NaNoWriMo approaches

It's coming. NaNoWriMo is almost here! I have always wanted to participate in it, but never had the drive and a specific story idea (and time) line up for me to do so. I'm hoping to change that this year.

For those of you unfamiliar with what NaNoWriMo is, it stands for National Novel Writing Month. Now, I'm not sure that I'll be able to get an entire novel pumped out, as I'm still working on prepping Wings of Fate for release and I'd really like to avoid burnout. However, I do have that little side project that's been trickling along, and I'd love to hammer on it and get a good chunk of it written down. I can always finish it at leisure after Wings of Fate has been taken care of.

This project is one that I've had planned for at least six or seven years, and I do already have a synopsis written up for it, which is kind of strange to work with. I'm more comfortable with a rough, general synopsis being written for a book, comprised mostly of bits and pieces of story matter. It's much easier for me to feel inspired and write a book with plenty of wiggle room left to create story details and possibly change the direction of the storyline.

So yeah, I think my November project would be ..... the eleventh book in the series. Which leaves a few others still in the planning stages or partly finished at this point. Sorry. I've learned that some stories need a long time to gestate in my mind so that I don't miss out on any important details. If I try to force the story, I either ruin it or end up frustrated. That's part of why it's taking so long to get back to Sovereign Soul. I haven't had the right energy to work on it for the past several years, and now that I've waited, I've been able to develop some important plot points for it that would have been left out, had I hurried to finish it after writing Nethbane. It's hard to wait, but it will be worth it in the end.

Alright, cutting my ramblings short, there are couple of pictures in this post for you. These are both major characters in the side project, and while the drawings are 6-8 years old and will need some revising of their own, the characters are largely the same as they were before. I thought it would be fun to showcase them here.

Have a pleasant day.

Release date!

Greetings, readers! Another quick progress update for you. The second phase of revision for Wings of Fate is currently 25% complete. It's blowing past! I am very hopeful that this book will be ready to be published (again) by the end of the year. So, I am tentatively setting a release date of Saturday, December 3, 2016 for Wings of Fate.

I've also been distracted by a little side project, of late. Anyone remember this picture? It seems unreal that this was conceived five years ago, but these two characters play a major role in the project. If it continues to grow over the next couple of weeks, I'll release some more details. Until then, though ........... I may just have to draw an updated version of the characters :)

Nighteye

Another Wings of Fate character! This guy is actually one of the four original original characters that I ever drew in the Legends of Destiny. The other three are: Kuma, Cenme, and Himni. Since then, I have not redrawn Nighteye. It's good to see him again!

This was a learning piece for me. I discovered several tools that I hadn't yet played with, including the airbrush tool. I'm extremely pleased with how the piece came out, although I didn't originally plan it in a nighttime setting. I didn't draw the character's trademark knife harness, either - there was already too much going on with his gear. I'm not that talented quite yet.

And again, a bit of trivia for you: The black scale pattern apparent on parts of Nighteye's body is in fact a dark coloration that appears at the edge of some of his scales. Nighteye is a squadron leader who has worked under General Cenme Duforthia for some time, making him one of the longest-standing soldiers to be employed at the Fortress of Roses at the point in time that the book takes place.

Done in Krita. As always, character and the Legends of Destiny are copyright W. A. Johnson.

Changes and Book Update

Good morning. A quick post here to let readers know that my art blog is now also the base of operations for updates on the Legends of Destiny book series, at least temporarily. The old site at blaydeneon.webs.com has been taken down and will no longer be the home for info on these books. So if you see updates pertaining to this, don't be alarmed. You're still in the right place :)

As such, an update for you on my projects:

I have begun the second pass through Wings of Fate to streamline and prepare the manuscript for re-release. It's going much faster than the first time around, thankfully, as I'm not having to rewrite the entire book this time. I have also started working more on the new cover art, which I'm hoping won't be too difficult ....... I'm forcing myself to do it all in a painterly style without heavy lineart in an effort to produce something of similar quality to this.

After some consideration, I am also removing the book Taloner: Reima from availability on lulu.com in order to prep it for revision, as well. It will resurface later on down the road, but it's in need of some cleaning up before it does so.

Inktober - Cursed Light

Had a lot of fun with lighting on this one. Done in micron and Prismacolor brush pen.

......

I need to get an orange brush pen.

Inktober - Dragonskull Emblem

It was time to create a new emblem. Not sure what to do with it yet, but I have a couple of ideas.

Inktober - Lady In Red

Good exercise in hand-eye coordination. Done in micron and brush pens.

Inktober - Widow Ssiadagama

It's Inktober!! .......... And I'll be honest, I feel like my art skills are regressing. Bleh.

So, big news - As of Thursday night, the first major revision of Wings of Fate is complete! I've been taking a bit of a break from writing the last couple of days in order to recharge a bit and prepare myself before I dive back in and read through it for further refining purposes. It has officially clocked in at roughly 203,000 words, which means it should be about 600 pages in print format. I'm very pleased, and very surprised. I had no idea when I began revising the book that I had THAT much more to add!

And, yesterday was the last day of September. I totally forgot to put up anything to wish readers a Happy Rebirth Day. Go me.

Here's another character from Wings of Fate. I'll admit that through revising the story and it's characters, I've grown closer to some of them. One of those characters is Widow, an important side character who appears in the story. I always imagined him with a leather keltho, which is the article of clothing he wears draped over his legs, but I didn't have a brown marker to color it. This piece was done in micron pens and brush pens of both the Prismacolor and Copic calibers.

Here's a little more trivia: Widow is an expert knife marksman and a skilled fighter in close quarters. The majority of his armor is made up of chainmail in favor of lighter weight and increased motion. He is a native of the Laiuna city Prosperous Gate in Genkai, but due to family conflict, he left at a young age and has lived and worked in Cardmov ever since. He typically carries at least nine knives and daggers on his person at any given time.