WIP - Himni Rek-Aro

Holy smokes, two posts in one week. What is the world coming to?

I sketched this a couple of weeks ago as part of a small art challenge for myself. This is Himni Rek-Aro, a character who appears in The Rebirth Trilogy. She is the last of the four original original characters I drew when I started writing the trilogy as a teenager, once upon a time (the others being Kuma, Cenme, and Nighteye). I've wanted to draw her for a while in order to more fully flesh out her appearance. This sketch needs a lot of work before I ink it, but it's a start. In particular, I need to redo the details of her mask. The wing theme was okay, but it's not what I wanted. I do plan to ink and color this at some point.

So ... a little trivia for you about Himni, since I've been trying to do this more when I post images of individual characters and such:

The gemstones in Himni's mask are a purple-red sapphire and a red spinel, the latter of which represents "intensity" among the Laiuna people. (Side notes - Different colored sapphires, aside from the familiar blue, may also carry special meaning. And, red spinel is one of my personal favorites when it comes to gemstones)

Himni's home is a city called Juk Sul, which is located in a southern range of Genkian mountains called The Gods' Abode. The city is built at a high elevation, which means that cooler temperatures are a norm, and as such, some of Himni's normal attire includes fur lining. Juk Sul has an interesting history that involves rebelling against the Laiuna empire at one point, and one of the carry-overs of that rebellion is represented by the structure of it's citizens' names; Instead of the traditional name format in the rest of Genkai (Surname, followed by Given Name) the natives of Juk Sul use their Given Name first, followed by their Surname. I won't bore you with further details on all that, but yeah.

Okay, now - Setting aside trivia and sketches, I've also come to a decision: While I still have a number of planned works in store for the Legends of Destiny series, along with a couple other series and projects, no more new projects will be started for the next while .... like, years. I've decided that the amount of back-logged projects I have built up is utterly ridiculous and I'm going to start working through the book titles that have already been announced before I begin anything else. This means that titles such as Sovereign Soul, The Gem Duology, at least some Taloner books will be completed in their first draft form before I move on to anything else. My goal is to drastically cut down on the number of books sitting around in limbo, since some of them were announced a long time ago (cough, Sovereign Soul....)

Oh yeah. I guess that means I'd better make an announcement on which title won out as my current main project, huh? Well, look for that post soon!

Fourth Chaos Beast

Another Chaos Beast! Sheeze, I finally got the time and energy to sit down and finish this one. I'll continue to work on the concept art for her, since some of the colors didn't turn out quite right with what I'm seeing in my head.

Okay, so if you've read the trilogy you may be thinking, "Fourth beast? What happened to the third one?"

Don't worry. Beast 3 will be making an appearance in the duology, as I stated before. But that doesn't mean I'm not still developing the rest of the Chaos Beasts, or that none of them will appear in future projects.

So what are some things I can tell you about this Chaos Beast without ruining any surprises? She's female, for one (Yeah, you caught that. I know). Four of the Chaos Beasts are female, actually. The abilities of this one include power over illusion. She is also unique among all other beasts, for a reason that I won't divulge quite yet (sorry). And yes, she does appear in at least one of the book titles that has already been announced. She is also around twenty-five feet total in length, making her a little smaller than Denlupis.

Accepted cover concept: Wings of Fate

Wow! It looks pretty rough, but I'm so pleased to finally have an acceptable cover concept for the first book in my trilogy, Wings of Fate. I've had this sketch sitting in one of my notebooks for months now, and tonight I finally got my scanner up and running again.

For the last year and a half, I've been working on revising Wings of Fate. Tonight, I am down to the final ten pages of the manuscript, and I'm so excited to be closing in on the end of it! I have had twelve years to improve my skills as a writer (and an artist!) and completing the new draft of this book will be a monumental step in my work. To date, I have added nearly twenty percent again of the original book's volume to the manuscript, making it a full fifth larger than the first version.

The second and third books in the trilogy will eventually follow suit, but at this point I'm unsure of how soon that will happen. I know it's been driving me crazy for years, as there were inconsistencies between the first draft of the trilogy and other books that were published later in the series. I've had a lot of time to think things through and work out details in the world of Gaia. It doesn't even seem like it's been that long, really.

I will also be running the prequel to the trilogy through a revision, once I have completed Wings of Fate. The prequel had some problems of it's own, but I'll save that for another post.

Escora the Blue

Tonight, for your viewing pleasure, I'd like to present a non-canonical character from the Legends of Destiny series. I've been wanting to draw her for a little while, and after much wrestling I finally completed a concept of what she looks like. I apologize if the color is inordinately bright; I still can't seem to tone down the saturation of color on my screen to where it looks normal on other computers. Done in Krita.

Bios:

This is Escora the Blue, sole surviving nestmate of the black dragon Shadowsilk. There was a third nestmate at hatch, but he did not survive to adolescence. Escora is about the same size as her sister, placing her at a length of one hundred and twenty feet from nose to tail tip.

Escora chose to leave the safety of her father's lair at a relatively young age and moved to the eastern coast of Kura-Cora, where she now controls her own small territory along the seashore. She is well known to her neighbors as being tenacious and fierce, having ousted a violent faction from the land she claims as her own. She is fairly adept in magic, particularly with the element of water. Her breath weapon consists of green-tinged fire. It is rumored that she can also produce a lightning breath weapon at will, an attribute which would make her unusual among dragons.

Despite her territorial reputation, Escora is known to be quite civil with parties or persons who travel through her domain for trade or protection.

