Sorry, for the long disappearance in December. I was finishing some important things I needed to do. But now I am back, and I have some drawings to share. I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season.
In this post I will be sharing new drawings along with two older drawings I had not posted before. And I plan to post my final part of 2023's Inktober sometime soon.
This is a redraw of a drawing from this post in 2022. I decided I wanted to fix her pose and proportions. I don't draw frogs often, so it allowed me to go a little outside my comfort zone in getting the details right.
This is my new header. The drawing was taken from my intkober post (you can read the backstory behind the drawing there) and digitalized. I had a lot of fun playing with the lighting around Arcasia and the sword.
A drawing of Fiáina. I drew this drawing of her for May Day/Beltane, and never posted it. But I felt like I should post it now. I had a lot of fun drawing the braids in her hair and making it look as if she were wearing them.
Given my fantasy world's change to being Ancient Greek and Irish inspired, I wanted to change Karleon's design, since it resembled Lord of the Rings elves too much. While Lord of the Rings was my starting inspiration, it's not the end. So, I took some time to redesign his overall appearance, and I am much happier with how it turned out.
This is an older sketch I did that I never posted of Salissah. It is inspired by a painting called Moon Nymph (1883).
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Which drawing is your favorite?
In the previous two Inktobers (2022, and 2021) I mostly did colored drawings, but this time around I wanted to focus on line work and on characters. So, the goal for these Inktober pieces is to draw characters (my original ones, my versions of pre-existing characters, or merely ones I like from movies and TV shows).
Like the previous years, it will be divided up into three parts with ten drawings for the first two, and eleven at the end.
Here's the official prompt list:
And let's begin:
Day #1 Dream. Felix Moore from Dolls of Wax, Eyes of Glass.
The drawing was inspired by this quote from Shakespeare's Macbeth:
"Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing."
One thing I haven't mentioned about Felix Moore is his philosophical belief
that nothing is real, and that life is merely a dream and nothing more. This emerged
during the second draft and has been an important trait to his character.
Day #2 Spider. The Wax Witch (from Dolls of Wax, Eyes of Glass) despite having the ability to steal souls has a fear which she cannot get away from: spiders. This is assumed to be left over from when she was human. And since she is an old building this is a rather unfortunate fear to have, for there will be spiders in an abandoned building such as that.
Day #3 Path. Fiáina the goddess of nature. My idea with this image is that a mortal came across her when she was out hunting. She is slowly approaching them, in her domain (the woods).
In between the trees is an altar to a minor god, with jewelry and flowers placed on it as an offering.
Day #4 Dodge. Salissah. Given that she is a goddess of the moon in an endless battle across the sky with the sun god, I figured I would draw her dodging an attack.
Day #5 Map. It's been a while since I worked on this story (and I don't know what my plans are for it yet) but this is my version of Ichabod Crane from a Sleepy Hollow story I want to go back to. I imagine that this is when he arrives at Sleepy Hollow and is rather lost.
As for what is hanging out of his pocket (since it might be difficult to see), is a rabbit's foot charm. And since it's been a while since I drew Ichabod, I decided to give him a little redesign and give him glasses.
Day #6 Golden. Cecile (Ferdinand's wife) from The Haunted Sketchbook. I often describe her as having golden hair, so I thought she was a fitting character to draw for this prompt.
Day #7 Drip. I decided to do a Dungeons and Dragons inspired tavern for this one, with the tavern owner in the background (so not quite character focused, but I still wanted a character present). The dripping is from the drinks on the table.
Day #8 Toad. this is a drawing for my dad (who is helping me edit this post 😉). Since in one of my drawings of a frog, he pointed out that it looked like Hypnotoad from Futurama. So this is a drawing of Leela and Hynotoad in my style, rather than trying to copy the style of the show.
Day #9 Bounce. Skunk Girl in the middle of a battle bouncing
(probably preparing an attack).
Day #10 Fortune. I started with the Moores so I figured I'd end this part with the Moores. I decided to draw Matilda Moore reading Tarot cards, looking into her future perhaps or trying to find answers to a problem in her life through them. Matilda has an interest in Spiritualism and the occult (like with Felix, this emerged during the second draft), so I figured I would bring that out in the drawing.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Which drawing is your favorite? Which characters of mine would you like to see me draw in future installments?
I have a lot of new drawings to share, so I thought it was time for another drawing post. I plan to do a Using Polls to Make Art post soon, also.
This was the first drawing I ever drew of the god of time. I like how it turned out.
A still life drawing I did of a candle for an art class.
I had a lot of fun figuring out how to draw the reflective surface.
Here's a photo of candle that I was using as a reference.
This is a drawing of Oberon, Arisias's father. I like how his hair and clothes turned out.
Someone on NaNoWriMo suggested that I draw the Phantom from The Phantom of the Opera (the musical). So, here is my drawing of him.
I thought I would draw Fiáina without the prosthetic arm. And I like how it turned out.
So I drew her prosthetic arm wrong in previous drawings (in the February Faces Challenge and another post). But I got it right in the first drawing I ever drew of her. It's supposed to be her entire arm, not only hand and wrist. But I blame that on reading myths about the Norse god Tyr, who also lost a limb but instead of an arm, he lost his hand. That made me get confused when drawing Fiáina.
