The Southern California Writers' Conference and My Novel's Progress

It has been a crazy last few months, full of prepping for the Southern California Writers' Conference through to hard decisions on how I should proceed with my novels, but like so many journeys: this one was more than worth it. :)

The Southern California Writers' Conference

I love having upcoming events and milestones to look forward to, and one of the ones for this year was the knowledge I would be attending the Southern California Writers' Conference this February 12th to 15th. This was my second year attending, and this year I had a much better idea of what I wanted to get out of it. Last year was a bit of a whirlwind, but a creative-infused one at that!

Going into the conference this year, I'd spent a few months trying to self-evaluate how I was doing on my stories. I was making progress, certainly, but as you might have seen on my current story status page, I had a number of active writing projects I was working on that were all vying for my attention, including three novels and two short stories in addition to other work I'd put on the back-burner. So it was with a bit of soul-searching that I realized that, like art, trying to juggle so many projects at once wasn't doing me a lot of good, and that it would be better to try to focus on taking one to the finish line before I worked on finishing off the rest of them.

I hemmed and hawed a bit about which one I should pick, but in the end, I found myself really drawn to finishing off Secrets of an Accord, which is a sort of origin story for how two main characters in the series got to know each other, and it's a story I feel is a really good introduction to the world of my books as well.

So, armed with this knowledge, I prepared for the Southern California Writers' Conference, which included preparing manuscripts of the first few chapters  of "Secrets of an Accord" for two advance readers as well as rogue readings, where groups gather to receive feedback on their work. I've also shared these early glimpses into the story over on my Patreon. One of my advance readers (who is himself a published author) was especially fond of my work and also offered to be my editor! Talk about humbling!

That said, I felt like I had a pretty good feel for the story (I had it fully outlined, and well over half of it in a first or second draft state), and attending the conference only heightened my interest in making it even better, infused with more charm and personality, and more impactful overall.

Writing in a box can sometimes be quite difficult, and it was really valuable for me to be able to come together with other writers and discuss some of the trials and tribulations of the process. In particular, this year I spent a lot of time learning about some of the various publishing options that are open to me. It's important to note: I'm not trying to put the cart before the horse here. I am very well aware that I want a complete, edited, proofed novel in my hands before I start worrying too much about publishing, and if I'm going to go the traditional route, indy, Kickstarter, or something else entirely, but it was important for me to start to be able to understand the time and costs associated with various routes, even if I'm not even close to the point where I need to make a decision just yet as to what path (or paths) I'd like to travel. The thing that's most important to me is being free to tell the story I want to tell, but to also do it as best I can. At minimum, that will mean a lot more writing and self-editing, as well as hiring a professional editor and proofer to make sure that when all is said and done, I put my best foot forward. :)

How to Noodle a Novel
 

I've written thousands of pages about my world and its characters already, but by-and-large, I've kept most of it closely guarded and out of the public eye. I've also had some highs and lows along the way, including a literal computer fire that destroyed years worth of work, which led to me exploring My Stages of Story Grief.

Like my art, sometimes I also get so caught up in the details of a story that it keeps me from moving forward with any resemblance of a healthy, regular clip, but I'm certainly trying to get better on that front. That is part of why I try to use Productivity Trackers to hold myself accountable for how I spend my time, and it's also part of why I realized that working on multiple stories at once (five of them...) simply was doing me no good. I only have so much free time, and it's hard to keep things fresh in my mind if I'm regularly juggling projects.

But I digress: now that I've chosen one to push forward, it's actually been incredibly helpful in clearing my mind and helping me focus. It's also meant that I've felt more willing to try to expand and add additional layers of depth to the story, and so far, it's going quite well! It's meant that I've had to break out the carefully-laid outlines again and try to spend time adjusting them, however, which is unfortunately taking longer than I would have liked, but that's how it goes sometimes. :) I wish I were able to give you or even myself a firm date as to when the first draft of the third version will be done, but We're just going to have to hang in there while I push forward just as quickly as I can. I'm definitely hoping to get it done before crunch sets in at my full-time job!

