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!

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.

Angel sketch

Random sketch as I attempt to improve my quality of human faces. The paper got rained on as I was walking out of work, so it's all wrinkly.

Went to pull out my scanner a week ago, and oh yes, the software wasn't working right on my laptop. Okay, I'll just reinstall it, right?

Nope.

My install disc now has a lovely curve to it. I'm not putting it anywhere near my reader until it's perfectly flat, if it ever does flatten out. Fortunately, my dad pointed out that I could download the necessary drivers on Canon's site. Yay! So once again, my scanner is working.

Don't Argue with a Troll

I had a run-in with a rather unpleasant person today. Suffice it to say that they were a troll. I was thinking about it afterward, and I considered the fact that my trolls aren't exactly the same as most trolls in literature. Mine are fiery and stubborn, but not the ugly, dim-witted brutes that are seen in more popular Fantasy.

I ended up sketching this on my downtime today and kept giggling while I did. This picture was a nice opportunity to try and show the huge size difference between trolls and goblins. The goblins are one of the smallest races of Gaia, standing between three and four feet high. Trolls are the largest race at close to ten feet tall!

Side note: I do believe that goblins are becoming a favorite of mine for sketching. I love drawing their faces :)

Sebelle sketch

I've been dealing with a lot of things lately and it's been killing my ability to write. Thankfully I can still do some sketching. My scanner did a hack job on this one. Whatever.

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.

Character sketch 24

Here's a sketch that I actually drew a few years ago. This is a character that shows up in my current writing project. I have been looking forward to working with them for a long time, now, and I'm excited to finally be working on this book.

Don't mind all the smudges and debris in the margins. That's just my smudgy hand and the scanner making sweet music together.

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.

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.

T-rex head sketch

Felt like drawing something today to get away from stress for a minute. I'll go back later and fill in some color and more of the details.

Gemsbok anthro sketch

Did this the other day for a sketch exchange community I'm in. I've never drawn a gemsbok before, and I found it quite fun. They have a very pretty coloration, and of course, I like long horns :)

Sean for Shinmaxwell

Just a quick sketch, because I was so proud of myself on this one. Humans are perhaps one of my worst weaknesses when it comes to art, and I've been pushing myself to improve at them. This sketch was done for a member on the sketch exchange community over on Livejournal.

There's more gray hanging around in this than I wanted, but because of the sketchbook I did the line work in, I couldn't scan it like I normally would, and therefor had to adjust the B/W levels. So.........yeah. That's my excuse for that gray.

White pencil play

I'm a scavenger. I admit it. This is the leftover cardboard backing from a ream of timesheets that got used up at work. I wanted to try doing something that was just ink and white colored pencil on brown "paper", since I've been seeing a lot of that kind of thing lately and it really interests me.

So all in all, this was pretty fun! This is the first time I've tried this coloring style of art. Acrocanthosaurus and Stegosaurus were my specimens of choice here, and while I'm pretty sure I did a couple horrible versions of stego's when I was a kid, this is my first time trying an Acro :)

Rather than try to look off of someone else's interpretation of certain dinosaurs when I'm trying to draw them, I've instead been looking up skeletons and then sketching out my own interpretation of the dinosaur. I really like doing this, not only because it's fun to watch the dinosaur kind of flesh out as I draw it, but it's so much easier for me to go off of a skeleton and have that base to build on, whereas if I tried to look at a full-bodied dino and draw it, I suffer from no end of confusion anatomy-wise. It must be the whole shapes/skeletons-are-your-friends thing. I'm glad I've finally become more comfortable with using them.

Amanagir Sketches

So I was naughty in church yesterday and took to sketching a few things on the back of my program.......don't judge me.

This is some play at head views of Amanagir, which are the lizard men from my series. The one exception is the guy at the top, who's actually a Neth (newt person) They were done in ballpoint pen, since I don't every have more than a pen and a red pencil in my scripture case.

A couple more heads

Here's the remainder of the sketches I did as freebies. I wish I'd thought sooner to suggest that if people wanted line art without color, they should tell me so. I was too happy to go in and scribble color on most of these :/

Head sketches!

Today (yesterday) I offered to do some free head sketches on Livejournal. The purpose was to possibly earn tips to help me save up for my new tent, but it's also been a good chance for some practice. Here's the results of the first round. Wheeee doggies!

You know it's far too late to be up when you multiply 3 by 3 and get 12........Also, I can't seem to spell.

I'm going to bed.

Some doodles

Here's some quickie little drawings I've been doing this week. Someone on Livejournal posted something called an Art Jam, which is basically where anyone interested may comment with image references of their avatar or original character. Anyone skimming through the comments who finds an image that they like may draw that character in any media or of any quality and post it as a reply to the person who owns the comment. I've done a small handful of them (obviously) I like to blame it on how drawing helps me focus on something other than anxiety issues, but sadly, I think it's also become a way for me to procrastinate my writing. Back to the grind.....

Starting from the top left and moving clockwise, the species here are a dragon, a corgi (yes I know, I did terrible) a thylacine (also known as a Tasmanian tiger) and a bat. Characters are copyright their respective owners. Please don't steal!

More sketches!

Yay!



Some more creature sketches. I've been trying to pick out ones that might be confusing or detailed to others so that they have something nice to look at. So if you've read any of my stuff and would like to throw in a suggestion on a creature to be drawn, please feel free.

*Professional tour guide voice* On this leg of the tour, you'll see a lovely specimen called a hydra, and beside it is the sultry female lizard man ...... or I guess that would be lizard "woman"............ *no more weird voice*

I'd also like to do the male version of the lizard men, even though I draw them a lot anyway. I also have a few other creatures in mind, but we'll see what I can get done. Sometimes, no matter how much you try to draw them, some subjects just refuse to be drawn.

Gan-Do-Gan sketches/Ouch

Just some rough sketches for one of the more bizarre critters in the books. They're a bird/centaur thing that has been kind of challenging to figure out how they work. For instance, how does enough air get into the lungs of such a creature, seeing as how it has two sets of lungs?? And how does enough blood circulate between the wings, legs, and brain of a creature when it's running or in flight? I'd like to do so me more of these, but I'm going to have to wait until I have more energy.

WARNING!
::RANT TO FOLLOW::

So I didn't have the proper skill to make it into the art challenge at alphabeastiary, apparently. I'll live, but I'm still confused about what desirable points my art is lacking, especially when you look at some of the other pieces that artists have submitted on there and the quality they have. I have to say I feel pretty stung right now, and I'm reminded why I'm not an art major - because I apparently have no clue what people consider good art, seeing as how half the stuff I run across that people applaud and rave about, I'm thinking, "Are you kidding me? I know fourth-graders that could do a better job than that!" or "Well that's just hideous."

Plus, I was encouraged to submit my entry to the DeviantArt group, the one place I will/can never go to again :( :( :( I appreciate that encouragement (and their kind words about my art) but I'm still just feeling very confused and kind of put out now.

Well, whatever, I'll just go cauterize my wounds for a while, I suppose. At least now I have more reason to work on my own creature sketches. And hey, life's not fair, and I can always do the challenge on my own.