Fire elementals wear top hats now

Another fire-themed guy. He's probably an elemental of some kind. Initially he didn't have a top hat or even a head, just a plume of fire. He was going to be called something flue or a flue something.

This works much better. Fire elementals and top hats seem to have unexpected but excellent synergy, like werewolves and the colour green.I am fighting the urge to go back and pop a top-hat on my last fire elemental too.

I'm trying to dial back my fire effects a touch. While I like the look, it wildly outclasses non-fire areas in detail. I wasn't terribly successful at it here, but my goal is to simplify it while still keeping as much of the nice embery look as possible.

I have no strong creative direction for the "infernal" theme. Imps and fire elementals so far. A few sketches of ogres. I think I'm leaning towards "devilish" over "firey", since that means more variety - cute little imps and dapper suits - without excluding fire. For now I'm just making stuff and seeing what sticks. As always I can come back and fix things later.

These monstrosities were initially meant to be infernal too, but after working them they seem more "ancient biotech evil", especially if I go with the green versions. They may yet have a home in the infernals - a technological subtheme might be cool - but again there's no need to commit yet.

Obvious Phyrexian influence, but I'm not ashamed. I don't consider it close enough to be a ripoff. The thing on the left was originally meant to be an insect queen, but ended up like those funky things from Blame!.

I like the eyes. The circular lens with the weird track-line gives them a distinctive look I'm happy with. And it can easily be applied to a variety of critters. Zombies with prosthetic heads for example. Another good point are the bruiser's fingers. They were a happy accident. A weird combination of sausage-fingers and needle-fingers.

Lunacy

I didn't want a brown werewolf. So apparently they're green now. That works for me. The grey-blue has the actual colours I worked with, but I liked the hue shift to green so much that he's become the definitive one. I love hue-shifting. So useful. It brings out colours and combinations I never would have thought of using. And they usually look a good deal more natural than what I drag out of the palette on my own.

The green works well though. I imagine the werewolf being part of the forest witch theme. His name is Gordon for some reason. Perhaps he's a not-virtuous-enough knight "blessed" by the moon to protect the wilds.


When I was playing with the colours I tried colouring the hair as fire. It didn't work. But it was fantastic as an autumn scheme. I'm going to have to try that in the future, maybe as a subtheme. I bet it would look great on the green men. A summer lineup and an autumn lineup would be aces. Maybe a spring one too, or would that be pushing it?

Yesterday I gave up in frustration over the left hand. I couldn't get the linework right. This morning I resolved to fix it no matter what, and opened it up to find it perfectly ok. Maybe I was tired and over-thinking it, or maybe brownies fixed it in the night. Either-or. Ok admittedly the hands are pretty crappy, but better is the enemy of done and I've found it easier for me to improve if I just move on and do better next time.


I tried too long to give him a mouth, but eventually I resigned myself to the fact that he looks pretty damn cool without one. The lack of a cliché snarl also makes him seem more "noble savage" than "frenzied horror", which works for the theme. My remaining concern is the feet. It would make sense that you can't see all his toes on one foot if he's stalking sideways, but I'm not sure that reads right on the drawing.

I am particularly happy with the colouring. I dithered over particulars for ages, but I think I've ended up giving him character without too much unnecessary detail.

Incendiary

I named this fellow Pyrovile. I like this name. I started him and the imps below yonks ago, and just now got round to finishing them.

I dithered a lot over how to do his "skeleton". I think this is as close as I'm going to get to what I want without breaking the node-budget. He originally had arm bones, but this made the hands look more like random flames (odd), so I took them out.

Things I am pleased with:
The twisted flow of fire at his base.
The little bulge of fire around his skull
The way his left eye breaks the edge of the skull-shape.
The name, pyrovile. Pyrovile.

The colouring I have mixed feelings about. It's quite a bit messier than I want, but it's not terrible. I was going for the same effect as I used on the wicker man, but I think it worked a lot better there. I might need to get a new fire technique for the infernals. I don't think I want them as clean as the firefox, but this lots-of-dots method seems too embery. There's probably a nice middle ground, or maybe I'll just get better at executing this style.

A little less fierce-looking are these imps. Little arsonists trying to look innocent. They're based on a goblin/imp pattern I used with my very first primitive vector stick figures. The main changes are the cloven hoofs and the ears.

For the fire, see what I said about Pyrovile.

Trivia!

The ears were originally horns. Eventually decided to go for ears because I could do more varieties. And it's easier to make ears that evoke horns (as seen on the first two) than vice versa.

I agonised over whether the extra lines to make those cloven hooves were worth it. Agonised! I'm glad I did it though - it's a new kind of detail and it adds a lot.Besides, they're so simple they needed a little extra something.

I'm still not sure about the variety in their incendiary methods. Fireball is a little different conceptually to molotov or bomb in my mind. If I ever put them to work, I may need to revise them so that they're all obviously the same class. For now they're just shy of my "bothered to fix" threshold.

Tsq: God-eaters

"Tarrasque is not a monster, it is the god of hunger and the flesh. A pure existence unsullied by reason and unfettered by morality. Tarrasque is a deity whose nature is too base to find home in the heavens."

This is the creed of the god-eaters; a secretive cult that revere Tarrasque and the ideal it represents. They believe in the power of the strong over the weak, that hunger is the noblest impulse and that cannibalism is its purest expression.

They do not resent their god's imprisonment. They see it as proof that mankind is ready to take Tarrasque's place by following its example and ascending to a purer existence. Their rites revolve around gratuitous consumption and symbolically claiming the power of others as their own.