These two, these two lost souls with so many adventures ahead of them:

Art by Emma Lazauski

Art by Cynthia Reep

They started like this:

And they started out without any knowledge of the steadfast companions they would become, and how they would each grow from the years they spend at each other's side.

That said, here are some fun facts about my novel, Secrets of an Accord:

• It is now in its third version of the story.
• It is the formal introduction between two characters of my overarching set of stories: Oberon (the man who was cursed and turned into a horse) and Sashah (the werewolf enchantress).
• It shares at least four different types of unique magic that exist within the world.
• It showcases a gorgeous city that specializes in bright dyes and dark secrets.
• Werewolves? We got werewolves.
• Curses and transformation? We got that too.
• While the location isn't a center for magical creatures, a number of them make appearances in the book, including gryphowls, and various creatures that have been bred by mages.
• Sentient animals.
• Cats with very unique and special abilities.
• Dark humor, mystery, and adventure.

In any case, thank you ever-so-much for your support, and hopefully in the coming months I'll have even more to share as the third version of the story progresses. :) Onward!

I hope you enjoyed this brief glimpse into the Southern California Writers' Conference and My Novel's Progress!

[Video Walkthrough] “Dragon Mage” – ZBrush Sculpture

Writerly Update and Unfinished Projects

I've been doing a lot of writing lately. Specifically, I got to a point in one of my stories that I realized it would be best to return to an outline state so I could better evaluate it as a whole before moving back into writing prose. So far, so good! I recently considered what I'm calling the first draft of the third version outline of "The Apprentice of Rook," and I'm really excited to share more about it as progress continues. :) View all blog posts labeled "The Apprentice of Rook."

Along these lines, I've been trying to better balance work and my personal projects, and so I'm doing a fair bit of writing and art on a weekly basis, and it's working wonderfully so far! I've been relieved that "Butterscotch" the World of Warcraft fan art yak is finally complete, and as I was sorting through files this week, I was thinking about all the other outstanding projects I have laying around, and something reminded me of one such project I'd started in ZBrush last year, but hadn't finished off.

“Dragon Mage” – ZBrush Sculpture

Above is a short video compilation of the recent ZBrush sculpture I completed, which includes a process walkthrough, turnaround, and stills. You can also access it directly through YouTube here. Make sure to view it at 1080p HD!

For most if not all projects I'd done previously through ZBrush, I'd eventually had to stop keeping the history of each step, because after a certain point the files get completely unmanageable in terms of sheer file size. This particular project ended up being a rare exception, because I had the entire history of it saved, right from his humble origins as a simple sphere. :) So if you want to "watch" how I sculpt, definitely check out the video above!

Information About the Finished Sculpture

 

“Dragon Mage Sculpture” – ZBrush Sculpture and Photoshop - Started on August 5th, 2014, Completed on August 22, 2015

Further Information available on DeviantArt.com: http://fav.me/d96ok6t

I consider it a sort of detailed sketch of one of the races from my story that I hope to get to one day. Another one is seen below, and there's even a walkthrough for this illustration here if you're interested:

As far as ZBrush projects go, this one was poorly planned and so I didn't have enough resolution to fully detail him, but that's okay. It was a great learning experience and exercise, and I'm particularly proud of the "ear" area.

Time Taken: Approximately 3 sessions spanning 10 hours total.

I hoped you enjoyed this blog and are having a productive weekend!

My Stages of Story Grief and My Completed Story Journal

"The Start of an Adventure" Completed on July 10th, 2014 - A sketch from the second-to-last page of my story journal. 

Somewhere back in the middle of 2011, I decided that instead of spreading my art and writing across a multitude of sketchbooks and journals, that I’d instead keep all of my story-related content to one particular journal in order to help enable me to further organize my thoughts.  Alongside this journal, I continued to maintain a private wiki and blog that concerned themselves specifically with helping me move myself along on my writing journey, and while I certainly typed up notes on my computer or iPad, the vast majority of my musing occurred within my precious little story journal.

