Similar to the Trahearne & Malyck compilation post, I thought it might be fun to compile a post to house the Guild Wars 2 artwork I’ve made over the years. Like the previous post, this will be kept updated. Hopefully this might become a little archive that’s easy to browse.
Below is nearly all the artwork I’ve made of Trahearne & Malyck over the years. I thought compiling a post seeing them all might be fun, and also handy to keep updated for future easy viewing.
I recently started a commission project I’m excited about, and thought it might be fun to chronicle the process here! I’d like to try and do things like this more on this blog. I plan to update this post with future progress of this piece, Thank you very much again to the commissioner for such a fun project!
Finished Painting
Below is the finalized piece!
This was a wonderful opportunity to paint a marvelously fun set of characters! The client commissioned the painting to commemorate 10 years of their journey playing GW2 together with their friend, and I could think of no better time to post it that during Guild Wars 2’s 10th Anniversary in the summer of 2022. I hope they enjoy many more years journeying together within the world of GW2!
Third WIP
Third work-in-progress crop! Continuing to block out the major forms.
Second WIP
Here is the second work-in-progress crop! This shows about the bottom third of the painting:
Here I have started blocking in the major shapes of the figures. Guild Wars 2 characters tend to be on the more complex side, and because of this, it’s important for me to block out the major shapes in the clothing and armor, before considering smaller details and refinements later on in the process.
Here I’ve begun blocking out the major forms for the “Seer” armor on the bottom charr character, who is a necromancer from the game. She holds a “Sunspear Greatsword” in her hand, brandishing it powerfully ahead! Behind her, we have a male charr Firebrand character, who is conjuring spells using pages from the magical tome he materialized. Above these two characters are a sneak peek of a few additional characters, who will be revealed later on!
These are not the final colors, and are more exploration colors to see the possibilities for where the piece can go. They’ll continually be adjusted as we go further in the process!
This is part of the “sketch” stage, which means we are only in the block-out stage! Details and refinements start after the overall forms of this stage are settled on and approved by the client. Additional block-outs remain for this stage, and it is one of the most fun parts of the painting process, because it is where much of the problem-solving takes place!
Below is an earlier WIP, also from the sketch stage:
First WIP
Below is the first work-in-progress sketch! Here I have roughed out basic forms and poses for the characters.. This is to help I and the client decide upon a composition they will like!
The colors here are also not final, and are more generalized to communicate a basic tone for each character, as well as the piece overall.
I did three thumbnail sketches for this piece, and will probably update them to this post after the piece is finished!
I ended up doing a few sculpts this past spring/summer, enough to split the ZBrush sculpts into two posts! In this one I’ll post a few of the GW2-related posts.
Guild Wars 2 Charr Guardian Sculpt+Paint
Guild Wars 2 Charr Guardian sculpt+paint.
Sculpt for the above sculpt+paint! Click on the thumbnails for a larger image.
Guild Wars 2 Trahearne sculpt+paint
And the above is how the sculpt itself looks!
Trahearne Portrait Sculpt+Paint
Malyck Sculpt+Paint
An earlier, wide version.
This version is slightly more refined, though I would still consider this a sketch or study exploration.
My sylvari warrior from Guild Wars 2! Crop from the full painting.
I was inspired to paint after seeing the new mount option in Guild Wars 2! It’s a “roadrunner mount,” but I was very excited because it reminded me of a mount idea I had a while back:
Mount idea based off a “greater prairie chicken” from a while back!
This mount idea is based off a greater prairie chicken, which is one of my favorite chickens! They are beautiful creatures.
I tried to recreate my mount idea in-game using the dye system, and though I did not really succeed, I am happy with my turkey mount, haha:
My sylvari warrior with his turkey mount!
This screenshot is heavily edited, as I’m currently on a laptop with integrated graphics. GW2 runs surprisingly well on it, but I wasn’t able to find an area that lit the character models well enough for us to see them. I’ll post the original screenshot below!
Original screenshot! It’s fun to compare the two.
Anyway, here is what I ended up sketching!
It’s a bit of a chimeric melding of my greater prairie chicken mount idea, the GW2 roadrunner skin, and the greater prairie chicken itself. The painting manages to look nothing like either my sketch or the in-game mount, haha, but it was really fun to paint tonight.
Here’s how the rest of the painting looks.
And now for the thoughts about cynicism in today’s media entertainment!
Thoughts about cynicism in today’s modern shows
While painting the above tonight, my mind started to idly wander about general thoughts regarding media entertainment. We finished the season finale of The Boys earlier tonight, and I’m sure this what prompted tonight’s meandering thoughts.
The primary thought is this: I can’t get into shows that revel in celebrating the worst in humanity.
There is a certain cynicism that pervades many of today’s popular entertainment media. I suspect this is why many modern shows haven’t clicked with me. The ones I do enjoy seem to be fighting for a widespread audience (Cobra Kai being a welcome exception). My two other recent favorites, Person of Interest and Dark Matter, were both cancelled after only 3 or 4 seasons! (“Recent” by modern standards – both are several years old now.)
Let’s take Cobra Kai as an example. Cobra Kai introduces itself in a very deliberate way. In our current media climate of “dark and gritty, humanity is irredeemably evil,” you think it will go in a predictable way.
The show shatters this expectation. (At least, it did for me.) Instead of taking the predictable route of a villainous, irredeemable main character – as he is introduced – the show invites us to ponder the idea of bettering ourselves. And in doing so – at least this is my interpretation – possibly even bettering the world.
It allows us to contemplate this in a way media like Westworld, Game of Thrones, Black Mirror, The Boys, or The Witcher feel like they want to choke out this desire in its audience. They arguably disavow the notion of any good in humanity. They also seem to disavow the idea that people might be redeemable, and might become better versions of their past selves.
These shows appear to desire bludgeoning their audience under the premise that humanity has little to no positive qualities, and that humans are overwhelmingly, irredeemably flawed creatures.
Humans are unquestionably flawed – it is those flaws that probably inspire the majority of our literary history (at least the most interesting works!). Our flaws – and our striving to conquer them – seem to be a central part of what it means to be human.
Possibly I’m an overly optimistic Star Trek fan, but as long as we aren’t naive about or excuse these flaws, I don’t see negatives to aspiring to be our best selves.