Escora's name is pronounced: eh-SKOR-uh

Drake head concepts

Blue World

Been a while. Here's a little landscape I felt like drawing tonight for an art challenge a friend has going. The lore drake figure looks ......... doofy. Ugh. Whatever, he's just there for scale.

This actually has to do with the Legends of Destiny, but I don't want to give away any spoilers. Sorry. Tired tonight. Been really busy lately and dealing with a lot of stuff.

Done in Krita while listening to Desert Realms by Rudy Adrian.

Inktober - Asenath

I like machines.

Inktober - Helmet Concept

A little concept art from a future project I'd like to pursue........at some point. I have more than one series that I'd like to be working on right now. This concept is from a series entirely separate from Legends of Destiny. I can already see things I'd like to change, but hey, that's what concepts are for, right? You work out the details on paper.

My work over the last two months has been almost entirely focused on the revision of Wings of Fate. I knew it was going to be a hefty project, but the amount of work I've already put into it has been staggering. I'm about 38% of the way through it, as the manuscript has a habit of growing longer the further I get into it. It's been an exhausting endeavor, and I find myself hoping (without much enthusiasm) that the second and third books in the trilogy won't need quite as much work. I hadn't planned on dedicating another three years to this trilogy, but I think in the end, it will all be worth it. And then when I'm done with that ........... oh my. There are so many things I'd like to be working on.

I desire to add to the subseries Taloner Chronicles. I want to expand the world of Gaia through other books, as well, and not all of them books written mainly from the Laiuna perspective. Sovereign Soul is still waiting patiently for it's turn, and there are others beginning to surface in my mind. It's all a journey.

Son of the Sun Tower

More concept art.

Character concept - Cow lady

Concept art for a possible future writing project.

Once again, please excuse the close cropping. We are working on my scanner's manners.

Accepted cover concept - Path of a Hero

Here's the final cover concept for the redo of the second book in The Rebirth Trilogy - Path of a Hero. This is the copy I will be working off of as I create a digital painting for the cover art.

I would like to have a final product that is of high enough quality for a large digital print I can display on my wall, so it may be some time before this image is finished.

This cover features the character Terezom, the Hero of the god Kem. In the background is an army of mixed creatures, which has to do with a particular scene from the book. Let the coloring begin.

Hammerwing sketch

It occurred to me recently that I have never been very specific on what Laiuna ships might look like. I decided to try my hand at a sketch, and here is the good ship Hammerwing. You'll notice that it's very basic - seagoing vessels are a pretty foreign territory to me. Sorry if I offend any technical artists out there.

Rejected Cover - Path of a Hero

I have internet!! (sort of) Hoorah!

Though I have not been able to make blog posts in the past several months, I have been making art. Currently, my main project is a re-do of the covers for my trilogy. This is a huge project for me!

Pictured above is a rejected concept for Book 2, Path of a Hero. This is a drawing of the character Terezom, and while I think it gave me the chance to show some of his physical details, it just lacks the pizzazz I'm after. So, it gets filed away in my sketch folder.

I'm hoping to track down the software for my scanner without too much trouble. FYI, two halves of a software CD do not, unfortunately, make a whole. At least not so far as the CD reader is concerned :/ I would much prefer to scan these concepts into the computer, rather than taking pictures. the quality is just so much better.

Old Art: Wyvern Lantern

Some years ago, I posted this over on DeviantArt. I later deleted my account there, and it's been a long time since I've seen this picture. I ran across it the other day while backing up files from my external drive.

Readers familiar with the events in Taloner: Reima 2 may recognize this concept. It was for an object in the fantasy world called a Wyvern Lantern, which was a large statue that marked the borders of imperial territory.

I feel like I've improved a lot with my art since creating this piece, but this marked one of my first paintings done with a tablet. We've all gotta start somewhere.

Fox wings

 Recently finished image from my sketchbook. This is one of the Chaos Beasts.

Cover redo concept sketch

Just a sketch for an idea I'm toying with. I've been wanting to redo the cover for one of my novelettes, Taloner: Reima, for a little while now.

Old Art - Launch

Here's an old piece of art I dug up the other day while checking the files I have backed up. I think this one was done in 2009, but it could have been 2010. I can't remember. It was when I first got my tablet and was learning how to draw on the computer.

The image is of the three main characters in one of my short books, Taloner: Reima. I remember leaving it looking sketchy and spotty because I liked it at the time. Now I think I'd like it better clean, but oh well.

Pied and Pure

Here's the second half of art for today.

This features a character that shows up in a future project I'm toying with. I inadvertently found that trying to color ice is a fun challenge while doing this!

Art dump

Time for an art update! I don't have internet at home right now, and it's really hit and miss as to when I can get a good connection that lets me create blog posts. So, here are a few pieces of my recent artwork:

This first piece is a character portrait of a Laiuna (dragon man) named L'ubax. L'ubax features in my current writing project, Wayside Tales. I was very pleased with how well this turned out. Done in Micron pen, brush pen, and colored pencil.

This second picture is a sketch I did of one of the gods from the Legends of Destiny series. I'm hoping to update my art programs so that I can go in and add some color to this in the future. Done in ballpoint pen.

The third image is a piece of fanart I did of two characters from fellow author S. A. Thorup's Legend of Draconite series. This was more of a warm-up piece for me to get back into the swing of things with colored pencils, and it's not my best work, but I still enjoyed drawing it. This is my take on the emotion that one of the characters must have felt when dealing with a very difficult choice. The character on the right, who is holding her, is quite possibly my favorite character in Thorup's entire Chronicles of Libera series.

I do not own these characters - only the artwork. Characters and Legend of Draconite are copyright Sarah Bailey.

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.