Quest to Lace. by Louis Spencer

Requirements for manga:

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- characters, relatable ones hopefully.
- gripping story.
- solid character development.
- expansive world building.
- cool powers and stuff, hehe.

Faeye

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Koran

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Sól

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Heka

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Initial character concepts.

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These were drawn with some reference. But I couldn’t stitch them together for a good narrative. It seemed like I was creating a dystopian manga with samurai like characters. I liked the idea but I wanted to delve into how the world got to that place.

These characters will be folded into the story in any way possible. It’s key to have a variety of supporting cast. They help further the plot without having to move too many pieces in the same way.

Koran X Luna

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Koran was exhaled from Khemet to the cold regions of the south after his betrayal of the clan. He chose to take Luna as insurance should the clan seek further retribution. But she was the one who wanted to leave with him, afraid that exile would cause further resentment to the clan, the elders ordered she accompany him to maintain his exile and she agreed.

Even though he is the reason for her fathers death, there is little bad blood from Luna. She is strong and capable, rational but carefree, her manipulation of avionic spirits gives her an ideal perspective of the world at play. She prefers to be far removed as to make the most objective decisions. Koran and Luna are .3 types respectively.

Sól. 01.

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ONI Samurai woman on a search for her kind.

Venya’a

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The war chief of Ma’at, her bullets shoot truth that is compiled from the individual she sets her sights on.

She can shoot up to 42 bullets at once, this is due to her diligent training in the 42 Rules of Ma’at, although she only needs one.

Ki’rin

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A Kunoichi from Aztaya. A province buried deep in the mountains of Akush. The ranges span miles and encircle the Great Rift. A bowl of geographical creation through the exhalation of latent energy from the mountains. The result is a wildlife teeming in variety and in balance with the world.

Killian

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Basically he’s a dickhead. The epitome of a reflective panel. His gift is sheer knowledge of the human intellect and the mechanisms of speech and foreplanning. Not only is his mind adaptable and enduring, his lineage is strong with Eos.

Kiddo.

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The lost son of Sol.

X

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An anarchist leading an elite group of operatives for Killian.

Ranger

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Found Kiddo in the wake of the Fall. They look out for each other in the wastelands. Venturing into the urban scapes is dangerous for his kind. Since the Fall, humans closest the event horizon, developed animorphology.

Khem

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Older brother to Kiddo.

Refining:

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Over time, I found that my tastes for what I wanted them to look like changing.

More akin to characters of Avatar the Last Airbender, with an injection of ethnicity.

Giving plot roles to characters, as opposed to just conceptualising before. A protagonist, antagonist, anti-hero, mentor figure, supporting cast, world expanders.

Theme of cause and effect. Death and life. How the past defines the future. Actions and their consequences. Human notions of existence.

Powers tie into their respective mythologies with a bit of scientific fluff.

Sól

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Sól is whimsical but constant in her search for the Aether. Her people are cosmic nomads. Her true nature is akin to the process a star undergoes. Though her life is limited in contrast to the rest of her people, she shines even brighter and they hate her for it. Sol is a .9 type with sun like properties.

Heka

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Cold to all, he’s seen much of what is now the world. His powers are the basis of magic all the incantations, sigils, glyphs, necrotics and ethereal magics. All flow through him yet he is unable to effect it. The cause with no effect. Heka is the only .9 that can masquerade as a .6.

Luna

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Main characters.

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The story ultimately deals with how lineage can transcend time and whether we hold more than genetic code within our dna. If there was one mother of humans as our common ancestor, then we are all linked. But what about those with stronger links to the source.

Hoennir x Senju

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Orphaned brothers, they fought their way through Gauntlets of the Courts. Death games to appease the aristocracy that maintains a stifling hold on humans and those on the fringes of it.

Since escaping, they have looked out for each other and now lead a small group of variants to what used to be ancient Khemet. Hoennir isn’t fond of much, his stoic nature is a front however as he is actually vulnerable to a lot. His powers are .6 type, vibration based energy. Senju is also .6 type, he manipulates natural energies.