Now, over three years later, I’m not quite where I’d hoped to be by the time I completed it, but I think I’m wiser for the journey.

I’d always assumed, I suppose, that if I simply put pen to paper I could push on and get my first book published in record time. I'd already written it once, after all. But much as that simple formula sounded quite straightforward and appealing, I realized that the book I’d been writing for somewhere over fifteen years showed its age in a number of ways that weren't easily reconcilable.

My Stages of Story Grief

Much like the stages of grief I once recall seeing so aptly displayed in this short video from Robot Chicken, I feel like I've finally come to terms with working on the main story for so long.

Denial

Denial came in two forms for me. First, the bulk of my writing was at one point destroyed in a literal computer fire, and in the aftermath, it was difficult for me to try to recapture the sense of wonder I felt in relation to the story and the characters because it felt like it simply didn't stack up against the original prose.

Secondly, I’d spent so long writing these characters and the various places and plots of the book series (which at that point was three books, because apparently trilogies were a “thing”), that I was all-but in denial about some of the parts that simply had never really worked well, and that I was willing to hand-wave off because going back and editing and rethinking them in earnest would mean revisiting thousands of pages of text. It was like having a warm fuzzy memory of a movie you enjoyed in your childhood that simply didn't hold up when you watched it a decade later.

Anger

Anger came in the form of frustration for me. I was aware enough that the books weren't where I wanted them to be, but I found myself in a place of stillness because I wasn't willing to move forward with the original prose and story, because I had enough awareness that it wasn't good enough for my tastes.

Bargaining

Bargaining for me came in the form of lacking a direction on how to proceed. Was it worth trying to work off the old prose and story (even though both hadn't aged as well as I’d have liked)? This period for me felt a lot like realizing the awesome cake recipe you baked wasn't turning out well, so you start tossing in more sugar, and maybe even some bright frosting. The problem is, no matter how much sugar or add or garnishments you toss on, if the cake is too salty, there’s not much you can do to make it the pristine piece of culinary perfection you longed for it to be.

Depression

Depression came in the form of self-realization that the story wasn't where I wanted it to be, and no amount of poking it was really giving it the “oomph” it needed.

Acceptance

The acceptance stage came last, but it opened my eyes to the possibility that possibly what was best for the story (and series) was to be willing to reshape it entirely. To think of it not as a cake recipe that went awry, and to instead imagine it as the rough shape of a sculpture from my youth. There were aspects that worked, and those that didn't, and to use those pieces that worked and be willing to look at them in new ways. Or (as was often the case), to be willing to look at a piece that didn't work and be willing to look at it with a critical and honest eye and toss it away outright for the good of the story.

The Story Journal

It was a difficult change of view at first, but over the last few years it’s been a healthy one, and I feel better for it. Being willing to tear down accepted truths of my world and its characters has allowed me to dig deeper, and hopefully worth towards building something much more satisfying the next go around (which will be draft 4.0.1, I believe).  In the meantime, though, today marks a sort of celebration of completing my first story-centric journal.

My journal is packed with loads of text and planning alongside a healthy dose of sketches and rhetorical questions meant to inspire me further, and I thought it would be fun to share a few of its seventy-eight pages with you. As tends to be the nature of my sketches, they are usually only a few inches large (many are barely larger than a postage stamp). The total dimensions of the toned sketchbook is 7 x 10 inches.

Page 1/78 - The first page of the journal shows an iconic interpretation of a scene from the first book. I imagined it was how artisans and historians from the world might envision a scene from their history.

Page 2/78 - After finding a scene diagram in a book, I copied it over to my journal to try to keep me on-track.

