Down Time

Another sketch from the trash drawer. Of the many 3CH prompts I've attempted in the past couple months, this one got the farthest along before I lost interest. This was the text:

An in decomposition insane exhales on a little girl on the roofs of a city.

Still taking a break from things. Back soon.

Stories-Bones-Tell

From the trash drawer -- an undead monk character, one of the precursors to Sasamuhn.

Sorry for the lack of updates. Work's got me beat lately, but I'll be back. Eventually.

Ningyo

Paraphrased from 3CH: "An irradiated fish grafts onto a female phantom in an arctic environment."

Preview below, click for the full sketch. Could be semi-NSFW (implied female nudity).

Sasamuhn, supplemental

I've been working on a few more sketches for my D&D character Sasamuhn, an Egyptian-themed warrior priest. I thought the first sketch was a decent start, but it left me wanting to explore a few more avenues.

The "Dude Huge" version. I decided early on that I wanted to emphasize the character's physicality -- not only because of his stats, class, and combat role, but also for the interesting twist it brings to the concept. There's a strange sort of appeal in having the party's burliest fighter double as its gods-chosen holy man.

That said, I'm pretty inexperienced at drawing the male figure, so I started referencing artists like Frazetta and Brom for the kind of heroic character I envisioned. Then... I stylized a bit. Probably too much, as the disastrous proportions above can attest. I think he's like 40 heads high in this sketch.

The "Desert Wanderer" variation. Ok, so first off -- yes, I suck at legs and feet. That said, I like the direction suggested by this sketch. I think ditching the head cloth was a good idea for several reasons. For starters, the head cloth is a pretty non-subtle way of indicating "HEY THIS GUY IS EGYPTIAN." Design-wise, giving him the head cloth seems to add too much visual clutter, whereas leaving his head bare implies greater simplicity and directness -- traits that are more in line with his character.

It's tough to see here because of the shading, but the other main feature of this version is the extensive hieroglyphic tattooing on the left side of his body. I was hoping to establish a more unusual, mystical vibe for the character. I also reintroduced the funeral mask for much the same reason.

I think Sasamuhn still has a little bit further to go before I call him finished, but this is still a pretty valuable process. With every sketch, I feel like I'm finding out more and more about who this guy is. That must mean something is working.

Silver Soul

Lazy sketch, lazy update. Because I was just thinking to myself that this place didn't have enough knights.

Definitely had Demon's Souls running through my head on this one.

Sasamuhn

My brother has recently been developing some ideas for an Egyptian-themed D&D campaign, a combination that happens to be incredibly relevant to my interests. Here's a rough sketch of my proposed character, Sasamuhn (sah-sah-MOON). He's an undead Egyptian warrior priest who wields a giant two-handed flail and channels his divine powers through a series of eldritch hieroglyphs. Mechanics-wise, he's a Runepriest. Flavor-wise, he's awesome.

I think I overworked this sketch a bit, so some variations are probably in order.

Higher Perception

Sketchy sketch.

Elle Standing

Figure practice, referenced from Character Designs (arty, but NSFW). Click the close-up for the full sketch (again, arty but NSFW). I think this is the same model I drew back in the day.

Got a bit lazy with the legs and feet, as usual.

Sigil Pauvre

I think it's time to start over.

The Red Claw of War

Bidja Gams

Digging through my archives today in search of my lost Nephilim sketches, I ran across a few old still life projects from my college years. Being the immense nerd that I was, I usually chose video game equipment as a subject when given the choice. Thought I might as well share them here.

This was the third project in my introductory oil painting class, and probably the one that turned out the best. The assignment was to endow an inanimate object with a sense of emotion through composition and color, and as luck would have it, I ended up picking "joy" from the hat. So I guess this one comes across a little too easily -- but just to prove that I could muster some subtlety, I tried to make the bottom contour of the controller suggest an upturned smile. So there.

Sorry for the low-quality picture. I never bothered to replace it with a better photo.

Here's a color pencil homework assignment from one of my winter terms. Those are my bedsheets there, hoisted over the back of my desk chair and swaddling my second-hand Gamecube. The controllers are looped around the back of the chair, crudely taped in place just off-frame.

I realize that there are some perspective and proportion mistakes in this one, but... man, I was in shape back then. I really need to work myself back up to that level of discipline.

Null Moon

Surprise, it's a sketch of a knight.

An experiment that didn't quite interest me enough to finish it.

Spurned

Yup, after a long and busy December, I'm finally back and drawing again. Still feeling a little rusty, so I thought a [3CH] would be a good way to warm up. Topic this time around: "A merry geisha dodges a tree man in the clouds."

Sigil Nova