Airplane

The gang outside the Detroit Institute of Arts

The Red Tide is the fourth book I have worked on with Josef Bastian.  Anyone who knows me and knows JB knows there is a hitch in our working relationship.  Josef is in Motor City Detroit, Michigan, USA, where the Nain Rouge Trilogy begins and takes place.  When I first contacted JB, I was living in Cottingham, East Yorkshire, England.  I have since moved from the North of England to the Capital city of London.  Still 3800 miles away from the Nain Rouge's stomping ground.

Research is the visual key to drawing sites I hardly know and the Internet is a godsend for this.  Certainly folks who know where I'm from can imagine how many books on Michigan history there are in Cottingham's local library.  Using other tourist's photos of landmarks from different angles help to create a mental three dimensional view of a place, be it the Detroit Institute of Arts, 8 Mile Road or the Rackham Memorial Fountain at Detroit Zoo.  At this point, the mighty power of imagination takes over and does most of the leg work.

I have been lucky enough to visit Michigan twice.  I have driven down 8 mile road and seen from afar the city of Detroit.  This is the only part of America I've seen, it's certainly a land very different from my own.  The roads are straight, long and wide and I have yet to see a US roundabout.  After spending so much time commuting by train and bus the only public transport I saw was the yellow school bus.  Buildings cloud the sky and the lakes are as huge as oceans.  Cash machines had drive thrus.  I would honestly give anything to go back to a land I illustrated.

If you look carefully, ever so carefully in my illustrations, you can see little hints of my world in a place I only wish I knew better.  The Nain Rouge's world.

A hint of my world; the house across the road was my home for 17 years.

The War has Begun

Above is the first glimpse of the Red Tide book.  This is the first complete illustration, one of twenty, for the novel.  Excuse the poor image quality, this is a picture taken from my phone.  Oh how convenient the world of technology is.

In this chapter, Ellie and Tom tell their new friends Chad, AJ and Jennifer about their experience with the Nain Rouge.  The dwarf himself appears in shadow form in every chapter, and here he appears from the shadows, watching... waiting...

Shadows

There's a strong play between light and dark in this book.  The Nain Rouge is evil, dark and looming, whereas the children are like shining beacons in contrast.  Certainly, the Nain Rouge has grown into something very different in this book.  As I mentioned previously, the Nain Rouge was merely a pesky imp in the previous novel.  Now he has turned into something far bigger...

I have loved drawing the Nain Rouge appearing from the shadows.  His fingers are so thin and liquid, I love creating slightly grotesque characters that are unnaturally thin and wiry.  And no better words describe the Nain Rouge than grotesque and unnatural.

In his shadow self, the Nain Rouge appears in every illustration, always hiding when not in plain sight. His fiery eyes peer out from under his hood and his hand stretches out towards the children, menacingly.  Sometimes he melts into focus, and that is something far more frightening.

New Faces

This has been a strange week, the Nain Rouge has certainly been spreading disaster around me.  So I have started using my positive vibes (aka. pencil) and have started the first of the final book illustrations.

With any new book in a series, there is always a new face.  Or three.  Joining the original heros, Tom, Elly and their friend Dr. Beele, the museum curator, are three other tweens that caught in the Nain's evil plot.  Chad, AJ and Jennifer were an additional consideration during early designs.  Some elements of their characters were obvious, but as I read both The Red Tide and The Red Truth, I saw more and more of their true selves.

So I took a kind of reverse process in approaching The Red Tide.  Instead of designing the characters first, I studied the novel in depth and drafted the chapter layouts.  The characters evolved en route, doing most of the brunt work for me.

Above and below are Jennifer's later designs.  They're a far cry from the overweight, pale, needy teenager from the early trials.  Also below is the Nain Rouge in solid form.  He's undergone a fair transformation too...

In the Beginning...

As I have been struck down by a curse from the Nain Rouge, I am taking a breather from the drawing board.  Instead, let me share some early concept work, so that you might catch a glimpse of the Nain Rouge's twisted mind.

In the first novel, the Nain Rouge manifests himself as a wicked sprite.  Evil, dangerous, but nothing more than an imp.  Now that evil is growing in the city of Detroit, the Nain Rouge has become something far more wicked.  He lurks in the shadows and has become more monster than mischief.

Above are some images of demons and creeping hands, all inspired by the most unpleasant faces I could find, plus tales of shadow people.  I spent a few distorted hours listening to the soundtrack to 28 Days Later... feverishly shaking as I drew.

Next I put together what I knew - about the Nain Rouge and about horror - and came up with the fiendish apparition above.  I discovered that day a new weapon: eraser putty.  Perfect for picking off patches of charcoal, and not just mistakes.  Applied in just the right places, glowing eyes and bright, pointed teeth emerge from the darkness, watching and mocking.  

Frightening, and reeking of death, the Nain Rouge was perfect in essence, but needed hints of that cheeky, little imp of those early, bygone days.  Now peering from behind his hooded cloak we catch a sight of his hawk-like nose and curled, pointed chin.  And those bright eyes still watch his prey intently.

The wonder of illustrating is how a character changes once it's put into a scenario.  These first glimpses of the Nain Rouge are the first stages of his evolution.  Just wait until he enters our world, where his transformation is completed... 

The Nain Rouge Returns

Welcome to The Nain Rouge Project.

Way back in 2009, I illustrated a book for Josef Bastian.  This book was the Nain Rouge, a tale about two Detroitian teenagers overcoming an evil dwarf.  Little did I know that this wicked sprite, the Nain Rouge, would be back, manifesting itself in my sketchbook and over my walls in the form of a trilogy.

This is my diary of the journey as I begin to undertake a battle against evil once again...