Romeo Alpha: The Layout Sketches

 

Long and low, a howl pierced the night.

In warm houses near the frozen lake, dogs perked their ears. A child hugged her dog’s neck as he whined at the window. “What’s wrong?” she asked. Again the wolf howled. The dog barked.  Woof!  Woof! “It’s all right,” the girl whispered. “I’m here.” His cries met only with silence, the wolf curled in the snow. His breath frosted his thick black fur as he slept alone in a sliver of moonlight. (2-3)

When dawn flooded the sky, the wolf stretched in front of a blue-streaked glacier. At a rustle from under the snow, he cocked his head.  With his big front paws he pounced and pounced until at last he caught a small vole for breakfast. (4-5) 

His hunger satisfied, the wolf warmed himself in the s­un on a big rock, an erratic left by the glacier. He waited and watched. Maybe this was the day another wolf would appear. A playmate. A friend. Or maybe a whole pack of wolves, like the one he’d roamed with when he was a pup. (6-7)*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   

At last, I've produced a few initial sketches for Black Wolf of the Glacier, a children's book immortalizing Romeo, the late errant wolf denizen of the Mendenhall Glacier area. I'm attempting to preserve Romeo's feral mystique without terrifying young readers. Romeo's character must toe (or paw?) the line between villain and champion.  As a note, many of these line drawings will be relatively simple to leave room for definition created by my watercolor shapes. When developing characters, however, restraining the urge to define every shape is challenging.  

Here's my current media recipe:

1. Layout sketch

2. Print to watercolor paper

3. Watercolor paint

4. Additional shading with colored pencil as neededI'm hoping the results for all will square up nicely with my sample (pages 4-5). This book has 30 pages; it's going to be a glacial journey.