Month: January 2020

Jan 2020 Wrap Up – Spring Goddesses & Plans for 2020

Wow did January fly by or is it just me?  I’ve been managing a lot of stressful situations this month, including my husband launching a deer into the stratosphere with his car (he is thankfully uninjured, but the deer was not) and many production woes involving my pins.  So that’s meant a new car payment for us and dreaded Kickstarter production delays!  

I’m especially grateful to my Patrons who have stayed with me through the holidays, as I know things can be tight during the holiday rush.  Welcome to the new folks who’ve hopped on board this month when many are still recovering from the holiday expenses!  The support is definitely helping us during the extra stress this month.  For those who had to leave, I still appreciate your support during the time you were here and totally understand that life happens (Boy howdy does it. Hello, teleporting deer!).

I’m grateful that all the Kickstarter Backers have been so understanding of delays thus far as well!  I’d much rather the factory workers be safe during the coronavirus outbreak, as my pins are not worth more than people’s lives!  I’ve written an update about how this situation affects shipping and safety here for the curious.

Meanwhile, I’m marching ever onwards and have started designing the Goddesses of Spring pins!  There’ll be a Secret Sketchbook entry showing off the creative process behind these designs within the next week or so.

I’m starting to see the finish line that’s coming after a year straight of Kickstarter projects and that feels GREAT!  I love how successful these campaigns have been, but I’d be lying if I said I weren’t also pretty exhausted from doing them!  I’ve learned exactly what my tolerance is for stress and project management and plan to never do this many in a row ever again (hopefully not famous last words!).

I’ve started to ponder what’s next after the Birthstone Goddesses wrap up, which could be a whole blog entry on its own!  For now, I’m focusing on finishing the Birthstone Goddesses  pins and the wall calendar in 2020 and then we shall see what happens at that point!

I can tell after 5 years of working on this endeavor, my muse is starting to meander with Witcher OCs and other distractions and that’s a clear sign to me that I may need to temporarily switch gears when I get to a good stopping point.  But to what?  I have many thoughts which I will save for a later entry once I’ve wrapped up my current queue!

New Rewards Added in January

Posts You May Have Missed In January

I’m keen to see what amazing beginnings and endings happen in 2020!  Thanks for being along for the ride.

♥ Ang

Exalted Mini Comic WiPs

It’s been an anxiety-filled month with everything happening in the US this month and other personal challenges I’ll post about later once I have all the details.  For now, I wanted to at least share some progress shots of the mini comic I’ve been working on for the Exalted Art Challenge.

This has been a fun challenge to try in Clip Studio Paint for the first time.  I knew this program was created for manga artists, but everything about it is so much more efficient for this purpose than photoshop, especially the panel tools.  I really love its touch gestures for making my life easier as well!

This mini comic was created for the Exalted Art Challenge‘s topic “Favorite Stunt”, or in RPG terms, favorite cool moment of roleplaying!  For this particular campaign, my favorite moment happened when our band of weary Solar warriors went up against the Walker in Darkness, an extremely powerful Deathlord who had invaded our town.  My gal Kalara decided to initiate combat in a pretty badass way I had fun with!

Storyboard Sketches

My comics begin as loose sketches that give an idea of where the dialogue and main figures will be.

Ink and Screentone Style Tests

Next came figuring out how to ink and style the pages.  I opted for a style inspired by the energetic line work of one of my favorite manga, Blade of the Immortal by Hiroaki Samura.  I enjoy the graceful energy of the lines and the way the screentone portrays the local color of the elements (darker skin vs lighter clothing, etc).

Here’s a peek at our entire party of Kalara’s Solar band!  From left to right we have:

Cathak Demiato, Dawn Caste, who rose through the Dynast ranks as a decorated warrior, only to Exalt after discovering the war crimes her family was committing.  

Night Locust, Night Caste, a child slave turned assassin who Exalted when they tried to ‘test’ him by having him kill his young best friend.  He’s the prankster-sage of the group.  

