I'll be posting my stuff here as I complete it (and remember to post it).

My newest piece, a minor one, mostly a design for signatures and banners and stuff. More playing around with art nouveau: Breeze

AWESOME!

I LOVE that, Skogul!!!

That's so awesome! I love the composition and the colors and bold lines.

I can't wait to see more.

Wow....That's awesome.
I love the thicker lines, makes the picture more conspicuous.
LOVE IT! XD
BTW I went to see your other creations and I gotta say, you've got some talent kid!
Keep up the good work!

Thank you, everyone. I appreciate your compliments and feedback.

I love the thicker lines, makes the picture more conspicuous.

I love the composition and the colors and bold lines.

Yeah, I love bold outlines, and have been one to employ them regularly for many years. It's also a staple of art nouveau, which is one of my biggest inspirations. It might not lend a lot of realism, but I'm not aiming exclusively for realism. :p

For some reason, the way you render faces reminds me of the artwork of one of my friends - though just barely. It's a nice feeling. Anywho, I quite enjoy the subtle shading in your work.

I have just one thing to say you have the abbility to go along way with so use it wisely...

Wooow, you're awesome. I love your smooth lines and colors. Kudos for experimenting with other art styles!

I looked through some of them and I must say very good job!

New doodle:

Argyros

Done for the new character I've made (see profile). Done in about ~45 minutes from pencil sketch to completed image.

Another in-progress sketch.

This time of a Macedonian phalangite

Still pretty rough. Gonna modify the shin guards since they make his legs look shorter than they should be. Comin' along, though.

You seem to have a Greek/Roman/some other ancient civilization motif going on here lately. Is this part of an RPG you're working on or is it some other project or just something you're interested in?

I like how neat you manage to keep your sketches. Mine are always like, "I think I see a head there. And some eyes. No, wait, that's a foot."

Dovey wrote:You seem to have a Greek/Roman/some other ancient civilization motif going on here lately. Is this part of an RPG you're working on or is it some other project or just something you're interested in?

I've always been a huge fan/nerd of Greek mythology and history. I really admire the culture and developments of the Greeks, as well as their art and literature, so some influence tends to sneak into my work when I allow it to.

As for the RP, yeah... that does have a bit to do with it, since my fiance (Nate, who RPs Eudemonia) is basing his nation off ancient Macedonia (including Greece after being collected under the flag of Macedon and the successor states that popped up after the death of Alexander the Great), so that's been a new focus for inspiration with me.

Dovey wrote:I like how neat you manage to keep your sketches. Mine are always like, "I think I see a head there. And some eyes. No, wait, that's a foot."

Yeah, I pretty much go over my sketches with an eraser and an OCD frenzy to clean up after I get something the way I like it. I hate messy graphite lines and smudges with a passion, and I guess it shows. XD Thanks!

Two more, done today:

Cricedoa (my friend's character)

Tiresias (My fiance's character)

New piece. Another one of Skogul, this time illustrating her salvager profession a bit.

Far from filthy . I love your lines especially, they really bring out the characters.

Skogul, I absolutely LOVE that picture of Skogul. The soft coloring and clean lines! Can you enlighten us on the story behind the scorpion claw-looking-things? It's nothing I've ever seen before and I'd love to know how you came up with it.

Angel_Melfina wrote:Skogul, I absolutely LOVE that picture of Skogul. The soft coloring and clean lines! Can you enlighten us on the story behind the scorpion claw-looking-things? It's nothing I've ever seen before and I'd love to know how you came up with it.

Aah, yes. Possibly the most striking feature Skogul's design possesses: the headtails (as I have come to name them). Sorry for the delayed response, I hadn't checked on this thread in a while.

Weelll... let's see. It's not exactly straight forward. I've always had a fondness for invertebrates; I find them quite simply fascinating... particularly arthropods so I thought it would be cool to somehow combine that with a humanoid character without simply making them a Masked Rider-esque thing. When I first created Skogul (known originally as Azya) back in late 1998, it was her hair she could control like tendrils. I decided shortly after that was somewhat lame and gave her this weird appendage on her head. At that time, she only had one headtail. She was a type of genetic engineering experiment that tried to blend insect and mammalian genes and gene expressions, giving her her unique appendage(s). Eventually, I added a second for the sake of symmetry, and I eventually expanded her bio to make an entire race of beings like her. This race is called the Anai, and, though they themselves are also products of genetic experiments, they originally came about as products of a terraforming project for the original world I've been working on that stemmed from Skogul herself. I also expanded on the insect creatures used to splice with Human DNA: the Meromata. That's pretty much how the backstory for the Anai goes currently, with minor variations here and there.

The headtails themselves anchor directly to the base of the skull and are connected to the brain itself in terms of nerve structure and network. They are approximately three-fourths of the length/height of the individual possessing them and are fully prehensile. The circi (pincers) at the ends are extremely articulate and relatively dexterous. They can open to a 180 degree angle and are gentle enough to manipulate such things as grapes or tomatoes without bruising, and have the crushing power to fracture bones if concentrated on one area. They are not particularly sharp, but should enough force be applied to certain structures, they can sever things through sheer pressure alone. The lifting or pushing ability of the headtails (sans circi) is approximately three times that of the individual's mammalian limbs because of the fact the muscles within the tendrils and circi are powered through more arthropod-like muscle systems, essentially likening to hydraulics rather than the muscle fibers in mammals.

The headtails are armored with a chitinous exoskeleton, but still vulnerable to being removed through severing or some kind of severe trauma, especially crushing or kinetic weaponry (bullets). They can also be voluntarily dropped, or shed, much like legs from a spider. If removed either through choice or injury, they will regrow to their original dimensions, however more time is required to replace greater amounts of tendril removed. It also tends to sap energy and stamina.

Hopefully that sheds some light on my character's interesting physical features. Didn't mean to get so technical, but once I get on a roll it's hard to stop. :p

I like your style a lot. I particularly loved the art nouveau sig design.

In your other colored drawing I think you could benefit from using some color variation. don't use gray to shade because that makes colors uninteresting. Instead try blending on the side the base color with the complimentary color to your light source (if light is yellow, use some purple, for example).
I did a small tutorial for my sister to show how using colors other than black or "the same color but darker" makes the objects have more volume and more interesting http://faerywitch.deviantart.com/art/co ... y-57240565

In any case, I think your drawings are very good, there is a lot of expression and character in each of them, which is something that is beyond technique and it is, in my opinion, the most important thing in a drawing, The soul.

Thank you very much. I appreciate the feedback.

In your other colored drawing I think you could benefit from using some color variation. don't use gray to shade because that makes colors uninteresting. Instead try blending on the side the base color with the complimentary color to your light source (if light is yellow, use some purple, for example).

I know it's typically bad form to respond to critique, but I just need to point out that I don't ever use "gray" to shade unless I'm doing a greyscale piece or area within a piece. I always either incorporate a contrasting color (when I use markers and I shade a green, I employ a violet shade for dark areas, for example) if I have one available that will blend well, or I go for darker shades of the same hue to create value. I find using greys to shade makes a piece muddy looking, and I've never found that attractive. I'm also more partial to soft, subtle shading (commonly found in art nouveau styles) than chiaroscuro, personally, although I've been trying to be a bit more bold with my lights and darks as of late.

Thank you for the advice, though.