Harwing vs. Manitu

Here's another sketch I managed to come up with. I went outside of my comfort zone with Harwing's pose. Something about it is not quite right (are his legs too short?), but I still like the general composition. It does look like he's running away, but hopefully you get a sense that he might be planning his counter attack.



That handsome gentleman chasing our hero is Manitu, the all-too-powerful and quite-predictably-evil sorcerer in the Gilded Saga story. As you can tell, they don't ... quite ... get along. Manitu's design is not final, but it's probably close. His staff/cane is supposed to be a crow's head.

I'd like to ink and color this picture next, I think it could turn out nice.

Here Be Dragons!

Here's a generic dragon to take up space!



Whee! I think he's got a certain charm to him, and he looks like he's rather annoyed, craning his neck to tell those damn villagers to just shut up.

Epic Battle

Well, I went ahead and finished it. I'm not quite sure what to do with the background, whatever I could think of would distract from the foreground. Maybe a simple gradient will suffice.

This is easily one of the most epic things I've created in a long time:



(most definitely click to view the 800 x 600 version -- the full resolution of the version on my computer is 3200 x 2400)

I finished coloring Myrxus and Danter this morning, and did their shading over a couple of hours this afternoon. Finally, I drew/scanned the "Hell Snake" and colored him as well. I'm not entirely happy with the stone bridge, but I think the lava's neat. Drawing each of those stones in the bridge took forever, and I got lazy towards the end and ended up just drawing jaggy lines all over the place.

Finally, I added glowy/gradienty effects for the various heroes' spells and weapons.

I know the perspective is not perfect on the characters (first, you would see the *back* of the Hell Snake if he was really facing off against the heroes), and the anatomy may be lacking in the heroes. I feel I get a little better with the cel shading everytime I try, but I still have a hard time making things look voluminous ... I can probably blame some of that on my line work.

I do think the wonky perspective does have a charm to it, makes it seem more like a folk painting than an image of an actual event.

Any comments?

P.S. I should take time off of work more often!

Harwing in Technicolor (where available)

Here's a Harwing color test. I "inked" him with the Wacom and applied the base color. I'm not too thrilled with the armor color. I'm going for bronze, but this looks kind of pink/orange to me.



Thoughts?

Gilded Saga

My week off of work starts off strong! I managed to crank out new "in pose" sketches of Harwing, Danter and Myrxus. I'll color them separately and composite them into a larger picture.

First, Danter:


He's knealing, deep in a meditation/prayer.

Next, Myrxus:


He looks deceptively calm, for a Wizard about to unleash some ass-kicking! Maybe he's recharging his mana?

Finally, Harwing:

I love how he turned out. I like the design and the bad-ass expression on his face. He's so X-Treme. To the max. Mega.

Wizards and Clerics

Finally managed to muster up a sketch that didn't make me vomit. A couple, in fact. These are really hastily done, but I like the designs more than the execution. I hope to clean them up or re-do them in full color soon.

I had an idea to revisit a drawing I did probably 10 years ago, in High School. The drawing featured three characters, a Paladin, a Wizard and a Cleric, facing off against a dragon-y thing.

So the first step is to update those old characters. It had been so long that I almost forgot their names!

First, the Cleric, Danter:



I really tried to play up his robes. I almost always drawing Clerics or Wizards with plain, boring robes. I think it would be quite the opposite in real life, and that they would wear robes adorned in lots of hand-sewn details that each meant something to their faith or practice. I imagine his robe to be white, but the trim to be red and gold.

And here's Myrxus, the Elemental Wizard:



Again, I paid attention to the details. I imagine his robe to be all the colors of twilight, dark blues, purples, sapphire and hints of deep crimson reds and burnt oranges.