I have this sketch of Malyck I drew last year, which I thought the composition might look interesting, and which I just haven’t had a chance to get around to doing more with it since. Largely because I since decided to draw a comic with him instead of doing more paintings, haha.
I would still like to finish this drawing at some point, though – indulged myself a bit this week and worked on it a little more. Just a portrait crop, for now.
I might not have posted the original sketch here – I wasn’t using this blog last year – just in case, here’s the original sketch below:
I think I figured out what I found displeasing about the original “finished” version of this drawing (the version right below this text), and why I preferred the earlier sketch – it’s likely because I didn’t darken the tops of his eye socks/below his brows, to match the contrast that was in the earlier sketch. I think it gave him the appearance of not having eyebrows, or having too-light eyebrows, which lessened the contrast I liked in that early sketch version.
Changed the date on the drawing to today’s, since it’s a different enough change to me now. Oh! I also meant to mention how the lighting conditions varied a bit through the photos (I’m next to a window) – I tried to adjust the photos to match the drawing as closely as I could to how it is on the paper, and hopefully the lighting doesn’t look too inconsistent.
Original post below:
Malyck Pencil Drawing | Original “finished” version
Malyck warm-up drawing from yesterday when my hand was feeling stiff. Also, I’ve been practicing my letterforms recently – how does it look? Is it too ostentatious? Haha.
I’ve never been fond of how cursive “L” looks when I write it, which has been a small annoyance throughout the years as both my name and pseudonym begin with the letter. I also have always had messy handwriting, and earlier this year when I started using physical notebooks again, it inspired me to try practicing my handwriting to see if I could improve it.
Initial sketch. The drawing at this stage looks somewhat comical to me, haha.
Sketch progress
Drawing work-in-progress
To my mild horror, I realized so much time had passed since the last time I wrote cursive by hand, I had to look up how to write some letterforms again! This shocked me, because I grew up writing almost exclusively cursive. I remember enjoying writing in it over print/block letters, by a substantial amount. How could I have forgotten?
Anyway, in my search for a sheet showing basic cursive to remind myself, it lead me to become interested in “scripts” – not programming scripts or screenplays, haha – but styles of calligraphic writing which have been popular in the past (and present!).
I became partial to a script called “Old English Copperplate,” which is a type of handwriting which seemed most popular during the 18th century/1700’s in the west. It has flourishes and embellishments I find aesthetically pleasing, and I also thought they might be useful practice for improving my hand control. As I’ve never been confident in my writing abilities (or fond of how much hand writing looks). Oh! Though, I should mention that while I follow some of the script’s letterform’s, I don’t follow it precisely. The – I think they’re called “descenders?” – but tlike what you see in the lowercase “g” and “y” in “Malyck” and “Landy” written beside the artwork – those aren’t aren’t accurate to the script. They’re fun to write the loops this way!
And, as a bonus, I think it has been improving my drawings when using digital!
Earlier version of the finished drawing before adding small refinements today.
I like this drawing more as a sketch (the image captioned “Drawing work-in-progress” above) than how it looked in its original final version, seen above. I tried some small refinements this morning (the top image of this post), which I think helps a bit. But I still prefer how it looked in that earlier sketch version.
“Pact Marshal Trahearne spent 43 days captured by the Elder Dragon Mordremoth. What happened to the Firstborn during this time?”
I’m excited to announce The Harbinger’s Path, a new project I’ve started and have been wanting to do for a while! It’s a Trahearne and Malyck short Guild Wars 2 fan comic, taking place in an alternate, non-canon, fan-take on “what could have been.” I always thought it would be fun to explore this with these two characters.
The Harbinger’s Path is a completely fan-made project, unofficial, and not affiliated with ArenaNet – it’s a small passion-project I’ve toyed with in scattered artworks here and there over the years. I’ve contemplated doing a longer project about it for a long time, and now, I’ve finally decided to do so!
To start, above is the cover reveal! This cover is still in-progress and not final, but hopefully it’s in a mostly presentable state. I’ll add a few earlier process images and share some additional to the this post soon!
Because this project is a little more personal to me compared to Guild Wars 2 art I’ve done in the past, I’ve decided to leave the ArenaNet Creative Partnership while I work on it. I felt more comfortable working on something more personal to me while not sponsored, especially as I’m not sure how much interest there might be in this project beyond my own specific tastes.
Here’s an earlier version with the cover art in an earlier stage, and before adding Trahearne and Malyck’s names to the subtitle.
I decided to refine the Malyck drawing a bit more, seen above! I since wrote on the following page, and there was quite a bit of see-through. I tried to remove it as best I could digitally, but it makes me consider acquiring a pencil board in the future. There is a Hobonichi pencil board I was eyeing the other day, and looking for an excuse to justify its purchase… haha.
Anyway, since I ended up adding more to it today, I changed the date on the drawing to today’s.
Original post below:
Malyck pencil sketch, pictured with my beloved Staedtler 0.3 mm drafting pencil
Did a warm-up sketch of Malyck earlier today, initially with the intention of inking it. I’m very out of practice with clean pencil drawing – I mainly use one for jotting a quick note or a rough sketch idea, nowadays – but I was enjoying using it a lot today. And ended up adding more to it in pencil instead, which may or may not have been to its detriment. I’ll try an ink test another time. :)
Earlier version of the sketch
I was going to leave the sketch like this, before deciding to draw on it a little more and ending up with the sketch at the top of this post.
I love working with mechanical pencils, and it used to be the medium I used the most often. I still use one (the Staedtler 0.3 mm drafting pencil is a thing of beauty, and incredibly durable), but it’s more infrequent than I’d like. I mainly use it for jotting down quick ideas, and not finished drawings. Maybe I’ll try doing some cleaner sketches this year.
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.
