It’s been a tough journey so far with house-hunting. The market is crazy right now and we’re still on the hunt! And so I’ve been channeling my woes into various comfort projects, mainly my D&D and Exalted TTRPG characters.
D&D Doodles
Ever since The Unmerry Band‘s adventures in the Black Pits wrapped up, I’ve been meaning to mine our campaign for practice, starting with a level progression chart of all our characters showing how their armor and wardrobe evolved over time. This will feature our characters from their wee fragile Level 0 forms all the way up to Level 8 where our story ended (for now).
(The Unmerry Band lineup!)
I started off with the character I played in the campaign, Rabanne, a Fire Genasi Barbarian with a big heart and a big hammer! I had some excellent pose help from Jookpubstock that acted as a base for her hammer pose. Rather than stick with the Vox Machina inspired style of the party banner, I’ve returned to my more default semi-realistic style which is the one I want to nurture should I ever submit a portfolio to Wizards of the Coast. Sketched in Procreate on the ipad with the Peppermint pencil brush in the Sketching category.
Rabs has been bulked up a bit for this image, as I wanted to accentuate her tall and imposing figure more than her initial rendering. The pose on the left is going to be the base ‘paper doll’ pose I’ll be repeating for Levels 1 – 8, while the gesture sketches on the right represent an exploration of her younger level 0 self where she was training in secret as a gangly teen in the harem.
PROTIP! The rectangle under her feet helps me to ground the figure and keep the perspective plane in check, as it’s easy to lose track at what angle the feet are supposed to be at if you don’t ground the figure somehow.
The rest of the characters will get this treatment too and will most likely follow the poses of the party banner, with the exception of Calumny (the Tiefling), because booty out does not make a good pose for showing off most clothing, though usually I wouldn’t have Cal any other way!
I also want to shine a light on the art that inspired me to do this. How cool is this classic party line-up from Frida Bergholtz? I hope mine will come out this fantastic!
Kalara’s Sigil
My gal, Kalara, has popped up on here a LOT lately. She’s definitely a comfort to my muse with her story of overcoming adversity and working towards goodness in the world! I’ve been working on and off on a novel featuring the events of her life from our Exalted RPG campaign for years now. I’ve been pushing for a return to this endeavor while I have this nexus of ‘in-between projects till the move’ and so it occurred to me to finally put an official ‘label’ on her project.
It was time to make a brand guide and a logo!
Not every project needs this, mind, but I wanted to do this for The Uncrucified since I have larger plans for its future, including art packs and Storytellers Vault resources for players inspired by her story. And thus, The Uncrucified needs a logo so I can elegantly tie all these parts together!
It also works so beautifully because this symbol will serve as Kalara’s in-world mark of her Guild as well. I’ve shared a deeper look at this story’s brand guide in my Patreon’s Discord server, for those who might be curious.
For now, enjoy the many iterations I made as I attempted to channel Kalara’s themes of the Eclipse Caste mark (the glowing symbol that represents her magical abilities), the phoenix feather which represents her resilience, and the flame which represents her cultural identity and rebellious personality.
For me, logo design is a bit like obsessively writing all over your walls going slowly insane until the secret verse is revealed. I don’t enjoy it much, but I wanted to design this one, myself, and so I was happy when I finally arrived at something that felt close to the ‘truth’! More often I know what I don’t want than what I do when designing logos, and so the process is more about exploration and elimination.
And here we have the 3 semi-finalists!
I’ve already chosen a final, but I’d be curious which one resonates most with you all! It’s always fascinating to see what shapes others interpret in these mutable symbols.
That’s all I have for today! It’s been a slow month as we tour houses as often as we can and try to plan these important next steps. I hope you all don’t mind my randomnness here! I’m always worried it makes this a very confusing Patreon to be at hah.
Till next time!
♥ Ang
