My Art from Inktober 2023 (Part One)

 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? 

-Quinley

Writing Reflections

   I thought I would do a writing updates post, since it's been a while since I did one and I have a lot of thoughts about the projects I am currently working on.  

                       

                       What I'm Working on 

Dolls of Wax, Eyes of Glass

 

Last month, I started working on Dolls of Wax, Eyes of Glass again. I had previously paused for research, which I have now partially finished. (I still have to research the spiritualist movement, which I need for Matilda's portion of the story.) Some of the research I did involved reading Beckett's trilogy, since there was an aspect of the trilogy that I felt would work in Felix's narration. In the time that I was drafting, I got a satisfying partial draft of Felix's part done, so I will feel good about coming back to finish it in a few months. 

As I was writing the draft, a singer I like released a song that reminds me a lot of my story, and it was helpful for writing a scene involving the Wax Witch. The song itself is about a folk figure, Black Annis, who is a blue hag that eats human flesh. She is not exactly like the Wax Witch, but some of the lyrics reminded me of her. 

It feels good to get back into this story, since I realize I tend to miss characters if I don't write about them for a while.  

The Haunted Sketchbook

In The Haunted Sketchbook I figured out a problem I was having with Edith's narrative, which will make it much easier to do the second draft. Earlier, I had been trying to adhere to a certain formula (from a M.R. James ghost story), and that constrained the story too much. So, I will let the story move outside of this formula and become what it wants to be.  In this way, I figured out that I want a combination of a murder mystery and a ghost story but not in the formula of either: merely using elements of both genres. 

I also discovered a similarity between Ferdinand and Macbeth. While it is not a perfect resemblance, Ferdinand's motives (for doing what he may or may not have done) are similar to Macbeth's: ambition. However, he is in the art world instead of in the world of kings. The similarities between the motives has made it easier for me to understand Ferdinand as a character.  

The Heist of Dorian Gray 

I finished outlining The Heist of Dorian Gray. This is the first time that I've written a story involving heists, so I wanted to make sure that I had a basic idea of the structure of them. (However, I may change some things about the structure, since other genres are present in this story).

I watched The Great Train Robbery to get an idea of the heist structure, and it helped. 

Also, Ivy now has a character sheet which you can look at here. I still need to make ones for Ava and Alfred, but for now I have the three up. 

I then began writing the novel. I found that "zero drafting" (basically outlining and writing short scenes as exercises), helped clear things up, that otherwise might have caused awkward scenes in the first draft. I basically see zero drafting as throwing things at the wall, to see if they stick, if they don't that's fine, or if you miscommunicated a concept you get to clarify it in the 1st draft. (This then makes 2nd, 3rd, etc. drafting much easier, since then it isn't a mess of awkward scenes). 

The Mystery of the Body Thief 

(image from wiki commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Henry_Meynell_Rheam_-_The_Fairy_Wood.jpg)

In world-building recently, I have since changed what I call my elves. I now call them the Sídhe (pronounced like SHEE. This is the Irish word for "people of the fairy mound.") So, if you see me referring to them as that, don't be confused, because early drafts of my story had pointed to them being like Irish fairies. This will be a part of the update in the character sheets. I am also working on a short story set in that world (from the myth collection). I am working on editing and rewriting, and I plan to release it as a story introducing the world. Once it's published I will make an update post on that. 

Also in my world building, I figured out a division between the humans and Sídhe in terms of learning magic from the gods.This was inspired by the research I did for a paper I presented at a fantasy conference. Magic is less common among humans than among the Sídhe, and the humans who do have magic call themselves "fairy doctors." Magic is still a religious thing among humans, as it is among the Sídhe. But the Sídhe call those of their own kind who have magic from the gods, "devotees" or "priests/priestesses." 

And that's all I've been working on writing-wise. 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------What are you working on this September? Do you have a song that reminds you of your story and/or character? 

-Quinley 

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. 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

-Quinley 

How April's Camp NaNoWriMo is Going for Me (Part 2)

Click here to read Part 1. 

Greetings Adventurers, 

This is the final part of the series about my adventures in Camp NaNoWriMo for April 2023. Next year, I may do something similar if I am working on a project that I've already talked a lot about. But in terms of posts relating to Camp NaNoWriMo, you can look forward to hearing about the project I am working on in July, sometime soon. 

