Kuma card - version 2

I wasn't entirely satisfied with the previous version of this card. I decided to redraw it, and while it didn't come out quite as well as I'd hoped, I'm still much happier with this version.

Ignore the outdated copyright in the bottom corner. I have become thoroughly irritated with the program Gimp and couldn't stand to fight it a second longer today.

It seems appropriate to redo this card during the month of September. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I've always kind of felt like Kuma's birthday would be this month, if I were to get down to the fine threads of my book series. This is probably because the first drawing I ever did of Kuma, as he now appears in the series, was done in September. It was the 4th, to be precise. Like a few other early characters in the series, Kuma has his roots in an archaic picture I drew when I was sixteen or seventeen, but the current version of his character is eleven years old.

Happy Birthday, Kuma!

Noemus card

Ulf card

Finally got this guy done. I need to make some hair texture brushes, because painting fur really should be more fun than that.

This is a villain who appears briefly in one of my Taloner books. I wish I had been able to work with him more, because I quite enjoyed his personality and abilities.

Netherworld card

Behold, a location card!

Card Line Art Batch 3

Yes, it's true! I cannot draw human faces well. Now you know why you don't see them very much on my blog.

One of these images is a remake of a card I did earlier and wasn't totally satisfied with.

Card Line Art Batch 2

I'm having a lot of fun with this project. It's proving to be a great way for me to challenge myself and push my limits with my drawing abilities.

Denlupis card

How appropriate that I would complete this card on a night with thunderstorms.

Hanedoe Card

Fun fact: In nearly twelve years of writing my fantasy series, I have never drawn this character. Not once. It is such a pleasure to finally have the skill and inspiration to draw her correctly.

Drawn while listening to Tiesto's In Search of Sunrise 7: Asia. In particular, the track "Wasted" seemed to fit my mood for this piece. Done in Gimp.......I need to reload Krita on my machine.

Blayde card

Another one. Hey, I already had the image art done.

YES, yes, I know. I'm going to bed.

Stellia Card

Dangit, Gimp! Why do you keep getting rid of the fonts I like?? I thought we were still friends?

Hmph. Jerk.

Here's the first of the line art cards! I've stopped putting so much detail into the text, as the format of these will change somewhat when I prepare the files for printing at some unknown point in time.

This character is actually one of my favorites, even though she's only appeared in a short story, to date.

Card Line Art - Batch 1

When you were a kid, did you ever take a super ball and throw it really hard to see how crazy fast it could bounce off of everything? Well, yesterday I was that little ball. My new scanner came! The old one is now so old that it is obsolete, at least with my current laptop (sad day)

With the addition of my new scanner to the family, I can finally upload high quality sketches and line art! Yaaaay!!!!

So, here is the first batch of line art for the trading cards I have been working on. I will be limiting these to groups of twelve or less when uploading, as I tend to get annoyed with photo strips that extend from here to tomorrow. I've been drawing these six to a sheet, so the proportions aren't perfect. That will get addressed after I color the images.

This has been a really good opportunity for me to illustrate some of the concepts from my books. See anything you recognize?

If you have a specific card you would like to see from the series, feel free to say so here! I still have quite a few of these in the works and am terribly excited to get going on coloring them :)

Laiuna card

Yay, another one! It's been a while since I've worked on any of these. I've been busy with writing projects and have had to be careful about how much art I do right now for trading cards. I found that it was actually draining my energy and hindering my ability to write frequently. With Wayside Tales nearing completion, I've been able to come back and look at these cards a little more. It helps that I already had the graphic drawn for the lore drake, too.

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!

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.

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.