While I don't have a lot of time left for leisure, I do enjoy answering some of these drawing prompts from time-to-time. Since I've already teen'd some of my TOR toons, it seemed only fair to give James and Louis a shot.

Sorry, no zits. Mr. Stick-Up-His-*$# is probably very health-conscious not to eat anything that would make him break out.


--Sak
Louis Despatis/James Hunter © Myself, Shamine A. King

Silly, quick thing based on a comment I found funny enough to illustrate.

People keep asking if James's heavy eye shadow is intentional, and it is. The man barely sleeps, worrying all day and night about pushing English power in the Caribbean, and about whether locking his doors and windows at night will keep certain Frenchmen out ...

Louis, Pete Burns called. He wants his bathrobe back.


--Sak
Louis Despatis, James Hunter © Myself, Shamine A. King

Another one of these.

A lot of people seem under the impression Louis cross-dresses. With the exception of his heels, Louis wears men's clothing, albeit a little "sexed" up. Makeup, too, was common during the Baroque era for both men and women, especially among nobility. He doesn't entertain thoughts of dressing like women at all.

... So James wasn't so abject to swapping outfits on account of he's still wearing men's clothing, albeit just a little frillier than he'd like. Louis dressed as James just looks like he took a step back to one of his earliest designs.


--Sak
Louis Despatis and James Hunter © Myself, Shamine A. King

I had a dream with James Hunter in it looking like a total badass, so I drew it. Or tried to. It was one of those instances where the more I drew it the less I could picture how it really was anymore, but this is close enough.


--Sak
Commodore James Hunter © Myself, Shamine A. King

I had a Skype conversation a few days ago with the voice actor for Louis. It went something like this:

Brendan: I'm not sure if I've already told you, but I'm REALLY short.
Me: So you've mentioned. Can you be more specific? I'm about 173 cms.
Brendan: Umm ... maybe 150 cms?
Me: OH MY GODDDDDDDD. YOU'RE ADOOORRAABBBLEEEE.


... And I then proceeded to convulse into a fit of squealing at how tiny he is. Louis is now channeling my indescribable urge to just scoop him up and run off with him. He's just ADORABLE, a little pocket-sized voice actor.


--Sak
Louis Despatis © Myself, Shamine A. King

AJKZSHKDJHKZJS CHRISTMAS

I love this season like you have no idea. James dressed like a Nutcracker kinda-sorta, Louis in more glitter than should be legal, and lazy background is lazy because reasons.


--Sak
Louis Despatis and Co. © Myself, Shamine A. King

Hey, look ma, consonance!

Belated Birthday picture for Brendan Julian, voice of Louis for my upcoming animation, Honour Amongst Thieves. His birthday was actually on Sunday, and I've had this silly thing in my head for the past few days, but was swamped with work as usual. Sorry it probably doesn't look like you, either. You can find Brendan's and the other actors' work for my animation here: [link] [link]

Typical Louis, distracting you or keeping your hands occupied while he gets what he wants. Don't fret, Brendan, I'm pretty sure this entire thing is too meta for him to mean seriously. The icing on the cake was entirely his idea ... magenta.


--Sak
Louis Despatis © Myself, Shamine A. King

I know I have other obligations to tend to, but I hate leaving unfinished work floating around my harddrive. This is an older comic from a few weeks ago already that I finally got around to coloring. Over the course of their character development so far, Louis and James's dynamic has gone through several changes, and I think has evolved for the better. This comic better explains their canonical relationship.

James is no homophobe, and his hatred towards Louis stems as a result of his patriotism to England and obligations to the law (government). Given how I just finished a 5,700+ word dissertation on organized religion and homosexual discrimination, Santiago is now the character that has more issue with Louis's "foppishness", out of a sense of disgust more than anything.

Not that it won't stop James from using that word, if only because Richard Johnston has such a wonderful way of spitting out those insults.


--Sak
Louis Despatis/James Hunter © Myself, Shamine A. King

That's right, I've uploaded another podcast with the voice actors for Honour Amongst Thieves to my Youtube account, which you can find here: [link]

Though timezones make organising conferences difficult, we managed to find a time that worked for everyone, and this time SungWon, VA for Santiago, was able to join Brendan, Richard, and me. The entire podcast is an hour and a half long, divided into 15 minute parts, as we ran through the entire storyboard and discussed major changes. But there were some funny moments ... including taking Santiago to Disneyland, Superhero HAT, and Bohemian Rhapsody for Three Pirates ...

I primarily keep track of these conferences to document my development for my College, but it's also to keep you guys in the loop. Maybe it's interesting for some to see the process behind the animation.

For those who have asked: the audio needs to be recorded first before I can start animating. I then take reference videos for character movements based on the dialogue, and from those videos I draw in my keyframes and then add the in-betweens. It's important to have the dialogue first for the lip-synching. I hope this helps answer some of the questions I've been getting.


--Sak
Honour Amongst Thieves © Myself, Shamine A. King

Possible alternate outfit for Louis Despatis (not for the animation), inspired by Adam Ant's Hussar Jacket: [link] This was supposed to be a "quick" one so the coloring's a little flatter than usual, and in fact turned out a little more yellow than I'd anticpated on account of Louis's mop of hair.


--Sak
Louis Despatis © Myself, Shamine A. King
For LASALLE, College of the Arts, Singapore