Category: Art - Thaddeus White

Progress, pictures and spinning plates

6/5/2016

I just wrote a nice progress update, which got mysteriously deleted when I got rid of a different, empty, text box. Bugger.

Anyway, to recap (or cap, given none of you saw the first version):
The major additions to Traitor's Prize of this redraft are done. Got a lot of little tinkering points to do, but things are on schedule.

Sir Edric and the Plague is about a quarter of the way done (unusually, I will have at least one significant change to make in redrafting). However, given it'll be released after Kingdom Asunder, Sir Edric's Kingdom and perhaps Traitor's Prize, that's fine.

It's tricky writing two novels at once (well, redrafting one and writing another) whilst also delving into short stories. However, I've got a couple in consideration for anthologies and they will, hopefully, keep things ticking over whilst I get the trilogy ready for release.

When not writing, or trying to play Dragon Age: Inquisition in German (with occasionally hilarious incompetence), I've been fiddling a bit with some drawing.

The picture above, which can also be found under the Artwork tab, is an Egyptian style depiction of Dog fighting a certain creature in The Adventures of Sir Edric. It took a shockingly long time to draw, because I have the artistic aptitude of a baked potato. That said, it was quite enjoyable (and the Egyptian style means I can draw Dog without giving away any details of his appearance). I'm toying with the idea of doing more of these for future Sir Edric releases, (although humans are much harder to draw than animals). Regular readers of my Twitter account (@MorrisF1) will be aware I've also been messing about with some cartoonery (only a little) which is an alternative art style I could try and use. Self-promotion's difficult, especially when it feels awkward, so that may be a better approach than tweeting 'buy my book' and so on. If you have a preference between the two styles, do let me know either here or on Twitter.

Even if I decide not to try and use either approach for marketing, it's always good to have something to do that doesn't involve staring at a screen.

Thaddeus

Future Doings - and a picture of Dog

1/3/2016

After a slightly fallow period, many good things are ahead in 2016. The editing of Sir Edric's Temple/Treasure will commence shortly, as will late changes to a short horror story that should also be published in the first half of 2016 as part of an anthology.

And that's just in the short term. Kingdom Asunder is largely done, and the first draft of its sequel, Traitor's Prize, is about 70-80% finished (worth noting redrafting that will take a substantial amount of time). Sir Edric's Kingdom will hopefully be finished off shortly after Temple/Treasure, then I have plans to outline the fourth Sir Edric large story.

Further ahead, I'd like to write a novel around the serial Zodiac Eclipse, published last year by Kraxon Magazine (can be read here, first episode at the bottom), as well as the final part of the Kingdom Asunder/Traitor's Prize story and more Sir Edric shenanigans.

But, most of that is far off. In the short term, I'm hoping to get the short horror story and Sir Edric's Temple/Treasure out in the first half of 2016.

Although not much of an artist, I did an Egyptian style sketch of Dog (also under the Artwork section of this site).

In addition, Sir Edric joined Twitter (under the modest name HeroOfHornska). One suspects he'll be an intermittent and mostly drunk Twitterer.

So, many things happening this year, and in the future.

Thaddeus

The map of Denland is pretty much done

7/12/2013

Kingdom Asunder and the two books after it will take place in Denland, and whilst some places will see more action than others just about every major city will feature at one point or another in the trilogy.

After much time working on the central part of the map the mainland's pretty much done. I still need to name a few things (rivers, a mountain range, some hills) and might make small changes, but it's at the stage where I can use it for to keep my writing consistent.

I haven't done the map for the Fettered Isles or Cara's Rock as yet, but I plan to get that done at the same time as I'm writing Kingdom Asunder.

In Bane of Souls the action was confined almost entirely to a single city, and in Journey to Altmortis the map was pretty simple. The Dennish map is far more complicated, and I'm relieved to get a basic version sorted. It'll be relevant for every book, so it was important to get it done early.

I can't say precisely when I'll start the first draft. I'm still working on redrafting Sir Edric's Temple, and a change to the start of Kingdom Asunder (which fits well and makes sense but necessitates some more work on the early chapters) will delay things a bit.

Thaddeus

The Journey to Altmortis map is revealed!

