I’ve been putting the final adjustments for the first chapter of The Harbinger’s Path, and thought it would be fun to show two past paintings of Trahearne and Malyck which were early representations for what has developed into this comic project. Only, when I saw the Malyck painting again, all I could notice were all the errors I wanted to fix!
I ended up spending some time yesterday doing a paintover of it – for fun, but also for practice. At the time it was painted (all the way back in 2018), I could see there were errors – which I had tried to fix, but not entirely successfully. It ended up being very satisfying painting over it, as I could now do many of the things I aspired to do at the time, but which were out of grasp for my skill level (though the current version is not perfect by any means – but hopefully mostly presentable in its current state, haha).
I also realized there were several things about Malyck’s design which I didn’t draw accurately back then – mainly his leather gauntlets and additional belt straps (though by far not limited to only those). I could not believe I forgot his additional belt straps, because nowadays, those are some of my favorite aspects of his design to draw!
Above are the current and original versions, for comparison. I still think the overall concept for the 2018 painting was solid, but the intended pose I was going for was more complex than what my skill level was capable of back then.
The raw file for this updated version is very messy in its full resolution, which is why I don’t consider it finished yet (and in the version without the additional color washes, you can plainly see the unfinished, rough areas). Until then, hopefully its current state is again mostly presentable!
And here it is as the pair of paintings I intended to post yesterday (now with this updated version of the Malyck painting).
The Trahearne painting is even older, from 2016. There are definitely parts of the anatomy I would do differently now, but I think compared to the 2018 version of the Malyck painting, this worked much better because of the decorative aspect of the sylvari design (I’m perpetually in awe of Kristen Perry’s design direction for concepting them – if you’ve never seen her documentation for GW2’s sylvari redesign, go check it out now – you’re in for a treat!) (I’m also so happy her site is up now! And that we can still view her design documents easily today. There’s so much to learn from admiring her design sensibilities!).
The Harbinger’s Path Launch Date (and extra odds and ends)
Launch Date: May 12
I should also probably mention somewhere on this sketchblog that the comic is slated to launch next Monday, May 12th! I also want to put together some fun extras, mainly a PDF of the first chapter which will be free to download. With how unreliable social media has become, I’ve also been meaning to set up a mailing list of some sort for a long while (there’s a link on my portfolio site, and at the bottom of the this blog’s homepage, but I never ended up sharing it anywhere else yet) – I’m planning to offer the PDF of the first chapter as a little bonus for joining the mailing list.
Chapter 1 PDF Extras
It’ll have some bonus art in it, either things like some of my favorite lineart drawings from the first chapter (before colors were added), and/or preview layout drafts from the next chapter(s) (I have up to chapter 3 drafted, but I’ll probably limit this to chapter 2 previews).
One of the reasons I didn’t end up sharing the mailing list when I first set it up, is because I didn’t know yet how I wanted to use it. I’ve had time to ponder it for a while now, and my current thought is I might segment the mailing list into different interests – but probably not too many, as that sounds like it might become complicated for me to manage. More thoughts about this in the full post if you, for some reason, wish to read my thinking aloud to myself, haha:
Mailing list thoughts
My current thinking is segmenting the mailing list into these parts:
- Comic page updates. These would be very simple email updates for comic pages whenever I post them to the Landy site, linking to the page URL for each new page.
- A) Either for “The Harbinger’s Path” itself, or GW2 comics in general (as I do have a second one drafted which I plan to release alongside future pages of “The Harbinger’s Path,” unless that starts becoming confusing)
- B) Or for comic updates in general. I also plan on having different comics to share in addition to my GW2 ones (with my original characters), but I’m unsure whether this should be one general “comics” list, or if each comic should have their own separate updates. I’m guessing it’s better to have separate updates for each comic, and allow people to opt-in to the specific comic they want to keep updated with – but I have to do a little research to see if this will add too much complexity for me to maintain.
- Sketchblog post updates. Two main options I’m considering between:
- A) Newsletter-type emails which will be the same as each blog post. I’m not sure how complex this is, to format for email from WordPress.
- My main thought with this is, I know it can be cumbersome to keep up with different blogs. Having an option to send them via email sounds like it might be more convenient, depending on the type of person you are and how you like to keep up with things (I like email newsletters and am subscribed to a few artists, but I notice I tend to like the ones that link to the content itself instead of a standalone newsletter – which is why I’m currently leaning toward one which mainly acts as an updater)
- B) A simple updater mailing list which only links to the blog post. This should be relatively easy to implement.
- A) Newsletter-type emails which will be the same as each blog post. I’m not sure how complex this is, to format for email from WordPress.
I’m still in the process of revisiting my mailing list to organize them in this way. The past several years have taught me I should not have relied so much on external social media I had no control over, and I’m still in the process of exploring what might or might not work for me outside of it. Small steps, small steps!
If anyone has advice you’d like to share, or suggestions for what would be valuable for you to see, feel free to let me know here or anywhere I’m active!
Email Updates (Mailing List)
Want to stay updated, but wish there was an easier way to keep up with this site? I've set up an "email updates" or "mailing list" for this very reason. Check it out below!
New sign-ups currently receive a free PDF for The Harbinger's Path Chapter 1, from my Trahearne & Malyck GW2 fan comic. This version is exclusive to this email list, containing bonus art not currently available anywhere else.
I might change the sign-up bonus in the future, so if you're interested in seeing this PDF, consider joining soon!
You can unsubscribe anytime. Your inbox, your rules!
Or, perhaps RSS is more your style? There exists an RSS for this sketchblog, as well as an RSS for comic projects (currently page updates).
My aim is setting up ways to connect that's more stable than the whims of social platforms. If this interests you, consider signing-up.
Either way, take care and I hope to see you again!
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