A Final Design for the Road

Well, I can’t finish without a glimpse into my digital sketchbook. I have a cool concept for a Chinese water/lake ghost thrown from the Ming Dynasty to the mid 2000s. This was purely because I think Ming Dynasty Hanfu is pretty and I want to do something with it. Hanfu and its associated hairstyles and accessories can get complicated, which I had to work into my more streamlined schedule. I want to create details that evoke complicatedness without the design actually getting complicated. I’m still hammering it out.

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My vision was for a fairy-like character. So that meant lots of feminine features and pastels.

I had to go through a lot of hair concepts before I found something I liked. I like the side-pony because I imagine it would look good flowing around in water.

Here are my attempts at hammering out the cloud collar, which is a fancy upper garment. I had settled on water lilies for the hair, but I didn’t want to repeat the motif for the collar. I want her design to say ‘lake’ instead of ‘lily’. I settled on a design that resembles the fog above lakes.

Here’s the final-ish iteration! I still have a monster form to think about, but I’m happy with how her human form turned out.

Two Men Arrive in a Village

Earlier this semester, I did some mockup picture book pages of a hypothetical adaptation of Zadie Smith’s “Two Men Arrive in a Village.” I figured since the story already reads as a folktale, why not go the way of so many folktales, and adapt it into a children’s book? I also took inspiration from Robert Mosse’s pictures that were paired with the story.

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Here are my preliminary sketches. I was going for a dreamlike, candyland quality, which makes it all the more impactful when war crimes start happening.

Headshots + Website!

I made a website with short stories about my world for a class last semester. Meant to post it at the end of last semesters, but here it is! It has short stories, an intro, and a bunch of character intros. Here is all the headshots I drew for the website:

Over the break, I redesigned some characters, so the sheet’s already a bit outdated. I didn’t want to spend too much time on the art, hence the rough coloring style.

Designing a Character for a Friend

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I designed a DnD character for a friend for their next next birthday (considering I already got them a gift when they suggested the art could be a birthday gift). The character’s a homebrewed warlock-flavored subclass with a frosty demon transformation, working for a chained and bloody god despite secretly being an atheist. Fancy!

I started by doing various fashion concept sketches:

Friend picked a mix of 2, 3, 5, 8, and 10 for the outfits (they really like the split sleeves), so I did a combo design. Here’s the final outfit and face sketch:

I made two versions of the sheet. One with lots of rubies, and one with less rubies. Friend liked the rubyless one because their character’s not that rich.

And here’s the transformed versions. I used a lot of the glitter brush to get that icy look. I also had the concept of the chains unraveling when they transform, as well as the hair colors switching.

Illy

Imagine this: Skinless ghost with rose powers. That’s Illy!

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Illy’s based on Julia Cotton from Hellraiser and Mark Twain. I prefer the flower vest over the normal vest and tie, it gives her a supernatural element. She looks like a modern and classy villain, wich I’m going for. When she gets angry, she both bleeds and sprouts through the bandages.

Lias Design Stuff

Something Traditional! Here are my sketches for Lias, both original mode, supermode, and unhinged supermode. You can see me figuring out their hair, bolide logo, and “fat tie” in the first picture. The second pic has me figuring out his supermode outfit, with the black markings and corset-thing. As well as what the unhinged, monster version should look like, all stretched out and dark.