I hope you are having a good May. Here are some drawings:
I decided to update my blog's header and continue Arcasia's journey. She is walking down a path and is about to meet the Greek goddess, Artemis.
This is a drawing of Matilda and the Wax Witch, and was done in response to a prompt titled "ghostly." In the scene, Matilda is unsure whether she is imagining the Wax Witch, or if the witch is real.
This is a drawing inspired by the prompt "dark and stormy night." It is of Matilda doing Tarot readings-- Inspired by the Etteilla Tarot.
This is a drawing of Genevieve. This scene is partially inspired by illustrations and paintings of the Greek goddess, Demeter, in which she is shrouded with a cloak and looking for her daughter, Persephone/Kore.
A drawing of Riona "Fire" in both phoenix form (left) and her human form (right). I wanted to make her hair seem fire-like.
As an update, this is happening slowly, but I am updating the character pages. Currently there is a new one for Reed, and I now have one for Elyerin and Arisias.
In the future I will give more in-depth updates on my novel projects, as I have been working hard on them, and realize I have not said much about them recently on the blog. A lot of things have changed and developed and I look forward to sharing them.
Here are the drawings...
This is a design of my character, Artemis. I have been experimenting with a lot of designs for her, and I finally created one that works. She is a character for a new short film and graphic novel that I am developing (which involves characters you may already know such as Elm, Oak, etc.).
Artemis's hair is partially inspired by a real ancient Greek hairstyle, and her outfit is inspired by a statue of Artemis.
This is an outfit I designed for my character, Reed, which is inspired by the myth of Apollo and Hyacinth. There are wind movement designs at the bottom of the mask (representing the West Wind), the sun can be seen around the sockets of the mask, and there are Hyacinth flowers on the sides.
His jacket is the color of the Hyacinth with looping designs, and the vest underneath repeats the movement of the wind designs accompanied by embroidered petals (as this wind brings Spring).
This was drawn in response to a prompt about "travel." This particular dryad is Oak's mother, a character who will appear later on in a project about her and Elm. The idea for the drawing is that the viewer is traveling to and entering the dryad's forest.
I have not drawn Elm in a while, so I decided that now would be the time to draw her.
I thought I would share some drawings that I drew recently:
Here is a portrait of my character, Elm. I decided it would be neat to have her wear jewelry, though she usually wears only a few pieces of jewelry if she wears any. I imagine she would dress up like this for a concert or a performance.
I drew this on paper originally and then digitized it.
This is a portrait of my character, Oak. I like how her expression turned out in the end.
Here is a drawing of the Greek goddess, Artemis. This is concept art for a short film I am working on.
I drew this for a prompt (I did other prompts from this series too) which was to draw your character(s) at Hogwarts. For Elm, I decided that Hufflepuff best suited her in terms of houses, and I enjoyed trying to make her look younger in terms of age. Though this wasn't a prompt from the list, I may end up drawing some of my characters in a similar fashion, but with Camp Half Blood instead of Hogwarts next.
Finally, here is a drawing of Lady Annabelle in the 3D Disney animation style. I did this because I thought it would be interesting to see how it would turn out, and I like the end result.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Which drawing is your favorite? Have you read Jane Eyre? If not, do you want to?
Here is the second part of "My Art from Inktober 2021" series. This is my first year doing Inktober, and I had a lot fun drawing these.
Also, as a reminder, if you would like to get a question or questions in for part two of the Q&A for my novel, you can ask them here.
Other than that, let's get on to the post! As I said before in the previous post, this series will be divided up into segments of ten drawings per post, with eleven being the final one.
Here's the prompt list for this year's Inktober:
And here are more of my drawings from Inktober:
Day #11 Sour, I decided to draw a Sour Patch Kid candy along with several other candies (some you would probably get from Trick or Treating and others probably not).
Unlike the other drawings this one did not have a pencil sketch drawn under it, this was entirely done in makers.
Day #12 Stuck, I decided to draw Rapunzel stuck in her tower. I had several other ideas of what to draw for this prompt, but in the end I decided to draw Rapunzel.
