🎄Happy Holidays From Matilda Moore🎄

Happy Holidays, everyone!

This holiday season you are enjoying the colorful decorations, and have finished wrapping presents, when you suddenly realize you are not alone...

You hear the sounds of footsteps, laughter, and a woman’s voice… when you come into your living room, you see a ghostly woman sitting beside the crackling fire. She is reading your copy of M.R. James’s Christmas Ghost Stories!? Why would a ghost want to read about ghosts? You don’t have time to question that as you realize…You are being haunted by the ghost of Matilda Moore. 

Matilda wishes you a haunted holiday season! 

-Quinley 

Reintroducing Felix & Matilda Moore

Hello everyone,

 Usually, these types of posts are for characters who have been created recently. However, I felt it was time that I reintroduce some characters that have very recently gone through a lot of changes. The characters are Matilda and Felix Moore from Dolls of Wax, Eyes of Glass. They have developed since I first wrote about them in 2021, and I want to show how they have changed, since I mentioned it briefly in an Inktober post. 

 I plan to update their character profiles soon, but I decided I should also reintroduce them here via a blog post. So, let's begin: 

  Felix Moore 

Felix is the older of the two siblings. He believes that the world itself is a dream and nothing more. Because of this, he thinks that there is no meaning to life, and all events, actions, etc. that one experiences or takes essentially mean nothing.

He enjoys spending his time reading, thinking about different philosophies, and having discussions about controversial philosophical topics with his group of friends. Due to a situation within their family (which he won't discuss), Felix has gone from being simply a brother to Matilda to having to act as her guardian. This has caused disagreements between them. 

  Matilda Moore 

Matilda is the younger of the two siblings. She is a quiet person; however, she can also turn rebellious if she feels strongly about something. Matilda is a Spiritualist: she believes one can contact people from beyond the grave. She also has an interest in the occult and supernatural. Matilda often likes to daydream about different adventures that she could have, based on her favorite books. And, like her brother, she often spends her time in the library. 

However, since Felix has become her guardian, there have been disagreements between them. Mostly, these disagreements come from Matilda's rebelliousness toward her brother, but they are also influenced by Felix's (supposed) desire to keep Matilda safe. 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Between Felix and Matilda, which are you interested in learning more about (after their changes)? And how have your own characters grown and changed throughout the years? 

-Quinley 

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

Miscellaneous Drawings #10

Hello everyone, 

I've been busy and not able to post. But, I've been working on my digital art and I wanted to share some of the pieces I made, along with some much less recent artwork. 

I've been doing a digital art course, and this was one of the drawings I ended up doing of my character Matilda. I plan to do this style more in the future. 

I decided to do a black and white drawing of Ophelia. I like how it turned out. 

 

A character sheet for Cheetah Girl. It was fun to draw her for it. 

This is Marigold. I'm currently working on concept artwork for Arisias's story, and this was one of the drawings for it. 

This is the water snake woman who appears in Arisias's story. 

A drawing of Ferdinand. This is close to how I imagine him appearing, and I like how it turned out

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

Which drawing is your favorite? 

-Quinley

My Art from The February Faces Challenge (2023) | Part Three

Click here to read part 1 and part 2. 

Here is the final part of The February Faces Challenge. It was a fun challenge and I am glad I did it. I think I will do it again next year, since it helped me draw more of my characters. 

  Here is the official (optional) prompt list: 

Day #19 Eyewear, Ocean Guy adjusting his glasses.

Day #20 Cheeky, I didn't do cheeky in the traditional sense. I instead drew Matilda from Dolls of Wax, Eyes of Glass feeling embarrassed. And I drew attention attention to the blush in her cheeks.  

Day #21 Thoughtful, I decided to draw Marigold. She's a character from The Mystery of the Body Thief my fantasy/murder mystery, and I decided to give her an outfit redesign. 

Day #22 bald, I drew Picard from Star Trek: The Next Generation as he was the first character that came to mind with the prompt bald. 

If anyone is wondering, I haven't seen the new show Picard. I am disappointed in what I've heard of it. It appears to have gone dark and grim, when instead I feel as if it should be optimistic like Star Trek usually is. In my opinion, they should have gone in the direction that the Leverage reunion show did, which was to have a light-hearted (and similar) take on the characters coming back together. Otherwise, it feels like Star Trek discounts Picard's character arc, that was brought on in particular by Q in "Tapestry." 