Khem X Sage

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Khem was found in the wake of the fall, he had been living within the red sands he was able to survive for when animals took a liking to him, they led him to the caves of Khnum. He trained in the dark, bathing in the absence of light his senses sharpened to acute levels. His essence began bonding to the Root. Khem possesses the potential to ascend, although he is a .6, he will become an unknown.

Sage carries the texts of Thoth which have the ability to rewrite the future, the catch is that the future avoided gets stored into his scroll. Which enters his dreams constantly. He is as contemplative as he is compassionate. Sage is a .9 with limited capabilities due to his Ba manifesting simultaneously with his Ka.

Khitan

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Khitan Sabre-borne, led his people through the first Ahmun. The war of Shamans. His control of felines of the ages present and before allow him a vast collection of spirits.

He bows to no man, ethereal or...otherwise. .3 type.

Lacing.

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The shamans of the past. The elder tribes of Khemet, the nomads of Sumer, the soothesayers of the north, mystics of the east. All came together to prevent the first fall.

Those have now resurfaced as the .3,.6 and .9 types. In the past all shamans and mystics were able to attain the .6, pilgrimages to Xibalba, the Duat and other netherworlds were used as gauntlets to attune the shamans cosmically. In order for a congruence between their Ka and Ba. These trips could only be embarked on by those who had identified their Ba and had a strong enough Ka that could endure the consequences of failure should they not succeed.

Countless of folds of eons elapse and humans are intrinsically linked to natural energies that correlate to their genetic affinity to the source.

Kiddo.02

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Child of Heka and Sól, he possesses two .9 types and will be key in the future of Aztaya.

Faeye.02

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The protagonist of the manga. Loving yet fierce. Wild yet focused. She likes sky boarding, hunting, mushrooms, fighting and sleeping. In that order.

Type unknown, she has displayed all .3,.6 and .9 types.

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World building and cultures.

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It’s hard to conceive a new culture with the necessary depth required to achieve realism. I wanted to overcome this as I believe great stories are told with a foundation of airtight world building that allows the audience to enter and immerse themselves into it naturally.

Drawing from proto Khemetic, Sumerian, Mongolian, Hindu and Nordic cultures; the idea was to trace the beginning of all mythologies, tie them together to create one world history. Ergo, Lace.

My end goal is to investigate and depict authoritatively, an Afrocentric history that will perhaps cause a paradigm shift in the identification of black people. I hesitate to call it a graphic novel, yet that is the end goal, an extensive rich tapestry that is built upon with every release of an issue of Lace.

The world before.

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Imagination is required to fill in the blanks and stretch out some dates however, the source should be of historic relevance. That world is so distant yet forms the basis of our lives as they currently are. Some cultures have been lost to the folds of time and some erased by the victors of wars long past. In order to understand why and how we arrived at the current state of civilisation, context has to be given and exposed.

In Hindu culture, they believe the universe revolves in Yuga cycles of 4. The first spanning a period of 1,728,00 years subsequent cycles decrease by 25%. With a ratio of 4:3:2:1. Satya, Treta, Dvapara and the current Kali; it is said that morality would also follow the same ratio, standing on one leg in the last Yuga, where conflict and suffering would be rife and people would kill each other. I chose this as a timeline to follow in my story as it coincides heavily with texts I have read in my youth about the current age residing in chaos and why. These were ancient Egyptian/Khemetic of origin.

‘Who are you?’ From Holly St Claire Workshop. (AUTHOR/ACTIVIST)

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In this work shop I brainstormed and realised that it made complete sense that the heroes journey I had been on to construct this manga should be the focus of the project for unit 7.

It is an authoritative exploration of the rich tapestry of history of the world, told from the subjective point of view of an African in the diaspora. Although it is admittedly not historically accurate to a tee, the medium of manga is one that allows the author to implement their own imagination freely; for an audience that can appreciate the art, digest the story and perhaps take something away from it.

Diving In with Joe Kessler (AUTHOR)

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Answering the questions of what imagery I find I have an affinity to and what about it interests me, conversely, what imagery does this cause me to create.

Inspiration X process.

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‘Inspiration is for amateurs...the rest of us just show up and get to work.’ - Chuck Close.

This quote resonated with me as the process of creating Lace was something I initially found daunting, I had a gist of the story I wanted to tell but no hard ground to build it from. It is through research and exploration that the creation is created.