Day #13 Roof, I drew a house in a silhouette, I decided to make the house look eerie.
Day #14 Tick, I decided to draw a list with tick marks, and I went the fantastical route making it a Fairy Tale knight's to-do list.
Day #15 Helmet, Here I drew the Greek god, Hermes. He has a very cool looking helmet and I thought that would be perfect for the prompt.
Day #16 Compass, I decided to draw something "piratey."
Day #17 Collide, I had an idea for a crossover of sorts between the characters Elm (left) and Oceana (right). (these characters are in the same world, just different stories unlike the crossover I drew in Using Polls to Create Art.) Oceana used to be a Naiad and knew Elm, they would practice singing together. Elm and Oceana would try and figure out where the magic of Elm's singing voice came from (since Elm doesn't know...yet), so they were friends, and then Oceana got cursed by the goddess Demeter and got turned into a siren.
Though it is very hard for them to meet each other again, with Oceana sinking ships and all, I thought it would be cool if their worlds collided reuniting the two of them.
Day #18 Moon, Here's a drawing of the Greek goddess Artemis, the goddess of the hunt and moon. I thought the prompt "Moon" was fitting for her. Also the character designs for Artemis and Hermes, are from my animation project Pandora's Box.
Day #19 Loop, I decided to do a yoga pose that reminded me of a "loop." Also the whole setting is based on a memory I had of doing yoga during winter in a warm yoga studio, where it was warm and cozy inside, and really cold outside. This felt really nice to me, so the drawing was based on that.
I also kept the color palette limited, and used mostly blues, grays, and browns. With a little bit of purple and gold, but not as much.
Day #20 Sprout, For this I was inspired by "Jack and the Beanstalk".
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Which drawing is your favorite? And what is your favorite yoga pose and/or Greek god/goddess?
This is the second in the series of Quarantined Characters, if you wanted to read the first installment go here.
Greetings Adventurers!
This is the second installment of Quarantined Characters, I'm hoping to hear from you (the readers) what short stories you would like to see about these characters while they quarantined. Because one aspect of this series is going to be short stories about the characters in quarantine.
So, let's stay home, wash our hands and see what the characters are doing:
Oak
Oak is used to being away from civilization with her fellow hunters, and the goddess Artemis herself. So she would be distanced enough and secluded from humans.
Suppose something happens and the hunters have to take refuge in a cave, because
a wild beast (or a natural disaster) drove them there and they need to regroup and make a new plan. In that case, Oak would continue her lessons from Artemis on weaponry, wildlife, and other things, while she and the other hunters were trapped.
Artemis would also help her carve arrows from the
supplies they had around and help her prepare mentally for the next hunt.
Riona "Fire"&Celtiere
The fairies are used to being away from the human world for a while,
so they would usually be very good at keeping social distance from humans.
However, keeping a distance from other fay is unusal. They are comfortable with their own kind, so when the need to social distance happened the fay were not at first willing to stay away from each other.
For Riona and Celtiere social distancing isn't a problem. They would exchange stories around the magical fire. Riona would share her stories of battles she fought and Celtiere would tell stories he made up on the spot. He might also make some up about his parents, who he never knew.
Crystal
Crystal is a Neriad, and is a huntress of Artemis. While they are sheltering in the cave,
she would help heal other hunters who may have been injured in battle.
She would continue her studies with Artemis in nature healing.
She would learn how to use herbs and other natural things she could find around the cave they are hiding in.
Crystal would also help Oak create more arrows and sharpen swords,
so they are prepared for the next hunt.
Detective Inspector Time
Time would be bored out of his mind, with no new cases to solve with everyone stuck inside.
He would be having trouble figuring out what to do, and everything in his life would feel like it was out of place. He would try and fail to write something he liked, even though he isn't much of a writer. Instead, he would end up using the torn pieces of paper to make paper balls and throw them against the wall or throw his daggers out of boredom. He would miss the exciting part of being a detective. He would be reminded by Annabelle or Marigold, both of which would probably would have found a creative way to be a detective during this time, that he should probably use the resources he has to be a detective.