Day #23 on the telly, I decided to draw a news show, that would appear in the world of my super hero characters, airing a story of about a villain covering the city in slime. 

Day #24 hat/headwear, this is a drawing my character when she became the Mother the Elements. I picture this to be when she was younger and had found her purpose as a goddess. This is a drawing of the moment when she is about to put her circlet on her head. 

Day #25 old, I drew Elvin the Silver, a wizard Dungeons & Dragons character of mine. 

He was inspired by Gandalf from Lord of the Rings. 

Day #26 Silly Face, This is another Dungeons & Dragons character of mine, Jinx. I figured this would be a face he would make if he saw something insane happen in one of the campaigns. 

(Which does happen most of the time, whether he does it or another player's character does).

Day #27 self portrait, because I didn't feel like drawing myself (I did though enter in a self portrait contest last year, so I am not entirely against drawing myself), I felt like drawing one of my characters holding a self portrait of themselves. So, I drew Gaia, a Tiefling, holding a portrait of herself that I drew in 2020. Combining new art with old art. 

Day #28 sleeping, I drew Kira for this one. On her bed is her phone which is playing an audiobook, and the portal to fairyland is open.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Which drawing is your favorite? Have you played Dungeons and Dragons? 

-Quinley 

Using Polls to Create Art #9

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

Hello everyone, 

it's time for another installment of Using Polls to Create Art.

 Unless otherwise stated every drawing was the result of a majority vote. This time around you may see some familiar characters, along with characters you have not yet met before, who will reappear in other posts. 😉

Let's begin... 

A drawing in which Tesariel "Tess" Short is celebrating the winter holidays. I had the voters vote on which character I should draw celebrating the holidays, and Tess won. It's been a while since I drew her, and felt good to draw her again. 

This drawing was based on a painting that the voters chose. Here is the painting that the drawing is based on, though I changed the setting from being outdoors to indoors. 

On the wall is a portrait that I think looks like Felix, though it is actually a self portrait of Arthur Hughes. I decided when making this drawing that it would be fun to do a multimedia piece. 

From the poll that I had in the previous post, here is the violinist as a fairy. 

And here is the video showing the process of drawing it. 

I had the voters vote on which outfit Elm should wear, and this one won. While Elm isn't a fighter with weapons (she uses her magical singing voice), I imagine that if she went on a quest with Oak (since they live in the same world), that she would probably borrow a sword from Oak for this. 

This is a reimagining of one of my old super heroes, Cheetah Girl. I redesigned her outfit, since her original outfit had been pretty much a copy of the cheetah creature power suit from Wild Kratts (that I watched when I was a kid). I had the voters vote on which of my super heroes I should redraw and Cheetah Girl was the first to win. 

Here is what her design originally looked like. 

This wasn't a majority vote but it was suggested by Tammie Lee at Beauty Flows. The suggestion was a fairy that lives in a tree, and it was fun to draw. It made me think about what type of fairy would live in a tree, and I decided to make her like one of those Victorian-style fairies. 

And here is the video of the process of making it. 

This is Ocean Guy, he was a character who came from a  super hero comic I made using Pixton. I had the voters decide on which super hero I should redraw/redesign and he won. I've been thinking that he would fit into the same world as Cheetah Girl and Skunk Girl, perhaps they could be a team of nature-related super heroes. 

So, I had a lot of old super heroes I made when I was younger. One of them was Skunk Girl (not Super Girl, Skunk Girl), I don't know what made me want to make her a skunk super hero!? And she came from the same world as another super hero of mine, Cheetah Girl. 

         Now for a new poll: This one is a bit different, instead of asking which character I should draw, it's asking what a character should be doing...

  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Which drawing is your favorite? What are some of your favorite super heroes? 

-Quinley 

I Finished the Second Draft of Dolls of Wax, Eyes of Glass!

                                                              Greetings Travelers, 

On December 4th, I finished the second draft of Dolls of Wax, Eyes of Glass. I'm happy about that, since that means I can move onto the third draft. And I have a lot of plans for the third draft.

In comparison to the first draft, the second draft was much longer. I felt as if I knew the characters better. Hopefully I can carry that forward into the 3rd draft. 

