Another story
In 2022 I experimented a bit differently during Inktober. While illustration is a craft of lines and colors it is also a craft of words and stories. Or at least it is a part of it that I love and pursue. For the 2022 edition of this challenge,I decided to illustrate a story. I had fleshed-it out during NaNoWriMo* in November 2021 and and was very excited to get back to it in 2022.
*National Novel Writing Month.
The illustrations made in 20222 had a darker vibe, to go along with the atmosphere of the story. I mostly worked with black and white illustrations. Using black ink, trying different type of brush and paper, patterns and texture. Mainly, I focused on experimenting.
It was also my first time playing around so much on format for one project.
The Story:
There is a world away, very different from yours, yet still quite close. Tainted grey, tainted red, ever shaking between fear and feast.
In this land growling from within, of cruel quips and queer purposes, obsessed by rules and clean prospect humans bonded death to absurd rules.
As protocols became as foolish as jests, dying became much too complex, and finally happened what was bound to: unable to find rest the restless came to.
You, who’s incomplete, you whose body is forgotten lying overground. You the lonesome and you the lost, in death, bound to the physical world you are. Condemn to wander and haunt, stuck with your regrets and remorse, frozen to the very core of your soul.
In this sad world was born a fair soul. Sharp mind, strong shape, noble heart and blue blood. They quickly rose to become a knight and as soon as their blade started singing, they received a name: the just.
Born from a strong wizard, they inherited a task. They inherited a curse. “Never shall you die while the restless lingers. Never shall you be at peace while there is one soul left corrupted by undeath.”
So they went on with their quest, gathering remains, whispering the ritualistic words, burning the right plants and offering proper burial to the restless they crossed.
But the world is vast and where some are driven by fear, justice or curses, others are driven by greed and gain. Such was the north girl. Reckless and greedy, she walked down the bounty hunter path in hope for gold and glory to spend both on cheap liquor and curvy company.
She cared not for the restless, she cared not for the rites. She cared neither for peace nor balance in fluxes. She could have not really, for knowledge was kept jealously secret and blurry. Knowing may have made her better, but in a world of pride, unrest and survival it was fair to only care for herself.
Finally, in the midlands, lived a boy skin pale eyes drowned in sorrow, forlorn by his own choice. A ran down shack built over a lake was his home. He spent his days fishing or fixing his nets along the lake shore. Trading his catch for fire wood and grains. The rare people who ever saw him called him the boat-boy.
Three distinct persons, three unique threads unraveling through a cruel world, Three strangers brought together by destiny..
The main cast
“The Just”
The Boat Boy.
The reckless