These eyes, like the candle drawing, were also done for an art class, and I like how they turned out. They were fun to shade.
Finally, here is a drawing I did of Ferdinand and Cecile from The Haunted Sketchbook. This was difficult to draw, but I like how it turned out.
Since I have talked about the story I am writing for April's camp multiple times, I think I will talk about my writing process in this post. If you want an (up-to-date) post about the details of my novel, The Mystery of the Body Thief, you can check it out here.
This Camp NaNoWriMo I am focusing on the third draft of my novel, The Mystery of the Body Thief. I had initially planned to write the second book, Becoming the Body Thief's second draft.But I realized I did not plot out the second draft's plot, which could cause me to fall into one of the pit-falls of the first draft--having the characters aimlessly wandering. (I usually plot out my stories, but in that case I made the mistake in forgetting to plot and improvised it most of the way.)
My plan instead then is to work on Becoming the Body Thief during NaNoWriMo in November, so as to give me time to re-plot it and create connections between episodes. And in July, I will be working on The Haunted Sketchbook.
My Writing-
There are two storylines going on at the same time, which I ignored in my first and second write through of the story. This time around, I am giving the characters equal attention. There is a mystery in both of the plots, and I need to give clues to the reader in both of these without revealing too much. So, I am using detective shows I've seen with plots like that for inspiration.
Since the first day of Camp NaNoWriMo was yesterday, here are some things I've been thinking about while writing this draft. My goal for this camp is to write 20,000 words worth of rewrites for this story, and so far I've written 3,218 words.
I have been looking at Greek and Irish castles as models for the castle that Arisias lives in. Greek and Irish culture were the inspirations for my elves in general, and their religion. I don't want it to look fully Irish or fully Greek but a hybrid. I don't want someone to react to it like "oh, the elves are Irish" or "oh, the elves are Greek" but instead for there to be a mixture of both cultures, so that it becomes its own thing. This is a challenge, but it's going to be a fun one.
(Fiáina the goddess of nature in festive clothes).
I've been also working on a holiday related to the goddess, Fiáina. I only have one holiday figured out for that world, and that is the Festival of Magic. I want to make another one. It's not simply there to show world-building; rather, it has a purpose to the plot as a whole (that I can't reveal because of spoilers). So, I want to pay attention to what rituals would happen during that festival and what mythological importance it has to the goddess. And, I should add, this song by Spiral Dance was an inspiration to me for the holiday:
Spiral Dance's music in general has reminded me of my fantasy world, so it is neat that it inspired a holiday for my world as well.
I have been continuing to improve the descriptions of my elves.(I mentioned last time that I was working on this.) I've been avoiding mentioning that they have pointy ears. While it may eventually be mentioned off hand, the part of my elves that is important is not that they have pointy ears, but instead that they are deeply connected to nature--even if their duties do not lie in the protection of or caring of nature. So far, it has been going well, but like the writing I have done with description for my other stories, I am going to make several revisions before I get a perfect draft.
This year, I am also doing a writing prompt challenge, which involves getting to know your characters better. The characters I am doing it for are: Karleon (The God of Mischief), Salissah (The Goddess of the Moon), and Ophelia.
Responding to the prompts has been helpful in understanding the characters more and also allowed me to get into Ophelia's backstory. I felt as if I had not thought a lot about it, which is strange, because I feel I should have given it more attention, since she has been alive for so long (being an elf). What I've found out about her backstory has added nuance to her character in the current story, and how her past affected her, since in hundreds of years a lot can happen. And if some humans aren't comfortable with events that happened in their past, elves are likely to have some past regrets too.
I am also exploring Karleon's and Salissah's friendship. When I first made them, I thought they'd be enemies, but they ended up becoming friends. (Karleon is not on good terms with Fiáina; however,when around their devotees, they act more as colleagues even if they're not on good terms.) In regards to Salissah's and Karleon's friendship, I guess they became friends because wit (what Karleon has) and wisdom (what Salissah has) work well together.
While I am not currently writing All is Not Lost For All Will Begin Again, I am working on the characters and the world. I've been doing a ton of research for it, but I've been thinking about two characters: Veraly and Seth. The story has many main characters (as opposed to only one), so, it is going to be a good challenge to plot out the series. The world itself is still in its early stages in terms of world-building (unlike Arisias's world). I have an idea about what I want to do with it, but I have not figured out everything yet.
(Moodboard for Veraly. Images from Wiki commons, Pixabay, and Pexels. The template I used to make this mood-board was made by Ayzrules).
As for the characters, Veraly is a performer and Phoenix's (adoptive) sister. She has water magic and enjoys performing arts of different kinds. I've been thinking about what creative things she does and how those creative things affect how she views the world.
And Seth is a shapeshifter spy. He's also incredibly religious, and the reason why he is doing that is due to that world's religion. An object important to their religion was stolen, and he has to find it.
And I want to figure out how he feels about being a spy given that he is religious: how he handles it, whether there is guilt from it, and things like that.