My Writing 

On April 14th I got to my word count goal! The story is far from finished and I still have a lot of work I need to do in terms of writing it. But it feels good to have a better version of it written than my first attempt at the third draft. It still needs a lot of editing and rewriting, but I am getting closer

     in terms of publishing. 

 However...I am going to have one of my standalone books be my debut novel, since this novel lands on a cliffhanger and is a part of a series.

 In the meantime, I finally rewrote the summary. The original summary I had written was from 2018, so it was outdated. Here is the new summary:

“Arisias” is the only thing Horatio remembers after waking up from a coma. He doesn’t remember who he is or what happened to him before the accident. 

At the same time in Dragons' Province, two detectives are working on solving the case of the murdered royalty. It’s unclear who the killer or killers are, for a different person is always seen leaving the scene of the crime. Will they be able to find out who or what is behind it all, before it is too late?

(Two pages from my writing notebook from 2016) 

I feel the story is becoming clearer and clearer, though it is very different from the first draft. I found the first page of the notebook I had written about the characters, when I first created them. They were so different then. And it's interesting to see how it evolved. I don't know what younger me would have thought of the story as it is now, but the fact that I've been able to work on it for so long and have not given up is an accomplishment. 

I do, however, have a to-do list of things for the story from writing this. I figured out some world-building elements, which I will now need to decide how to fit in. And I need to redesign one character's clothes--while I may end up using them somewhere else in a different project, they now seem out of place in this story. They were inspired by 18th century clothes, and most of the other characters' clothes are inspired by Ancient Greek and Irish culture. 

However, I am not going to completely forget about the clothes: they will be reused somewhere else. I have done this before with other story elements. For example, Ophelia's former boyfriend, Austen, ended up getting a project of his own, which I hope to explore sometime. And a character who changed appearance wise, but is still in the story, had their appearance used by another character in a different story.  (Admittedly if someone heard this out of context, a person using another person's face would sound incredibly weird.) 

(Image from wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evelyn_De_Morgan#/media/File:Cassandra1.jpeg)

In the writing group I am in, there was a fun exercise to "post artwork that reminds you of your project." It reminded me how much of my project-- character wise was inspired by Pre-Raphaelite art. Besides being inspired by Tauriel from The Hobbit (movies), Arisias took some inspiration from a painting when I first created her. And more recently, there are paintings that remind me of her, one of which is posted above. 

(Image from wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_William_Waterhouse#/media/File:Waterhouse,_JW_-_The_Sorceress_(1913).jpg)

I even found some paintings that remind me of Ophelia, in particular this one by John William Waterhouse. 

The writing challenge I mentioned in the previous post has helped a lot with understanding my characters more. I not only figured out the relationship between Karleon and Salissah, but I also figured out the inner workings of other relationships that they have with other characters-- which is great. 

What I've Been Reading and Watching 

While in the past I have read fantasy and murder mystery books to get into the mood to write, now I am mostly reading classics. I'm currently rereading Jane Eyre. It's fun to delve back into it since it has been a year since I read it. (The last time I read it was for a book club.) It's nice to read about the characters again, and I also am appreciating the descriptions in the book, upon rereading it. I particularly enjoy the gothic elements spread throughout, with the red room, and Jane thinking she sees a figure in the mirror.

I've also been reading Middlemarch and watching the BBC adaptation. I love George Eliot's writing style, and it makes me want to read more books of hers. I will have more to say about it on a later date. 

And I've been loving watching the Sleepy Hollow tv series. I started watching it recently and am on the second season.

(Fan art I did of Abbie). 

 I love Abbie's and Ichabod's friendship. While the main story is nothing like Irving's story, they sprinkle elements of the original story back into it. 

I also love the aesthetic of the title sequence. 

So, from reading Jane Eyre and watching Sleepy Hollow I may have gotten ideas for my gothic novels. 

Anyway, that's the end of my posts about April 2023's Camp NaNoWriMo. I am looking forward to July's. 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------How has been April been? Have you been reading or watching anything good recently? 

-Quinley 

My Art From The February Faces Challenge (2023) | Part One

I found out about a challenge by a Kick in the Creatives that involved drawing portraits throughout the month of February. I decided to do the challenge as a way of drawing my characters, who had not gotten a lot of attention. 

Like my Inktober posts, I will be dividing this up to into parts of 9 drawings per part, with 10 at the end. And for context, for those who don't know my characters well, all the gods (and also Ophelia)  in this post come from The Princess Arisias Mystery Series, which is my fantasy/murder mystery series. As for the non-god/goddess characters I will be saying where they are from. 

