At the tail-end of formatting the Duskbirds zines – indulged briefly earlier with some imagination-drawing anatomy-practice with my sylvari reaper. I think I’m slightly more comfortable drawing torsos from imagination now.
I need to do more neck studies in the future.
Ended up adding a bit more to this Cerus painting I originally sketched during the launch week for Guild Wars 2: Secrets of the Obscure – which launched on August 23, 2023. According to the filename, I did the original sketch on August 29, 2023. I have a vivid impression of the starting parts of this expansion. There was an introduction scene with Cerus I was particularly enamored with. I was intrigued by the darker direction this expansion began with, and I remember having the immediate urge to draw Cerus’s formidable presence with my reaper main.
That drawing was technically always unfinished. I happened to see it again yesterday, and I was reminded of what I wanted to fix with it at the time. Which I told myself I’d do at a later date.
I ended up painting it a bit yesterday for fun, and I think it is nearing a more finished state. I don’t think I’ve posted the full composition anywhere yet. I want to do so when it is finished. In the meantime, above is a sneak peak crop showing how it’s looking now. While below is the original sketch from during that launch week, in 2023.
Bit of “sketch-painting” I haven’t posted in a while! I wanted to try a few techniques I haven’t used in a while. Mainly just the combination of a very soft and harder brush.
It’s Lorcan, my sylvari druid in his ‘Untamed” elite spec form.
Taller crop (Edit March 12, 2026: Slightly updated version). The full composition is full-body, but this one was fairly unplanned, and I’m not sure the full composition is worth furthering. I titled this post “work-in-progress” as it wouldn’t take me that much longer to refine the smaller crop, but I’m not sure when I’ll be able to do this.
Also, I hope it’s obvious his waist area is covered by foliage. What is the point of my drawing those it if it ends up looking phallic either way! Haha. Well, in any case, I’ve been thinking lately about how artistic nudity used to not be considered so “risqué” as it is today – really old posts on this blog include artistic nudity back when that was widely understood as not titillating.
Slightly earlier version of the taller crop in the full post:
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.
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.
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.
