Loving You (mild spoiler)

 Can you tell I'm having fun exploring the inking medium in my art? It's not that I haven't done inking before; I've been inking pictures ever since I was young. However, I've never gone this in depth on composition with inking. Again, the Nausicaä manga provided a huge inspiration for me to explore this side of my art a lot deeper. I'm excited at the thought of being able to illustrate my own books, sharing my storytelling through both words and art.

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom Thoughts

 I'm a huge Legend of Zelda fan. I love the adventuring and puzzle-solving aspects of the series. I have yet to play all the games, but I've played a sizeable chunk of them. They've even influenced my own storytelling! Ever wonder why I gave Aaron and Sabra marks on the backs of their hands and gave them their own phantoms to fight?

This year, Nintendo released Echoes of Wisdom for the Switch, which returned to a top-down, classic gameplay look. Prior to this, they had released the remastered version of Link's Awakening, and they reused several assets from their remaster. It almost seemed like it was a test-run for Echoes of Wisdom, and they made several improvements to the gameplay that I really enjoyed while still keeping some classic elements.

Something my brother asked me when I just got into the game was what the developers did to make Zelda irreplaceable, i.e. by Link. What makes her unique? This game impressed me by answering that question in several ways, and it made me appreciate just how much thought went into it! 

The rest of this is partially a review, but mostly just a list of my thoughts on the story and the game mechanics.

For those who haven't played the game, there are spoilers ahead!

B3 Illustration - Like an Ocean Wave

"Zephyr suddenly bowled against Callu’u’s left flank, and she tumbled head-over-hoof with a horse-like scream. The Draconite quickly dispatched her remaining ribbons before turning on Henry in the same fluid movements. It was like trying to stop an ocean wave, but Henry pressed against the zaynthra. Up down, left right, parry, feint, parry, a twisting strike to disarm him—and Zephyr’s sword went flying." ~Book 3 of The Legend of Draconite: E'lsra, Chapter 3: Tournament of Swords.

 Here is another inky offering for my readers. The more I do these, the more and more I understand how to use the ink to add texture and depth to the composition. This features Zephyr vs. Henry from the WIP Book 3 of The Legend of Draconite: E'lsra. One of the things I kept from the original manuscript from way back in high school was the Tournament of Swords, although I modified and improved upon it. I'm planning on having this in the same chapter as my previous piece, Indulgence.

I Can't Believe I Did This....

 I can't believe I did it, folks. Recently I finished drafting Book V of The Legacy Incarnate: Incarnate Truth! After our trip to the Redwoods, I got on a writing high and I crafted the rest of the story. There's still some rough spots to work out, but I got the most important stuff in and I'm pretty pleased with the rough draft. It's a TON better than the original BV draft I completed back in 2011 or so.

Will it be published anytime soon? Probably not. I can't even promise it will be released next year, and will most likely be a 2026 release. I am revising and editing Book 3 of The Legend of Draconite right now, and I still need to get the Legacy Incarnate anthology (Book 4.5) ready, which has some key elements to help the reader understand some things in Book V. In the meantime, I plan on posting related artwork and excerpts so you, my reader, can take sneak peeks at these books in progress!

A screenshot of B3 of LOD in
Scrivener, the primary software I use for my writing.
The red is my first edit through. I highly recommend
Scrivener for serious story-tellers!

Doing that much writing caused some burn out for me, and I'm trying to get my creative juices flowing for editing E'lsra again. I was partway through the first edit when I got the drive to finish LI BV, and now it's time to jump back in. One way I've been doing this is the inked illustrations I've been sharing, and I want to focus more on illustrations for E'lsra. I've written several ideas, and would love to do two illustrations per chapter. To start with, I based it on a scene near the beginning of an excerpt I've already shared on here,  "Tournament of Swords".

"Henry hummed and kissed her, breathing her in. She had recently bathed and smelled of her favorite rose-scented soap, and against the chill of the morning, she was so warm and soft in his arms…but he would have to wait to indulge himself any further with Sabra until after the Tournament."

As well as the general composition and pose of the characters, I focused a lot on symbolism. If you're familiar with classical art, you'll find the character poses inspired by "Il Bacio" by Francesco Hayez. I wanted to emphasize the warmth of Henry and Sabra's embrace and kiss.

 

One of the major elements is the painting in the background, of two Molouk lovers reaching to each other, one of them ascending to heaven. The Draconite's wings have Erskan characters inscribed on them that read "Sabra Life," "Joy," and "Henry Death." If you're familiar with The Legacy Incarnate, you'll have a pretty good understanding of what the painting generally foreshadows.

On or near the ground are a child's drawing and crayons, a couple of which are broken, hinting at Sabra's difficulty with child-bearing. Around Henry are four ribbons, indicating his participation in the upcoming tournament, along with the scribbled-on sheaf of paper on the ground.

There's lots of other stuff too, but I won't explain it all here, because that's the viewer's job! What sorts of things can you infer from this picture?

I realized in hindsight that this illustration isn't completely accurate to the drafted scene, so I may need to do some fix-up there, but it still turned out great!