Page 9/78 - "BFFs" - Completed on May 27th, 2011

Page 22/78 - "Alchemist and Friend Sketch" - Completed on September 16th, 2011

Page 26/78 - "Richard Toned Sketch" - Completed November 21st, 2011

Page 29/78 - "Elk Princess" - Completed December 28th, 2011

Page 30/78 - "Richard and Friend Sketch" - Completed on May 22nd, 2012

Page 33/78 - Many of my journal pages include assorted sketches alongside notes or questions to myself.

Page 38/78 - "Vulnerable Moments" - Completed on July 17th, 2012

Page 71/78 - I pushed to finish off my story journal over the last few days, but as many of the pages deal with my upcoming short story, I opted to not post them here since it would be bound to spoil things.  So instead: have one of the characters: Oberon. 

Page 1/76 - I don't claim to be fantastic at horses, but the evolution from how I used to draw them is quite noticeable to me.

To cap off my story journal, I decided to draw the two main characters from my upcoming short story. It was a quick sketch, but it probably captured the female protagonist's spirit better than any other image I've done of her.  It was a bit surreal to finish sketching her and go "wow.... that's HER at that age..."

The second-to-last page of my story journal.

The final page of my story journal, which includes some goals I've set for myself.

The Road Ahead

While I’m still a ways off on my rewrite of the first book, I’m still hoping to get some short stories out there to share with you in the coming months. Thanks for joining me on the journey, and for your continued support. :)

If you're curious to see other sketches from my story journal, you can see quite a number of them in my Original Characters Gallery on deviantART, and elsewhere in my galleries.

Druids, Magic, Demons, and Little Girls

It’s been quite a busy week! It hasn’t been as productive in terms of story or art as I might have preferred, but every step forward is one step closer to being done.

ZBrush and 3ds Max Class Post Mortem

In addition to attending E3 last week, I also finished off my 3ds Max course from Gnomon. I would have liked to get a bit more out of it, but that’s how it goes. I feel as if my final project for my zBrush course a few months ago was much stronger: 

"ZBrush Night Elf Druid Fan Art" - Completed on April 1, 2013

For those who are unfamiliar with the creature: in Warcraft, Night Elf Druids can shapeshift into elfy-looking cats. This particular one is running a flag from Warsong Gulch (a sort of "capture the flag"-style PvP Battleground). She’s personal fan art that was modeled and polypainted from scratch, and the background/setting is a very, very modified screenshot from World of Warcraft.

My 3ds Max project, by comparison, was a fine learning experience:

"3Ds Max Island" - Completed on June 15, 2013

It really doesn't feel as if it has much personal “flavor” to it, but that's what you get for trying to learn a new program with limited time available to you. ;) This is a sort of “beauty” shot of the island, plants, and rocks I made from scratch, but let’s just say I’m much more excited by the prospect of starting anew in 3ds Max, learning more about it, and really taking it out for a test drive. As it is I feel like I got a basic overview of what the programs is capable of, but I really want to dig in and make something that has a bit more personality to it.

Progress on “The Apprentice of Rook” (Working Short Story Title)

My work on the story this week was slow and steady. I managed some solid editing time and came upon another mini-arc I’d like to insert in there, so I’m trying to find the best way to do that. I’m really hoping that this weekend I can really get cracking on it.

Story Art

I found an old thumbnail that wasn't very developed (and whose characters weren't interacting, nor had any real story implied), and so I took a couple hours while watching some Netflix and tried to change it into something.

"Campfire" - Thumbnail from ~2006

It's still a WIP, but it's neat putting all five of these characters together to share stories in front of a campfire (there's due to be magic involved with that smoke, too).

This is a type of scene that would been in Book 1 or later. While there are often places to be, people to meet, and challenges to complete, there's also a fair bit of downtime during travel. In terms of getting to know each other, you learn a lot from sharing stories, and I think having magic to illustrate and accent one's tales could be quite an experience.

(I still haven't figured out what tale the two on the left are telling, but the smoke will help relay that once I figure out that particular detail.)

"Campfire" Redo - June 16, 2013

I’ve always loved the idea of using magic for the purpose of storytelling, and for the character of Sashah, that’s definitely a niche she enjoys. Below are two illustrations by the incredibly talented Emma Lazauski showing this facet of the character. I love them to bits.

