I love my brother

So, as promised, I have an update on the proto-types of some of my Capstone project. 

After a lot of thought, a lot of note taking, and a lot of Netflix (plus other forms of procrastination…mainly the ones that involve being unconscious), I have some rough outlines of what I want the book to kinda look like as well as character design sketches provided by my brother, Jerett. 

For starters, here are the crap-tastic designs that I formulated:

[Opening Page?]

 

 

 

For this page, I wanted to include how our main character (the writer of the book, who is unnamed yet) stumbled upon these creatures, called “Lutins”–“little people” in French–(which will probably change) as well as a letter written back to someone stating info about his first finding, etc. 
The very first opening page will most likely consist of Z’s background and other things about the main character. 

[Second page?]

 

For the next page, I wanted to include a map of both the human part of the store as well as the Lutin’s kingdom. 
For a model, I’m going to use the nearest Kroger store to my house–which is located in Lambertville, MI on Secor and Sterns. It’s one of the biggest Krogers (it’s like a Walmart Super-center almost) in Michigan, I believe, and it sells just about everything. From food to clothes to furniture to home-supplies to toys, it’s got it. 
Plus a Starbucks and salad bar. 
It’s basically awesome, and perfect for my fictional-story setting. 

[Third Page?]

Just like J.R.R. Tolkien did with Middle Earth in both The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings or J.K. Rowling in Harry Potter, I want to show off the culture of these Lutins. Their monarch society, the way they dress, how they work and use things…
I hope to create a language for them to speak; make miniature books that one is able to view (I’ve done it before, just not as small), include various objects taped in (or otherwise) and how they are used…
All the fun little details to make these things seem really real.
Not to mention this section is where a lot of my transgenre part of the book would come into play. Because I’m going to try and have everything be something to interact with and examine.
This part of the book could very well take up four pages; I don’t know. It depends on how much I could fit! 

[Fourth Page?]

While there are all sorts of Lutins running around between the walls, the main ones that venture out into the store are the Knights. If you were to ever spot one, chances are, it would be a Knight. The Knights (as well as the royal court, etc.) will probably be featured a lot as well, given the story…

[Page Five?]

And towards the end of the book, I’m going to include my original story–edited from it’s current form, which I’m working on right now–along with MAYBE some illustrations (I told my brother he didn’t have to do this part, but he insisted that he wanted to draw a couple of images from the story) so I can have an actually story to focus on for these things.

[Other pages?]
These are only some of the pages that I have included on my blog. There will be others (as it stands, I should have 20 pages of things. 10-15 of those are the story from above, but hey), including:

• How to spot Lutins
• Where they came from
• Detail on what they look like
• Different sections of the store as well as different stores make up different dialects, races, ethnicity, etc.
•  Advanced government system
• knock-offs
• How to look for Lutins
• Catching a Lutin: Do’s and Don’ts

Among other things. 
It’s safe to say it’s going to be a field journal mixed in with an interactive section and folk-lore stories, all on a Transgenre level

Why Transgenre?
Because out of everything I’ve learned here at Eastern, Transgenre is the most fun–mostly because it has no limitations or rules to follow. You can basically do whatever you want and call it “creative writing”. And that is the most awesomest thing ever. 

 

But, anyway, again as promised, here are some rough-sketches I had my brother come up with.
When designing them, I more or less told him I wanted them “to look like a cross between Elves and Fairies” and that “they live in cereal boxes and containers. They use whatever supplies they can to make whatever from the grocery store. Their houses, clothes, and anything else they use all are made from things found in grocery stores. They’re roughly two inches high–think about the size of a Lego person, except with three inch platform heels on. And no, they don’t have wings.”  I gave him a copy of the story (which he read) and said that the rest was up to his imagination. 

This is what I got:

These are just proto-types, but I like them. We’ll have to work on them some more as far as what they’ll wear, but I do like their designs. 
My brother also came up with some additional details to how The Knights specifically work. He said they ride rats into the store for faster movement and to pull along heavy things. 
The kid works in a pet store so I went with the idea. It would be easier to take back cereal boxes and other big items too. 
He had other ideas, which I wrote down and might include into the book design. 
It’s always nice to have a new set of eyes and fresh mind to work with when on a project. Sometimes you stare at your thing for too long and can’t think properly about anything, and that’s when it gets frustrating and you end up on You-tube for 3 hours watching terrible infomercials or cleaning your bathroom, kitchen, living room, and sorting through your junk-drawer in procrastination because you’re just sick and tired of looking at the project, which is only mocking you at this point. 

Oh, and one last illustration my brother came up with:
It’s what a part of the Kingdom looks like:

He had the idea that everything would be narrow. Some people live in cereal-box houses, while most lived in apartments made from those organization bins or filing cabinets (I asked him how much space he thought was between the walls. “Like, 2 or 3 feet”? “Yes, about, but filing cabinets themselves are about 2 feet in width.” Then he got flustered and said, “Shut up. They’re fictional people that make the store an ice cube. Where’s the isolation? ARE THEY THE INSULATION, SAM? ARE THEY MADE OF FIBERGLASS? News flash, FIBERGLASS IS POISON, CONGRATS, ALL YOUR PEOPLE ARE DEAD.” Then he threw a pencil at me and plugged his earphones into his computer and watched Ed, Edd, and Eddy. Clearly we’ve got a long road a head of us). 
It’s actually really, really, really, really, good, even for a proto-type. 
P.s. I have no idea how, but apparently the laptop in the back is their movie theater? How they got a laptop is beyond me, but they’re fictional, magical creatures that live in grocery store walls. I guess anything is possible. 

Until next time, 
Don’t question your brother’s awesome work, 

Sami