Chapter 1: Page 17
This week we meet two more new characters: The Tamian King, Dabheid, and Dakkan’s father, Kenosh.
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Starting with this page, Rachel and I were back in some familiar territory. This scene in the Tamian King’s throne room had existed in numerous iterations of the story, all the way back to the original prose. As with all things in the final version of the script, Rachel and I cleaned things up by a great deal.
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The original intro shot was a behind-the-back (literally) that included Dakkan and Kenosh – this was before Dakkan’s introduction was bumped a page earlier so he could meet Quinlan outside. This old panel now appears rather flat and bland – not the best way to introduce new characters. There was also a lot of dialog setting up Quinlan’s impending arrival that ultimately proved unnecessary.
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The original script (all the way up until a few days ago, actually) had King Dabheid calling Quin “My boy”, which was meant to suggest they had a strong bond thanks to Quinlan’s grandfather, but it ultimately came off as sounding too familial. Considering we’d spent the last several pages establishing that Quinlan’s lost his family, we felt this would be too potentially confusing, so we updated the line in the latest draft.
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The design for King Dabheid stretches back a long time – back to the beginning, I’d posit! Looking back at the oldest sketch jpegs I have of Quinlan’s design exploration, I noticed Dabheid hovering around the margins:
He was always short and heavy-set, meant to portray a high-class Tamian ruler who had spent so much time entertaining foreign dignitaries on the ground that the prospect of climbing a tree to see his own top-floor would appear preposterous. Even so, we didn’t want to portray him as the usual malevolent king – Quinlan and Dakkan come from families of soldiers, and that commands respect, even from the king. Quinlan’s grandfather also served as Dabheid’s Captain, which suggests a close bond akin to a baron and his knight.
Next week I’ll dive into Kenosh’s designs a bit more, and we’ll also begin to learn more about the overarching story of what takes our heroes outside the safety of Sunsgrove and beyond the Western Deep!
I just realized the metal part of Dakkan’s chest plate disappears in this page.
Ack, it does! Shoot. X)
Thanks, adding that to the fix list.
Man, I forgot to make the “a wizard is never late…” reference last page! Oh, well :P
Today, another two characters are introduced. Since the commentary focuses on Dabheid, I’ll do the same. First I should mention that Quin’s expression on the first panel is pure gold! Love it! I notice in the thumbnail sketch, you added a note about being unsure how he would say his line in the second panel – it was great seeing that. I like that you went with “mock indignant” in the end – after all the insecurity in the last couple of pages, it’s good to know that Quin can take his friend’s joshing in good humour.
The inside of the throne room – with the artificial little stream surrounding the throne connected by a bridge, and those lamps inset in the floor with fireflies – is really cool! And I love the design of Dabheid – I’ve seen development sketches of him and I’m glad this is the look you eventually went with. Getting to see a rather plump Tamian is a nice change – it seems the king enjoys the comforts of home more than the average Tamian.
The original introductory panel does indeed strike me as rather flat and bland as well. Glad you went with what you did here.
The sketch with closeups of Dabheid’s face (dabheid_0) is another of those instances where a Tamian almost looks like a rabbit, especially in the third pose. From the cut-off face at the bottom, it seems this is only part of a larger sketch. Could you post the full version?