Monday, May 23, 2016

Murder in Bologna test 2

Along the way I also tested to see if watercolor backgrounds worked better.
I am a bit torn. On one hand I want this to be like a noir and on the other hand I want this to have sketchy/artistic background as if they were Kane's drawing... and also I don't like using dark color. So I guess I will use different "feel/mood" more based on the scene because, as for genre I do not want this to be 100% a murder mystery but more of a spoof of a murder mystery.



I tried another background test on the cleant character...



And these were some old sketches of Paolo and Malvasia I forgot to share in the previous post. Eventually in the simplified style Malvasia has shorter hair and Paolo looks less innocent. :P


Saturday, May 14, 2016

Chapter 11 - curiosities

Alright guys, the long overdue curiosities for chapter 11. :D

Gemma is missing her cat and the baby, she was not made to feel, but over the last few chapters she has somewhat developed a different personality from her initial cool, distant self, devout to studying only - and she has expressed a curiosity and desire to see the world outside.






She even has to justify her presence at Kane's doorstep with the fact that Circe kicked her out, when we know very well Circe is about people's freeling chosing to stay or go.

Eventually they go back home - lots of people asked "where is the baby", well you know they did not fly there hahaha Gemma has her own ship and crew so they probably left him to take his nap.

They cannot find the doctor at home because he is at Lio's, remember? She just broke her footsie, Foxy brought her a baby, the stork is calling his companion and then the kitty walks in.


So this....
...is repeating this from a different angle.


Eventually we go back to the doctor's house and as Kane and family spend the night over the usually book reading tradition takes place.

This is a book that was started by Castalia, continued by Kane and then the children probably added their own things in.


And I hate to tell you this but the solution to the story was placed in chapter 1, Kane did say that it was the most powerful book in the world, a book of memories... hahaha.



By now you may also have realized that Catstalia is Lorenzo's mom.  She runs diagonally and says REY REY. We also see baby Lorenzo at the end of the puppet play.




So Lorenzo's genesis. Witness the day the feline from Hell started hating Martin Steeves. I even put Pea and Martin in very or the same clothes as the one from the family portrait hahaha. 

Remember witches do not enter people's lives uninvited.








And Papadopulos' bad habits never die.











 While this is just a reminder, once again, that Colapesce calls Cosimo "little sister" and he calls her Unkel.





Now for a bit of chronology: after the deal under the tent, trading water for a crew, Castalia gets a crew and goes to steal a ship. She is supposed to go get a new crew and return the boys to Circe but....


...so she makes a deal with them - using dice, remember? - and cheats.


Then Circe is all upset and says that witches don't forgive and don't forget - which is something she is struggling with as she supposedly should have a heart that cannot feel.

So she plots to take her revenge in three years time.

But Castalia comes back a mom and she talks to Circe and listens to her story and then does the one thing she needs the most: she gives her something to love.


She becomes her lost child.



But as we know Circe is always up to mischief and overly dramatic with her actions, which earned her a big slap in the end. Also consider that Kane is supposed to bleed every time he is around her - Colapesce's earring is protecting him - so she still somewhat holds a bit of a grudge against Kane at this point of the story (and along the story too, she sorts of happily destroys his believes).




And it's also because of this book, which she took years in the making. A book Nicoli is supposed to protect while under the illusion of being Nicoli and that calls Kane very strongly but he defies by slowly tearing it apart one page at a time.



And you know the part where Kane tells Nicoli they have had the conversation about the book before but she never remembers? Have you ever wonder if that happened to him too? Have you ever wondered if Circe had tried in many possible way to make him remember where he comes from but he just won't accept it?


He does confess he is scared of her. He fears that if he goes to her he will never be able to leave her again. So, in the end, was Circe's excessive behavior and unnecessary drama just the product of her mischievous behavior or the desperate act of someone who's turned to her last resort and resolution?

Here's explained again that the illusions don't work on children. There's some real science here


Also for those of you who wanted to know where Piko came from, here is your answer. Remember that Circe "collects" and rescue strays of all kinds and she is very fond of animals.

Apparently she is very good to children too.
Amelia's story. 
I did not want to write Amelia's story in because it is a good thing to have in the background. It is normal for characters in the story to know fragment of their family's past and not remember it properly, come on can you honestly say you know everything about your parents' past and grandparents? Heck, I only discovered last year a few things about my father because, let's face it, the guy always like to tell the stories he likes, he never tells me about having a tent swept away by a storm during military camp and stuff, I didn't even know he went to military camp.



So all we know about Amelia is that these two guys up here - the two Villy - were competing for her affection. She chose Villy Kane, gave him Callimaco (of which he was very happy) and then quintuplets (that, he was not so happy about). He bailed, then Villy Baldassarre came back in the picture somehow. 
Castalia told us before that her mother used to tell her stories about the sisterhood... guess why?

That's right, she was planning to raise her children as the new sisterhood not knowing if either Kane or Circe had survived. If Kane had survived he could be the white witch, Callimaco the black witch and then on of his girls would be pirate King.
If Circe had survived then Callimaco could be Pirate King, Circe would be white witch and one of the sister could be the black witch. 

Things never go as planned, both survived, Amelia died young, nobody actually taught anything to these girls (who are pretty ignorant instead) but life has a way of fixing itself and Kane and Amelia's kids found one another - and Callimaco still holds the potential of becoming Circe's 4th husband.


A short explanation about the special, it doesn't get any easier than this :).

Kane is visiting Josh's thomb. Remember the hill came down, buried the church and they put trees there (big ones too just to make sure) and then a small stone to mark the spot.

We have seen Kane go there and pour coffee - made by Fimi - for Josh.
He finds his half brother there - the man he cannot hug because he never hugged him as a kid.



We know from "Hugs" he doesn't like to be touched by him - but this is the story where he asked him to be a good father to Josh. We also know from Circe's teasing that he sang "hugs" and she poked fun at him.





Kane cannot hugs this guy because he cannot go for empty hugs. It's only that now he knows the reason why this hug is empty it's because of what he has done. He knows, it was all his fault.
He also has just read the final words his father left him on his journal, to be kind to those he meets because everybody is fighting a hard battle.

So what happens here? Does he break the Illusion he cast as a child? Is Villy Baldassarre going back to be his old self? 











Does it really meatter? It doesn't. Kane can finally hug him, that's what matters!
The most important thing is that HIS curse is lifted and his curse had nothing to do with magic, it was a psychological block of sort, but now he is free.
That's all we need to know.