Small preview from “Nightmare’s Embrace,” my second Guild Wars 2 comic I’ve been chipping away at here and there. This is an early color test from a few months ago.
Originally, I was planning to start working on “Nightmare’s Embrace” after I’ve finished “The Harbinger’s Path.” I might still do this, but I’m also thinking about perhaps working on them side-by-side – mainly depending on how long Harbinger runs.
Maybe I’ll do something like, one chapter of The Harbinger’s Path, then one chapter of Nightmare’s Embrace. Still considering which to do.
More from the previous panel.
Here’s a fuller shot of the panel – I need to fix the arm proportions in the final.
Trahearne and Malyck pixel art from 2022, when I became enamored with Aesprite. It’s still one of my favorite art programs, and I’d love to dabble more with it sometime.
Progress shot of Corveil from a longer painting. I have a few personal work paintings/illustrations that have been hovering at this ~90% progress state for a while. I keep telling myself I’ll finish them after I make some progress with the comic, but I’d like to try and figure out a way to work them alongside the comic, as I am becoming impatient with how long they’ve stayed in this not-quite-but-almost-finished state, haha.
2025 paintover of a 2021 painting | Work-in-progress
I’ve had this drawing of Arquel around for several years, that I first did during one of the days for “Paint-ober” in 2021. This was a daily painting challenge I made up for myself during October of that year (if it existed prior, I don’t think I saw anyone participating that year). I was inspired to try this challenge by the ubiquitous “Inktober” which used to be in vogue years back. Ironically, I decided to do my own, non-ink challenge at the time, because I didn’t have interest in doing line or “ink” drawings back then. Oh, how making comic pages has transformed me! Haha.
I’ll always adore painting, of course – it’s still what I am more comfortable with. Anyway, I always liked the concept behind this Paint-ober Arquel painting – I mainly thought the color palette turned out in a pleasing way. I intended to finish the painting after the month-long challenge, and I did fuss around with it here and there, afterward.
Below are the original and an earlier version:
2023 paintover – this is how the file looked when I opened it today
Original 2021 painting
My dilemma with this painting is it always felt like it was “almost there” to me, but never “there.” I felt that with the original drawing, and also with the 2023 version (this version is how the file looked when I opened it today). This caused me to set this painting aside for long stretches of time, and dabble with it infrequently – with years-long stretches, apparently!
I had the random urge to revisit it again today – from the filename, for the first time since 2023. And now, there’s the current 2025 version, at the top of this post.
I still don’t think it is “quite there,” but each time, I think it’s veering closer. These paintovers are fun for me, though rather self-indulgent, as it would probably make better sense for me to start a new painting of the same idea, at this point. But, I am enjoying fiddling with this painting now and again, because I enjoy seeing what I would do differently each time, compared to the last time I opened the painting. The 2023 version I started approaching faces differently – slightly more defined forms and shadows – which I think is further developed in the 2025 version today. Today’s version also had much higher contrast compared to how it looks now – I might update this post with that version to compare.
And here it is:
2025 paintover, earlier version with higher contrast
There are some things I think might work better in this version, but I’m leaning toward exploring more of the subtler, more atmospheric tone of the one at the top of the post.
Wider crop showing the hat-wearing six-eyed bird, who I think is a crow, though I’m not 100% certain.
Original post below:
Jinu WIP
Jinu sketch
Painting WIP of “Jinu” I may or may not finish. Friends convinced me to watch Kpop Demon Hunters over the weekend, and I didn’t expect to enjoy it as much as I did. Beautiful artistry and quite a wholesome flick. Jinu was my favorite character, and so I shouldn’t have been surprised by what became of him by the end of the movie, haha.
These are 100% zoom crops from a full-body painting, but if I finish it, I’ll probably keep it cropped (though a wider one than this), because this began as an unplanned sketch, and I’m not the biggest fan of the full composition .
Between Trahearne and Jinu, I seem to be partial to amber eyes, haha! Corveil as well, to some extent, though I imagine his eyes being tinted a bit more toward a darker orange than Trahearne’s or Jinu’s (and, I have been recently contemplating changing them).
