Alex and Epoch (Patreon)

TV and film style illustrations has always been one of the ways I pictured telling this story. When I imagine scenes it is in a very cinematic way, even down to the subtitles. The problem was, while I have done a good handful of studies just like this, I still struggle with drawing BGs by myself. So I thought, 'Why not practice both and loosely base scenes off of shots from TV and films?' 

I have a few rules set for myself though:

I will never copy the reference exactly. I will only use it as inspiration for a basic color palette and composition. That means changing around everything from the people to the items. I will always credit the original inspiration though (these two shots are based off of this scene from the TV show, 'Ripper Street') because the last thing I want to do is take credit for an idea that isn't fully mine. This is purely for the sake of practice, and sharing a little more about my characters and the world they live in.

Secondly, I want to keep my studies very basic for now. Flat coloring and lineart, with the main focus being storytelling. If I want more realism, I can paint them and add more detail later on. I do want to work on adding in more shadows and light to these though, even if they stay pretty flat.

Third, I have to choose TV shows and movies that fit the story's aesthetic. They need to have the kind of color, composition, lighting and even subject matter I want to practice. Period pieces, horror and drama with some humor mixed in. Morbidly beautiful. Those are the kind of things I'm looking for.So what's the story behind these?  

Always eager to learn, Alex likes to watch Epoch perform examinations when she gets bored with building coffins and moving bodies for Theo. Epoch enjoys her company, and maybe he likes that she watches him too.  She tries her best not to bring anyone back to life in front of him.

It's been really interesting to take the faces I painted and try to figure out how they would look at different angles. I attached the messy sketch to the bottom of the post if you're interested!