Tag: gw2 - Page 4 - Landy’s Sketchblog

Trahearne & Malyck Practice Animation | February 14, 2026

Posted on February 14, 2026

2d hand-drawn animation showing Mordrem Lieutenant Malyck greeting a corrupted Trahearne. — Current version.

Spent some hours last night seeing how much I could add to this small animation practice!

I did the early draft for this one at the end of January. I had a vague notion of potentially finishing it for Valentine’s Day for fun, but before I knew it, the day was upon us! Yesterday became practice to see how much I could add, or how presentable I could make it, by today.

The version all the way at the end of this post is how the file looked when I opened it yesterday. I wasn’t sure whether I’d add color – I could have spent much more time on the lines – but I learned a lot in this one from how I added the color this time.

Line version of the previous animation. — Lines only.

I have to confess I’ve always not understood cell-shading well. But I am quickly growing an appreciation for it after trying it out here.

Early draft showing the keyframes. — Early “keyframe” draft.

One thing I noticed recently is there’s a “messy” stage when going from the early “keyframe” draft to adding the in-between “breakdown” frames (below). It’s a bit counterintuitive for me, because when adding the breakdown frames, it almost looks like the animation is reversing its progress – at the same time, I can start to see more of how the final motion might look. And seeing that potential is what makes adding these breakdown frames so invigorating to draw!

Version when I opened the file yesterday, where I had started adding the “breakdown” frames.

Guild Wars 2 Official Forum Avatars | February 8, 2026

Posted on February 8, 2026

Artwork showing nine forum avatars used on the official Guild Wars 2 forums. — **Top row**: 2022 | **Middle row**: 2019 | **Bottom row:** 2018

I was reminded of the forum avatar projects I was part of back when I was an ArenaNet Creative Partner for Guild Wars 2. It reminded me that I don’t think I’ve ever shown the original batch of avatars I drew.

Much of these are older artworks – especially the ones before 2022. I remember this was a really fun project for us to work on as fans of the game. I’m still sentimental over a few of these because of this, despite some of them showing their age!

I’ve shown the second and third batches on socials before (but i think this is the first time for this blog, now that I’m using it again :D ) – the first and second rows in the image above. I remember posting those, and the original batch (2018’s) was so long ago, that I thought I had only done these 6. I only remembered I had drawn 3 additional avatars during the first time they ran this project, which I think I was only reminded of when I happened to see them being used on their official forums some time after.

Four forum avatars from 2018. — The three forum avatars from 2018, including an extra alternate version which was unused in favor of the live version.

I don’t have the original files for the 2018 batch (at least not on my current PC), and found these when searching through my emails for when I submitted the files to ArenaNet. I completely forgot I had drawn two versions of Cadeyrn – which according to the email I wrote at the time, I apparently drew both because I couldn’t decide which to go with. The top version is the one which is used on the forums now, which I’m glad about as it’s clearly stronger as a sized-down avatar compared to the alternate option.

I do love Cadeyrn as a character, and since I didn’t remember I drew this at all, it was fun to see a new artwork of him I had forgotten about!

As of this post, these avatars are still live on their official forums. I still get a kick when I see them being used!

Nightmare Court Necromancer Sketches | January 31, 2026

Posted on January 31, 2026

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.

The Harbinger’s Path at Manga Ichiba this Fanime 2026

Posted on January 18, 2026

Happy New Year! I hope your year is starting off well.

I have exciting news! Earlier this month, I learned I was accepted into Manga Ichiba at Fanime this year, the first-ever doujinshi-focused (“indie fan comics”) event for NA.

I applied with The Harbinger’s Path, and I’m pleased to announce I will be self-publishing a very limited print run of my “Trahearne-Malyck doujinshi” comic for this event. It will include all 3 completed chapters (50+ pages), and I hope to also add some bonus material for this print version. (More about this to come.)

If you’d like to learn more, I’ll be sharing more info through email updates. You can receive them by joining here.

Below is an overview:

What is Manga Ichiba?

This is an event officially affiliated with FanimeCon, specifically designed to encourage NA-made indie fan comics (or “doujinshi”).

Fanime’s official description:

“A brand new event is coming to FanimeCon this year! Manga Ichiba is America’s first original English-language doujinshi market.”

More info on their official page here.

Fanime is one of North America’s largest anime conventions – I remember first hearing about it from the artists I followed tabling at it. I was able to visit for the first time a few years ago as an attendee! They have a plethora of events going on, and I had a wonderful time with people I met there. It takes place during May in Northern California for a few days over a weekend.

How is this different from an Artist Alley?

One reason I’m excited about this event is because it aims to be distinct from Fanime’s existing “Artist Alleys.” Today’s Artist Alleys – in general, not only at Fanime – tend to focus primarily on selling commercially. These is nothing wrong with this, but commercial incentivizes tend to push artists toward selling prints and merchandise over doujinshi comics. Doujinshi both take more time to make, and tend to have smaller potential audiences.

Doujinshi has a well-established community in Japan, while this type of community hasn’t historically been as nurtured for NA-made doujin comics. Manga Ichiba hopes this might begin changing this!

Manga Ichiba aims to cultivate more of a doujinshi community in NA by shifting the focus less on commercial selling, and more on encouraging artists who are creating doujinshi comics primarily out of their love for their fandoms.

What is “Doujinshi?”

You might have seen me refer to “The Harbinger’s Path” as my “Trahearne-Malyck doujinshi” in places since starting this project. Doujinshi is a Japanese term which refers to self-published comics, especially fan comics (but it can also refer to original works).

I have always thought of The Harbinger’s Path this way, but I wasn’t sure how widely-known this term was to western/GW2 audiences. I started also calling it my “fan comic,” in case this was more clear.

Final Note

Quick reminder that this project is entirely fan-made and unofficial, and not sponsored by ArenaNet. If you are affiliated with ArenaNet and have questions or suggestions about The Harbinger’s Path, you are always welcome to reach out!

Warband Commission | January 7, 2026

Posted on January 14, 2026

I can finally show this commission! :D

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!

“Wintersday Warband” | Initial sketches.

“Wintersday Warband” | Sketch Revisions + Color Tests

“Wintersday Warband” | Outfit Block-in + Wintersday Accessories

January 15, 2026

Added a third WIP process image! (Initial Sketches; “.01”)