Originally posted at Art of Webcomics on 5/21/2018:
The Adventures of Baba Bhalu : Meet the creators !
Let’s jump to London Town on the tracks of an extraordinary character named Baba Bhalu!
The Adventures of Baba Bhalu is a team effort: Arjun Xanadu, Stephanie Chateau and Heather Scott are our guest.
Hello, welcome on Art Of Webcomics ! Where do you come from ? London, UK (Arjun) and Florida, US (Stephanie C. & Heather S.) How old are you ? ( tell it or not !) All in our 30’s Influences ? Rumiko Takahashi, Shigeru Miyamoto, Neil Gaiman, Alan Moore, Art school or not ? Alabama School of Fine Arts (for Stephanie C.) Valencia College (for Heather G.)
Favorite digital art software ? Photoshop.
Your working method ? Arjun & Stephanie create story together, Stephanie pencils, inks & colors characters, then Heather colors backgrounds & adds special effects.
What your webcomic is about, in a symbolic way, the hidden sense ? It’s about what’s hidden right in front of our eyes: how the poor are treated differently from the rich, hidden culture, hidden history, hidden dimensions.
Tell us more about your main character, the hero ! Baba Bhalu (aka Swami Bhalunath) means “Father Bear” or “Master Bear” like you would call a priest or a monk or some other teacher figure you respect. He was a monk who was cursed to look like a teddy bear after agreeing to take on the karma of his village to try to save his mother. After he was cursed his friends and family didn’t recognize him so he left to find Shambala to pay off the karma of his village. Once he got there he went through training till he was deemed worthy to take on a special secret mission to help save the world. One of his tasks was to go to London to retrieve something lost but Bhalu is unable to find it quickly and becomes stuck in the system when he loses his temp job as vegetarian chef. Bhalu believes he needs to find another job in London in order to complete the mission he was sent on. This is where the web comic begins…
How do you see your future ? with tarot cards (kidding… or am I?) I have worked several other jobs but I can’t ever seem to imagine myself in the future as anything other then an artist. I really want to be able to tell stories through art and I believe sequential art is one of the best ways to do that. If not being a comic artist I would like to do illustration for books or perhaps do a series of paintings themed to the tarot and then have them shrunk down and printed out as an actual collectible tarot deck. – Steph C.
I plan to continue on my creative career as an artist and author; working on projects like Baba Bhalu and Sivoa. Eventually I would like to expand into tabletop gaming and adding a layer of interactivity to my art. – Heather G.
I’m planning a Revolution using music and art as the conduit. – Arjun X.
Your next goal? To get more investors for our comic and to get what we’ve done so far cleaned up to present to a few potential publishers in hopes of also making a published print version in extension to the free online web comic updates we do. – Steph
To cause a Revolution using music and art as the conduit. – Arjun X.
Advice for beginners ? Practice everyday. Keep your expectations of how the work you do will be received very low. Don’t take criticism personally and expect rejection. Do the work without expectations of reward. It’s about doing it because your passionate about it or you’ll run out of steam. After you put out your work you’ll most likely spot mistakes you didn’t before. Note those and keep going. You can go back and clean up everything after you’ve got a few chapters out. By then you’ll have evolved as an artist and cleaning up your work becomes it’s own reward when you can see very clearly doing a side by side how much you’ve improved.
Your technical secret trick ? There are colors in things a lot of people don’t notice. If you add those layers of colors, even if they don’t seem very noticeable you will get a lot of comments from people about the colors seeming “vivid” or almost “3D”. They won’t be able to put their finger on it but something will seem “special” about it. Pay attention to nuances in color in nature and apply it to your work to stand out.
Your social links and website ?
Website: bababhalu.com
Facebook: facebook.com/bababhalu
Instagram: hinstagram.com/baba_bhalu_comics
Twitter: twitter.com/BabaBhalu
A huge thanks to Arjun, Stéphanie and Heather, take care of Baba !