Sketch and Color - Einar Bahamut

Something a bit different for today.

My sister; who goes by AlenaSyrene on dA and celveryiashipping here on tumblr, is a really great artist and has a lot of wild and crazy ideas. One of her big ideas is her own world called Celveryia, which is a pretty huge setting with many key figures and races and so forth (and a lot of Ace Combat references; I'm looking at you Mobius).
One of her creature/race ideas she had that I really do like are the 'Einar'; I'm not too sure what their story or history is now since she did a little "house cleaning", but they still look cool and I liked their original concept.

Occasionally for fun I poke her ad go 'DRAW ME SOMETHING!', knowing full well that she either won't or she'll draw some very random stuff. One time I told her to "draw me an einar" (technically I said 'Draw me an einar or I won't show you this silly picture of David Tennant').
So, during the recent Memorial Day weekend where we had to go to a family get-together, she didn't just draw me an einar, she drew Bahamut as an einar.

And I thought it was pretty awesome.

So the other day I decided to take the sketch into SAI and color it just for the heck of it.

Simple and straightforward, but it was fun and I have to admit, he looks cool.

Legal stuff:
The original sketch, the Einar and all things Celveryia are (c) AlenaSyrene.
Bahamut and the colored version of said sketch are mine.

Sketch and Finish - Geminii

A little bit of a different post for today, kind of a before and after shot, if you will.

Geminii is another character that I really love, but I do not do nearly enough art for him, so I decided to change that.

 Kind of going along the same lines as the 'Geminii on the Loose' sketch, I decided to sketch out Geminii who looks like he just escaped, but rather looking psychotic, I wanted to make him look more angry and determined.

I really liked how the sketch turned out, so I decided to try and finish it, so it actually became my 'test image' for trying out SAI.  While I like GIMP, it's not perfect, and well, the same could be said for SAI, it has some nice stuff, but it's not perfect (god, Photoshop has spoiled me).

However, in the end, I really am happy with how the final image turned out, just need to get some more practice in with SAI.

Character Sketch - Turian

Small posting for today.

I really love the Mass Effect world; it is incredibly huge and has some real personality and variety, each alien race feels unique and you can see the great differences in things like technology and society through the whole thing.
I was also very delighted to see that they actually had unique races in the universe (as much as I love Star Trek, I get tired of seeing more human-looking aliens in the whole of the friggen galaxy).


Since the first game, I think my favorite race of them all were the turians; I mean, they look cool, from what you learn of their society it sounds pretty interesting, and after the First Contact war they do seem to be more like allies than some of the other races (a fact that kind of is enforced in Mass Effect 3).
Garrus becomes a standard in my party (very hard to break that habit) and he was certainly the love interest for my fem-Shep, and really, the quarians and the geth come in second after the quarians.
(And yes, I'm upset that you can visit the asari, salarian, and heck, even the quarian/geth homeworlds, but you don't see the turian homeworld? what the crap Bioware?)


As you can imagine, since then I've wanted to sit down and actually draw the turians but holy crap, they are deceptively hard to draw. Every time I've tried in the past the sketch turns into a right horror show, so it's been a disappointment.

During the three weeks I was off, I rediscovered the 'Art of Mass Effect', a book a friend had given to me which is, well, a proper art book with stuff for Mass Effect, and they had a good section on Saren and the turians. When looking through it, I kind of realized how simplified they ended up drawing some of them before all the detail is added in.

So...I was inspired, and this is the result.

Despite the legs, I think this is the first time I drew a decent turian. I tried to add in a few minor details to help him look a bit more unique, but overall I was trying to keep him simple so I could actually get it to look right.

As for the character himself, I don't really have any details worked out yet, I gave him the temporary name of 'Nero' until I can find something that sounds a bit better. He is meant to be a younger turian, but I'm not sure on exact details for him yet; like his backstory, how he fits into the whole mess of the galaxy and so on.


And the 'N7' on the armor is just there for fun.

Also, calibrations.

Character Sketches - Adrian

Another small posting for today, both sketches revolving around my character Adrian.

The first post may seem a little...odd for some people, but it is actually an idea for some character development.
Lord Zeleme is the demon lord of an area known as 'Dys', a pocket realm of sorts that characters like Geminii and Bahamut had been enslaved in but would eventually escape. Because of this, Zeleme would be working hard to try and recapture those that escaped but when he learns that Bahamut have have family, he sees them as potential targets, so at some possible point Adrian would end up being captured.
That's what this scene depicted, Adrian chained up and looking worried as he wonders if he could escape.

There may be a part 2 to this sometime down the line, we'll have to see.