Their most sacred ritual is the consumption of Tarrasque in effigy. It begins with kidnapping some person of minor power - a rich merchant or gang leader for example. At the assembly the god-eaters ceremonially demonstrate their power over the victim, humiliating and brutalising them. At the climax of the ceremony the unfortunate is slaughtered and becomes a feast for the congregation. These vile events require much covert planning and take place rarely enough that the practice is only a rumour in the city at large.

No such thing as magic

Where I come from, we call a "wizened sage" an expert and a wizard is someone that's the best there is at what they do.

There is no such thing as magic, but there are wizards.

Kewl P0werz

A dark and horrible curse that, as a side effect, gives you a variety of cool superheroic powers. Vampirism, lycanthropy, deals with the devil, etc. But it's a little problematic when the coolness of the powers overwhelms the price. People gloss over the "having to drink blood" thing and focus on leaping tall buildings and turning into ninja bats.

Looking specifically at games, one of the contributing factors is that players tend to be given a shopping list of cool powers to choose from. More text-space (and hence brain-space) is given over to the upside. And when your choice of powers is how you customise your character, it's natural that they're the aspect you focus on.

Of course when I put it like that, the solution seems obvious. Swap it around. The cool powers are defaults, and the price is unique. Thing is, cool powers that aren't diverse aren't terribly cool. If you can do something the other person can't, then that makes you cooler when you do that thing.

Fortunately the game that had me thinking about this problem already has an answer to that. Classes - broad categories of character concept and abilities. The difference will just be that classes don't come with a selection of bonus powers, but with your choice of horrible drawback.

For example: you're a swordbearer - you have a demonic soul-eating sword bound to you. Traditionally you'd be able to customise your sword so that maybe it could shoot fire blasts, or had a big glowing eye that warned you of threats. But I think it'll be more interesting and appropriate if the cool powers are relatively generic (though you can justify the colour/flavour to suit your tastes) but the drawback is specific.

To continue the example, maybe the demon sword is a deep sleeper and you don't benefit from any of the upsides until it's been woken up by tasting first blood. Or it's a monstrous organic parasite that drains your strength.

To sum up: keep the cool powers broad, the drawbacks specific and let the player customise with their choice of drawback. It might work.

PVC cheeseborg

Another refurb. The "PVC cheeseborg" was one of the later MK2 veeps I did, and also one of the better (in my humble opinion). I barely changed any of the original lines when I returned to it.

Leftmost is the original. From the moment I drew him, I imagined his pointy trousers being shiny yellow plastic. With the cutouts it became obvious to me that his name was "PVC cheeseborg". The "borg" part made sense at the time.

No shared theme here. These guys are generic characterful (oxymoron?) sword-havers. I decided #2 was armoured in some kind of scaly leather, hence the texture. The colour scheme took ages to get working though and it's still only just acceptable. With #3 I continue my inexplicable fascination with people in plate-mail leggings. He was this close to having a belly shirt too. No idea what it says about me that I keep trying to give men bare midriffs and metal trousers.

Very happy with #1's colour scheme. The grey bits were originally red and they looked nice, but I'm so glad I tested the grey. #3's eyepatch was an indulgence. They're such cheap and easy head-detail that I have to ration my use of them.

There's not as much variation in the swords as there might have been. They all needed to be long, slightly curved and relatively thin because of the pose. Because they go behind the head the middle part of the blade can't have any important details that might get lost behind a hat. I'm mostly happy with them, but I regret making all the blade/hilt joins boring. It might have been interesting to blur the line between those components a little. A sword where the blade becomes the hand-guard for example, or a hilt that extends up along the back of the blade.

Revamps are a good idea since I'm still having trouble with new sketches. I do want to go back and revisit some of the earlier stuff I posted on this blog, but for now I'd prefer to do as much new stuff as I can. If I ever wind up using these guys for anything, then I can get all perfectionist.

Sweep away the dust

What's going on here then, hm? Nothing much. So let's see about that then, hm?

I'd been stalled on these you see and had largely given up. But last night I sketched a dashing fellow with a wand. I scan him but before I even start on his linework, these unfinished broomboys catch my eye. Before I know it I'm dropping nodes and aiming arcs and shopping colours and here we are!

They felt a lot more androgynous while I was making them, but midway during the colour stage I had to face facts: these are men. Well, young men. Boys really. To my eyes at least. A second flavour of apprentice I guess.

Remarks:

#3's hair was added well after colouring had started. I decided he needed something more and so I went back and biddled with the lines. A little awkward to update the linework on a WIP colour piece, but it's all for the better.

#2's hair is silly. I'm trying hard not to think "Dragonball Z" when I see it. I like it though. Looks autumn-y.

#1's hangy bauble looks to be tugging his hat down. I like that. I'm not terribly good at making things feel weighty and solid, but this is a nice exception.

The brooms were all utter arse to do. This art style is not broomhead-friendly. It was one of the big things I stalled on way back when I started this (#2's hat was another, but big hair to the rescue).

The initial sketch was far more ambitious. Unfortunately it also wasn't very good. These are yet more static-looking flatfoots, but they're much less offensive to the eye than they might have been.

Dissatisfied with the faces. They're looking downward in an uninspiring and vaguely morose manner. I'm leaving them like that for now, but if I come back it'll probably be the first thing I fix.

In the future I'll try and take a crack at the new sketch that these distracted me from. I'll wait until there's something else I should be doing. I also have some more limes I could post up if I felt the need. Or I might wander off and forget about this nonsense. Time will tell.