Creating a Graphic Novel : Art – Food – Photography

Australian Madeline Rosca grew up with Samurai Pizza Cats and Robotech. She is showcasing her artwork on Hollow Fields on this site. She does amazing artwork with detail as well as wonderful storytelling through her sequential pieces.

Final :

Sketch :

Step 1 :

Step 2 :

So where were you born?

I was born in Victoria suburb of Gispland which is approximately 2 hours of out of Melbourne.

Have you always been in artwork?

Well my father was actually the head of Arts at Monash and he took me and my sister and her to various exhibitions.

You really got influenced early. So tell me about Hollow Fields?

I’m proud to say that Hollow Fields is my first published work.

How to you go about getting it published?

It was an odd and lucky process. Originally it started out as as webcomic. A fellow artist (Hai) contacted a publisher 7Seas to check it out and an offer was made by late 2005.

That’s awesome! So what are your inspirations for the book?

I wanted to be able to create something fun combining elements of steampunk, Robots & Monsters, Mad Science with cute children. I was also very fortunate to be nominated for an award from International Manga which included a 10 day trip to Japan. It was definitely a tough field which most previous winners for Hong Kong and Korea.

Wow! So how did you go?

I got the 2007 runner up award but it was an amazing experience to visit Japan enjoying the sights and even dropping by different design studios.

So are you working on anything new?

I can’t give too much away but another all ages steampunk fantasy set in Victorian England which I hope to complete by October this year.

I will be doing pencil, inks and toning, using MangaStudio for toning. I am a little worried how the toning will end up but hoping it all goes well. Currently I’m getting through about a page a day. I will be attending the convetions in 2012 to promote it!

Thanks so much for your time!
Any advice for aspiring artists or writers?

Don’t get discouraged as many ideas don’t work out. I created a children’s picture book in 2000 and I can now look back see the flaws with that work. It’s all about learning and improving.

Good luck with your new work and look forward to seeing it when it comes out!