Recent Sketches + Vaknaa Design Concepts

Happy Thanksgiving! We are likely cooking up a storm in the kitchen right now, but let’s cross-celebrate with a compilation post with a few recent sketches.

Above is a profile sketch practice of Corveil. I was mainly imagining a slightly different shape for the tip and bridge of his nose. Also, his hair was originally toned a bluer hue, but became more grey as the painting progressed. I think I still slightly prefer the bluer tone, but the more monochrome look seems fun to potentially explore.

I do have a story-based reason for tinting his hair more toward blue (it’s probably not too difficult to guess), but still experimenting to see if I like where it goes visually.

This was an Arquel practice painting that was really fun to draw. It didn’t quite turn out the way I was imagining, but it’s closer than past attempts of a similar idea I’ve had for him.

I’ve been experimenting more with Vaknaa’s design, and redesigning her to be slightly more practical. Oh, why don’t I post the very rough sketch sheet I made for her a while back: Main changes are making the head crest feathers more balanced proportionally, reducing their overall size. Same with the horns, and also adjusting their angle to not compete with the crest feathers. I also tried out a few different horn shapes, and this was the one I liked best so far. The most recent painting above deviates from the ref sheet, because I’m still continually adjusting her design to see which works best.

I’ll post a few of the other thumbnail concepts below:

I did an array of sketches, and these were the ones I narrowed them down to.

Here’s the full page of concepts. Not compiled neatly, because I wasn’t intending to show these. But since it’s my blog, I figure why not! My idea for Vaknaa that I’ve been toying with is that I want her & her species to have crests of head feathers, ideally visually identifiable as “feather crests” instead of “head wings.”

I was browsing some old files a few days ago, and nearly forgot that in her very old design, she had outright head wings. Which is a very cool and fun design feature that I always love seeing on characters, but I wanted to see if I could come up with with something that is still distinctly feathery, but more evocative of the crests you see on real birds. I was curious to see if I might be able to come up with a design like this that worked well with the humanoid skull shape.

It’s still an ongoing process that I don’t think completely works yet, but I think I’m getting closer to something I like for her!

Close-up of the painting from further up in the post.

Guild Wars 2 Charr Commission Process: Salorast

Guild Wars 2 Charr Commission for Salorast

Process blog post for a Guild Wars 2 Charr commission for Salorast!

Early sketch idea.
Sketch revisions & blocking-in the major forms.
In-progress crop from during the painting stages of the commission.
The finished painting.

Thanks again to Salorast for commissioning me!

Guild Wars 2 Commission Process: Bou & Dali

Process post for a recent Guild Wars 2 commission completed over the summer! This piece features Bou & Dali’s GW2 norn characters.

Initial thumbnail composition sketches.

I began by sending Bou & Dali several sketch compositions, based upon their initial description & character references sent to me 

Sketch variations/revisions after receiving client feedback.

One of the rounds of sketch revisions upon hearing client feedback.

The sketch before starting the painting process next.

I cleaned-up the sketch a bit more, before sending it to the client for approval before beginning the “painting” stage of the commission process.

In-progress step during the painting process.

Here’s an in-progress image from during the painting process.

In-progress close-up of the Herald norn character.
In-progress close-up of the Druid norn character.
The finished piece.

Thanks again to Bou & Dali for commissioning me!

Dust on the Moon Art Compilation


A compilation post of all my artwork for Dust on the Moon. This is basically the project name for my original characters and the world they inhabit.


Vaknaa | Arquel | Corveil Liermire | Aurelle | Enoki | Exodus

Corveil & Arquel | Duskbirds | Sketches & Misc.


Vaknaa

“Everyone should strive to be a hero.”


Arquel

“He wandered the mire until I found him.”


Corveil Liermire

“Let’s not break this illusion.”


Aurelle

“When light becomes too bright, it blinds.”


Kurt Landreth

“And then sometimes, I cease to care at all.”


Enoki

“I shine, not burn.”

 


Exodus

“A mirage under the moon.”

 


Duskbirds

“What curiously marvelous creatures.”


Sketches & Misc.


Guild Wars 2 Art Compilation


Similar to the Trahearne & Malyck compilation post, I thought it might be fun to compile a post to house the Guild Wars 2 artwork I’ve made over the years. Like the previous post, this will be kept updated. Hopefully this might become a little archive that’s easy to browse.


GW2 Commissions | Charr | Tengu | Sylvari | Everyone Else | Sketches

Trahearne & Malyck


GW2 Commissions


Charr

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Tengu

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Sylvari

If you’d like to view only my Trahearne & Malyck art, I’ve organized them on their own page.

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Everyone Else

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Sketches

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