"ACEO: Sashah and Richard" by Emma Lazauski - November 4, 2011

"Sashah's Spell" by Emma Lazauski - January 11, 2012

The Big, Wide Internet and Story Themes

Another thing that’s been on my mind this week are wider story themes. Now granted, some of my characters have been around in one way or another for over a dozen years, so they’ve had some understandable maturing to do along the way, but there are also newer characters and side characters that have only come about in the passing years as I tried to rework and deepen the main books, short stories, and world as a whole.

One of the thoughts that came out of this was that some topics I am privately very passionate about were often not addressed in the world of my story, and that… well it REALLY bothered me.

Now here’s the thing: this is the big, wide, internet, and it’s full of all sorts of personalities. There are people that are passionate, some that are even bold to the point of being intentionally offensive. There are people who lurk, who have barely no internet footprint at all. There are some who secure themselves behind aliases in order to express themselves, and some that let themselves me out there for all the world to see. There are all of these, and everything in between, and very early on I decided that in terms of my online presence, well, I wanted it to be positive. Not only is it smart from an employment perspective, but I also really wanted to be a force for “good,” and to be someone that people could point to online as never trying to be demeaning or cruel to others. That’s just not me, and I never wanted to be represented that way online.

Along these lines, I tend by and large to avoid critical-speak online. I’ll say what movies or products I like, but I generally try to avoid calling out those I don’t. That’s not to say I don’t have opinions, of course (trust me, I most certainly do, ESPECIALLY in terms of entertainment – I went to film school for a reason ;) ), but I’d rather leave most critical talk to offline. After all, not only do you never know who is reading your stuff, but you never know how it might come back to haunt you or flavor other’s perceptions of you. It’s a risk you take when you put anything up online, but generally I believe it to be a good idea to spread positive vibes rather than sneering ones.

And in some round-about way, those thoughts are part of what made me realize in recent months that I was sort of “copping out” in my own personal work if I outright avoided sensitive topics.

There is a lot of bad in our world. Really bad. To the extent that I don’t even pretend to comprehend how deep the rabbit hole goes on some topics, but the more I thought about them, the more I thought that if I simply avoided them in my own personal work, I was doing myself and my audience a disservice. 

Some of them are big, sweeping issues that are probably best served in other stories or frameworks, but that doesn’t mean I should feel intimidated to shuffle them away and ignore them entirely just because someone out there may not share the same opinions as I do.

These issues can range from anything from racial bigotry and gender issues through to gay rights and the sexual abuse. That doesn’t mean necessarily that I feel a need to stand on a podium about them (nor do I feel that I would be the best equipped to do so), but I think it’s fair to acknowledge that those undercurrents are there, even if the world itself is fiction. Why? Because the world is diverse, just as our own is, and I think there is something to be said for allowing your work to bring up topics, even sensitive ones, so that readers can walk along with your characters and consider the relevancy of these issues in the world of the story as well as perhaps their own lives.

The Alchemist and Friend Story Art

That brings me to this piece.  This piece has not one drop to do with the short story I’m currently working on, but I realized this week that I was sort of copping out by not giving it some context. And oddly enough, I was prompted by a song that my mother sent along to me. It’s not the usual genre of music I listen to, but I heard the song, and the whole time, I couldn’t help thinking of this character I’d created some years ago.

"Alchemist and Friend Sketch" - Completed on September 15, 2011

“Blown Away”
Audio Here

"Dry lightning cracks across the skies

Those storm clouds gather in her eyes

Her daddy was a mean old mister

Mama was an angel in the ground

The weather man called for a twister

She prayed blow it down

There's not enough rain in Oklahoma

To wash the sins out of that house

There's not enough wind in Oklahoma

To rip the nails out of the past

[Chorus:]

Shatter every window 'til it's all blown away,

Every brick, every board, every slamming door blown away

'Til there's nothing left standing, nothing left of yesterday

Every tear-soaked whiskey memory blown away,

Blown away

She heard those sirens screaming out

Her daddy laid there passed out on the couch

She locked herself in the cellar

Listened to the screaming of the wind

Some people call it taking shelter

She called it sweet revenge[...]"