The second picture up is an idea of how Adrian would look like if he were in his feral form.
Since Adrian is a kind of hybrid 'monster', he has a very unique heritage, so I thought that maybe his feral form would show off some of the elements of his heritage.
The two sets of wings are based off the ancient dragons that a friend of mine came up with some time ago and since her character was a hybrid as well, I thought that it could show up in his form here as well.

And he's very fluffy.

Just some random ideas that I've had floating about before, adding a little bit more to little Adrian.

Concept Sketch - Hexagonal Building Conplex

Small posting for today, but it's different from my usual so I think it would be worth showing off.

Inspiration comes in odd forms; while playing with some BuckyBalls/NanoDots (a collection of 200+ tiny magnets that are addictive as anything) I ended up forming three hexagonal pillars and put them together, that's when my brain said that the setup is kind of like a building complex of some kind.
So, I sat down and worked on a very rough concept for the said building complex.

The idea of pretty basic, hexagonal shaped buildings of varying sizes and with specific purposes, the smallest being kind of a lounge/reception area with a garden, while the other buildings are offices or labs or serve some other purpose.
That's when I had the odd idea for the tallest building; the small area at the top of would be some kind of penthouse that could serve as someone's base of operations; either a criminal group, secret agent or heck, even some kind of superhero.

This is pretty much a random idea that I thought would be neat to play with. It could be something I'll play with later, get back to working with proper perspective and maybe create some kind of concept painting for the while complex.

Character Sketch - Bahakumen

Small posting for today.

Since today is my sister's birthday, this sketch seems somewhat...appropriate.
My sister loves the BlazBlue game series and to me it's not a bad series, it's just hard for me to really get into it. There aren't many characters in it and very few of them are actually interesting or likeable and the plot is so insane that when I try to think about it my head explodes (and yes, when half the game is cut scenes, plot is rather important). The art of the game is a mixed bag as well, some of the art is really awesome, while some of it seems downright comical (sometimes on purpose, sometimes not).
 
Out if all of the characters in the game, I would probably have to say that Hakumen is probably my favorite. Not only does he look pretty cool, his story (as jumbled and crazy as it is) is kind of interesting as well, I just wish he wasn't such a pain in the tail to play in-game.

Somewhere along the line though my brain came up with this crazy idea: Bahamut + Hakumen = Bahakumen.

So I thought it was probably time to try and draw this idea out, but the problem is that; like Dynasty Warriors before it, when I try and sit down and work with something that has deceptive details in the art it kind of goes pear-shaped, and this is complicated by me trying to take my own spin on things.

But, this is my first attempt on the idea, not bad, but it could be a whole lot better. The idea still amuses me though so I may give this a second try.

Character Sketches - Good and Evil

Today's posting are of two characters I haven't drawn up in a while, so during my time away I decided to fix that.

First up is a character I'm sure not many people know of or remember: this is Gabriel.
He was meant to be another 'lovechild' kind of character, but his father this time around was my character Orion who had fallen in love with an angel; so Gabriel here was meant to be a kind of dragon angel.
The concept I thought was fun, but he really never got a whole lot of attention and when things got "weird" he kind of disappeared for a while, but now was the time to 'reclaim him' like so many of my other characters.

Gabriel is the son of a dragon and an angel, and at some point he will be the future king to the dragon kingdom of Zenethia after his father, making him one of the more unique rulers.
He's very friendly and very energetic, I can see him as the kind of character that is the eternal optimist and nothing keeps him down for long.

Next up is a character who is kind of the opposite to Gabriel here. This is Tumahab, Bahamut's 'doppelganger' or "Mirror Universe self" if you will.
Tumahab is meant to be the 'evil version' of Bahamut, he's crafty and brutal, unforgiving, manipulative, treacherous and downright nasty.  It's amazing how he can have any followers loyal to him at all, but the thing that makes him interesting is the fact that people do follow him because of his strength and the fact that he actually has a lot of trust in those loyal to him, making him an even greater threat.


It's been a while since I drew Tumahab and I think he was getting demanding to be put down onto paper again.

So there you go, good and evil in one posting. Hopefully the fabric of space-time won't fly apart.

Sketches - Race Designs

Today's posting are some random creature race ideas that I had during my time off a while ago, creatures that I can see existing in either a fantasy or sci-fi setting, though I think they were more for the sci-fi end.

