Shai's Helmet Card

Here's the last card for 2013! This is an item card. I'll mostly use these for special items that appear in the series, as well as more-common objects found in the books.

This one is of Shai's Helmet, a very cool artifact that shows up in Eternity's Edge. I've had a sketch of it for forever in my notebook, but I figured it would be nice to have a colored image that I could use on the wiki.

Don't know what wiki I'm talking about? Check it out -- Legends of Destiny wiki. Oh yeah!

Anjel cave badge

So quite a while ago, I was a member of an art exchange community and had volunteered to create a piece of art for someone who didn't get their fair trade. Well, I made the piece, then neglected to send it for a long time. I did this as an apology for the recipient, who will be getting both the original piece I owed her and this new piece, since I feel bad that she had to wait for so long for her art.

I tried to incorporate some luminescent mushrooms on rocks, since the recipient is actually a cave biologist and has a fascination with things like mushrooms. It was pretty fun.

Done with microns, brush pen, gel pen, watercolor pencil and traditional colored pencil.

Character is copyright her owner.

Najirara card

Another villain :) I had fun with this one.

Painted in Krita.

Kuma card

It's been a while. I've been busy working on Nethbane, which releases this Friday. I've been wanting to do another trading card for a while, so I figured I would bite the bullet and do one for Kuma, a major character in the series. This didn't come out quite how I wanted with the lighting and pose, but I was able to play more with the art program and learn some new things.

I need to practice my metals again.

Painted in Krita. Enjoy.

Nenenusa card

A villain card! Anyone who has read The Rebirth Trilogy will recognize this guy. I had to fight with the lighting on him to get it how I wanted, as I wanted the magic in his hand to stand out, as well as his eyes, but I wanted viewers to be able to see the detail of his skin pattern.

This is also the first card where I painted the image specifically for a card, rather than using art I had finished prior to making these cards.

Volcanic worm card

Another creature card! This time, I thought I would do a non-race creature. Readers of Eternity's Edge may recognize this beastie.

Valorram card

Here's the first of the divine type cards. These feature godly characters that appear in the world of Gaia. I chose white as the predominant color for the background and more artistic text, as I really wanted these to stand out as special.

The top bar shows the name of the being and, in this case, the runic symbol that represents that being. The text beneath the picture is the same as it is for character cards, with a name/position, where the character first appeared, and then a short descriptive text.

Rough Krieg paint

Been playing around with an art program I was newly introduced to - Krita. I've still got a lot to learn, but it is definitely going to be fun to use. Here is the first image I've done in the program. Yep, lots of room for improvement, but we'll get there. Shout out to William Thorup, who introduced me to the program!

That'll do, pig. That'll do.

Reima card

The third character card, Reima! This is the main character of my books Taloner: Reima and Taloner: Reima 2. I had originally lost the Muzi'kechi symbol when my last computer crashed, but thanks to the awesome site lulu.com, where these books are published, I was able to download my original manuscript document and acquire an image to work with. It's the furthest symbol to the right in the top corner.

Kudos to S. A. Thorup for pointing me in lulu.com's direction!

Urssef card

Finished another card. Here is Nem Urssef, another Taloner from my Taloner Chronicles. I figure that I will just start posting these at the size I work with them. That way, if you'd like to download them and save a copy for yourself, you have a nicer version :)

PS - Like to draw? Need some juice? Look up DJ Tiesto's "In Search of Sunrise" series on YouTube. I am listening to number 3: Panama right now. First time I've heard this one. Not too bad.

Neth card

Second card finished! This is a creature type card, and the creature/race featured is the Neth, one of my lovely villainous species. Creature cards will have a purple background and will feature the name, an alternate name (or species type) and whether the creature is predominantly good/evil/no persuasion. A brief description is given on the species.

Celure card

My first completed card! I'm still playing with the design, but I thought this one turned out alright. Here is Celure of the Pewter Talon.

This card is a goodly character card type. These will have a yellow background and will feature the name of the character up top, along with any symbols particularly associated with them (such as clan markings) The text under the image will have a station or trade, and the first book or collection in which the character appeared. The main body of the text will feature a brief description or quote from the character.

This is marked Limited Edition, since it won't stick around forever :)

On a little side note, if you would like to listen to some music that reminds me strongly of Celure's character, (and in part, the Taloner Chronicles) look up "Window to your soul" by Delerium.

Trading cards?

Look! Art! Well, sort of. It's a work in progress. This is a fun new project I'm working, not for any special reason except that I want to. Today at work, I was chatting with a friend (S. A. Thorup) and we were postulating on the idea of making trading cards from our books, just for fun. I really liked this idea, so I decided that I will make some of my own cards and see how they turn out. Who knows? Maybe it would be fun to have my own card laminated and on my desk at work :)