Angel & Faith

1. ThatEvilLawFirm: Hello Rebekah! Thank you for another gorgeous issue as usual. My question is about the Scythe, particularly as it is drawn in your issues. At the end of Buffy Season 8, after the Seed is shattered and the Scythe is destroyed, all that’s left is basically the metal blade. Starting in Season 9 a lot more of the Scythe is shown, about a foot of the wooden center. My question is whether or not you were given explicit instruction to draw it this way or if it was artistic liberty? Beautiful work, regardless! Thank you.

Rebekah: I wasn’t given specifics from editorial on where it was broken, only that it was still broken somehow. While preparing to draw #11, I noticed that on page 22 of #10, and the regular cover of the same issue, showed that extra length. It worked out well for my purposes, since I’d need to show Willow wielding it two-handed quite a bit, so I opted to keep it. I like to think that maybe with a bit of elbow grease she was able to shove part of it back into that metal bit.

2. Bunny Hearts: Hi Rebekah, thanks for taking the time to answer questions. I’m totally infatuated with your artwork, particularly your backgrounds and your creature designs— they just knock me out of my proverbial Keds every issue. Are there any particular inspirations you draw from for creating your monsters like movies, other artists, descriptions in fiction, that sort of thing?

Rebekah: When I close my eyes and try to think of a scary creature, I usually see something from a Guillermo del Toro movie. Consciously or not, I’m sure a lot of my imagery is inspired by him. Besides that, I just like to incorporate bits and pieces of what scares me in real life. I’m terrified of just about everything in nature so I’ve got a lot to draw from! And Christos always has lot of great ideas to use as a springboard or just flat-out steal. The exposed brain on the Old One Quor’Toth was a particular favorite of mine from Chris.

3. SueB: Rebekah your art for the Family Reunion Arc (and in general) have been nothing but Brilliant. I especially love Faith’s body language. I have a question regarding Connor. He’s less like Vincent Kartheiser round-face features and has more of an Angel square-jaw (or at least it seems to me). Can you tell me, when it came to drawing Connor’s face, were their any parts you tried to retain of the original actor and others you tried to mature to look more like Angel (or Darla)?

Rebekah: You are spot on! I definitely tried to give him more of Angel’s facial structure, particularly cheekbones and jaw. Although I think Vincent was a fantastic choice both artistically and physically, I think there’s a good chance Angel’s son would’ve developed more of his features as he matured past the show’s timeline. I guess that’s one nice little advantage that comics has over television, short of using prosthetics or heavy makeup! :-)

4. Bamph: What has been the most challenging aspect of this arc verses the previous ones?

Rebekah: Designing an entire world from basically scratch was EXTREMELY challenging and I’m still not entirely satisfied with the results. I really enjoyed it though, and I hope I’ll have the chance to do it again soon so that I can improve and learn new things. I have a much greater respect for environment designers in movies and games now!

5. Wenxina: Housekeeping question, where are you right now in terms of the artwork for the series?

Rebekah: Just started pencils on #19.

6. Jonography: I just finished reading #14 and I have to say, I loved the artwork even more so than the rest of your work so far. My question is, did you enjoy being able to draw Willow in this arc, and would you like to be able draw her again?

Rebekah: I did love drawing our favorite witch! It is really fun depicting her using her powers — it’s a really fun cross between fantasy and superhero imagery. It doesn’t hurt that I think she’s gorgeous and has the cutest smile!

7. Jashiel: Rebecca, I love your art and I really appreciate the time and quality that you provide in your gorgeous art work, my question is when you need a certain facial expression did you reference that from an actor’s picture or from a friend acting the expression or you just naturally develop it? Thank you for your time, really you are amazing and please make sure you that they have you for season 10, you are one of the best Joss verse artist around.

Rebekah: It depends. The difficulty in any licensed comic from a TV series is that if one references stills from the action of the shows too closely, it can give the drawings a stiff feel. I think this is mostly due to the fact that since television has the advantage of motion and sound, actors can be more subtle in their emotions and rely more on their voices to get the gist of what they’re feeling across. So while I try to reference actors’ actual emotions as much as possible, its often necessary to exaggerate the expression to make it very clear visually, or to substitute with photo reference of myself mugging for the camera. I have a TON of embarrassing photos taken on my Macbook Photobooth acting like various characters — maybe I’ll share a few when the next trade comes out!

8. Allycat: In this issue, it looked like Angel and Faith performed a Fastball Special. Was that something that was in the script or did you design it as such? And did you reference any X-men titles for it?

Rebekah: That was Christos’ direction, and I was to happy to oblige! I’d seen it before so I knew basically how it worked, but I didn’t reference any particular issue or page for it.

9. Bamph: How did you approach the emotional moment between Angel and Willow with the hug and their exchange with Willow saying she does not forgive Angel for the Twilight mess but she does not hate him either and Angel’s reaction?

Rebekah: Wow, this is a great question and I wish I had good answers for ones like this! But really I just act it out myself imagining I’m the characters, and hope I get it right. I think Willow is just too tired to be angry anymore and having seen how hard Angel is trying to make amends, I wanted to make her hug really open and sincere. Angel’s reaction — well, he knows the lecture by heart now, I suppose. But I don’t think it bothers him the way it used to now, because he’s got a singular goal to make things better, and he’s been making progress fast.

10. ThatEvilLawFirm: The dimension where Willow ends up at the end of the issue... It looks familiar, but I can’t place it. Were you given instructions on how to draw it? Meaning is it supposed to match the art of a destination in the upcoming Willow miniseries or is it just a filler to show that Willow escaped Q’uorth safely?

Rebekah: I’m not 100% sure if the world will be featured in the miniseries, but I’m leaning towards the latter. I was given free reign with it — it just had to look happy, safe, fairly idyllic, a distinct contrast to Quor’Toth.

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http://slayalive.com/showthread.php/3074-*COMPLETE*-EXCLUSIVE-Q-amp-A-with-Rebekah-Isaacs-for-ANGEL-amp-FAITH-14?p=103124