Trying to go into the different types of magic that exist in my world and everything about them would be some long diatribe starting with a spoiler tag, but suffice to say, one of the types involves bargaining with demons. 

The girl had... really bad childhood. Really. Bad. There was physical abuse and sexual abuse leading up to when she basically made a pact with a demon in order to get away from her abusive father.

The thing is, once said pact was completed, the demon had found that it actually grew quite fond of her, and she of it. So in a way, you have this situation where this little girl (who has her own story) has an "imaginary friend" who is pretty much her best friend and saving grace.  

So is the demon evil? Is she evil? Neither? Both? It’s a really grey area, but one that I think bears consideration. What is justice? Who deserves it? Who decides who deserves it? And what happens to those left in its crosshairs or aftermath? While this character might have made it out of the proverbial fire, many children (and families) aren’t as fortunate.

Regardless of the questions, there is something almost comforting to me about the idea of the unlikely demon being there for the young girl in her time of need, and how the events changed its perspective and purpose. You can bet at some point that I’ll try my hand at illustrating these two again, and they are definitely a pair whose wider story might make for a good short (they’re also recurring characters within the main books).

What themes are important to you that you wish were nodded to more in traditional media?

Art and Write ALL THE THINGS!

I was about to say that this week managed to be a bit more writing-heavy rather than art heavy, but I think it ended up being a fair mix of both, and that’s entirely fine by me. :)

Progress on “The Apprentice of Rook” (Working Short Story Title)

Over the years I've probably read over a dozen books on writing, each with its own recommended method for writing, and one of my big takeaways is that what works best is different for everyone.

For me, I like having a sort of outline to make sure that I’m aware of what points I’m building to scene-by-scene. That usually means that I spend a few days, weeks (or in some cases longer) brainstorming before I settle on my characters and ideas. From there, I write out what is basically a very brief set of bullet-points for each scene (sometimes including beats), and then from there, I start writing in earnest.

My first write-through is usually exceptionally basic and “train of thought” in nature, moving from point to point in an effort to fill-in my outline. It’s also probably one of my least favorite parts of the process, because I’ve found (at least in my limited experience) that it’s good to keep moving rather than lingering too long on any one paragraph or line of dialogue.

One of my big takeaways from USC School of Cinematic Arts was that good dialogue is damn hard to write. One of my professors once said that your first instinct of what to write is often what you would do in that situation, the second is what you think the character would do in that situation, and just maybe, by the third or fourth draft you can really get into the character’s brain to figure out what exactly they would say in any particular situation.

That piece of advice is definitely something I've carried with me over the years, but I tell you what: it makes me eager to get into the later drafts of the story where I can really tighten things up and get into the fray of things!

Before this week hit, I considered my next short story to be about halfway through its first draft.  After showing the first half of the short story to my muse, I ended up revisiting the first part entirely to move some bits around and re-pace some things that will hopefully better fit my aims for the story as a whole. As such, I suppose I’m still busy poking the first half before I transition back to my write-through of the second half. It's really exhilarating having so much freedom to reshape these side characters, but at the same time, sometimes it's tricky to decide HOW to shape them where there are so many options available. I keep telling myself to choose options that will "raise the stakes" rather than ones that will simply satisfy the norm. It does feel like I'm onto something, though, and I look forward to seeing where this will end up. 

Credit the Fans of Stephen King Facebook Page

And this. SO much this. Push on with your art, writing, and other projects, my friends, because standing still won't get you anywhere! That is also one of the aspects of this blog that I'm really enjoying: it's helping me not only be accountable for what I've been up to each week, but it helps me ensure that I'm pushing myself forward each week bit-by-bit.