Both these characters I am trying to develop more, so hopefully I will learn more about them too, along with their world. Even though I am not writing their story at the moment, I thought I would share.
Playlist for The Mystery of the Body Thief
And also since I shared the playlist I made last year's camp, here is the playlist for the novel I am currently working on.
Fun (Non-Writing Related) things-
* In March, I went to an online S.J. Tucker concert: it was so fun. And as a songwriter myself, it was fun to find out that she too was inspired by books in writing her music. Since the concert was collaboration with a library, there were a ton of book recommendations that came with the songs she sang.
I've previously never found a way to go to concerts for the singers I love (since they are either in a different country or don't do concerts at all), so finding out about this was so fun and I am glad I went. It was a fun way to celebrate spring equinox. She ended up playing "Rabbit's Song," which was a song that served as an inspiration for Karleon's myths in the myth collection and was one of my favorites of hers. And I was introduced to some new (and unreleased) songs that I had never heard before.
One of these was "Kashkash," which was inspired by a book, In the Cities of Coin and Spice.
*
(Image from wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/As_You_Like_It#/media/File:Rosalind_-_Robert_Walker_Macbeth.jpg)
I attended and participated in a dramatic reading of As You Like It and read some parts in it (Rosalind, Celia, Orlando, and a few others). I had not read or seen the play in a long time, so that was fun. It was fun to perform with a group again and to play different roles. It makes me want to try to get Rosalind or Orlando as a part in a full production of As You Like It sometime.
And that's the end of part one!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------How was your March? Are you doing Camp NaNoWriMo or another fun activity this April?
I realize I've been thrown off my usual posting schedule, but that is because I have had a lot of things going on in my life. So, the time that I was absent from both my blogs was dealing with those things. Now that I am back, I should say that I have posts planned that aren't drawing related. I plan to do a book tag, as well as posts related to my novels, songwriting, and acting soon. While I normally would not do two drawing posts in a row, this was one post I had fully written, edited, and planned. So, I felt as if I should post it.
I will also be responding to comments from previous posts. I loved reading everyone's comments, they truly made my day during such stressful times. And thank you to Anno for the shout out. 💚
But let's get to the post:
Here is the official (optional) prompt list:
Day #10 Your Idol, I drew Dr. Crusher played by Gates McFadden from Star Trek: The Next Generation. Gates McFadden was the one who inspired me to be an actor, so I decided I should draw her for this prompt.
Day #11 Silhouette, I was a little more creative with this prompt. I wanted to draw the Wax Witch from my novel, Dolls of Wax, Eyes of Glass, but not only a shadow/outline of her. So, I drew her silhouette behind her.
Day #12 Facial Hair, I drew Gimli from Lord of the Rings for practice. I don't usually draw bearded characters so this was fun to draw.
Day #13 Furious, I drew Cheetah Girl from my super hero story for this one. I wanted to make her look as if she was furious. This is different, because I often draw her looking calm or thoughtful.
Day #14 Freckles, I drew Elm, one of my dryad characters. I decided since Valentine's Day was the day I drew it, that I would give her Valentine's Day accessories.
Day #15 Delighted, I drew Sebastian for this one. I have not drawn him a lot, so I wanted to draw him looking happy.
Day #16 in profile, I drew Fiáina talking to a dragon. Since dragons used to live in Dragons' Province (where the story takes place), I thought it would make sense for her to talk to one.
Day #17 poorly, Ferdinand Diggory from The Haunted Sketchbook is feeling his worst here (due to sleep deprivation, nightmares, and ghosts).
Day #18 Your Current Mood, I best describe this mood as "a million different emotions are going through your head and you're trying to process all of them, while keeping a straight face." So of course, I drew D.I. Elyerin Time experiencing this.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Which drawing is your favorite? Are you a fan of Lord of the Rings or Star Trek?
I figured it was time for another drawing post. I have a lot of new drawings to share.
Let's begin:
This is The Mother of the Elements, the mother of the gods from this post.
I had not drawn her before, and her design took me a while to figure out. I like how her dress turned out, and I decided give her a different body type than the other gods.
I figured it was time to update Detective Inspector Time's profile photo. In the original drawing, I had made his hair the wrong length, and it didn't fit the current version of him.
Fiáina and Mother of the Element doing each other's hair. This pose was tricky to draw, but I enjoyed drawing it.
A drawing of Ferdinand Diggory from the Haunted Sketchbook.This is the first time I've drawn the character, and I like how his appearance turned out.
You will be hearing more about his story soon...
Fiáina's hair changes depending on the season. Since she is the goddess of nature, I thought it made sense for her hair to change during the seasons. The idea came from this drawing I did of her in the past:
I was uncertain when I first created her, whether I wanted her hair to be red or brown. I wasn't sure I'd make her have red hair again, but thensomeone suggested I should have her hair change based on the seasons. So, that is what ended up happening.
This is what Fiáina's hair looks like in the winter. I wanted her to have icicle-like hair for the winter. She wears an evergreen dress during the winter seasons, rather than a leaf one.
A drawing of my dog, Toto. I'm almost done with the children's book about him. I thought I would draw this quick sketch, as a sort of "I'm almost there, yay!" celebration.
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