So Corel Painter 12 was on sale yesterday… for 50% off… which meant it was only ridiculously priced, as opposed to super-ridiculously priced. So I got the trial version, and drew a bizarre picture of Gyoriing. (Shush, I haven’t drawn in about a month.) I tried out a few different brushes here, including pencil, digital airbrush, art marker, and digital watercolour.
I also drew a terrifying picture of Gullac, but you don’t get to see it. : P Continue reading
Hee! The Sygnus fans got together and sekritly made a calender for Wren and Syn, and I drew February. You should see the other pages! They are completely fantastic and beautiful. I will probably link to the calender when it appears on Zazzle. I hope it’s available in Canada?
Gyoriing takes Layalin, and Zento takes YuKai on a double date. But Zento can’t help flirting with shy Layalin… Good thing everyone knows he’s not serious! : D
Zento was totally a creeper the first time I tried him: Not his fault, but hair just can’t go in front of his eyes. My fellow conspirators and I had a good laugh over that… but it also meant he was the last one to get finished, because he was being difficult. : P
Also if he had that expression on his face when talking to Layalin, he would probably get flattened by Gyoriing a half-second later…
Oh, and I also resized both my kalmaei and Wren’s Nefolians, because Gyoriing is 7’6″… Layalin is about 6’8″… and Zento is, what, 5’2″ and YuKai 4’10”??? That wouldn’t work at all! So sorta a little AU in that they are the same height frame. : D
What do you think?
(Layalin and Gyoriing)
I cannot for the life of me do a ‘painting’ look. Dangit!
Click for insanity. Yeah, I kinda ran out of inspiration at the end… and one of the words is maybe not wholly PG, but some of them are not too bad. I like the one of Math defending me from EbilTam. Also the one where Flairé has to marry someone came out pretty much how I wanted it too, but the one of Flairé and Marteth camping I wish I’d been able to do better. Maybe I’ll just do it as a picture sometime.
So that’s what I’ve been doing instead of writing or anything useful.
If any of the panels aren’t clear, let me know so I can make it clear. : P
Bit of clarification anyway… Layalin isn’t joking when she says she’s going to die too – kalmaeirin elves have a heart condition that means they can literally break their hearts when they lose someone particularly dear to them. Of course, it would not be the fault of a car crash. : P
Working on the hilarious 10 character meme. You can probably guess at the answers if you know it already… but they might not be what you expect! I thought some of these turned out rather well. Probably stolen from Colby, but it’s been so long I’ve forgotten. I only just got around to it. : P
Also editting Chapter 2 of the novel. Split it into two chapters, so Tam’s moment of glory is now in Chapter 3. Chapter 2 is still veeeery rough. Not happy with most of it. I may need to chop it out and rewrite it by itself a few times. Wondering how Chapter 3 will go, since I’ve never written it before. Flaer made a long internal monologue about how useless anger is… and then flips out at a dragon for being stupid. What a silly boy.
What else? Um, not much. Obsessing unhealthily over my DevArt. Added like five bazillion pictures to my favourites. Guess I should add more of my own stuff. I think I will stick to colour stuff, because the pencil stuff is not so impressive. More or less. If there’s something on Adhemlenei you think I should post on DevArt, tell me. : P
Also dug up my Tour links again in preparation for a couple weeks from now… Go Andy! And Cadel! And Ryder! Okay, I guess I can wait until it actually gets going. It’s gonna be amazing on the new TV.
Tweaks coming tomorrow. And additions.
Can YOU name everyone here?
Line 1: Adhemlenei, Zela’s family: Zela, Flaer, Flairé, Flaria, Menad, Marteth, Bayn, Gullac, and Mathaning
Line 2: Adhemlenei, others: Gyoriing, Muila, Layalin, Kylyralessa, Lyrestan, Tam, Jalril
Line 3: Zelda OCs: Rana and Raelle
Line 4: FE OCs: Ceniro, Salir, Anne
Line 5: Other: Esgalwen (in green???), Angel, Shell, Keesh, Rinako, Konane
D’awww!
