Pachamama to the Incan people was known as the mother and Goddess of the earth and fertility. She was a protector and provider f and demanded offerings from her worshipers. If they did not comply she would punish them with diseases. I wanted to make this character I drew similar to the other characters I have created this semester as if she is a modern retelling of this goddess.
There is something to be said about the stars. When the night is full and the clouds hidden, I take it upon myself to venture into the night and study them alone. Their empty vastness compels me more than any meeting, problem, or intrigue; they are, from my vantage, infinite.
I revel in my smallness. It reminds me that the matters to which I bestow great importance shall not linger long. Most of what I do is too insignificant to be remembered by history. I take comfort in that, for it makes my troubles seem less daunting, my fears less prominent. I am but one figure amidst the million forms of life that occupy this space. My smile, my laugh, my body, they will not be remembered. Memories of my existence will fade within a lifetime after I am gone. It is a sobering thought, yet I find it peaceful.
Tonight was the night that the Archer passed the realm to the King1. This is the time in which royal power is at its strength, when King Stergye is most likely to gain counsel for the stars. I am looking at the stars for him. Even if they do not give me counsel, the presence of them allows me to think through all that troubled me during the day. The Roshevian ambassador, the harshness of my Lord, the worries of the King. The strange rumors I have heard about the ambassador who left rather abruptly seem distant when I am surrounded by cold, clean air.
I have lived a good life. Fifty-six years of existence, thirty of them serving the King, have led me to accept my insignificance. King Stergye will be remembered for some time, and I will not. Eventually, memories of Stergye and Tokavsk will fade from the consciousness of our yet-distant descendants. And to me, there is nothing but peace.
This is Nagosta Vo. They are an employee at this weird house covered in art. You can often find them playing video games in the vents and being a general menace to the rest of the employees.
I put their hair up, tucked their sweater in, and gave them knee pads for better mobility and vent-crawling.They have albinism and dye their hair, and I like my decision to show their roots. I used bright green as an accent color to signal their loud personality and love for video games.
The bottom picture was completed first. As you can see from the first image, I changed their eye shape and hairstyle when coming up with the outfit. It’s easier to draw expressions that way.
Apologies for the lack of a post last week. I’ll make an extra post to make up for the gap.
Recently I realized that I’m lacking character design work, specifically turnarounds, in my portfolio. As a result, I decided to make more detailed character sheets for my cast of original characters for my cyberpunk/post-apocalyptic story idea “Blade of Seafoam”. If I were to one day make “Blade of Seafoam” into a video game or a comic where I have other artists assisting me (e.g. 3D modelers or character artists on a video game, art assistants on a comic) I would need to have these design sheets to pass along to other artists as a reference for how they should depict the characters. Even if I don’t end up doing anything substantial with the “Blade of Seafoam” story concept, I can still use these in my portfolio to apply for character design jobs with larger companies.
What I want to do next is work on turnarounds/orthographic (internal/detail) views of the mechs in Blade of Seafoam to better establish the world that these characters live in as well as demonstrate my ability to draw mechs when applying to video game art jobs. Stay tuned to see those!
Also, if anyone is interested in seeing me in real life, I’ll be selling my art in the Artist Alley at Con Ja Nai at the MLB on April 8th, and I hope to table at more conventions pending results! (I’m still waiting on artist alley application results from Anime Central and Dokidokon in particular).
Lyrics from “A Portrait Of” by Sorority Noise. This impactful song expresses the singer’s desire to help his friends through their mental health issues while also dealing with his own. Though the song is full of powerful lines, I particularly liked the lyric: “so I’ll say it again and again / and again and again / and again and again / and again and again / I’m not trying to say it’s easy / but I’m trying to say it’s fine”. I like how simple the line “it’s fine” is. The singer’s not saying that the struggles his friends face are meaningful, or to ignore or get over them. He’s just saying that “it’s fine”. To me it seems like he’s trying to get his friend to simply be okay with going through the hard parts of life, as they’re impossible to avoid.
Happy Wednesday everyone! We’re bringing back the pen reviews this week with what are probably the most famous brush pens of all time: Tombow Dual Brush Pens.
The swatches of the colors I have are pictured here, but my collection pales in comparison to the huge color selection these pens come in. As you can see from my swatches, each color is given its own number, and the ones I have go into the 900s. I’m not sure what the exact number of colors Tombow has released with this pen, but it’s clearly at least 1000, which is probably one of the biggest selections ever.
These pens are highly beloved in the lettering community, but to be honest, I’m not their #1 fan. Yes, they do have their fair share of good qualities: of course, there’s the virtually limitless color selection, but the pens also have good quality ink that’s vibrant and smooth.The ink is water-based, which means you can blend it using water, either before or after putting it on the page, to create a really nice watercolor effect.
The pens also have two ends (hence the “dual brush pen” title), a brush tip and a bullet tip. This is nice for getting the most out of your marker, because you can achieve totally different effects with each tip, and a lot of other pens do this as well. Finally, because of their popularity, these pens are in pretty much every art store, so they’re super accessible in terms of being able to get your hands on them (plus you can test them out individually at Michael’s!).
However, there are a lot of things I don’t love about these pens. First off, they’re pretty expensive. Most high quality brush pens are, but in my opinion, these could be better for the price. Sometimes the price drops on Amazon, but for the most part a set of 10 goes for $26.99. Price aside, the pens themselves aren’t my absolute favorite. The pen body is really long and top heavy, which can make them a bit awkward to write with, and also makes it so they don’t fit in most regular pencil cases. My biggest issue with these, however, is how easily they fray. Most brush pens fray eventually, especially felt ones like these, but these fray faster than any pen I’ve used, especially for that high of a price. If you want them to stay sharp past a few uses, you have to get special paper that’s extra smooth, which is totally doable, it’s just an extra hassle.
All in all, the color range is my favorite thing about these. The pens are nice, but I would still say they’re pretty overrated. You could get a lot of other pens that are much nicer for a cheaper price point.
