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

Introducing Some Characters: Super Heroes

Hello everyone, 

I figured it was time to do another Introducing Some Characters post. But this time I decided do it with characters I introduced in this post and expand upon their backstories in this one. 

These characters I came up with when I was younger, so I want to revisit them and use them in a story again some day. I may also share some of the old comics that I wrote about them in future posts. 

 Let's begin: 

 Cheetah Girl 

Cheetah Girl is a girl who has the ability to run as fast as a Cheetah, as well as turn into one. She has an alternate ego called Christina Williams. In order to disguise herself she has to wear contacts to cover her eyes which resemble a Cheetah's.

 She came from another world, where people can shape-shift into animals of their choosing. Upon arriving on Earth, she realized it was her duty to be a super hero and protect the world from villains. 

Ocean Guy 

Ocean Guy got his powers from Trickle (his mentor), a neriad who has a connection to the Greek gods. She gained her powers from Poseidon and gave some of them to Ocean Guy.

He has ocean related powers, which means he can conjure up a giant wave, control water, and even talk to ocean life. His cape is made out of actual water, and if he wishes to he can make it water again and use it in battle. When he is not a super hero, he is a swimming teacher by the name of Ethan Triton, and teaches people how to swim in the ocean. 

Skunk Girl 

While it would seem Skunk Girl came from the same world as Cheetah Girl, but she didn't. In fact, she used to be a normal girl before an experiment went wrong and turned her into Skunk Girl. A scientist had intended to figure out how to extract the powers from Cheetah Girl's alien race, only for it to go horribly wrong. 

Instead of discovering the force required to fully control the ability to morph into an animal, Skunk Girl became a half-human half-animal and turned into a skunk-human hybrid. Even though she became a super hero, she longs to prevent something like this from happening to other people in the future. However, she covers up her difficult emotions about her past with humor and is one of the happiest super heroes you will meet. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Which character is your favorite? Which of their powers would you rather have? 

-Quinley 

Miscellaneous Drawings #7

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

Greetings everyone, 

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 then someone 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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Which drawing is your favorite? What's your favorite season?

-Quinley 

God of Mischief | An Original Song

I wrote a song about my character, Karleon. He is a character who I have talked about before, and you may recognize him as the blue haired elf who wished you a happy New Year's. Karleon, if you don't know already is the god of mischief from the Fantasy world I'm world-building. And this song, I envision being played in a tavern, and would often be played during the Festival of Magic in honor of him.                                                    

                                                   Here is the lyric video for the song: 

You can also listen to it here 

And below is the audio for the song without the lyric video.  When I posted a song through SoundCloud previously, there were technical difficulties. This time around I have included both the 

  Soundcloud and Bandlab audio versions of this song. So if you're stuck and they won't play you can click on either, or click on the link below to be taken directly to the pages where they are posted. 

 

                                  Phoenix The Poet · God of Mischief

                                                 You can also listen to it here

 

You can also listen to it here

💙 Lyrics 💙- 

In between worlds was a god,

Under a facade of innocence,

The world was in a prolonged bliss,

For there was no chaos in it,

Come to me, come to me.

 Karleon, come to me,

God of mischief and prophecy,

Come to me, come to me.

The magic from the world was hidden,

To be used by mortals was forbidden,

But the gods hatched a plan,

And the quest to release chaos

Began.

Come to me, come to me.

Oh Karleon, come to me,

God of chaos and prophecy,

Come to me, come to me.

With beauty and slyness,

Did they steal magic,

From the righteous

King and queen,

Things are never as they seem,

Things are never as they seem,

So, magic of all kinds was released,

To mortal, king, princess, peasant, and priest.

So balanced the world became,

And things were never the same.

Come to me, come to me.

Oh Karleon, come to me,

God of thieves and prophecy,

Come to me, come to me.

This was Karleon’s first trick,

Before he became the sly and slick,

God we’ve come to know,

Now go out into the winter snow,

And remember this tale,

And know not to underestimate,

What all of us 

Can create.

Oh Karleon, come to me,

God of many things and prophecy,

Come to me, come to me.

Come to me.

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What's your favorite lyric from my song? Do you have a favorite trickster deity or myth involving a trickster? 

