Little One

I've been having fun painting in Krita, and I've wondered why I didn't download and use Krita earlier despite the glowing feedback on it from some of my loved ones. Oh well, stubborn me.

Original Concepts

I was inspired to do this illustration after looking at one of my old concept cover art sketches for Book I of The Legacy Incarnate.  Sabra and little Ferkaes share a tender moment. I had lots of fun playing around with different brushes, getting a feel for which ones I liked best.  I definitely like the fountain pen for the sharp highlights, and the airbrush is fantastic. This piece was very experimental, and I'm happy without how it turned out.  I look forward to doing more illustrations in Krita!

Just an update on my revision of Incarnate Memory: I am getting towards the end of the manuscript, where I've removed most of the old ending and am adding a lot of new material to tie up the book.  It's been a challenge to write a lot of new scenes in a book I drafted years ago, and the story has actually become a lot darker. I'm glad I'm creating a new ending to the book, though, as the original ending never sat quite right with me.

Have a nice evening!

New Look and Krita

I've updated the look and some of the layout of Xenithar's Lair, now in a green theme!  The color isn't for any real particular reason other than I like green.  Originally I was just going to change the header, but ended up changing the colors and stuff on the Lair.

I downloaded Krita, an opensource art program.  It's dedicated more to illustration and less to technical stuff like GIMP, and I'm slowly getting the hang of it.  I really like all the art tools it has, and I hope to eventually produce quality illustrations with it. Below are a few unfinished pics I've done in Krita.

Gonna be one of those days . . .

Art tidbit

On Sundays I don't work on my primary writing projects, so it gives me time while our little boy is sleeping to do art.

This is a character I've hinted at in a previous post that I didn't expect to meet during my revision of Incarnate Memory, but that I'm delighted to explore.  The picture depicts her as she is, and then as she used to be and could be again.  Originally I meant to draw just the left version of her, but decided to go for a more upright and confident version of her, contrasting the movement of her hurt and sad self with the stillness and serenity of her happier self.

Her tattoo I actually drew as a separate file weeks ago, and wanted to use it as a design for products like shirts and necklaces.  I might do that sometime.  I just pasted it into the picture and shrunk and turned it and erased parts to fit on her arms.

Her race is inspired by Native Americans, and so she has rounder features, along with darker skin, than most of my other humanoid characters, like Sabra the Incarnate.

Speaking of Native Americans, I had Colors of the Wind from Disney's Pocahontas stuck in my head while drawing part of this, haha.