First up is a random design that I worked out. I didn't really have a direction, I just kind of started working on a sketch while my brain came up with some things I would thought I would like to see, and here we are.  I'm not sure how to describe this guy to be honest, in some ways he's kind of like a goblin/kobold creature, but in some cases he's not.
I really like how this guy turned out, so there is a high probability that I'll try and do some more with him.
Also, in the corner I have the height differences between him and a standard human, and yes the human is Starfleet. /nerd

Second is a design for a big dino-type race that I just felt a spur of the moment to try and work on. The rifle and the armor and heavily influenced by Mass Effect (I played a lot of that during my 'hiatus'), but the race itself was something I came up at random. Working out a name for them still, but so far I kind of like the sounds of 'the Tyran'.
The odd doodles on the right are actually ideas for rank/insignias for the race, kind of a combination of circles or octagons with arrows, the more of them, the higher the rank of the officer.

Third up is a race that was a bit odd and in some ways creeped me out. The idea for these guys came from a bizarre dream I had where a ship crashed on the planet and these aliens formed bodies from whatever they were around. While creepy, was actually kind of nifty.
The actual creatures are unknown; I'm not sure if they're like little motes of energy or some other form of energy lifeform, so they actually form bodies out of the natural material around them; rocks, wood, earth, and so on. These designs were kind of ideas of the variation they could have in the body construction, the first one I think is more defensive/soldier-like while the other ones are meant to be more for aesthetics.
The openings I think would be necessary, since I think that when the motes flash and flicker they're actually communicating with each other.

Random ideas, but they can b odd and fun to work with, so who knows if these guys will make an appearance again.

Character Sketches - Nal'Ia and Illisandra

Today's posting involves some more Champions Online ideas.
It's kind of odd and funny how playing with CO's character builder actually helps me with ideas and concepts for characters, so here are two more that I needed to draw out.

First up is is Nal'Ia. The idea for this character is that he's actually an ancient deity of snow, winter and travel and he's the god that my character Gene believes in.
Nal'Ia is meant to be a white lion with ice wings and he is a kind, protective and honorable god.
Nal'Ia is actually meant to be a kind and friendly deity; even though he represents the harshness of winter and the snow in harsher lands up north, he actually cares and protects those who worship him and who ask him for safe passage through the harsher lands of the North.
Nal'Ia has two siblings that represent other elements; his brother is a spirit of fire and vengeance while his sister is a spirit of storms and secrets.

I was very surprised at how well this turned out when I first created him in CO and I knew that I had a good base to work with for an actual drawing, and it's a good excuse to draw more feline-type characters.

Next up is a dragoness named Illisandra. She actually bares the name of an older character that I had a long time ago and it seemed to fit her perfectly.
Illisandra is meant to be a mage-type of character, not sure what her element is meant to be so I'm kindof leaning towards force or maybe something psionic, not too sure yet.
What I thought was amusing was that when I was working on her, she kind of made me think she belonged to the same school as another character a friend made; Lorica.
She's a young mage and very timid, which is one reason why she wanted to learn magic and maybe become an adventurer; to go out and explore the world and maybe becoming a bigger part in it.

One thing that's fun about CO is that sometimes you have to be very creative with the costume pieces you have at your disposal to create the idea, and seeing other players helps inspire me as well as help get my own creativity going, but when I made her in-game, I knew she was another one that I had to draw out.

It's a shame/surprise I haven't made these characters and kept them in-game, but I have so many characters already that if I wanted them, I would have to find room or buy more character slots, heh.

Sketches - Critters

Sometimes when I'm bored or I'm feeling really uninspired or braindead I just doodle, and most times I doodle critters. SO, today's posting is a small collection of the critters I drew up.

First up is one of the cases where I had no direction at all, so I just drew something fluffy and scaly. He strikes me as being a kind of 'guardian creature', kind of like lions and foo dogs (chinese guardian lions).

Second image are of two random critters I drew up real quick, again no real direction.
The one on the left looks as confused as I am, lol.  One the right was just some random feathered serpent, like a coatl or such, with a random human doodle for size comparison (he's Starfleet btw. God I'm a nerd.)

Third up was something random again, started off as something small but got a little more development. When I was working on this, my brain suddenly went 'give him a fin-tail' and voilà, I created a kind of seal critter; well sort of a seal, I guess his tail is more like a dolphin or whale's tail.
I actually like this design, so it may be one I work with more later.

And lastly, this one isn't so much a random critter but rather was just one I haven't given much thought on in a while; this is a random Athmesdian kobold shaman (my own take on kobolds, rather than the DnD kind).
The mask he's wearing was kind of random, I think it was an influence from the comic 'Prophecy of the Circle'. I liked how it looked, so I decided to just throw it up here with the other critter doodles.