                                                                               Synopsis 

Genre: Gothic horror | Historical fiction 

      Matilda Moore was found dead at the castle, her brother, Felix, is missing. No trace of him was found except an eyeless wax doll made in his likeness. What happened at the castle is unknown, but it is as if something evil is lurking within it...something evil is causing these terrible events to happen.

What's Next For Dolls of Wax, Eyes of Glass? 

My plan, given that the writing style seemed somewhat modern, is to try to make it sound more like a 19th century novel. This seems important, because both the narrators are from that time period. 

The novels I'm using as an inspiration for the style are Jane Eyre and The Picture of Dorian Gray. In the second draft the characters sometimes (accidentally) use modern words, which I didn't realize until much later. I want the reader to feel as if they are reading a book from the past that someone happened to uncover, rather than a book by someone attempting to write about the past. 

I did write about the journey to the haunted castle in the second draft, but I feel I didn't write as much about it as I could. In the third draft, I will likely take inspiration from the characters' journeys through the country side in Dracula and Jane Eyre, since the landscape in my novel, is very important in representing how the characters are feeling. 

The characters, Matilda and Felix, have changed a lot since the first draft. And I feel like I have a better understanding of them as characters, than I did in the first draft. However, outside of my novel this does mean I will have to update their profile pages on my blog. They are rather outdated and don't really reflect their characters as they are now. 

(Image from wiki commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:John_Beattie_Eugene_Rochas_seance.jpg)

Another thing I am going to do is research the Spiritualist Movement, because Matilda is a part of it. It is important to how she views certain situations, so I want to make sure I get some of those details right. 

There are also stylistic choices I made in Felix's telling, that I wish to keep in the new draft, but want to make sure make sense to the reader as they read. Those choices show his state of mind, and that he may be unreliable. So, I am going to try and figure out how to do that better in the third draft. 

These are my plans for the third draft ahead. 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------What's your favorite 19th century novel? Do you like to write or read historical fiction? 

-Quinley

Miscellaneous Drawings #3

Previous parts: #1 and #2 

This post will contain a mixture of old and new drawings.

And as an update, I will be posting the next part of Using Polls to Create Art sometime in the near future, but in the meantime you can still vote on the poll at the end of that post here. 

Let's begin: 

This was originally drawn for a Halloween post, however, that post didn't end up working. This is a drawing of Matilda in a wizard/witch Halloween costume. I drew this before I knew her very well, so thinking about it now she would probably dress up as a heroine from one of her favorite Gothic novels. 

A drawing of Deet from The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance. 

Deet was one of my favorite characters from the show, and I hope someday someone decides to bring the TV show back. I am still sad that it was canceled. I drew this around the time that the show first came out. 

 

This is one of two drawings I created for a prompt on NaNoWriMo which was "what would your character's zoom background be?" However, I took this a step further and decided to draw how my characters would react if they had Zoom. 

This comic is for my novel, Dolls of Wax, Eyes of Glass. In the comic Matilda is talking to her mother about the haunted estate that she and her brother just moved into. Since this is Matilda at the beginning of the story, she is enjoying the idea of living in a haunted castle, without realizing what dangers it will hold... Also Matilda's and Felix's mother, sadly, is having a bit of difficulty with Zoom, so can't turn her video on. 

Side note, I feel as if the horrible things that happen in my story would be prevented if my characters had modern technology and long distance communication that didn't take a long time to deliver. 

Here's an old drawing I did of Kira from The Dark Crystal. She was really fun to draw. 

This second response to the prompt was inspired by this video. 

This is for my other novel (though I have many I'm working on), The Mystery of the Body Thief. 

Basically, this woud happen if Ophelia and D.I. Time had Zoom:

D.I. Time would accidentally turn on a dragon filter, and since shapeshifting exists in that world, he  does have to clarify that he didn't get magically turned into a dragon. 

I realize I haven't made many posts on my blog relating to Sebastian. He only has a few posts in which he's featured, which were a drawing of him included in a tag post, and posts I made all the way back in 2016. To give you some background on the character, Sebastian is Oak's twin brother (like her, he is a half dryad). He works as a healer, and gets his healing powers from the Greek god, Apollo. And if you're interested, here is his profile page. 

This is a drawing of Iris I created a while ago, but I really like how her veil turned out. 

And lastly, here is a recent portrait style I made of Riona "Fire."

I like how her hair turned out. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Which drawing is your favorite? And how would your characters react if they had Zoom? 

-Quinley