So with the resources he has he would...
1. Write letters to people asking if any suspicious activity has happened.
2. Make a dart board out of unused love letters (this isn't really part of solving cases, but it is at least worth mentioning).
3. Imagine chasing down a criminal, and do target practice. (He will assure you that it will indeed be useful in the future).
4. If any suspicious activity has happened at all, he will investigate from the comforts of home, and continue to interrogate people through letters.
Juniper
Juniper has a hawk, whom she befriended, who helps her during the hunt.
She has found a way for there be communication with the other
dryads by having her hawk send messages back and forth. She wants to make sure the threat which they are dealing with is either gone or that they are able to hunt it down and kill it, if it is a monster.
While in communication with the other dryads, she would talk to some of her friends
who love talking to her about how things have been going with her. And she would tell them that she has continued her lessons with the goddess, Artemis, during this time. And that she is learning to be one with nature, instead of thinking she is above it
like mankind wants her to think.
Iris
Supposing Iris wasn't able to leave the temple because something was going on,
she would still continue her trainings with the other priestesses.
If the threat required them to battle something, they would be among the first defenders
to fight, after all they had years of training to act as defenders for mortals in physical form from the goddess. The priestesses are not only people who people turn to for religious reasons, but also
for reasons of protection, because they had been the shield maidens of the goddess and helped defend the gods in one of their past incarnations.
Assuming Iris didn't need to be called to battle, she would be in prayer in the temple.
She would ask the goddess for strength and protection. She would also practice meditation, hoping to get a message from the gods and goddesses through it.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Who would you rather be quarantined with? And whose quarantine would you like to see me write a short story about?
-Quinley
Hello fellow animators and Greek mythology enthusiasts.
I've talked about my recent writing and editing projects I've been working on. So, I thought it would be a good time to do an animation project post. Two years ago I announced that I was going to be animating Pandora's Box, but I didn't give any other details about it, so I figured it was time to tell you...
The scriptwriting portion This was the first time I wrote a script for something (besides a one woman show that I had worked on more recently in the summer of 2019--more on that later...). I might have to rewrite the script in some ways, and add some scenes into it, but so far I think it is a good first draft. I would like it to make it flow in the same ways that some of my stories do. Perhaps, I could make it a little less comedic, because I want it to be more serious. I find that when I write conversations, they tend to be a little weird, often with comedic elements, even when it is not intended. The reason I might have accidentally written it that way was that I had been writing a serious story before I wrote the script and wanted to write something more light-hearted...which isn't exactly what I want the whole script to be like. (I want it to have light-hearted bits, but as a whole I want it to be serious and have an epic feel to it). I am aiming for the script itself to be a little like the the movie Clash of the Titans (the 1981 version, not the new one).
(Image from Rotten Tomatoes, https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/clash_of_the_titans)
I like how they took Greek mythology and retold it. Though, there were some minor changes to mythology, they didn't make it a different story or mess up the Greek Gods' family tree (like Disney's Hercules does). I also like the High Fantasy feel they gave the myth, and I would love to apply that to Pandora's Box. I also want to have a subplot with Athena and Artemis in animated movie, because it was not brought up as much as I would have liked in the first draft. And since Pandora was the first human woman on Earth, Artemis and Athena would be obsessed and excited over her. Another issue I still have with my script is the timeline. As far as I am aware, it is never clear in mythology when the various gods or goddesses were born, but I am sure I can create a timeline for it. For example, Artemis and Apollo have to be born before Hermes in order for him to steal the cows, and Hephaestus has to be born before Athena in order for him to crack Zeus's head open and allow her to come out of it. And since in some versions of the myth of Prometheus (which is before Pandora's Box) Athena is there and breaths life into Prometheus's creation, she has to exist around this time... The only period of time when it is clear that Artemis and Athena are not there at all is during the battle when Zeus dethroned his father Cronus. But that was only because at the time Zeus had not exactly been married yet and had no children. (And he married Metis later...) But in terms of timeline I really like how George O'Connor handled it in his comic book series Olympians, because he had certain times that all the gods came in, and he also figured out what myths the different gods should or shouldn't be in. The storyboarding
One of the panels from my storyboard.