This is Sir Gyoriing and Princess Layalin, who are madly in love with each other. Whenever I draw these two, something doesn’t go right.
“But Jen”, I hear you say, “this is obviously only your second time at drawing them together, and the mistakes made are so obvious you will easily refrain from them in a third attempt.”
Well yes, I reply, but what mistakes shall I make then? But the way to better drawing is through practice, which I have not got. Anyway, I am happy with the hair and the clothes, even if the faces and proportions are shot.
Silence pervades the edge of the tournament ground where our protagonists are.
Finally! A picture I’m REALLY REALLY happy with! In the foreground, on the left, is Prince Flaer, looking grim, with his helmet and shield at his feet and standing on the roots of a much better than usual tree. See, this kind of success is what keeps me from drawing things with a reference, because sometimes I do things that I’m happy with and then I feel I don’t need to look it up. : P
On the right in the foreground is Sir Gyoriing, Flaer’s bff and right-hand man, and commander of the Moonland knights. He’s actually much taller than anyone else in this picture, so I made him squat so as not to tower. That weird rectangular thing is his shield. He has a massive shield. He is also a walking armoury.
In the background, short Princess Layalin is following Lady Zela around for lack of anything better to do, and also for comfort, because she is not Gyoriing’s girlfriend yet so she can’t turn to him.
In the story, two people just killed each other intentionally, so now everyone is shocked and sad because ‘what is this? We have never heard of murder! Blah.’
My new dream is to own a floor-length black velvet gown.
And now, the finished picture! Ehhhhh… I actually used the tablet a lot less with the shading/highlighting. I used it a lot for the hair, of course, but the clothes… just didn’t work with that. I need to find a way to change the settings so the harder I press doesn’t affect the width of the stroke, but how dark/light it is.
Parts I’m pleased with: Marteth’s dark purple coat; Gullac’s teal shirt; Bayn’s grey jacket. Coincidentally, they’re the ones you can see least of. : P Tam’s jacket is a close second, though. His shoulders came out half-way decent. I’m also happy with all the hair and Flairé’s face, which was worrying me. Doesn’t he look like his parents? X D
I realize that the ink lines only get in the way now. I think I will experiment in the future with not having hard lines at all. With the tablet, I can do that now!
I’m collecting Candy-cane shards in Guild Wars so I can get the Candy-cane daggers (for Gullac, when I make him) and the Peppermint Scythe (because it’s cool). I already have a Candy-cane spear. I wonder if these weapons break if you use them too much? I don’t think so. But I’m a little nervous about actually using them in battle.
Gullac: I’m not! (sproings around like a frog, brandishing his daggers and laughing insanely)
Dude, I haven’t gotten them yet. Give me another hour.
(sings and dances) I wuv my tablet, I wuv my tablet…
I’m using this picture as a tutorial to teach myself how to use it, and to relearn Photoshop as the version that came with it is similar to the one we have downstairs (Photoshop 5) but of course it’s different. So I will be shading and highlighting and making shiny over the next week or so. When I’m not playing Wii Sports Resort (that is a pretty darn good game, if I do say so). The tablet is very handy in that I don’t have to switch brushes to do the the tiny corners – I just let up on the pressure. It’s great! And of course it feels like drawing which is very comfortable. It’s a pretty cool device.
I’m not sure how I ended up colour co-ordinated with Flairé’s princely outfit. I think it’s because it’s a generally accepted fact that I look decent in black and red, and his outfit just happens to be black and red. Hmmmm. Oh, I just noticed that part of it is not the right colour (silly me), so I’ll fix that tomorrow. Esgalwen, too, is usually in red, but she also likes blue and green. …Marteth looks like his eyes are crossed. I better fix that. And maybe I’d better recolour Jalril’s tunic so it doesn’t look like part of his skin.
Y’know, the more I look at this picture, the more I like it. Is that bad?