It’s the attack of the red-headed elves! This is Elkyari, otherwise known as Cardinal (as in the red crested bird). You may or may not remember him from this page in the Flairé comic. So here he is in his ninja catsuit thing. He is actually quite a good soldier and captain, too, and has become rather an influential character, although you haven’t seen much of him – yet!
I’m not sure if that’s his natural colour. He likes it, though.
Here we go again! I wasn’t happy with Firestorm at all, yesterday, so I tried again using some different methods. I based this one more directly off the sketch I made during Keyboard Lit class (March 14). Casual dress this time! And, casual Northern dress, because Griffonlanders almost always wear white robes, not shirts with buttons. : P He must be visiting. Anyway, no fur this time, but the rest of him is much better. The feathers in the background are supposed to be as if from Sunspot’s wings. But the purple is just there for contrast… no purple on Sunspot!
The Wacom tablet is the greatest creation for the computer EVER.
Heeheehee, I just played Guild Wars with Zeb and Tai. It’s like meeting celebrities! XD Anyway, we played through lots of missions, starting with the one my brother and I were stuck on. We saw a dragon! It’s very cool to play with people who are not in the same room. : ) So we are a little closer to the end of the game.
Commander Firestorm, the General of the Griffonland and first of Queen Yoia’s Griffon Knights. Not pictured: his buddy Sunspot. Firestorm is simultaneously wild-hearted and cool and collected, making him an ideal choice to keep the Griffon Knights in hand and ready to be unleashed. He (obviously) likes putting things in his hair, but doesn’t worry too much about his appearance otherwise, as long as he is sharp and ready for anything. He fusses more over Sunspot, making sure his griffon buddy is well groomed and fed, and making him wear crazy headdresses in festivals, which Sunspot entirely enjoys.
Well… I’m not really happy with this picture. About all I am happy with is the feathers and the fur. For the fur… this great tutorial helped me out a lot. It’s kind of like drawing flowers! Except then you make them hairy! …That sounded really weird. Anyway. His hair started out promisingly but then it kind of turned into that. His braid should be looser. Maybe I shouldn’t have started with anime-style hair. Yeah. That would do it. Also I fussed over his eyes way more than eyes should be fussed over in a 400×400 quickpaint, and they still look weird. But they’re better than when I started… I started with them too small. : P
At last, it is done. Mostly. I didn’t do anything special with the lighting or adding textures, but I may rethink that. Now that I’ve been zoomed in on her face for so long it doesn’t look right; there are proportions off. I did tweak the placement of her left eye, and that’s about all I can do for now without entirely redrawing it. Which I could do too. But… I wanted to try to make the existing lineart work if I could.
Or you could say I’m lazy. 😛
Mmkay! I’m going to take a nap. I stayed up too late last night watching a friend show me LotROnline, and it looks awesome. I can live with all the made-up stuff, because Glorfindel is actually blonde, and the hobbits are adorable, and the world is really huge and really really beautifully done. As my friend said, they knew they were creating the game for LotR nerds, so it had to be good or else. : )
Hi! Thought you might like to see this intermediate stage of one colouring of this picture. The hair is almost done; just two more layers. But it’s the weird wedge shapes that my colouring formed that look kind of cool… Yeah, I don’t really know what I’m doing, that’s why I’m all like “HEI GUIZ”
I’m also going to colour this with coloured markers (I’ve made several photocopies, and even this one is not the original) and at least one in Photoshop.
Okay! I’m off to finish it!
EDIT: Hum. The finished grey-scale looks okay. The hair maybe looks kinda weird, because I was trying a thing and it didn’t work the way I expected it to. Then I did a really quick one in bright colours (yay Sharpies! Ooh it’s been so long since I used them – wish I had better colours) and… just… whatever. The colour blender that I bought, the thing that I specifically drew this to test out, doesn’t quite work the way I expected it to. Maybe I’m using it wrong. Oh well. Off to investigate.
Also I will do a Photoshop version of this, because this lineart is too good to waste. : D
Getting started on my art list. This is in first pencil and then ink, because I’m going to colour it with markers. As you can see I am trying to do ‘different line weights’. It’s a new thing for me. How am I doing? And the hair is a different kind, based vaguely on the work of this artist: linky! Obviously I wasn’t actually using it as a reference but I think what I did works well in the picture. I don’t know. Anyway, Muila looks like she’s all dressed up for action. She is an action girl, you know, but she pretends not to be. She pretends really well. Often the people at the Unicornland court forget that she can kick most of their butts in time for dinner. I had fun designing the armour, too.
Colour comes later!
Hahaha, I just thought about the first time I drew Muila. It was not nearly as good as this one! Let’s hope I keep improving over the next decade!
…I keep looking at this and it doesn’t seem possible that I drew it. I just don’t draw that good! …I guess I get lucky!
I was going to draw someone else, a new character, but it turned out looking like Menad, so I kept drawing him as Menad. Somewhat better than last time, neh? And look, I tried doing a little bit of fanciness on his shirt. I lit him from below because it looks cool. Let me remind you, he isn’t bad. Just moody and emo and somewhat mixed up.
I’m feeling lyrical, so I think I’ll update his profile.
Happy Canada Day! Because Yllamse was interested in the other picture of Yoia, here is the same lady from the front. …I should have added more detail to her belts.
I cannot shade white cloth using the method I’ve been using. This could be a problem for when I do other Griffonlanders, so I had better change it.
I’ve started following a webcomic called One Question! It’s pretty cool! (Oooh, pretty wings, and at a believable size, too! I think Flairé’s envious! XD )
TOUR DE FRANCE TOMORROW WHEEEEEEEEE
GETTING UP AT 5:00 AM TO WATCH IT
Hmph. Have just finished this picture and already I’m not too happy with it. Oh well. Hey, it’s a dark-skinned kalla! She’s rather pretty, isn’t she? She is Yoia, the Queen of the elves who live in the Griffonland. She’s very strong, both physically and in temperament, and is the matriarch of her people. Together with her partner, Swiftgold (not shown), she makes sure that everyone more or less gets along peaceably. Even if she has to crack some heads. She’s married to the long-suffering Nu, and they have a bunch of children. I’m not sure how many. And those children have children, and some of those have children too. Griffonland kalmaei marry and have kids a lot.
Yes, I am aware that there is something funny about her right leg. : P
Note: If you don’t know, my elves have an odd quality to their skin – it is not a fixed colour. It is a fixed tone, certainly, so some are pinkish and some are more yellowish. But Yoia is darkskinned because she spends her whole life in the steady southern sun. If she lived in the north, like Zela, she would have pale skin too. And if Zela lived in the south, she would have dark skin. Interesting, huh? I have no idea how realistic this is, but with my people, it happens. : )
More stuff: The Griffonlanders primarily wear white. It doesn’t absorb heat. I’m not sure whether the jewellery works, though. The armband might be a bit much. I mean, it does kind of restrict her bicep…
