[Kent St. John]

Hey everyone,

My name is Kent St. John, and I'm working with Casey on the art for The Dear Hunter book, Act II. I just wanted to introduce myself and say hello to all of you.

I think some of you may remember that a lot of preliminary stuff got underway about a year ago with the artwork for this book. I was working on a lot of character development and I had a TDH art blog up and running where I was posting lots of sketches and pre-production type work. Well, bad news is that I won't be making another blog like that this time around - however, the good news is that I'm diving into the actual, FINAL book illustrations right now. To say the least, it's super exciting to be working on this again full-force. We all know Casey's entire story and concept is bad ass, and I only hope to elaborate on what he's got brewin' upstairs.

As for the sketches some of you may have seen of the characters in the past, most of that design still holds true. However, I plan on tightening up a lot of stuff and delivering a more polished and refined finished product. If you guys want to get a glimpse and an idea of where I'm coming from artistically, you can take a look at my site and my collaborative blog called The Unlimited Freedom Castle. (The blog is cool because my buddy and I update it multiple times a week... so lots of fresh artwork. It's our baby).

kentstjohn.com
The Unlimited Freedom Castle

Also, just keep in mind that Glenn from We Are Synapse will be taking care of the coloring for these illustrations. Essentially I'm handing over black and white illustrations to Casey, and Glenn will be working on the all the finishing touches. I'm excited for this because I think any type of collaboration will only enhance the final product, plus the guys at We Are Synapse create some killer stuff.

If you guys have any questions, I'll do my best to stay on top of this thread, and answer anything I can.

Best,
-Kent

[WeAreDormin777]

Awesome! I like your drawings I must say.

Also wondering, the drawings for The Dear Hunter Book, how is it gonna be?

For Example: Does each page have a drawing or a couple of pages etc etc.

Also!

Do you plan on adding new characters in the drawings?

Well new characters in the book?

Probably up to Casey on that.

[Kent St. John]

You know, I'm not exactly sure how often the illustrations will appear through out the book. Casey has me working on 19 main illustrations. Some of those will be full-spread, spanning the entire spread of the pages, and some will be single page illustrations. There's been some talk about creating smaller, sketches to flow in the text where there won't be full-sized illustrations, but that hasn't been nailed down yet.

I don't know of any new characters that are being added in, and yes that would definitely come from Casey. But as far as I know it will be the same cast as before when I first started working on this.

[WeAreDormin777]

Oh because looking at your old Blog. (Before it got deleted)

I was looking at the four panel sketches and I saw a character that had the name Portlin. (Something like that.)

And he seemed to be a person in the Dime. So I thought you would make him as a person who has sex with Ms. Leading (When The Boy catches her doing her job in the song Red Hands.)

[Kent St. John]

Damn! You've done your homework, son!

Yes, there is a character referred to as "Portly" or "The Portly Man." He will be in a few of the illustrations. And to my understanding of the story, you are correct about him sleeping with Ms. Leading.

[WeAreDormin777]

Yeah when it comes to The Story of The Dear Hunter. I look into it carefully lol.


And I've been dieing to know what The Priest version of The Pimp will look like!

I guess I will have to wait for the book to come out to know.

[Infidel]

Brian knows the story better than most people. Hell, he even made a huge post about the story.

Anyways, just a question about the drawings: For the most part, are the drawings like the ones you had posted on the art blog before it was shut down? Or did you do something entirely different?

[Kent St. John]

Infidel, on Oct 12 2008, 01:31 PM, said:

Brian knows the story better than most people. Hell, he even made a huge post about the story.

Anyways, just a question about the drawings: For the most part, are the drawings like the ones you had posted on the art blog before it was shut down? Or did you do something entirely different?

For the most part, everything is going to be very similar to what I was making before. The characters will all have the same identity. The main difference is that those were all very loose sketches...trying to find my ground with the characters and the settings. Basically I was getting all the exploration out of the way. Right now I'm working on the final, final drawings for the book. These will have a look and feel that's much more dialed-down and cleaned up than the sketches you've seen from the old blog.

[Infidel]

Alright, sounds awesome, thanks for the reply

[Scott]

holy crap this thread is on ap.net lolz. LATR has now gone mainstream

[WeAreDormin777]

Kent,

How did you thought of the design of The Boy?

[wax wings]

Scott, on Oct 13 2008, 08:08 PM, said:

holy crap this thread is on ap.net lolz. LATR has now gone mainstream

i'm leaving then.
this is dragging down my indie cred.

[KIMTR@N]

HAY JASON TATE WASSUPPPPPP

[Kent St. John]

WeAreDormin777, on Oct 13 2008, 04:52 PM, said:

Kent,

How did you thought of the design of The Boy?

Actually, all the characters were described to me by Casey, so in a way it's Casey's design. I just made some rough sketches (those ones from the original art blog) and Casey really liked them. It just kinda clicked.

[CrystalMeff]

Im in awe of this thread right now. about to cry from the awesomeness.

EDIT: Im freaking out more after looking at the art

[Kent St. John]

Hey, I am really glad you guys are digging this. It's gotta be weird to have all these characters and places materialize when you've just been imagining it this whole time. It means a lot to have you guys be stoked. Stay stoked! It's gonna be cool!

[Infidel]

Kent St. John, on Oct 14 2008, 12:10 AM, said:

Hey, I am really glad you guys are digging this. It's gotta be weird to have all these characters and places materialize when you've just been imagining it this whole time. It means a lot to have you guys be stoked. Stay stoked! It's gonna be cool!

I'm starting to believe your word is true. Like Casey's. If Casey told me that day was night, I'd believe him. If you told me day was night, I might believe you.