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.
Lineart sketch.Still of the drawing, without glow. I just liked how this version looked.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.
I wanted to also show a few detail close-ups; I’ll update this post at a later point, when I have time to crop and export those!
For now, two three WIP process pages are below. Some text is omitted, as aside from Achyrd, the rest of the characters for this one wish to remain anonymous!
Super rough Cadeyrn warm-up! I’ve been wanting to sketch the ending portion of Ree Soesbee’s “Dream and Nightmare” passages, particularly the final one describing Cadeyrn after he’s founded the Nightmare Court. The specific portion reads:
Cadeyrn lounged on his throne with a careless, prideful slouch. A crown of golden vine glittered on his forehead as courtiers bowed and whispered before him, hanging on Cadeyrn’s every word, their eyes as lightless as the space between the stars.
I love the imagery this passage depicts, and it’s been on my task list for a while to try sketching some ideas based off it. This is my second (very loose) attempt. Below is the full, uncropped (and very rough) composition:
Cadeyrn warm-up (Full composition)
I thought it might also be fun to play a little with Cadeyrn’s design, namely his outfit. I’m not a huge fan of his in-game armor, but I wanted to try something that is still recognizable as having that as its inspiration (for comparison, this is Cadeyrn’s in-game appearance). I really like how in the Nightmare Court outfit series of armor, there’s a mild sense of lasciviousness, or this air of seduction, which works thematically with their concept of corrupting (or “seducing”) Dream sylvari to Nightmare.
I also thought it didn’t quite make sense that Faolain (the canonical leader of the Nightmare Court) wears Nightmare Court armor, while its founder wears low-level sylvari cultural armor. From the Grove, no less! This never made sense to me, given how arrogant Cadeyrn is depicting in Ree Soesbee’s writings. (I imagine he might likely have disdain for anything associated with the Grove.) But I do love when concepts are created based off in-game appearances – it’s why often, my favorite games to do fan art for tend toward those with lesser graphics. Because these allow more freedom with how artists can imagine their depictions, and allow more creativity and play among different interpretations across a variety of people.
That’s the idea behind his alternations here – I tried combining features from the sylvari male version of the Nightmare Court light armor (as Cadeyrn is a mesmer) – mainly by opening the chest, and changing his collar armor to thorns instead of leaves – while attempting to keep the “spirit” of his in-game appearance intact.
Incidentally, the first sketch I tried was from two days ago, sketched as an even looser warm-up:
Loose sketch showing Cadeyrn toying with his “crown of glittering vine.”
There are aspects of this sketch I also like. I’m not sure which version I’ll take further – it might be neither, maybe I’ll try a few more ideas! – but it was fun to finally sketch down some potential tries for this idea.
Finally, the first sketch is also part of one of the “sketchpages” I use for warm-ups – this is how the full page looks:
Loose sketches | Left, Cadeyrn from Guild Wars 2; Right, Corveil, from my own setting (not GW2)
This page started as as warm-up with Corveil first, on the right, as some anatomy construction practice.
Happy New Year! I have so much I want to post, but those will take me a little more time to write (I’ve had very little time in the start of the new year, though some exciting news to share later!) – I wanted to post something quick in the meantime!
Work-in-progress drawing of “Spellweaver Caydren,” one of three main characters in the “Nightmare’s Embrace” mini-comic I plan to finish this year. Caydren is a Nightmare Court elementalist. I have always enjoyed the idea of the thorned vine whip weapons Nightmare Court NPC’s in the GW2 game use, and that I don’t believe are accessible to us as players (though it’s been a few years, correct me if this is no longer the case) – so, what better reason to vicariously enjoy this, than by fitting one of my characters with one in comic form? :D
This drawing is from several months ago, and I had hoped to finish it by now, but other projects have been arresting my time. I felt like showing its current progress for now, instead! I plan to finish this one, though in some ways it is mainly a “concept drawing,” to see how he looked with the horned vine whip.
It’s been a while since I did an end-of-year art summary! I tried to show a variety, as it could have easily been mostly comic pages this year. The Harbinger’s Path was definitely my main creative fixation for 2025. :D
I didn’t realize until counting just now, but I finished exactly 50 comic pages since announcing The Harbinger’s Path in April! I almost can’t believe that. It really was an obsession that took hold of me. Still, I managed to do a few more paintings than I remember! I also did more drawings and sketches this year than past years, which aren’t shown above. While looking for artworks to include in the summary, I realized there are many drawings I haven’t post anywhere (though some were posted on this blog throughout the year).
My output in terms of personal art projects was definitely much more this year than previous years. I’ve been meaning to type up a post reflecting on why that was, as it was a very deliberate aim I wished to strive for at the beginning of this year.
Next year, I want to do more small comic projects and 2D animations, alongside drawings and paintings. :D
Edit 11:12 pm:
Also an alternate version for September – I forgot I worked on this paintover while I was looking for another file just now.
Adding to the full post as other than September, it’s identical to the above:
