Moving over the thread from the other site. Didn't have a lot of things on there, so it should be easy.
Hi guys. It's been a few years since I've drawn anything seriously, and now I have a DND group with a diverse cast of characters as inspiration. My first project is my half-elf hexblade. Here's a rough face concept with base colors laid down. Feel free to really rip into my art as I need to learn how to handle tough critiques as well as know where I'm weak.
I need to make the ears less pointy as I forgot I was a half-elf. Also, can't seem to quite get that spiky punk hair I want, but I'm sure it'll work itself out in iterations.
Working on the hair, trying to see if I can get it how I want it to be. Been playing around with the chalk brush and I really do like it. My facial proportions might be off, like maybe need to lower the nose just a touch or just redo the nose entirely.
Critiques are welcome.
Armor concept silhouettes.
Found a posture online (terrible, I know, but needed something quick). I like the asymmetrical spikes along the figure more; brings an interesting movement and balance to the overall figure. Think I'll focus on pointy elements throughout the armor since the character can be a bit abrasive lol.
silentheart00 it is really good ! love the unusual concept ! i like the crow blade !
No rest. Now it's Valentino's turn!
I think the shoulders are probably a bit narrow, but I'll take a look with fresh eyes later.
ssmurfmier1985 Thanks! Need to fix the roots a bit, but certainly coming together!
silentheart00 by the way the progress you made over time is impressive! Look at the piece at top of the sketchbook and your last finished works, you've improved your skills ten fold, wickedly awesome dude keep it up and you'll kick grad school arse 👊😃
ssmurfmier1985 Heh, thanks 😅 It certainly has been a journey, and there are definitely more things I can improve, but thanks to the support of you, @theluthier , the other instructors here and the community, I know I'm putting my best foot forward each day. This is all practice and build up for me to tackle grad school the best way I can.
Oh, yeesh, what happened the last few weeks?
I got caught up in other things, mainly a small health concern while pulling some extreme travelling. I chalked that up to being dehydrated and not eating much during all of that. I'm much better now, just shouldn't pull something that extreme in the future.
Now, time to get reacquainted with Mordecai/Valentino!
Well, after feeling demotivated last week, I really wanted to hit the ground running this week, but my tablet might've died. I say might because it's a Wacom Cintiq Companion and it's being detected by my desktop despite not powering on? I don't know what's up with that. I held down the power switch for a long period of time, and the only thing I get is one green LED status blip and it's dead after that. But I unplug the HDMI cable and my PC responds, so something is being output. Maybe if the battery dies, it'll reset itself? Sigh... I do have an old tablet I can use, but man, having a screen is super sweet.
I was thinking about getting back into oil paints, but not like this...
😢
silentheart00 I don´t really know much about cintiqs, but I heard that there are huge problems with tablets of every sorts (Wacom included) when a new Windows update rolls in... Maybe that´s the root of the problem and hopefully not your Cintiq ....
@fide Thanks for that possibility! I have tested my tablet when it is not connected to my PC, and it still gives the one little blip and nothing. 😢
Tablet Update:
I dug up an old tablet to use in the meantime. This thing is a technological dinosaur, but it'll have to do. After trying many times to get the drivers working (install the drivers first, then plug in the tablet) and then figuring out how to configure the tablet to only work on one monitor instead of two (and preventing my circles to become elongated horizontally), I can draw again. I'm also looking at just screen tablets and not a computer model in case mine is truly, honestly unable to recover. For now, I march forward.
This past week is just not my week. This month has been rather shaky.
We had a flood again. There have been occasional leaks, but this was a straight up flood by comparison. All hands were on deck, all items on the ground we were sorting through in preparation for moving were moved to higher ground, all available modes of removing water were implemented. Thankfully we caught it really early and there's minimal damage, but good grief, what a trying week.
In an effort to cheer myself up and get inspiration flowing again, I'm concepting a new DND character for future play. This one pulls from 5e, so I chose a new race to explore. I'm hoping this will help me get back in the swing of things and not feel so down.
Meet Kaeria, a tiefling bard.
Barely surviving in the forest on the outskirts of a town, Kaeria would use small tricks to distract people and steal what she needed before slipping away back to the forest. During one of her distractions, she caught the eye of a travelling drow bard, who followed her back to her hideout and offered to take her under the drow's wing. Together, they gained notoriety as the Dark Sisters, performing the darker stories other troupes won't touch, as well as stories from their cultures. Any extra money past the Dark Sisters' needs was given to the less fortunate. Even small acts of kindness, such as giving away extra food, was second nature to the drow bard. Inspired, Kaeria chose to follow in her footsteps in her own way and adopted the Virtue Name of Benevolent, or Bene.
One day, she woke to a note in her tent of her teacher needing to leave for an unknown reason, leaving her pet pseudodragon in her care, Imruil. "Imruil always did like you best." Everything that wasn't Kaeria's was taken, save for a few of the drow's special trinkets.
Here's the pose I'm thinking of developing. It's dynamic, I think there are interesting flow lines, and it's something I've never done before: action pose. Could be a snapshot of one of her performances or something.
Well, uh, as an aside to my aside, I made a small portrait of "Bene" Kaeria while playing a one shot with some people from my cohort. The one shot was really fun. Good Dungeon Master, good player characters, lots of silliness ensued. My favorite part of the night was when we were battling some enemies in a small room (instigated by our Warforged wizard), we closed the doors to the room of enemies and let the summoned tentacles of a monster in magical darkness summoned by our Changeling warlock just wreak havoc to them. We were standing out in the hallway when we surprise attacked the enemies in the room, if that helps clear anything up. Then I got a natural 20 on taking one of my costumes and tying it around the door handles into a knot. Super silly night. I'm looking forward to playing with them again.
