Tag: Sketchbook

May Sketch A Day Week 3 – Tieflings Galore!

This week, my muse followed my Dungeons & Dragons character, Anko, down the inspiration rabbithole this time!  I have a lot of behind-the-scenes deadline to meet this week, which meant an ‘easy’ week where I didn’t have to think too much, just have pure fun exploring this character who’s already fairly established in my brain.

It’s felt good to define Anko even more thoroughly, since I’ve been playing her for years now!  She’s had a really satisfying arc from being a timid young Tiefling girl to blossoming into a fully capable mage. She deserved more art than she’s gotten from me, honestly!

Day 14

This week’s journey began with gesture sketches and trying to discover what pose worked best for showing off Anko’s small demure horns for a formal concept chart.  I needed an angle that would show enough dimension in the spirals so that I could properly show off any danglies and decorations and ended up with a classical head turn.

My first horn decoration ideas were simple bejeweled tips and a studded cloth wrap inspired by how sacred cows are adorend in India.  Inspiration leads you to unexpected places sometimes!

Day 15

Some days are slower than others when you’re tired, but I managed a single variation with lots of braids and dainty filigree horn caps!  I love the way the braids wrapping around give a more elegant transition between hair and horn.

Day 16

I explored two concepts in mind, including flower garlands around the horns and gold-dusted or painted horns.  I was surprised how many colors this character looks good in and how much I loved the flowers!  They were my favorite look until the next set came along.  Even if I don’t go with them, I think if I ever have a need to depict Anko in a marriage or spring ceremony that the flowers would be perfect!

Day 17

A productive few days! I honestly thought I was done with concepts, but then I got the idea to combine my previous day’s concepts into a new variations, plus try the cloth wraps, but with chain taking the shape of the wraps.  I also loved the long elegant shapes of the dangling flowers I found while reference hunting and had to try them on horns!

Day 18

I needed another easy day and laying in flat colors on Anko’s dice arrangement from last week obliged!  Color brings all the golden goodness of baked goods to life, doesn’t it?

Day 20

After all this concepting, I wanted to work up one of my fave designs into a more fleshed out sketch!  The result is this lovely little portrait which was also great gesture and anatomy practice.  I had a little help from Senshistock with the pose as well!  Highly recommend her awesome stock for idea-gathering.

Concept Compilation

I’m not sure I made it any easier for myself to choose a formal look for Anko because they all have something I like about them!  Which ones did you guys like best?

Did you draw anything for May Sketch A Day this week? Share your favorite in comments so I can see and enjoy it too!  Or if not, let me know which of my sketches you enjoyed best.

More soon!  I’ve been working on a collection of enamel pin design sketches I’m so excited to share once I have them in a more finished spot!

– Ang

May Sketch A Day – Week 2: D&D, Tangled, & Harse!

See week 1’s collection here!

What a weird combination May Sketch A Day week 2 has been!  The week started out strong with another portrait of Khalara exploring her glowing silk moth dress concept.

And then my muse went bonkers with my D&D Tiefling and randomness!  But hey that’s half the fun with this event.  Enjoy the randomness!

Day 6 – Mothglow Portrait

This ended up becoming a little more than a sketch, but I was obligated as soon as I created that mothglow dress design from last week to work it up on the character!

Khalara continues to evolve from her Exalted look and is starting to look more like her own character now, though I’m still giving a nod to the original character’s flaming hair with her henna-dyed tips. 

Kalara had a hand scar while this Khalara has dyed hands to cover stains from her life as a slave. It’s been really intriguing to translate this character to my own story world and preserve what I like about her RPG concept!

I played around with the idea that the silk also has iridescent properties in normal lighting. I may have to work this one up to final sometime, as I really enjoy this concept for a painting! She’s come so far since my first sketch of her last week.

Day 7 – Adira

I took a totally indulgent day to draw some fan art of Adira from the Tangled animated series. The first time I saw this hulking, badass, cocky woman and her amazing character design, I just KNEW I had to draw her!

May Sketch A Day was the perfect excuse to finally draw her after many instances of ‘dang she’s cool’ when I saw her in the show.

Sidenote, this was also the first time I noticed the character wore mismatched earrings, something I never noticed until I was dissecting her character design in order to draw her!

Day 8 – 10 – Anko Head Variations

After playing my Tiefling Warlock Anko for the past few years, it was about time I decided what her horns looked like under her hair buns!  For those who haven’t met my D&D character yet, she’s a young Tiefling from a ghetto who grew up in her family’s bakery.  She ends up adventuring and learning about a legacy of dark magic she never knew of as a Warlock.

She ended up with cute little ‘cinnamon roll’ style horns which seem to fit her themes and the shape of her hair buns.  The shorter straighter horns are also quite nice. Stashing them for later!

Day 11 – Harse

This is what happens when I try to quickly draw a horse from memory. Anatomy from Hell and a horn because I only ever learned to draw horses so I could draw unicorns!

I can’t look at how hilariously bad this is without laughing so hard, I cry. May Harse bring you a laugh today instead of nightmares!

