Animated Images

Nightmare Court Necromancer Sketches | January 31, 2026

Animated Images, Digital Art, Guild Wars 2, Sketches & Studies
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Drawing two hairstyles from the in-game options to figure out which look might fit the character (Animated).

I’ve been idly wanting to figure out a look for a new Nightmare Court necromancer character I’ve been thinking about recently. He’s in the same setting as “Nightmare’s Embrace,” but isn’t a major character (he likely won’t feature in the mini-comic later this year). Different from my existing sylvari characters, the idea for him arose from a short story I was writing, instead from one of my existing in-game characters. My other sylvari characters originated from their in-game versions first, with their personalities developing afterward. Oftentimes, influenced by the experience playing them in-game. 

I haven’t made a new GW2 character in a long time, and thought this was the perfect excuse to create a new one. I played around with the in-game style options the other day, and thought drawing them might help me decide on this character’s look. I think the color scheme is close – especially for the hair and glow color – but I’m not entirely satisfied on his hairstyle. The two here are the closest I was partial to for him, but I’m leaning toward sketching a few ideas at a later point not based on an in-game style, to see if I can figure out a look that fits him more closely. 

Line drawing of a sylvari showing two hairstyles from the game. Left shows a short hairstyle with broad leaves. Right shows a long hairstyle with numerous small leaves.
Lineart sketch.
Painted still of the previous artwork without the added glow.
Still of the drawing, without glow. 
Same drawing as before, only the right shows the lineart sketch, while the left shows the color sketch.
I just liked how this version looked.
Animated gif showing the pulsing glow of a sylvari with long hair. The glow is warm orange, his hair a dusky, reddish-violet.
Animated version of the hairstyle on the right.

I also tried out animating the glow color to see if it would help me decide on whether I liked either of these hairstyles for the character. Between these two, the one on the right fits him slightly better, and I think it turned out better when animated.

But doing this helped me decide I don’t think I will be satisfied with either hairstyle for him. 

Still of the animated version from the top of this post.
Still of the animated version from the top of this post.

Ch3, Page 14 Animation – The Harbinger’s Path | November 6, 2025

Animated Images, Digital Art, Guild Wars 2
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Animated gif showing Malyck wielding Caladbolg. Leyline energy pulses around the, as does Caladbolg's internal glow.
Malyck | Roughly animated comic panel crop | The Harbinger’s Path; Ch3, pg 14

In addition to the Trahearne and Malyck practice animation I made for Heart of Thorns’ 10th anniversary last month, a much smaller thing I also finished by that day was adding a bit of animation to chapter 2’s finale page. This version of the page has been live since the, and you can view it here! 

Animated gif showing Trahearne ensnared by winding, thorned vines. His bioluminscence pulses frantically.
Malyck | Roughly animated comic panel crop | The Harbinger’s Path; Ch3, pg 14


It’s likely obvious, but this page was not drawn with the intention of animating it from the start. I tend to save several steps of the process in the comic page files, as I have the habit of duplicating layers and working on the duplicate when I want to make a larger change or know I will be progressing the page more. This makes my file files larger than they need to be, but on the plus side, I like being able to go back into the file and see how the page progressed over time. 

My first attempt to animate this page was all the way back in August – which I just remembered, I even posted that test panel here. This test is what lead to the practice animation from last month. Even though this page’s animation is both much simpler and rougher than last month’s animation, I still have a little sentimental feelings over it, since dabbling with this page was what really lead to all the animation practices afterward (and I have more I want to do in the future!). 

So! That’s why I wanted to have a version of this page up, even if it is rough around the edges. It is cleaned up from the August test – the page now is rebuilt completely from scratch from the August version, using 3 layers from the comic file itself. While it is not intended to be super-smooth (which I hope is clear – it is keyframed and not tweened), I hope the cadence feels intentional. 

Does it add a little flavor to the page, or does it distract? Feel free to let me know anywhere, as I’m biased toward it, but I would definitely like to know if anyone preferred the previous static page instead of this animated version! 

Anatomy Practice / Lorcan WIP | August 12, 2025

Animated Images, Digital Art, Guild Wars 2, Sketches & Studies, Work-In-Progress
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Edit August 13, 2025: Added the fullbody WIP composition! 

In-progress drawing of a shirtless sylvari holding an oversized hammer.
Anatomy practice / Lorcan WIP | Lorcan with the “Onus” hammer skin

Anatomy practice! I’ve been practicing drawing anatomy construction from imagination this year, and this is one of those practices. So, please forgive me for any anatomical inaccuracies, as these are for practicing this type of anatomy construction drawing from imagination. 

I’ve been having fun running around in the “Untamed” build for my ranger, which I never knew how fun a spec it is to play (mainly because of the amazing vocal lines Brandon Bales recorded for it, haha – but also the main “unleashed” hammer skill is so fun and satisfying!). It gives me an excuse to finally use my favorite hammer skin – “Onus” – which I’ve never used before because I haven’t enjoyed hammer skills on any character prior. I believe it is also a Halloween skin – so perhaps hopefully I can finish this drawing by this Halloween! 

Here’s the full composition: 

Full composition (in-progress)

I also figured out a better way to draw chains with this drawing – when I’ve drawn chains for commissions before, I made a chain brush. I was too lazy to find or recreate that brush again for this drawing, and this time I just drew them manually – but surprisingly, this ended up being both quicker than when I used to use that brush, and I also like the visual result more. I remember the chain brush I made always had this uncanny “too even” appearance, which I then had to spend time making the links look more organic. 

With just drawing them with a regular round brush now, it naturally lends itself to an organic feel. (Of course, perhaps now it might be not even enough. Though between the two, my personal preference is a little too organic versus too inorganic or stiff). 

And a few extra/earlier versions in the rest of the post below: 

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