Month: June 2022

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Character Design – First Mate “Charry” Charoite

Character Design is something I put off for a while now. My process is still kind of ineffective and thus feels tedious especially compared to the more painterly practise I have done lately.
Nevertheless, my Elephant Lady deserves a visual so I set out to make one:

The Design itself took me 4-5 hours. I agonized over the color and pattern of that over-the-shoulder fabric quite a while, too but all in all this was a lot of fun and good practice in terms of breaking loose from references.
Outside of some visual reference on Elephant anatomy I freehanded this sketch.

And with that down moved to a more finished picture for her, that was loosely based on some pose reference:

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Portrait Painting 12 – Gen and Okuri

The final piece to the set.

Here we have Gen, my Divine Soul Sorcerer, and his familiar, Okuri. Both designed with a Genet in mind.
For a multitude of reasons this one took me closer to 5 hours compared to the usual 3 but I think the whole “fear of finishing something and having to move on”-dilemma carries the biggest blame here.

I really liked how it turned out, which doesn’t stop me from seeing all the little things that are not quite right… cast shadows, over stylized lighting, Gen’s nose looking too normal…
But those are things to fix in the next one… whatever that will be.

This was quite the satisfying journey, both in terms of the art that came out of it and the things I practised and learned through it.

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Project: Daily Sketch Scroll

I’ve been watching this YouTube channel that has a whole bunch of invaluable Composition and Painting advice and stumbled across what sounds like a really fun project to tackle:
A Daily Sketch Scroll.

Here’s the Video by Ian Roberts, about the idea:

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Now, given that I work digitally I had to adapt a little, but I’ve started yesterday and like the setup I have so far.

The idea so far: I set up a Krita-file that will extend downward over the month and day by day I sketch whatever comes to mind. Which lets be honest will be 99% DnD themed, but nonetheless I hope to break loose from all those finished, refined pieced I feel inclined towards. This gives me room to test out some stuff and maybe get my brain out of painting and into line drawing mode again.
Every Evening I block out that days additions and don’t look back until after the month (or whenever I decide that this is over…) Let’s stick with the month for now though.

I will report back with results on the 13th of July!
Wish me luck ^^

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Portrait Painting 11 – Ciccerek

This one felt like magic and I needed a good couple days to figure out why it took me less than 2 hours but I think I found the secret:
There’s no humanoid face on here. No noses, no symmetry for eyes or ears or really anything at all because everything is in profile either way.

And though I had dreaded the whole figuring out feather textures thing, that one turned out to come quite naturally to me… So here he is: Aaracokra Druid Ciccerek, turned Ruby Dragon by virtue of… getting adopted.

That leaves only my very own Character, Gen, to go… and I am mildly horrified both by the dice having made him the final picture I make and… the prospect of being done with the project.
I’ve streamed the first bit of the drawing process last Wednesday and will likely finish the rest tomorrow so… if you’d like to see come step by on twitch!

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Portrait Painting 10 – Fen and Edward

The next instalment of my portrait painting journey, featuring Celestial Warlock Fen and her Fenec Familiar, Edward.

Her Bangs might stand out a bit, because they were what gave me the most trouble, as I seem to increase the level of detail in these with every picture. This one also almost took me 4 hours in the end… But extra fluffy Ed was well worth that! ^^
Somewhere in the making of this, the utter mess of layers I needed to get the face right has a version where she just looks deformed and beat up and it still haunt my nightmares so I will spare you the sight.

Two more to go from here!

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Portrait Painting 9 – Illya and Raiji

Verden Campaigns very own Divination Wizzard, Illya and her dearest companion Nariraijin, or Raiji for short. Illya doesn’t look half as annoyed as she’d need to, but I think if she did it would break the calm vibes too much anyway so… she can have a moment of peace for now.

Challenge time! Feathers.
I do like how they turned out and I would like to get everything else into a bit more of a loose style like them again tbh. I finished Illya on Stream yesterday and started working on Fen until trying to get her eyes in the right places started feeling like a futile effort…

If I don’t finish it on my own time that what next Wednesday’s Stream will be about.

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