 Day 12 – Anko’s Dice

I was inspired by the beautiful dice arrangements of SweetDelilahs to make a similar one for my Tiefling gal, Anko!  She loves baking and the dark arts (but let’s hope she doesn’t mix up food with her spell components!)

How was your week?  Are any of you taking on a May art challenge?  Share your favorite one in the comments!  Or if not, which sketch of mine did you enjoy the most from this week?

If you’re on Discord and are one of my Patrons, you can see these sketches a day before I post them by connecting your Discord to Patreon!  You can see how to do that here.

Can’t wait to see what next week brings for May Sketch A Day and share more progress on the enamel pins as well!

– Ang

May Sketch A Day 2019 – Week 1: Silk, Lies, & Angels

As promised, here’s the collection of art from May Sketch A Day’s first week!  I’ve really been enjoying letting my muse off the leash and the sense of relief I get just indulging in random ideas has been invigorating for me.  I really needed the creative refresher!  My Writing Muse apparently wanted in on this too, so brace yourself for story snippets, as well!

Are any of you taking on May Sketch A Day, Mermay, or any of the other events happening in May?  Feel free to share your favorite sketch from your own journey this week in the comments!

DAY 1 – Khalara

Many would try to steal the secret of Khalara’s silk harvesting techniques. All of them would return home empty-handed and sometimes not at all.

They whisper that she stole the secret from her father before poisoning him and inheriting his business. She was his slave once, even though she hides her indigo-stained hands behind pretty jewels and henna swirls.

Let them whisper. Their fear keeps them right where she wants them.
.  .  .
Started off the event with the exploration of one of the cast of my original story, Song of Exile. She’s a port of my Exalted RPG Eclipse Caste, Kalara, into my original world. I’d love to see who would win that mercantile war, though they’d probably end up best frenemies. 

DAY 2 – Mothglow

 “And here we are.”

Ramah could at least agree on that. Their wedding was elegant, professional, an event to behold. The only thing missing from the great ensemble was love.

Now there was just the issue on the to-do list of their wedding night. Instead, he was engaged in a rather intense game of Dalit against himself. He didn’t even notice the sheer silks gleaming with mothglow, the unearthly gleam Khalara’s textile empire was famous for.
He hadn’t even looked up.

“Wine cures all ills, I find.” She said, finally catching his attention as she set the bottle down next to his game board and offered him a glass.

He had planned to be a perfect gentleman that night. She, however, did not make any such plans, should he decide to lose interest in the game board.

“Gold Warrior to Obsidian Dervish.” She slipped into the chair across from him and took the place of his imaginary opponent. “I didn’t know you had the brains for this kind of game.”

Ramah smiled. Perhaps there was hope for them after all. They at least had the same taste in wine and he always valued a good player.
. . .
I’m still channeling so much of Kalara’s Exalted look here, but I still like it as an evolutionary step.  I’ve been playing with how to keep a similar red-haired look to conjure the character’s original fire symbolism by using henna red dyed tips as a solution.  Also, I FINALLY got to do cut across lighting on someone! 

DAY 3 – Worker Angel

I had one last limited edition coloring book drawing to do so I double dipped on May Sketch A Day for it, as it’s always a fun exercise to draw from random prompts and to be surprised by what my brain comes up with. This one was a special one for my mother in law who requested “Worker Angel”. 

This prompt somehow conjured an image of an angel working on countless numbers of pots, as if she were searching for something, despite the fact each pot was a very good pot. Finally, she created one that sang to her soul.

I suppose that’s what comes to mind when I think of most creative endeavors! So much of it is searching for that moment when your creation ‘sings’ to you.

DAY 4 – Mothglow Dress

Continuing my exploration of the properties of the preternatural moth silk Khalara harvests for her trade empire in my story, Song of Exile.  She guards the secret of its creation leaving her competition to guess the process. 

Rumors abound of sinister origins, from blood infused plants to feed the moth larvae to dark magick ceremonies performed over their cocoons. Regardless, wealthy nobles pay handsomely for the silk, their eyes dazzled by its nighttime glow and their bodies soothed by its cooling properties, a valuable asset in a desert locked nation.

I went with a moth motif for this dress, an integral trademark of her business and also a personal symbol of transformation. Khalara has built herself up from slave to Merchant Queen and she’s damned proud of that!

It was laaate and I didn’t have a lot of time to spend on this one, but decided to get something rough down anyways. Taking a lesson from May Sketch A Day not to be precious lest the idea stays stuck in my brain forever! 

—

And that was my first week!  Did you guys have a fave sketch from my collection this week?  Do you want to see more of any particular concept?  I’m always curious to know what strikes your fancy!

Onwards to next week! 

– Ang

PS.

Reminder that my Patreon Patrons are getting a peek at these a day early before everyone else via my private Discord server!  You can pledge at any tier for access to it. 😉

May Sketch A Day 2019 Begins!

Sorry to make another post so soon, but I wanted to let you all know about an event I’m super excited for!  I was too slammed last year to participate, but this year I’m going all in on May Sketch A Day, an Art Challenge which asks you to sketch every day.  There is no assigned topic, per say, just having fun drawing anything you like!

