future to avoid spending too much time on art that won't get used.

We got there in the end and I learnt a valuable lesson on making sure character designs have full approval before making fancy expression sheets and turnarounds.

This meant I did not have all the time to create new expression sheets and turnarounds, but I had what I needed to move on to sequentials.

Here's the final designs we are happy with.

Ariki Ellison

The original Ariki i created was too staunch. The creator wanted something more meak. Changing the hairstyle did most of the work there. You can see in the first attempt I drew him a little short but got it right the 2nd attempt.


Wairere

My original design I had her in athletic wear, but we wanted to make her more stylish. Her slick back ponytail, which was inspired by wāhine kaihaka was dropped for the braids. And while they look cooler, are much more work. But in the end she looks a lot cooler.

Sina

Sammy

Brandon

The friends. These three are Wairere school friends. Sina had a major overhaul from last design, and essentially came out more Māori looking than the previous. Sammy isnt too much different but Brandon was tough from the start. “A punk asian kid” was my brief which I missed totally, just drawing a good looking bad boy. With some reference from my collaborator we got to this.

There is a few more but Ill let you see them in time. Sorry they are just photos of pencils. I hope to ink and colour these but Im so nervous about getting the pages pencilled and inked Ill have to do that last.

Over the past three months Ive penciled 21 pages and nearly inked them all. Next newsletter Ill let you see some of that mahi.

Ka matua i tena.

Hei te wā.

DDA