‘Don’t create work with an end goal in mind, if you already have an idea of the endpoint then what is the point in doing it?’ Joe Kessler

Initially I loosely adhered to this, when I first wanted to create Lace I would just draw whatever I felt like and attempt to mould the story around it. However, this quickly got difficult as it lacked depth. I sough depth in their aesthetic as well as their personality. This could only be achieved through premeditated conception.

Inspiration X Process .2

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Diving In: exercise.

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The exercise was to answer the image of a diver entering the water with more images, and answer those with more images.
What are they diving off?
Appearance of diver in water?
Cold, refreshing, safe?
Leisure?
Escape?

Eruption.

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Ascension.

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With this draft I was trying to formulate techniques to create textures, atmosphere and a sense of dynamism.

I chose the dark umber tone as a personal preference as it stood out from generic black outlines. Although I found that it was difficult to create a sense of gradual tone and varied values.

Rather than use it for the whole panel I would restrict the dry brush on Procreate to instances of rapid movement, depicting powers or my personal favourite, clouds.

Short comic, Uni workshop. Sept. 2020.

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Monkey Ronin’s father is slain by an ancient Shaman.

Duel at Lotus Shrine.

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Monkey vows vengeance.

Monkey Ronin.

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I have a recurring affinity to drawing this monkey, the exercise required we draw from clouds to get characters which is quite useful for illustrating in lieu of developing later.

This comic is possibly the best depiction of work done with no clear goal in mind, yet the techniques expressed are what I find the best thing about it. As the purpose loses importance, focus on the action of doing is heightened. The brush textures of the clouds; the use of highlights to depict light and shadow properties; the perspective of the final panel to lay the scene; the vivid blood of the first panel; the clean yet rough contrast of black and white with elements of tone. These are all elements I will incorporate in future for my manga.

Ascension II

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In this iteration, i focused on implementing the previous techniques, from past drafts of Ascension and Duel at Lotus Shrine.

With the main character in mind, a focus on powers and introduction to her was the goal of these panels. I am fond of all the panels and the style they are done in, however, I plan to expand on the variety of perspectives and more dynamic camera angles.

References.

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En.wikipedia.org. 2021. Satya Yuga - Wikipedia. [online] Available at: [Accessed 22 March 2021].

En.wikipedia.org. 2021. Khitan people. [online] Available at: [Accessed 22 March 2021].

En.wikipedia.org. 2021. Sól (Germanic mythology) - Wikipedia. [online] Available at: [Accessed 22 March 2021].

En.wikipedia.org. 2021. Heka (god). [online] Available at: [Accessed 22 March 2021].

En.wikipedia.org. 2021. Ka (pharaoh) - Wikipedia. [online] Available at: [Accessed 22 March 2021].

Around our kitchen table - Olivia Mathurin-Essandoh (Author)

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Food that speaks about your culture and ethnicity.

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Takeaway that resonates with you.

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Depict a culinary accident that you were responsible for.

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Interpret and depict traumatic incidents of others.

Who am I?

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The introduction using a form of media that is more fluid in motion, but is more difficult to script.

Santan Dave.

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Upon observing these illustrations more, I was motivated to do a piece on one of my favourite black British artist. Dave Orobosa Omoregie, aka, Santan Dave. A conscious and lyrically gifted rapper, he paints vivid imagery with his words and encodes messages of triumph over stereotypes for the African diaspora in England.

NBA

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Basketball is something I always found to be amazing. The energy, the flow of the game and the culture it has generated are intoxicating. In Lace, in the future, corporations rule the continents, people have no judicial system, therefore, the courts are where the gods make known their will.

Illustrations of my favourite all time players gave me a chance to practise tonal shading techniques as well as line art that I can implement in the manga.

‘96 Bulls. Greatest Dynasty.

Michael “Air” Jordan

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Kobe “Mamba” Bryant.

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Allen “The Answer” Iverson.

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Image References.

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Although I know a low about fashion, the accuracy is limited when drawing without reference. I used images from Pinterest that would match the aesthetic I sought.

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X.

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Ki’rin.

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Venya’a

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Killian.

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animation experiment year 3

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