Paul Chadwick's Weblog

Tone Rough

I'm back from a trip to New York.  Attended the Big Apple Con.  More on that later.

For now, I share a pencil rough for my next painting -- a wraparound cover for the Concrete novel I'm writing.  I enjoy dramatic lighting, and this scene, Concrete sitting behind the manuscript of the book contained within these covers, accommodates it.

I'm leaving his face in shadow, lighting only his hands, and, secondarily, Larry and Maureen on the back cover (also, a little light is falling on his cinderblock chair and over it). 

Over the next months I'll be working on this painting (in stolen moments), and I'll share its progression.  Next:  a color comp.  Hmm.  I'd better shoot some reference for Larry and Maureen, and perhaps for the manuscript and the duct-tape-wrapped Bic pens with which Concrete writes.  Click to enlarge.

The Human Dilemma

As is now common practice, about a year after appearing in serialized form, Concrete: The Human Dilemma is being collected, in the same format as the other reprints...slightly smaller than standard comic book size.

It's the dream of every author to have a uniform edition of his work, and I'm most happy that Dark Horse is doing this for me...a neat, fat row of Concrete will eventually fill a shelf.

With the caveat that this jpeg has shifted to lavender, for some reason, when I exported it out of the .pdf file it came in, here's the cover.  If you've seen the series, you know the sky in the painting which obsesses Concrete, "The Infinite Night," is ultramarine-to-cyan, not this odd lavender.  Click to enlarge.

The 100 Places

We've initiated a project to stimulate players of The Matrix Online to explore this vast, and I think quite beautiful, game world.  Soon the call will go out for screenshots of unusual and beatiful locations in the Matrix Megacity... the monuments, the architectural anomalies, the surreal ruins.

From these will be culled "The 100 Places," a sort of grand tour no self-respecting Redpill will fail to take.

The idea is to create a thirst to explore...no easy thing, since in many of these places the Exile gangs are much more powerful than you are when you begin to climb the levels of player power.  They kill you quickly when they find you.  So do Agents, who spawn from empty air within a few feet of you if you linger in restricted areas.

There has been grumbling that the space is simply a shabby city.  This is a mistaken impression of those who haven't moved out of the slums where a new player begins.

One of my favorite places is a skyscraper at the northern limits of the explorable Megacity, above the Creston Heights North hardline.  It's a soaring Empire State-type tiered skyscraper, with some nice beaux arts details like the waves visible in this shot.  This doesn't show the building much per se  -- a deck and railing about 200 feet above the ground -- but it's a pretty shot.

The world design was done by a team led by the talented Nathan Hendriksen.  Click to enlarge.

The Matrix Online

Here's an unused cover for The Matrix Online "Official Magazine," notable for its use of the Morpheus model that was discarded (you can see his little head up in the corner).  Love those leather fashions.  Click to enlarge.

We're currently champing at the bit to put the revamped interlock fighting system in the game.  It should be considerably smoother, faster, and more engaging.  Eric Krebs is especially enthusiastic. 

In the game?  Me, I've been travelling a lot around the world, and revelling in my recently upgraded hyperjumping.  One can get to the top of the highest skyscrapers, like the one right by the Creston Heights North hardline, by jumping in steps.  I witnessed a beautiful sunrise up there which I'll post tomorrow.