Sabra and Zarem (B3)

 Here is another illustration I created with ink pen, based on a scene from Book III of The Legacy Incarnate: Incarnate Memory. Here Sabra volunteers to incarnate as the demi-goddess Luna, so Luna can ascend to full godhood.

This was an experiment in using the ink to express movement, composition, and lighting. As I didn't want a heavy use of inkage for shading, I had to decide how to best depict the light coming off of Zarem, so I made his throne darker around him.

I had attempted some concepts with this particular scene in the past, but it just didn't come across right until now, several years later!

Illustration Concept

 I'm back with another illustration, one I failed to add to my last post, but I figured I could talk about it here. I did this one in pencil, and then scanned it in and "inked" it in Krita. It's interesting feeling and seeing the differences between the hard inking medium and the digital. This is an illustration of Caemorr and Sabra, based a scene from the WIP Incarnate Truth. 

 It's a concept for an illustration, as I've been considering adding illustrations to my works going forward. (I've dabbled a bit in illustrating my books with small things here or there, but nothing regular.) Whether or not I use it, it was fun to do!

Exploring Illustration (inking)

 Hello everyone,

First off, writing continues on Book V of The Legacy Incarnate: Incarnate Truth. Look for more updates on it soon! I'm so glad I went back and rewrote this story from the draft. In August our family went on a trip to Redwoods National Forest in California, and it was a huge inspiration for me for some key parts of the story. Forested mountains + beach = perfection.

I recently read the manga epic Nausicaä: Of the Valley of the Wind. I had seen the movie multiple times, but finally read the story, and it is magnificent in its scope and message. I've been inspired by Hayao Miyazaki's art style to try my hand at inking some illustrations, so I picked up a set of inking pens and have been having fun in a new sketchbook drawing and inking. Eventually I want to do a side project where I turn a short story or part of a longer story into an inked comic. I did this back in high school for a creative writing class project, and it was a lot of fun!

Thanks for reading, and have a nice day!

Inking Some More

 In the evenings I watch Walker, Texas Ranger with my husband, and most of the time I need to find a way to stay awake, so I do stuff to keep my hands occupied. Lately I've been getting back into ball-point pen inking, and here's a few pieces. Most are free-form, but Link was drawn in pencil before I inked him!

A fierce brooder. Brooders are unicorn-like equines from The Legacy Incarnate series.

Cuddle Buddy

 Sabra cuddles with a stuffy of her favorite dream buddy.

Tablet Sketching

 My brother is letting my borrow his Wacom Intuos drawing tablet, and I must say it's a nice one. Here's a little sketch I did with it.

"E'lsra" Drafted and Updates

 Hello everyone!

For the last few weeks I've dived head-first into the rewrite of Book 3 of the Legend of Draconite: E'lsra. I started rewriting this book several years ago, and I'm happy to announce that I've finished the draft!

What's interesting about this draft compared to the original book, though, is its composition. I actually haven't finished drafting the story, just this book. I have decided due to the size and the current flow of the first part of E'lsra that I will split this story into two, adding an additional volume to The Legend of Draconite to complete the story arc that starts in E'lsra.

That isn't to say this book, Book 3, is incomplete in a storytelling sense. There is an introduction to the characters, world, ideas, and plot of E'lsra, a build-up, a climax, and an aftermath, just like any good story. It felt natural to stop where I did, making "Part 1" of the book the whole book, and "Part 2" will be Book 4 of the Legend of Draconite, bumping Moonstone and Ascension down the line.

Incarnate Key Original and Final Comparisons

 This is a post I've wanted to do since the publication of Incarnate Key. Something I had mentioned before was the major revision this story went through. The main purpose of the revision was to make this story more relevant to the overall series; the original was fun, and had some good ideas and details, but overall it was meaningless to Sabra's development as a character and her role in the Legacy Incarnate. 

This can also give you a good idea of the work I do on my books as both the author and editor. I don't have a huge team to back me up and do the heavy lifting for me, and so I've had to spend a lot of time making the story the best it can be before printing. While the original had some good ideas, many had to be radically altered or removed to make room for something better. (Sorry giant-clawed, giant-winged, GIANT bats!)

Thus I want to present major differences and similarities between the two versions of Incarnate Key. This probably goes without saying, especially since the book has been out for so long, but ...WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD! Enjoy!

Character and Race Concepts

 It's been a very long interim between the Incarnate Key release and this. I have a few concept pieces I've been wanting to share since November. These are really good for getting the drawing juices flowing going when I am having artist's block. The last few months have been kind of crazy, as I haven't had much time to draw at all. 

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This first one is a concept for the Molouk egg and how the chick fits into it. It's nice to work some of these ideas onto paper for future reference. It makes the world in the stories feel a bit more real!

This is Sabra the Incarnate doing her morning exercises. She works hard to stay fit, which contributes to both her physical and magical strength.

This last piece is one I think I may have shared on my old blog. I did this romantic scene several years ago in colored pencil. I believe it's based on a scene in The Legacy Incarnate where Sabra is having a dream about her and Henry. 

Thanks for reading. Hopefully I'll post more frequently from now on!