Here is the official (optional) prompt list: 

And here are the drawings for the first part: 

 Day #1 Glamorous, I decide to draw Nisis/Nyro. They're the god/goddess of love, beauty and marriage, and can appear as anyone someone loves (romantically or platonically). They can also look similar to a type of person an onlooker is attracted to without looking like a real person they know. Because of this, Nisis/Nyro doesn't have a defined form. So, this isn't exactly as they appear because their appearance will always change depending on who is the onlooker. I always when drawing them drew one side, and never did a split face drawing showcasing both sides (Nisis (the female side) or Nyro (the male side)). So I figured, I should draw that, and I like how it turned out.  

Day #2 Baby, I find babies incredibly hard to draw so I challenged myself with this one. 

Day #3 Hidden Face, Ophelia putting on her cloak for a ritual/healing ceremony. Her cloak doesn't so much "hide" her face, as it is only partially covering her face during rituals. But I thought it matched the prompt of "hidden face." This was also inspired by a Pre-Raphaelite painting of Olivia from Twelfth Night by Edmund Leighton. 

Day #4 Bored, I decided to draw Felix Moore from Dolls of Wax, Eyes of Glass for this one. He probably went somewhere and is thinking about something, so not exactly bored, but more thoughtful. 

Day #5 Sad, I drew the god of time for this one, since I figured out his design. One side of his face is young and the other is old. In the drawing, I wanted to draw attention to time passing with the depiction of one of the flowers wilting and dying. 

Day #6 Hairstyle, I drew, Salissah (pronounced sil-is-uh), the goddess of the moon, for this. She has hair with stars in it, so I wanted to draw attention to that. 

Day #7 Makeup, I drew Skunk Girl from my super hero story for this. I decided she would use green lip-stick. My backstory behind this image is that Skunk Girl and the other super heroes got brand deals for merchandizing for things such as action figures, makeup, etc. This is done in order to get money from visiting tourists (who travel to see the super heroes), and to pay for the damage that villain and hero fights cause. 

Day #8 Pouting, I drew Tesariel "Tess" Short for this one. She is from the first novel ever I finished the first draft of (Eyes in the Night). I've gotten back into drawing her, so, I decided that I should draw her for this one. 

Day #9 Tongue Out, I drew Karleon, my trickster god of mischief for this one. While most of my characters (whether they be gods, elves, super heroes, or 19th century gentlemen) would not make this facial expression because they feel it would be undignified, Karleon and Skunk Girl are the exceptions.  I already drew Skunk Girl, so, I decided to draw Karleon. 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Which portrait is your favorite? Are you doing the February Faces Challenge or another challenge this February? 

-Quinley

My Art From Inktober 2022 (Part Three)

                Previous parts: part one and part two 

                    Before the Inktober part of this post begins... (I can't believe it's now 2023!), here is a belated New Year's greeting from my character, Karleon (the god of mischief and prophecy from my series, The Princess Arisias Mystery Series): 

I figured I would start 2023, with the final post of the Inktober 2022 series. Even though I find it sad that Inktober is over, it will come back this year! 

Let's begin...

                                                 Here is the official prompt list for 2022's Inktober: 

Day #21 Bad Dog. I drew a Hellhound for this one. They are figures from folklore that are usually omens of death or bad luck. 

Day #22 Heist. I decided to draw something similar to a room, that would appear in a spy movie. 

Day #23 Booger. The first that came to mind for me was a troll who had nasal issues.  This character may appear in the future, and will be given more of a backstory (because at the moment I know nothing about this troll).

Day #24 Fairy. I decided to draw Vonivera, my fay character for this one. 

Day #25 Tempting. I drew a snake circling an apple. 

Day #26 Ego. I decided I should draw the thoughts inside someone's head.  

Day #27 Snack. I simply drew a snack for this one. Taking it literally. 

Day #28 Camping. I decided to draw a tent inside what could be considered a haunted forest.

Day #29 Uh-Oh. I drew the Wax Witch from my novel, Dolls of Wax, Eyes of Glass, for this one. It came to mind since the characters probably go "uh oh" when seeing her. 

Day #30 Gear. The first thing that came to mind for this one was Galadriel from Rings of Power. Her armor is gear that she gets when she goes to Númenor. 

Day #31 Farm. Since day 31 was Halloween, I decided to draw a haunted farm. 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  Which drawing is your favorite? How was your New Year's? And if you did Inktober in 2022, how did it go? 

-Quinley