True Colors

Evie's character, Van.  This get-up is fancier than what he's used to, but I've always wanted to draw him in cool plate armor...and today I was missing him.

I really liked what Glen Keane (character designer for Rapunzel in Disney's Tangled) said about Rapunzel's hair being a physical manifestation of her creativity that just had to escape.  Van's red cape is like that here. It represents the core of his being: his nobility, heroism and chivalry.  But to me, red is also a very raw color, the color of wounds that haven't healed.  You think all that armor can make you invulnerable, but on the inside, you're bleeding...

For Friends

I finished these two sketches last week when I did the troll pic, but I wanted to wait until their recipients got them in the mail before I posted them.  They arrived safe and sound, so here they are!

First, for my sister LC:

This is her character Demiko, the de facto leader of the commoner rebellion in her story project Echelons. His derpy expression was an accident, but it suits his personality. It makes me think of this face: LOL!

And second, this pic for my kindred spirit, Brit:

This is Sybil, an original character she uses on a roleplaying board called Shadowside.

I don't usually shade my sketches like this, but I was inspired by the work of Jessica Barnes, otherwise known as bluessence.  I bought her 2011 sketch book collection, and in it she included a picture of Vahaadi for me!  He looks so pretty in her style. o_o Vahaadi by bluessence. 

I like her style, and it was fun to experiment with, but I want to be careful to not become stuck on it.  It's super pretty and detailed but I think the style lacks motion and life. Everyone looks like they're posing for a picture. XD I already have a bad habit of drawing that way, I need to ensure I keep motion in my work!

Here are some other drawings I have sent to Britney and LC.  These are from last year.

This is Brit's character Kestrel.  Britney gave me pointers and I came up with her design.  Her motifs are shiny trinkets, culture-clash, ribbons, feathers and bubbles. I photoshopped this one a bit, because the gray tones were driving me batty.  I like this pic, so I'd like to do something better with it sometime, but for now this is as much effort as I want to put into it.

Here's the first attempt I made at drawing Kess...

Please ignore her lame right arm, I couldn't figure out the posing for it so I resorted to the shameful "hide it behind her back" technique. x_X

This is a concept sketch for Kestrel's dragon transformation:

This is slightly smaller than actual-size.  Kess is a widdle tiny dwagon.

Enough Kess-spam; here are the pics I sent LC!

This is Rue, the waifish lone survivor of a terrible and mysterious plague that wiped out an entire generation of her colony.  She is from Ruin of Elderith, another story project of LC's that she's letting me contribute to!

And last...

 This is Fairy, also from Ruin of Elderith.  I love her nails. *w*

I have tons more sketches like these that I've sent to Evie, about 13 pages worth or so.  Maybe I'll post those sometime, but not right nowwwww. <3 Enjoy!