Storyboarding is very different from actually animating but it at least helps you get from here to there. At the beginning it feels a little like you are making a comic in some ways without there being any actually speech bubbles. The thing about storyboarding is that it has to be rough drawing and you shouldn't do an overly detailed one. It's almost like plotting out a story, except that it is telling you where the characters will go, and how the character gets from A to B. And then after you're done with that, the actual animating comes in.
I began by putting the storyboard frames into the frames of the animation, though
my animation will not be drawn in the same way, as the storyboard frames are drawn. The storyboard frames are just there so I can figure out where the characters are going.
For anyone who is interested in animating and wants to know what app I am using,
I am using Sketchbook. And I used Sketchbookx (a different app) to the draw the background.
I then began inserting the images from the storyboard into the frames. This took a little while to figure out, since I had never used it for storyboards before.
Hermes will not be floating (at least not floating and unable to see his lower half) in the actual animation
My intention for the story board was to get something like this near the end:
Though I must keep in mind that the storyboard above is probably a final and complete draft story board and not what the story was originally like. There were probably many other storyboards before it. But I was aiming for the feel of it, though mine probably isn't the last storyboard because I might have to rewrite the script (and take away some of the narration).
After that I added in some keyframes, to make it move and not jump from frame to frame.
The next thing I did was to try to make basic frames in between the keyframes that showed how the characters flowed within the scene. Once I finish this one storyboarding for the whole script, I will be able to go in and make animation that feels as if it flows well.
Concept Art...
In order to actually animate the characters, however, and not rely on my quickly drawn sketches for the storyboard, I have to figure out what exactly they look like. Of course this may change and grow as I am developing them...But here is the current view of the characters...
I actually looked at several sculptures of Artemis to draw her. She will probably get a more distinct design over time, but this is what I have currently. The statue references I used were this and this.
But this is my second concept drawing for Artemis, though I might keep the statue-like face while still making her more tough and less delicate looking. Or maybe instead make her look like this (even though I didn't use a statue as a reference):
I am thinking that Aphrodite will have a different facial shape than Artemis (whether it be that I decide to make Artemis have the facial shape above or not).
As for her hair, I was trying to give her two different shades of red that made a cool pattern throughout. However I also seem to be referencing in her hair the fact that she was a cause of a war, the Trojan War to be exact, and that a lot of blood was spilled over that. (Also one of the people she loves is Ares the god of war).
I think when I draw Hermes again, I'm going to make him tanner since he is the messenger of the gods, which would mean he would travel a lot. But this is a basic starting point for his concept art...
The next thing I want to do is what I did in the photo above, drawing the character multiple times. This was very helpful in developing Gletta's current appearance. So I assume this will also work with the concept art for the Greek gods and goddesses, and even for Pandora herself.
You might know Oak from my older posts, she is a half dryad ranger:
(An old drawing of Oak)
Her story was one of my first novels...that didn't end up working. But since I eventually plan to rewrite it (not now, but later), I decided I would get to know Oak. She will remain a character in the story (along with Delphi and Emily Stella), who will be the three female leads. (There will possibly be a fourth, but I don't know for sure right now).
So, it is time for another character interview! *A neon sign lights up*
*Audience applauds, and Oak walks in*
Me: It's wonderful to see you again, Oak. It's been a long time...and you look very different. Oak: *Nods* Indeed, *sits down on the seat and remains very alert* Indeed, it has been... Me: So...to start, I'll just simply ask, how are you? Oak: I'm fine, I just to need to make sure no one followed me here...*looks around the room* Me: Why would someone be following you? Oak: *Brings out bow and arrow* I don't know, but it would be better to be safe than sorry-- Me: *Looks over at the people who let Oak in* Weren't you supposed to take her weapons away from her? That's one of the rules. Security Officer Two: *Popping out from behind the curtain* It's been a long time since we have had one of these interviews, why do you expect us to remember these things? Me: Because you're security!
