Miscellaneous Drawings #11

                  Previous parts: #1, #2 #3, #4, #5, #6,#7, #8, #9 and #10. 

Hello everyone, 

It's time for another drawing post. I've been practicing a lot of digital art, so I figured I'd show the recent drawings I've made.

 In other news, two characters now have profiles here and here. I am also steadily working on the characters for Arisias's series and there are two categories in their Meet the Characters page--gods and mortals. 

I've been busy, but sometime soon I plan to respond to the comments on my previous posts. So keep an eye out for that. 

But anyway, let's begin: 

Salissah is the goddess of the moon, wisdom, and strategic warfare. I played around with the background a lot in this drawing and with the lighting, so that the stars in her looked more like they were glowing. 

And here's a video showing the process of how I drew it. 

Here is my version of Dorian Gray from my novel, The Heist of Dorian Gray. I took some inspiration from the 1945 film version for his outfit (since in my version, Dorian has been living for a long time, into modern day, I thought it would make sense for him to wear something more modern). And I like how it turned out. 

If you're wondering why my Dorian has blond hair (since other versions of the character have black hair) it is because of this quote from the book: Dorian was“wonderfully handsome, with his finely curved scarlet lips, his frank blue eyes, his crisp gold hair. There was something in his face that made one trust him at once. All the candour of youth was there, as well as all youth’s passionate purity.” (The Picture of Dorian Gray, p. 17) 

This is Edith Porter from The Haunted Sketchbook. I had drawn Ferdinand before in this new style, so I wanted to draw her next. I wanted to make it look as if there was spilled paint or paint being laid out on a canvas, and I think I managed to achieve that. 

Here is Ivy Hughes from The Heist of Dorian Gray. Ivy is an artist, so I wanted to emphasize the splattered paint in the background. 

This is Reed Hayward from The Heist of Dorian Gray. He has "art magic"-- while I do not show him actively using magic, I wanted it to be present in the background. I also had a lot of fun designing his outfit. 

Finally, this is a drawing of Ophelia. I've been thinking recently about how Ophelia sees her herself, versus how someone else might. She is an elf, and so others (i.e. humans) would see her differently. 

I'm also drawing this to help figure out what aspect of Ophelia's character I am missing, as I feel as if I am missing something but I am not sure what. 

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    Which drawing is your favorite? And which of these characters would you like to see more of? 

-Quinley 

I Finished the First Draft of The Haunted Sketchbook

 

On July 11th, I completed the first draft of The Haunted Sketchbook, I had worked on it long before Camp NaNoWriMo--for a couple months in fact. 17,000 words was about the right amount of words to get me to finish the first draft (which ended about 40,000 words in total).

                                                                              Synopsis-

Genre: Gothic | Historical Fiction 

The Haunted Sketchbook is set in two time periods. 

In the past, an artist by the name of Ferdinand Diggory is experiencing a haunting. He discovers that his sketchbook is cursed; whenever he draws in it, it will twist the sketch into something monstrous, and something he didn't draw. 

In the present, Edith Porter is trying to discover whether the haunting was truly real-- she wants to discover the truth, but will her curiosity lead her into more danger than it's worth?

                    What's Next for The Haunted Sketchbook? 

I am currently working on characters in preparation for the 2nd draft. I want to make sure that I know the characters well, as I did with the second draft of Dolls of Wax, Eyes of Glass, which helped move the story forward and also create new discoveries along the way. 

I have recently been doing what is called a "character sketch" for some of the characters in the story. Basically, the writer lays out traits of the characters and then describes them in different perspectives (third, first, and second person). That's what I did for Ferdinand Diggory, and it highlighted an aspect of the character I had not seen before. I am going to do the same for Edith and even Cecile, as this technique helped me discover in the past what I had missed with Felix Moore--what elements of his character were being overlooked. 

I am also thinking about the backstory that Ferdinand has and what the ghost and other mysterious figures motives are. Even if the reader does not know their true motives, it is important to the characters to figure it out, so their actions seem clear. 

I also hope to research 18th century England. My knowledge of the 18th century mostly comes from American history, so I want to expand that knowledge to England when writing this story. As I noted in my Camp NaNoWriMo post about the novel, it takes place in two different time periods. (That is Edith's telling of it is set in the Victorian era, and Ferdinand's in the 18th century). 

I am going to be writing the second draft soon, so these are all things to look out for. 

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If you're a writer, how do you develop your characters? If not, who are your favorite characters in Gothic fiction? 

-Quinley 

Blog updates: Character Pages

 

So a lot of my characters pages are outdated--not only in art as my style has changed but also in content. The most notable that I need to update are the ones from here and here. The characters in Dolls of Wax, Eyes of Glass had some developments, and the clothing of the characters from the Princess Arisias Mystery series has changed. The older pages will be kept up (I won't delete them), and you will be able to see them in the "old pages" place. 

And I have newer pages which will stay mostly the same, such as the one for The Haunted Sketchbook characters and a new page for a series I am working on (and going to be doing during NaNoWriMo this November) called The Heist of Dorian Gray.

There might be slight modifications on the Haunted Sketchbook page (that is, minor ones to Ferdinand's profile), but the most that will be done will be adding new characters into those pages, as I have not put Edith Porter's profile on the Haunted Sketchbook character page yet. And I am working to make profiles for the other characters from The Heist of Dorian Gray, as I have only put Dorian's character sheet up. 

Since I did not do this before, I will also be adding a section to the characters from Arisias's story page, including the gods and goddesses. Because the gods and goddesses are recurring characters on this blog, I thought making their own pages for them would make sense. And it would also make learning about the god characters easier if they had pages. For example, if you didn't know who Karleon or Salissah was, you could look them up. 

In terms of how quickly the changes will happen, I mostly have the new page ready for Felix Moore, though I am still working on Matilda's, so Felix's profile is likely to be one of the first to be changed. 

Also, this is a minor change, but its one you're likely to notice quickly: 

(the header that is soon to be changed) 

The header for my blog will be updated since my art style changed. I have no idea what I will change it to yet, but it will follow the story that Arcasia (the blog's mascot) is experiencing, moving her a step forward in her adventures. (You can see my previous headers here.)

Anyway, those are my updates. These are big changes, and I didn't want you to be confused, or wonder where the past character sheets went. My next post will be my usual style of post. 

-Quinley