Sketches: Original Character Amalgam

I have a really long post in store for today because I have been drawing a lot but not updating. I will be compiling a few sketchbooks to sell this summer, and I hope they will do well. They will be 80% original, so each one will be a great reflection on me and my characters. So far, I will have one each for: Mondigan, Tailor's Daughter, other Original Characters, Gore, and Fanart. Then again, at the venues I go to, my style is the last thing they like. I have little confidence in how others view my work (I even think only a handful of my school friends actually like it, lol!), but it's very much a reflection of me.

Enough moping. It was Hey Day, and we all got covered in condiments, so while I did the boys' laundry, they all walked about topless. That's where this idea came from. The concept is Willowren greeting Rivek in her private quarters after he's been released from internment. She wants some but understand he's still a little in shock.

I want to dispel the assumption that Rivek is gay. He's far more complicated than your classic yaoi boy, maintaining a close relationship with a strong, yet naive, woman. One of his defining conflicts is he can never be stereotypically manly - because he is skinny as all hell, and he serves a woman. But he loves this woman more than anything else. Super long forearms are super long. Must stop drawing in low light.


I asked Yiyi what I should draw, and she said I should do an original character that I don't draw too much. So I reached into the depths of my brain and pulled out my old, old RP character, Aidan Faulkner - the occasionally smoking, frequently drinking, use anything as a weapon, journeyman Watcher. He's the good boy who tries hard but never quite seems to make it - the road to uselessness is paved with good intentions. He bartends and takes acting classes on the side.

Ted said that I must have modeled Aidan after him because that's the way he sits. No, Ted, you are not that awesome. (I came up with Aidan far before I met him.)


Another amalgam of old characters. On the left is Vikku, the god of lust and war in the Mondigan mythos. He's also the alter ego of Amorek. He was made human from a fox, and when he played a trick on the head god, he got his legs cut off on replaced them with that of his horse.

At the bottom is Ailinar Vaulkner, the direct ancestor of Rivek. He had the entire right side of his face destroyed by shrapnel -like magic. Despite this, he remains pretty cheery until someone takes advantage of his blind spot, killing him. He is the kind of guy whose personality is so warm that you ignore his disfiguring. That said, he's also got a great body. Rivek's scar and surname are a homage to Ailinar's.

Whether my friends deny it or not, the girl on the right is not Madeline, Marissa, or Barlow. Long ago, I was inspired by Alexandria to draw a girl with matted black hair. This evolved into a possible concept - Rivek's child. I didn't want him to have a son, nor would I want the child to be with Willowren. Then again, Rivek is also a character who would never leave an heir. I don't know if I should put this into the story. Anyhow, this was me playing around with what she would look like - stick-thin, large almond eyes, wavy black hair. I'm still not sure about the long nose.


More concepts for the Tailor's Daughter - outfit designs for the gull and environment designs for the kitchen. Which do you like best? Most like the first and second outfits, but I don't want to convey him as royalty. More like a dock-worker. Girls shouldn't have to fall in love only with princes.


And one more sketch for Dominance War. He looks way too happy. I need to re-do this. I'm trying to figure out something for the final beauty shot.


There are recurring motifs in my art - missing right eyes, skinny men, people turning into birds. I can't tell if this is my uncreative qualities or my theme.

Sketches: Dominance War 2009 III

More Dominance War. The orthographic projections this time. I like how the one on the right turned out, but I forgot a few items (i. e. pistol, because he doesn't want to, uhm, die). Design is almost finalized - I wanted to go simpler in the clothing layer - to show off anatomy more, more complex on accessories - because he's gear-reliant as a character, and more gritty on the texture - for the sake of making things look cooler and more worked.


I think I'll be there after one or two more, posed, sketches.

Sketches: Dominance War 2009 II

The big challenge has begun! I will be entering Dominance War for my Figure Modeling final. Here is my character's story:

He is an intellectual prodigy who graduated from a magical/medical school at twenty-one. He had been of wealthy ancestry and considerably sheltered from too much physical activity in favor of more academic pursuits. Therefore, when the war began, he applied to be a clericon.

War, of course, does not distinguish between soldier and healer. Especially war with demons. Two or three months since his enrollment, he received a victim who had been infected by a Death/Darkness demon. His previous knowledge proved useless, and the soldier died. Much to his chagrin, he contracted the disease as well, through a cut on his right palm. It warped his muscle tissue and caused his skin to flake, pale, and sprout yellow lesions.

Through fevered study, he created an item to stop the disease from spreading. The magic bandages could not bring back his self-amputated arm, but they became tentacle-like replacements. In place of his infected eye, he crafted a clockwork (non-magical) magnifying glass and linked it directly to his occipital lobe.

Despite this, he remains a diligent doctor and continues to tend to the wounded, now specializing in demonic attack. However, he suspects the disease may have entered his brain, because he has recently been hallucinating before bed.

I began with some contour sketches. When that failed, I moved on to just defining his equipment and gear, which ended up helping. I chose to refine the design on the far right - dropped the lab coat and priest ideas in favor of the field medic one.


Draw him bigger, so I could see exactly what he was wearing. This ended up way too stiff to be a final sketch, but it's a much better idea of the clothing detail. Unfortunately, it doesn't give too much view of anything anatomical.


So, here, I just did some sketches with stance and figure. I hope they're not too light. I wanted something less straight-up-and-down for the contour, so I widened his shoulders and shrank his waist.


Right now, I'm working on an orthographic projection, the base mesh, changing the clothing in minor ways, and a more interesting "final" sketch to work off of. And a name (I've been using "surgeon general" so far...). He hasn't got a name. I think the part I'm most worried by is the poly-count. I'm at 1500 so far, and that's not including head or clothing.