-Quinley 

My Animation Reels (2015-2022)

 I have some animation reels I want to share. I just got back into animating and am working on a short film (that I just finished the storyboard for, and am planning to animate in the near future). 

 I wanted to share these reels. They showcase my animations from the past (from 2015 and onwards) and my recent ones (in 2022)....

This is the first reel. Some of these I made when I first started animating. So, you will see changes throughout. 

And here is the second reel. I made this somewhat more recently from 2017 to 2022. 

This, is a more recent animation, that I made of my character, Ophelia. It was really fun to make and my plans in 2023, are to finish the short film (or at least get a portion of it done), and animate even more consistently than I did last year.

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Which animation is your favorite? Have you animated before? 

-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 

A Look Into a World #4: The War Between the Sun & The Moon (The Princess Arisias Mystery Series)

                        (Picture from Pixabay, I normally use my own photos, but I did not have a photo of stars). 

Previous parts: #1, #2, and #3.  

Greetings travelers, 

I decided it was time for another installment of Look Into a World. This post is centered around two gods, one of which I introduced in this post. 

By the way, in the first installment of Look Into a World, I posted a song that inspired a part of the world-building. I should say this cover of a song inspired a part of world-building for this post: 

You'll see which part when reading... 

 The War in the Sky 

In the world where Arisias lives, the humans and elves believe that the sun and the moon are in a constant war, where each night/day one of the gods wins, temporarily. 

The moon goddess represents strategic warfare. Mortals who worship her call upon her in battle or when they looking for a strategic way to win. The moon goddess does help people outside of war, as well, with philosophy and non-war related activities. In contrast, the god of the sun, represents bloody warfare, and doesn't care about strategy only blood-shed. 

During the night, the moon goddess overpowers the sun god by using his own light against him. In the daytime, the sun god uses his light to overpower the moon goddess. Hence, while the moon may appear in the sky during the day, the moon goddess did not win that fight. 

The times we would consider the winter and summer solstice, are the times when holidays around victory of a certain god are considered. If the day is shorter than the goddess of the moon won the battle for the meantime and is making the god of the sun weaker, if the god of the sun and it is the summer solstice and the day is longer, it is believed the god of the sun won the battle for the meantime. 

And when there is a solar or lunar eclipse, it is believed the gods are fighting in closer quarters than usual. 

(Salissah and a comet). 

Salissah (the goddess of the moon) and god of the sun choose warrior spirits to fight alongside them. They are warriors who died in battle, and are chosen to fight. So they fall in a second battle for their selected god. When they fall, they are represented as shooting stars/comets and are then sent to the afterlife.

The war between the two gods was foretold by Karleon. However, the sun god did not believe this prophecy, for he believed Karleon was tricking them somehow. Salissah believed she could find a way to avoid the consequences. It is unclear what event exactly caused the war in the sky, however, one answer tellers like to say is that the fay and human war is what caused it. For every god had to pick a side in that war. Because of their opposing sides, the sun god and the moon goddess were destined to be enemies afterwards. It is often modified by the teller what the true cause was, depending on the place or time period. 

Relationship Between the Devotees  

(a devotee to the moon goddess (left), a devotee to the sun god (right).) 

Interestingly compared to Karleon and the god of time, the devotees in this case are rather nice to each other. They have a hope that one day the war between the sun and the moon gods will be resolved. And while they don't agree on everything, and fights do sometimes happen, most devotees don't get into heated debates over this. 

However, other devotees are not very calm about the human and fay war, and they always ask "which god are devoted to?" in order to gather what side that person may be on. However, because the war related to the humans and fay is so complicated that even knowing the gods that the person is devoted to, may not tell you their opinion on the war as a whole. This is especially true since the person may disagree with their gods' opinion. 

It happened that Elyerin (aka Detective Inspector Time) fought in the fay and human war before becoming a detective. He was on the side of the fay during the war. And while he ended up being devoted to neither god (he instead ended up being devoted to the god of time), his side of the war strongly honored the goddess of the moon. 

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Whose side (the moon goddess or the sun god) would you be on? What's your favorite myth involving the sun and the moon? 

-Quinley