I want to use this challenge to help refresh my creative brain.  I’ve been focusing on my Birthstone Goddesses for so long now, it’s been difficult to find time to indulge some of the things I like to do just for fun!  Some topics you can expect to pop up during this challenge are my Dungeons & Dragons characters, my desert fantasy (Song of Exile) story concepts, and other indulgent things.

I won’t be sharing here EVERY day, but I will be sharing a weekly compilation of my sketches here on Patreon.

Sneak Peeks for Patrons!  

If you want to see the sketches before the public does, I’ll be sharing them a day early on my private Patreon Discord server!  If you haven’t checked it out yet, the Discord server is where I’m the most active sharing inspiration, answering questions, etc.  

Read on here for details on how to claim your Discord Rewards through Patreon.

Where Can I Follow Along?

Aside from the Discord server, you can also Follow me on social media to keep up with this month’s art challenge:

I think this will be an excellent way to refresh the creative wells and have some fun!  Is anyone else taking on an art challenge this month?  Mermay and MayShroom are going on too.  I can’t wait to see my feed explode with art!

– Ang

Ladies of the Months Book Sketch Collection I

I haven’t shared new art in here in what feels like forever!  Kickstarter, the holidays, and doc appointments have kept me busy and I profess to having more than a little bit of art block that’s been getting me down.  Nothing I was drawing for myself was coming out the way I wanted!

But the life of a working artist must go on, regardless of art block!  It seems all that I needed to break the dry spell was to let go of my high expectations and let the muse be carried away by the spontaneous nature of the keyword sketch prompts of my Limited Edition coloring books.  Each LE Backer provided two keywords that would dictate the subject of the drawing that would go in the front of their book.  

I present to you a collection of the first 10 of 50 drawings from the books!  Each one has a little bit of flash fiction to go along with it. It seems my writing muse wanted to get in on the action as well!  Each was drawn with a combination of Micron and Tradio pens.

1/50 “Wise Wildlife”

The Great Owl, guardian of this sacred space. He holds the key to the knowledge hidden beyond. 

2/50 “Angelic Angel”

From the grace & fury of smokeless flame, she came into being with the splendor and beauty of a thousand eyes and a thousand wings, taking shape only so our senses could comprehend her.

3/50 “Angelic Eclipse”

Between the darkness and the light, she exists to make sure neither element falls out of balance. She is both and she is neither all at once.

4/50 “Garden Tarot”

With knowledge as old as trees and wisdom of the deep forgotten things, the cards will bring the wind of things to come from beyond the reach of the Grove’s roots.

5/50 “Star Song”

In ages past, the Elves knew a song that could sing worlds into existence in the mind of all who heard it. Such songs, if you heard them, will be remembered until your dying day.

‪6/50 “Forest God”‬

‪They called him the Green Man, the Horned God, the Kindly One. For all the names, he welcomed visitors with the same smile. Be kind to the woods and the woods be kind to ye.‬

 7/50 “Flower Angel”  

As each fleeting bloom dies, so does her breath brings life to new buds. Splendor and decay walk hand in hand in the cycle of a flower, always dying, forever beautiful if you know where to look.

 8/50 “Forest Fairy”  

Falling free amongst the seeds, a forest fairy guides every tiny soul. Infinite as the leaves on the trees and the stars in the sky. 

 9/50 “Veiled Woman”  

If you seek answers, there  lives a seer who can only be sought by moonlight. As the Cereus flower blooms, she can glimpse endless knowledge. However, beware her price, for it is steep! 

10/50 “Angelic Valkyrie”

For those who die in battle, she prays. Their cries become each blade in her wings, their strength the mettle of her sword. They will never die as long as she carries them.

_________

That’s it for this first collection!  As more of my Limited Edition coloring books find homes via my coloring book Kickstarters, I’ll add more here.  I also think some of these will make excellent coloring pages worth adding to future releases!

I think my favorite is the “Flower Angel” for all her delicate details.  What’s your favorite?

PS.

I shared most of these as I finished them even earlier via my private Patreon Discord server. If you haven’t connected your Discord account to Patreon yet, you should try it!  It’s my first stop for sharing art, tutorials, inspiration, and chatting directly with my Patrons!

Nov 2018 Sketch Collection

I nearly forgot to share November’s sketches!  I did something a little unorthodox and combined two sketch requests together into one, which was a thing I hadn’t thought about, but that I enjoyed doing!

The Monk and the Druid

For the above sketch, Mei and Nansaidh are back kicking butt!  You can watch this sketch come to life at the recording of the livestream here.

Queen of Foxes

The next sketch in the batch was gift art for the talented Emybun, of her character, Irys.  The request was to draw her in queenly attire and I was more than happy to oblige with haute couture galore!

You can watch a stream of this sketch as it was made here.

I hope you enjoyed this little collection of what my Sketch Collectors have challenged me with.  I’m looking forward to seeing what December will bring!

– Ang