Kalara Vadras (my character), Eclipse Caste, whom most of you know, but if you don’t, she’s an emancipated slave turned Guild reformer who has Major Beef with the Guild after they murdered her surrogate dad and framed her for it. 

Chaos Divide, Zenith Caste, raised by a wandering Air Aspect and Immaculate monk after his family was killed by fairfolk.  He bakes really good cookies!  He’s also the one who gave Kalara the most headaches because he never hesitates.  

Xesa, Twilight Caste, a wandering fortune teller who told the fortune of the wrong person and ended up Exalting when they hunted her down.

This comic has come along slowly, but surely.  It’s been a fun experiment to get to know Clip Studio Paint and to stretch my legs, creatively, before I return to the final phase of my Birthstone Goddesses project.

Are you enjoying the Exalted material thus far?  I’m curious to gauge interest here!

Next, I hope to have the finalized pages to show to wrap up this ‘finale’ for the Exalted Art Challenge.

New Art! The Cobra Witcher of Ofir

And now for something completely different – my first painting of 2020!  Seeing The Witcher adapted into a tv series on Netflix re-ignited my old love for this fantasy world, so I thought I’d take a break with my own fan homage.  I couldn’t resist hopping on the Witcher OC bandwagon with a Witcher concept of my own – a Witcher of Ofir!

Ofir is a country south of Nilfgaard consisting of numerous desert tribes and kingdoms united under a Malliq.  It is a land of great cities said to be even more grand than those of Nilfgaard.  

This gal is from the Ofieri School of the Cobra (a school of my own creation), who train Witchers in alchemy, oils, and poisons made to fight monsters.  

I don’t have a name for this gal yet, as she was very much a spur of the moment inspiration! I get the sense that she’s:

  • Extremely sarcastic
  • Casually talks about horrible things
  • Very picky about what poisons go into her body

Comment with your suggestions!

The Witchers of Ofir

DISCLAIMER! This is a fan concept for how Witchers might operate in Ofir.  It is not canon and I have not read all of the novels yet, just the first three, so there may be other obscure lore of Ofir I might have missed.

The Witchers of Ofir are not feared as their counterparts in the Northern Realms, but are revered as experts.  However, royal decree states that only a certain number of Witchers may exist at any one time, the Malliq’s subtle population control of these powerful beings.  When one falls, another is chosen from among volunteers to take their place.  

Witchers of Ofir undergo their own unique Trial of the Grasses which is said to be the origin of the techniques used in the Northern Realms and lauded to be superior, resulting in more powerful mutations with less side effects and lethality to the subjects of the Trial.

Witcher Gear

Ofieri Witchers also do not use medallions to detect magic, but rather sense it through the markings tattooed on their faces, which also identify their School of origin.  Created with infused dyes, these tattoos grow warm and tingle in the presence of magic and are iridescent in appearance.

Ofir is the homeland of masterful Runewright mages who have perfected the technique of enhancing the properties of blades with runic symbols.  The Witchers of Ofir benefit from this talent, each individual granted a unique weapon imbued with runes upon their initiation and survival of the Trial of the Grasses.  

Work-in-Progress Pics

I created this image in Photoshop with an experimental method of using multiple adjustment layers and effects.  I’ll be uploading a wallpaper pack featuring this gal for all of my Patrons, plus a PSD for my $5 and up Patrons to study and enjoy!

References for Ofir from the world of The Witcher. Including the Witcher comic “Of Flesh and Flame”, the Witcher 3 video game, and excellent swordcraft of Kaer Morhen Forge.

Exploratory sketching. I dropped the hood so she would read less like an Assassin’s Creed character.

Trying out different hairstyles.  I chose the style she ended up with since it reminded me of the cowl of a cobra, which is symbolic of her school.  I imagine she could also use the silver hair thong as a garrote in a pinch as well! 

Final line art.

Completed color flats.

A collage of all the details I spent entirely too long on.

I’ve been missing doing more traditional dark fantasy work, so this was a nice break from my usual art mode.

And now back to our regularly scheduled program of whimsical Art Nouveau ladies!  I hope you enjoyed this brief diversion into my geek love.

♥ Ang