More brush settings practice – Trahearne sketch from last night.
Wider view. The full drawing extends to about the bottom of the cropped arm. I like how the full arm looks, but the composition as a whole looks better cropped this way – at least, for now.
Slightly earlier version in the full post:
Trahearne from Guild Wars 2!
I have this habit of occasionally going through my files, plucking an incomplete drawing or warm-up “sketchpage” from a while ago, and painting it over as either a warmup or practice and seeing what happens. Here’s one I was drawing last night, touched-up a bit this morning as a warm-up.
When drawing the paintover, the main thing I was trying out here was another different nib (I tried going back to a felt nib again, which I haven’t used since last year or so), and also some brush settings I was messing around with.
The sketch for this one was originally drawn in September of last year, and this is how it looked when I opened it last night:
Seeing the sketch again made me realize my sketching was much messier last year. It’s still messy now, but the above is much more “scraggly” than how I sketch now (at least, I hope so). I do still like some things about the color palette for the original sketch here, though.
The wider sketchpage is in the full post – it shows two versions of the sketch at earlier stages.
Happy Halloween! What better way to celebrate than with some Guild Wars 2-themed artwork?
I was feeling sentimental over one of my favorite NPC’s in Guild Wars 2, and was inspired to sketch him a few times this month. Above is a warm-up sketch from the 30th. In addition to a warm-up practice, there were a few other things I was practicing in this one. One was a new nib I wanted to try again (the Wacom “brush” nib), and I’ve also been meaning to test if I can still videocapture simple drawings with my current setup, or if it’d be too laggy.
The test seems to have worked! Here’s the timlapse process below (condensed down to 25 secs):
I like how this nib uses less brush pressure when I use it. I used to use the felt nibs, and switched to the default plastic nib around a year ago. I used to prefer that friction-feel, but after doing more lineart, I seem to prefer less friction now. The brush nib is even softer, and it felt natural drawing with it here.
Below is an earlier sketch from this month, also of “Bloody Prince Thorn,” or “Edrick Thorn”:
Like the drawing at the top of this post, this is another construction-drawing-from-imagination practice. I’ve probably mentioned it elsewhere on this sketchblog, about how when I’m aimless sketching, I often default to unflattering angles of faces. I think my mind takes it up as some masochistic challenge.
From this past Thursday, when I felt like warming up with some 2d animation-sketching. It’s Trahearne!
Realized I drew Corveil more than once this week for some warm-ups – so, here they are!
First is a line drawing from Wednesday. There are a few things I’ve been meaning to explore updating in Corveil’s design – mainly his hair and eye color. He originally had dark brown hair and blue eyes, and for a while I’ve been drawing him with either dark or light brown hair, and amber eyes. The amber eyes have stuck around for a while because I have a lore reason for him having them, but I’ve been thinking of changing them to either yellow-green or blue-green for various reasons. This one shows yellow-green.
I rather like this sketch, I wouldn’t mind cleaning this one up to something more presentable sometime.
This is practice warm-up I’ve been fiddling with this week. Tried the blue-green eyes here.
The other thing I felt like practicing with this one was jumping into painting instead of focusing more on the lines first. That’s how I used to draw more, before “rediscovering” how I apparently do enjoy drawing with lines over the past year or two, haha. But sometimes I like to draw with this other method too, and see what results. I started this one on Tuesday, and added more to it this morning as today’s warm-up.
It’s still an enjoyable method to me, but it takes me longer to arrive where I want to (compared with figuring out some of the construction with lines earlier on), and it lacks the personality I think better comes through when I start with a line sketch now.
Even just the expression, his intended personality shows much more clearly in the first sketch at the top of this post, compared with the painting practice. These are both also construction drawing from imagination practices.
Also, some site updates! It’s not enough to warrant a full “site updates” post, but I wanted to jot it down somewhere for myself.
It’s mainly typography-related:
One of the bonus illustrations from The Harbinger’s Path print version! Now that the books have been in the hands of people for a while, I figured enough time has passed to begin showing some of the bonus artwork drawn for them.
This artwork was originally started several years ago! The version I first posted online was in 2022, and I’ll add that one later in the full post. I have a bit of an irreverent story to go along with it.
But first, some thoughts! One of the most unexpected things about putting together Harbinger’s print version is how it resulted in my finishing several longstanding works-in-progress I’ve had laying around me over the years. Including this one! I first drew and shared the sketch for this way back in 2022 – during GW2’s 10th Anniversary, after all! – and I had always planned on finishing it. I think I fiddled around with it a handful of times afterward, but as of early this year (2026), it remained unfinished.
As I was formatting Harbinger’s print book, I was inspired to see if I could put together a bonus section of some of the collected Trahearne & Malyck artwork I’d drawn over the years. I especially found myself desiring to finish some specific WIP’s – several which I thought had potential, but which remained unfinished. They remained unfinished for various reasons. Some due to time, and others, because I had grown attached to the sketch, and each time I tried furthering a few of these pieces, I thought they strayed further from what appealed to me about them in the sketch.
But I always wanted to finish these pieces! And the book was the perfect opportunity to psychologically force myself to finally sit down, make those drawing decisions, and draw them. This differs from person to person, but it’s why for me personally, I seem to work well with deadlines. Whether self-imposed or external. It manifests a type of hyper-focused energy I really dig. I guess it’s one way of forcing yourself into “the zone.”
Anyway! Even though there is a certain feeling I slightly prefer in the sketch, I’m very happy I can finally call this drawing “finished.” While some parts remain off – partially due to the time constraint, and partially because I think I’ve learned more about pose/anatomy construction since finishing this one – I think parts of it are still improved from the sketch. Overall, the final version worked well in the print book’s layout – which was the main purpose for finishing this piece. Much more than if I had used the earlier sketch.
And now, after drawing it, I think I would be better equipped to tackle future drawings incorporating what I like about both the final and the sketch. Which I don’t think I would have learned if I didn’t finish drawings like these.
Now for the earlier version below, along with the irreverent bits: