Production Notebook - 12/11/20 (Patreon)

I really enjoy projects with fake worlds and not just like, "Here's a city on an alien planet" or "Here's a post-apocalypse Earth society", but like "Here's a setting in the past, but [insert historical event] never happened..." or "Here's two things mashed together to make this other kind of familiar thing..." When I worked in animation, if you would've asked me what was my dream project, i would've said Verdi's opera Aïda. 

That was years ago and the ideas are just sitting on my hard drive and in my sketchbooks. But I still love it and I still want to draw the characters the way I envision them in my head.

Aïda is set in Ancient Egypt, but Aïda is also an opera so I've always thought it'd be fun to set my version of Aïda not in Ancient Egypt - but in an opera set in Ancient Egypt. So I've spent a lot of time over the years trying to recreate hieroglyphics and Egyptian art, but also looking at opera sets and costumes, etc.

I've gotten a lot of fun results from this - I haven't nailed the characters yet, but its been a good journey so far.