3/4/2013

I've finished the chapter-by-chapter redraft, though more complicated changes remain to be made, and, as promised, have put up the two Altmortis maps. They can be found on the Artwork section of this site, with bigger versions opening when you click on them.

I'm not a great artist but the magic of computers meant I could do each feature in detail and then sling them all together. Hopefully they look alright, and the texture that Yoong, my artist, kindly helped with greatly improves them.

I've checked on my own Kindle and will use the smaller map (without Ostenwald or the Geldsee, neither of which are important to the story) in the book.

As mentioned above, I still have quite a lot to do, including three rewrites. Not unlike Goldilocks, I face one little, one medium and one large. Apart from that the changes tend to be multi-chapter issues which is why I've left them until now. Once all that is done there'll be a final 'redraft', which will mostly involve checking for typos.

Thaddeus

The Importance of Art

2/4/2013

As we get nearer the publication of Journey to Altmortis, the matter of art arises.

Excepting the annoyingly talented, who can write and do their own cover, writers have to commission an artist.

This is a bit unusual, as writers have enormous freedom and do almost all their own work, from conception to scheduling, without anyone else necessarily being involved. (Beta readers might be asked to help, but again, this is entirely up to the writer and they can ignore any suggestions they dislike).

The cover is a massive deal, especially for those of us not quite as well-known as Tom Knox. It gives a clue as to the sort of book which is on sale and whether a browser might like it, and attracts those who might otherwise not be interested. One of my reviews on Amazon.com specifically stated that a combination of catchy title (Bane of Souls) and the cover got his attention.

Whilst there's a certain, and perhaps surprising, degree of collaboration between artist and writer ultimately the writer's got to trust their artist to do a job that is both good artistically and fits the vision of the world the writer has created. To be honest, it's a bit nervous waiting to see what the finished product will be like, but if you (well, the artist) get it right then it's not merely a relief, it's an active plus for the selling of the book.

The absolutely finished product of the Altmortis cover is not quite done but it's very close, and I'm delighted with it. Lee Yoong (http://leeyoong.deviantart.com/), who also did the excellent Bane of Souls cover, is responsible for it, and I hope that, when it's released, others like it as much as I do.

The map, however, is a different matter. I did consider asking her to do it, but decided against that because (correctly, as it happens) I imagined I'd end up changing the plot, moving bits and pieces around and if I've paid someone to do a job then it's unfair to ask them to do it again because I've changed stuff. In addition, the cover is what draws people's attention, whereas as a map is more of a nice to-have, and its prime purpose is functional (ie the cover matters a hell of a lot more). Lastly, the ability to do tiny bits in detail (individual mountains and trees, for example) means that the, er, artistically challenged, such as me, can do a reasonable job using the magic of computers.

The map is also very nearly done. I must confess, though, that Lee Yoong had a brilliant suggestion to improve it and is helping me a little bit in one regard. But it's mostly my work.

Thaddeus

Merry Christmas

12/24/2012

Merry Christmas, everyone.

Work continues at a decent pace, and I think there'll just be two more redrafts. The first will be a proper one, and will hopefully ensure the flow of the story works well, and the second will be polishing off rough spots and checking for typos and the like.

However, before then the map requires some fiddling and there's still a fair bit to write. On the map front, my artist friend, lovely Lee Yoong, had a small but extremely cunning suggestion which will, I think, make the map significantly better. Some new lettering and a new settlement [not story-related] needs to be added first, though.

Still hard to say when it'll be released, and I'm hopeful that Q1 or Q2 of 2013 will see Journey to Altmortis published. When it is, I intend to put up a time-limited code here that will reduce the price at Smashwords from $2.99 to $0.99. I'll also publicise that via twitter and perhaps one or two other places.

Oh, and I've been doing some work (if it can be called work) on general lore/mythology/races, so I might expand the Lore sections here next year.

Anyway, I hope you all had a good 2012, and enjoy an even better 2013.

Thaddeus

Maps and artwork

10/17/2012

I've started work on the map for Journey to Altmortis, which is actually going slightly better than expected. That said, I'm no artist and I'll definitely be back in my comfort zone when I get the map done and move onto casting a critical eye over the recently written new scenes.