Short Story Art

One thing I'm excited about is that I've started to plan out how I'm going to go about releasing my first short story (once it's done). In addition to doing a new piece of original art for it, I have a relevant piece I commissioned by another artist that I think I'm going to hold off sharing until the story is done. If anything, it should also urge me to finish it faster. ;) I’m really excited to share it, though!

Until then, I’ve also started trying to rough out what art I plan to release with the story. While dozing yesterday, I was trying to figure out what sort of direction I might want to take for an illustration relating to the story that sort of hints what it is about without giving too much away. This sort of direction was the first thing that came to mind, so I roughed out a concept in about thirty minutes. Meet Vargas (the new/reworked character I hinted at here: http://klecrone.blogspot.com/2013/05/some-story-concept-art.html ), and a peculiar little mechanical hummingbird.

Possible Illustration Concept for "The Apprentice of Rook"

Vargas should look close to age 17 (above), but I think I might need to reduce the facial hair to get him to appear closer to that age. He's older zBrush version of him I concepted out a few weeks ago (below), and it will be a fun challenge trying to potentially place him in a scene with the mechanical hummingbird (which I am frankly excited to try my hand at illustrating again).

Character Concept - Digital Sculpture - May 21, 2013

"Mechanical Hummingbird Color" - Completed on February 16, 2011

The Loirin Plate

This week I also got to pick up my Loirin plate from the pottery place I painted him at! You can find out more about this character in this entry.

The finished plate is 11 inches in diameter and was painted free-hand based on this original 2010 image. I've been really excited to see how the colors turn out after it’s fired, since even during the painting process I had to try to use my imagination to try and figure out how it will all come together after firing.

"Loirin and Bunny, First Blossom - Unfired Plate" - Completed on June 1, 2013

To my surprise, the colors turned out EXTREMELY close to how I'd envisioned them to be, and it is a real pleasure seeing the bold colors come to life! This is my fifth piece of painted pottery like this, and each time I learn just a little bit more about how different glazes interact with each other. I know most folks don't go quite so crazy with details but... that's just how I roll. I really enjoyed seeing the final result, and it's a ton of fun looking forward to eating off this plate and smiling as I do.

I think my grandmother would have liked this plate quite a lot.

"Loirin and Bunny, First Blossom - Fired Plate" - Completed on June 7, 2013

It’s also the third such plate I've painted in the past year, but… one can never have too many plates!

Young Sashah Digital Painting

I realized tonight that I purchased Paint Tool Sai about three years ago... and I hadn't done more than open it up once or twice since, so I thought "Hey? Why don't I try to do some cel-shaded stuff with this tool?"

A few hours later, my attempt at "cel-shaded" had taken on a life of its own and... I think it's time to call it quits.  There is a lot I don't really dig about this piece, but I think it's time to move on and start anew. 

"Young Sashah - Paint Tool Sai Experiment' - Completed on June 9, 2013

This is a character from my main book series. Her name is Sashah, and she's a werewolf, and this is an illustration of her at a younger age. I was trying for somewhere between the age of a gangly cub and the age of a sleek adult wolf, so hopefully that comes across here. The eyes are WAY more teal than they would actually be for the character, but once I painted them in, I liked them enough that I opted to keep them as-is.

She actually has a small cameo in the short story I'm working on. Here's a rough excerpt:

"[...] The scorching heat of the noonday sun was none-too-kind, and the grey blur quickly took shelter in the shade of a nearby work bench. When Vargas approached, it got to its feet and wheeled around to looked up at him with two striking teal-blue eyes. As he got close, it also closed its slender mouth, almost as if it was self-conscious about panting while being watched.

The creature almost seemed to shimmer as it took a step towards him. It looked something like a dog or young wolf, he wasn't sure, but it didn't act quite like any canine he'd ever seen. There was something different in the way it moved and the bold intensity in which it watched him. It didn't seem frightened, just curious. 

