Exclusive Insider Look - NB Novella development

I'm working on adding images to my Nia Black novel, breaking up the book into separate chapters/acts/parts what have you, and will release a new production tentatively known as the Nia Black novella. The story is quite long, too long for me to transform into a graphic novel, so stop asking me to do it, it's not going to happen. What is going to happen though, is that I will fill every chapter of the book with several pinups and sequential pages to put a visual touch on various parts of the story. I have made mention of this idea in the past...



But as you can see, I'm actually working on it now. This is the tentative cover. Like most of my art, things tend to dramatically change in the transition between the pencil stage and the digital color stage, so don't take this as the absolute final. Note the telltale boots in the upper left and the Bo staff in the upper right...precursors of things to come.



This is a scene from the primary action sequence of the first chapter of the book. Nia's coolly dodging a wild attack from a guard. Special effects and what not will spice this up quite nicely.

Forthcoming is a sequential page and another pinup that will focus on Nia's brazen getaway. The thumbnails for these images are already prepared and I expect to have them penciled by week's end, with full color to follow. Though they'll be printed in grayscale in the books to come, I will also put together a Nia Black art book that will feature the images from the novella in full color, historical imagery of the character (much of which is on dA) as well as new art that won't be found anywhere else. Perhaps there will also be a fan art section in there too.

Keep an eye on me, because JP is moving forward.