However, I have decided to put up an artwork page. I won't be adding any more as the menu's busy enough, but I think it's a good idea to have somewhere that covers, maps and any extra stuff can go. It'll also be somewhere that slightly larger maps can be found. As a Kindle user, I'm well aware that eBooks are inferior to the physical sort when it comes to maps and the like. So, I'll probably have a slightly cropped and perhaps simplified map inserted into the Altmortis eBook, and have a more extensive/detailed version here.

At the moment, the cover for Bane of Souls and two simple crests (for Geldfels and Kemelheim) can be found on the art page.

Thaddeus

Maps and artwork

9/3/2012

I've not done much work on the Altmortis map for a little while, but once it's ready I think I'll probably add an artwork section here. I don't want to cram in endless categories on the top menu (when I add things about the Ndesi and Sceptred Isle I'll just enlarge the Lore) but I do think that's a sensible addition.

Obviously the most important pieces of artwork are the covers. Well, cover, for now, but Journey to Altmortis will have its own cover sooner or later. It'll also be a handy place to put maps and maybe other bits and pieces. The Geldfels and Kemelheim crests are pretty simple but I might put those up as well.

Covers and other bits of artwork are always a bit troubling. As a writer just about everything from the story to the characters to the work rate is down to me, and yet the biggest single hook is the cover, which someone else does. I'm very happy with the Bane of Souls cover, but I'm having some difficulty settling on an Altmortis cover.

I could hand the map over to someone rather more artistically inclined, but it's something I'd rather do myself. It won't be the most aesthetically pleasing cartographic endeavour in history, but it will be accurate.

Mind you, for the subsequent trilogy there may be several maps. I've got a basic map of Denland done (I need to rename one city, though) and battlefield/local and maybe even city maps may need to be done.

Thaddeus

About three-quarters done with the first draft

7/16/2012

It should be stressed that, unusually for an author, my problem tends to be brevity rather than longevity, so the first stage of redrafting will actually be expanding the bits that need it. In particular, I've got one chapter (which might become two) which runs in parallel to the primary storyline and which I deliberately left mostly unwritten now, so that I could use what I wrote subsequently to make it integrate better with the main storyline.

The extra stuff isn't related to changes to the plot or adding characters or anything like that, it's just fleshing out descriptions and perhaps adding the odd scene to help smooth character development. In the past I'd try to write the first draft entirely, getting stuck now and then and sloooowly working through them. This time, I've just written through them, and I'll come back to them for the first redraft. It remains to be seen whether or not this is a better approach, but I've grown more comfortable with redrafting so I thought I'd give it a go.

I'm also thinking about updating the Book Stuff page so that it's got a miniature summary of Journey to Altmortis. After all, most people visiting the site (+1 cool point for each of you) will already have bought Bane of Souls, or at least downloaded the sample.

I've begun early work on the map for Altmortis, which is an enjoyable challenge as I'm really rubbish at artistic things. I've got the initial symbols done and know where every major feature is in relation to each other, so hopefully I'll be able to put it together reasonably well. The only slight sticking point is one of two crests. It's of a crow, and I can't decide whether it's better all black or partly grey. Anyway, it's hardly an insurmountable issue, but I'll put it below:

Thaddeus

Bane of Souls cover art is done!

4/24/2012

Yes, the cover art for the somewhat delayed Bane of Souls has been completed by the lovely Lee Yoong, who can be found over on DeviantArt at http://leeyoong90.deviantart.com.

It was actually a much more collaborative and interesting process working with her on the artwork than I'd imagined it would be. It's quite cool getting an initial sketch and then seeing it become more fleshed out and then refined with extra detail.

However, there's still a little way to go before the book's out. For a start, I need to do a final read-through for mistakes (on a whim I recently checked the first chapter and found one, but it stuck out like a sore thumb). After that there are extra pages (copyright stuff, dedication [if I have one], an About The Author bit and link to this site and so on), and then the formatting. No idea how long that will/should take, but I'm pretty rubbish at technical things.

I'm really pleased with the cover art, and also very happy to get it out of the way. As an author (well, soon-to-be), almost all my work's done entirely solo, so it's a bit of a change to have such an important aspect of the book done by someone else.