Ever-so-slowly, Vargas reached out his hand towards the creature, ready to pull his hand away at the first sign of aggression. Instead, the young wolf sniffed the offered fingers while its bright eyes watched Vargas’s own. After a moment of thoughtful deliberation, it licked his fingers sweetly as a pleased puppy might, and then nuzzled its soft head under Vargas's outstretched hand. 

In that moment, it made friendship seem so very easy. [...]"

This has certainly been a busy week, but it's a treat to be able to share all that I've been up to! Here's to hoping that next week is similarly awesome!

Some Story Concept Art

So! It's been a fairly busy week, but somehow amid all that's been going on, I managed to pump out a little story art this week which involve three very different characters!

First up is Oberon. Pretty much 99% of the time you see me sketch or render a Friesian stallion, it's safe to assume I'm probably channeling this spirited main character. He may look like just a horse, but he's very much sentient with quite a past, and more than enough brazen snark to keep other characters in line.

In February during my Gnomon Introduction to ZBrush class I decided I would try my hand at digitally sculpting him, so I played around with some armor ideas to implement with the idea that I wanted to the armor to look somewhat believable, but I also wanted it to be extra-usable for a wearer who is sentient and keen to fight.

"War Horse" - 30 Minute Sketch - February 20, 2013

Along this line, I later ended up revising the face spikes and some general proportions. I wanted Oberon to be able to bash and slash with them, and having a slender, curved horn simply didn't make sense to me in battle (and it looked far too thin and graceful to be really "him").

"War Horse" - 30 Minute Sketch - February 25, 2013

 Later on I worked on sculpting him in 3D. I didn't get as far along as I'd like, but I plan to revisit this sculpt in the coming months.

"Armored Friesian Stallion" - Digital Sculpture - WIP - Current as of February 22, 2013

Next up is a reworked/new character I've been trying to concept out both in physical and story terms this week. He's going to be getting a new name since his role in certain events is getting majorly overhauled, but he's a side character that's likely to be a part of one of my upcoming short stories. He's had a pretty hard life.

I spent about an hour and a half sculpting this fella in ZBrush. He's not anything amazing art-wise, but I'll be damned if it isn't awesome being able to concept a character in 3D and sort of be able to feel out how I envision him in my head.

Character Concept - Digital Sculpture - May 21, 2013

 The next day I did a quick study of him in action. He fits a fighter-type role, and though those bracers may not look all that magical just yet, they definitely are.

Character Concept - 1 Hour Sketch - May 22, 2013

 Next up, I'd recently had gryphons on the brain, and had realized that though this gryphon character had been around in one shape or another for over ten years, I'd really never done anything more than casually sketch him, like I did in this sketch below from last year.

"Richard and Friend Sketch" - Completed on May 22, 2012

This lead to me starting to try to sculpt him in 3D. I am completely and utterly intimidated by how I am going to manage his feathered wings, but I am finding it really, really cool being able to sculpt a character like this in 3D, and I look forward to pushing him further.

ZBrush Gryphon - WIP- Current as of April 30, 2013

 Somewhere earlier in the year, I'd started this little doodle as well. It's actually the same character. I really like to pull off that feeling of being warmed by a welcoming sun.

Sunning Gryphon - WIP -February 26, 2013

 And somewhere during the last 24 hours I realized I still had that file laying around, so I thought I would try to play around with his coloration. Previously, I hadn't really worked out the details of this fella's coloration aside from the fact that itwas some sort of hybrid between a tiger and a hawk, so I was just sort of laying color in and taking it from there.

Sunning Gryphon - WIP -May 23, 2013

And then somewhere late last night, I moved the composition around just... kept going. I roughed in a legit background, and while I'm still not pleased with it, it's going in a direction I dig. I just love the idea of a gryphon sunning himself before taking flight, and I'm hoping I can continue to push that feeling as I continue to work on it. This scene is meant to be a view from atop one of the towers seen here.

Sunning Gryphon - WIP - May 24, 2013

I'm looking forward to seeing what other creative things I can accomplish this weekend!