*A shrieking noise comes out from the left side of the stage, Oak aims her bow at it and shoots it* Security Officer one: Uhh... Me: So you let a creature in too? Oak: Don't blame them...these beings are very good at hiding. Anyway, you were going to interview me? Security officer one & two: If you want to fire us, because she is better-- Me: Shh...not now, we have an interview to do....
If you were to pick a song, what song do you think would describe you the most?
I do know some ballads, but they are mostly romantic ones, which hardly describes myself, but...
I do think this song sort of describes the energy I feel when fighting in battle: Underground by Lindsey Stirling
I suppose this is now three songs instead of one song.
But this song reminds me of the feeling I have when I go hunting in the forest.
What, do you think of romance, yes or no?
I'm not particularly interested in romance at the moment. Other girls may be interested in talking about what they think of romance on stage *makes a disgusted face* but I don't think it is something really worth talking about. I would rather be friends with boys than being in love with them. Can we please talk about something like weapons as opposed to romance? Me: Sure...here is a question you might like instead: Sword or bow?
Oh good! I've used bows and arrows more often, but I am not limited to only that.
I do use daggers and swords if my opponent sneaks up on me and I am unprepared...
So to answer your question, I like both. If you were going to a party, what would you wear?
Even if it was a festive party, I can't let my guard down. And wearing a dress would limit my abilities to protect myself. Yes people would expect me to wear one...
but for safety...I would wear something else...
My first option would be this toga:
(Image from wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_William_Waterhouse#/media/File:Circe_Offering_the_Cup_to_Odysseus.jpg (if you are uncomfortable with nudity, there is some nudity in a few of John William Waterhouse's paintings. I just wanted to warn you, if you decide to put the link into your search-bar.) )
Though it would be comfortable, it wouldn't provide much protection from possible attackers. Especially since it is easy to tell if one is hiding weapons in it.
And then I would consider this one:
(Image from wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tauriel)
It would protect me, but everyone would wonder why I was not wearing something fancy for the party and why I was being on guard.
So in the end to fulfill my need for comfort during a party, and my need for safety I would wear this:
(Image from wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_William_Waterhouse#/media/File:Miranda_-_John_William_Waterhouse.jpg (if you are uncomfortable with nudity, there is some nudity in a few of John William Waterhouse's paintings. I just wanted to warn you, if you decide to put the link into your search-bar.) )
This isn't a see-through dress so I can hide daggers around my legs,
(Image from Pixabay, https://pixabay.com/photos/knife-weapon-middle-ages-blade-1730010/)
because carrying around a bow and arrow wouldn't exactly make everyone in the party feel comfortable.
A man out of nowhere. Asks you to marry him. What do you do? (Note that he happens to be a prince from a kingdom, and is looking for someone to marry and be his queen).
I would decline, though ruling a kingdom might be an interesting thing, its not for me.
I know many girls would gladly give anything to marry a prince out of nowhere, so that they could rule a kingdom. But ruling a kingdom wouldn't be of much use to me, for it wouldn't help the world, because I would be helping but a single kingdom, and not the whole world itself.
(Last question) Who is your favorite Greek goddess? And why?
This is probably very obvious.
(Image from wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis#/media/File:Diane_de_Versailles_Leochares.jpg (warning: if you are uncomfortable with nudity, there are a few nude paintings of Greek gods in the article, so be warned.))
But Artemis the goddess of the hunt, childbirth, and the wild is my favorite. I've always looked up to her archery abilities, and especially the fact that she loves nature.
Me: Well...that is all the time we have for now. But the next two characters who are going to be interviewed are Riona "Fire" and Celtiere*points to the audience* and I need your questions for them! I am going to make Character Interviews something that the audience (readers) can participate in. So it would be very helpful if you could leave comments asking questions for Riona and Celtiere.
See you next time! *Curtain closes and fades to black*
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Who is your favorite Greek goddess? How would your own characters react to the questions I asked Oak?
-Quinley