Sketches - Random Humans

I am not very good at drawing humans.
I really don't know why but human characters are always tricky for me, which is one reason why I need to do more of them when I can. So today's posting is of some small human character sketches that I came up with on the fly.

First up is just some random cyberpunk/cyborg kind of character. Since mech/tech and humans are some of my weak points, i just scribbled this up to get an idea out. Admittedly, the gun arm Kinda is odd but kind of nifty.

This could be something I can keep a hold of and play around with more later.

Second one up is a classic idea of the big general or colonel character; huge broad shoulders, mustache that wiggles when he talks, huge hat covering his eyes.
It's kind of cliche, but hey, sometimes the classics are just fun to draw.

Actually, he's kind of how I picture Corporal Punishment to look like in Improbable Island...

Third up is an idea of a big 'brick' character, the kind of character that has this big and bulky look, huge shoulders, square chin, suit that barely fits over his frame. Originally I was going for the 'big mook' kind of character, but with the addition of the hat he made me think more of like a classic 'Scotland Yard' kind of character, so that's what I ran with.

I named him Detective Squarechin, and on the right there is his pet cat Oscar. The critter doodle was originally something random, but the idea of this big and burly detective with a pet cat just seemed right.

Random ideas, but they were fun and hey, might be something I can work on at some point down the line.

Character Skethes - Bahamut

Small posting for today involving Bahamut.

First one is...I guess a bit of vent art. Pose is influenced from a comic from 'Slightly Damned'.

Second one is a bit more interesting I think. Just a small sketch with Bahamut and Aurora. Originally the two were separate, but after scanning them in I realized that the two work together as one, and I think it's time to have one of the two again.
I did want to try and draw a younger Bahamut, but I'm not sure if I pulled it off or not.

Design Sketches - Star ships

I am not very good at ship design, just something I've had a problem with. I come up with ideas, but they don't always turn out well when I try and work them out.

Doesn't keep me from trying though, can't really learn without trying, right?

Anyway, today's posts are two ship designs I've been trying to work during my time 'away'.

First up is a cruiser design for an alien race (the same 'unknown captain' race I had up here earlier).
Wanted to try and come up with something different: one of the main things I was trying to go for was having the main bridge in the bottom rather than the top like so many other ship designs tend to do. I also wanted to try and come up with some kind of unique design for the bulk of the hull. In the end though, it kind of reminds me of a carrier-type ship rather than a cruiser.

The second ship design is meant to be a smaller frigate-type ship, dubbed 'the Atlantis' (I dunno, I always wanted to have a smaller ship named the 'Atlantis', either that or the 'Excalibur.').
I always like ships of this kind of design, it's just tricky trying to come up with a look that is different. Also tricky trying to figure out how to make the design work overall with the ideas for the deck layout.


These might be some designs I'll work on later on down the line.

Sketches - Cute Lil' Monster

Back a while ago deviantART had a contest going for participates to design a 'cute monster' for a new shirt they were going to produce.  I actually had plans of participating in this (even though I had no hopes of winning) but for one reason or another that never actually happens.

So, I figured that I should at least show off the concept I had going.

The first image was the basic design I was playing with, a kind of bat critter that was something cute and simple, that paw print at the top was meant to be something that would go on the arm of the shirt.

The second image is what I was going to use for the actual shirt design, the critter would be on the back of the shirt and it was meant to look like it was hanging from the wearer's shoulders and neck.

While I never made it into the actual entries, it is a design that is worth keeping a hold of, who knows when it'll come in handy.

Character Sketches - Zeleme and Vandal

So then.
After a bit of unexpected downtime, I am finally back, and I come with sketches. So hopefully I will be able to get back into the swing of posting sketches up here for your viewing pleasure.

Today I have a small offering of three to kick things off.

The three are of two characters of mine that I don't do a lot of anymore for one reason or another.
First up is the demon lord Zeleme, the main antagonist when it comes to things in my fantasy world. I only had done one decent picture of Zeleme a long time ago, so I thought it was time I give him an update.

Problem is that this sketch really didn't turn out too well, there are quite a few things I'm not happy with, the biggest being that he looks way too small and thin.
But, I suppose it is a starting point.


The next two are of my character Vandal. I had done a sketch of Vandal earlier, but since I hadn't drawn him in so long, the sketch was kind of crap, so I decided to try again, with some better results.

The first one is okay, but a few things bug me about it, but not as badly as the last one.

The second one is actually something I did kind of randomly; I haven't done an ink sketch like this in a long time so I managed to doodle something really quickly for the fun of it. I like this one a lot better and the idea is just simple and silly enough to work.

Now, let's hope I can actually keep this going now.