Notebook Sketches

[Bayar]

Love is in the air .


It wasnt me :3

[OverWilliam]

Wow, that was really fast. I really hate to say anything about either of those that is not various descriptions of gouging out my eyes so that the last things I see in life were that extremely awesome. They both are incredible drawings, they really are, you both just blew me away there. It truly is my good fortune to have both of you trying to help me with this. However... I hate myself right now because I should have included more detail in the first place.

For the original dagger design I'm shooting for a thing of incredible, deadly beauty. It is a weapon, but it is a thing of art even more than that, the visual kicker being that when he draws upon darkness to make it stronger it's like he's corrupting the purity of the weapon as he does so. It should be slender, simple, not forged by mortals, and almost not even intended for battle at all.

Ugh, I feel like a monster.

The gauntlet hits really close to what I had in mind. The second form is a lot more orderly than the third; it's got a discernible design, it looks like something that humans could duplicate with real armors, etc. The only specific thing about the second form that qualifies as 'unnatural' is the chains that connect the dagger to the gauntlet. At first he can assume and dismiss the gauntlet at will, but once it comes about that he can't take it off anymore, the chains symbolize that by choosing this path, now he literally can't take the dagger out of his hand, and neither can anyone else-- he's forced to continue on with the violence and bloodshed. The third form of the gauntlet is a lot more chaotic than the second one. I like the overall feeling of discord that you captured in that sketch, it feels unstable, it feels irrational and a little psycho. The design is a lot less conventional, but you can still see just a little bit of the second gauntlet's design 'corrupted' into the third. Where the second gauntlet is experimental, self justified dabbling with dark powers, the third is giving his whole heart and mind over to evil in order to gain its full power. It's a lot blacker than the second one, with coal-black chains instead of gold ones, and it gets a lot more evil in general. Really the only complaints I have with your sketch of it is the chains connecting to the dagger are missing, and the 'mouth' traced onto the mask. As a side note, I hadn't thought of the gauntlet extending down into a claw-fingered glove, and upon looking at it I like the design, especially the way the forearm just above the glove spikes downward around it. Nice.

EDIT: Also, I found some really cool Tiger Eye spheres in case you wanted to look at them. There's a whole bunch of really neat ones there, just scroll down:
http://crystal-cure.com/symbol-tigereye-ball.html

[Vulion]

@Bayar: This is an active art thread! There's no room for love here.()

Also the first post got a minuscule update.

Okay, OverWilliam, here's the next version of the dagger along with my version of the first gauntlet.

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[OverWilliam]

Vulion, that dagger BREATHES perfection. There is not a smiley on this site that is adequate to express my combination of shock and excitement that you nailed that one so perfectly. I love the way the crossguard looks like two different pieces that melds into the blade... SO awesome.

Now, for the gauntlet. Praises; the dagger remains spot on-- it has just a little wider crossguard than the original, a little longer blade, just enough to express that it is stronger than before and to balance with the rest of the arm without giving off the impression that something about it is wrong. That is perfect. In the storyline there are to be two other people with their own artifacts that mine will likely be working closely with to end the war. At this stage of the development, they should be shocked that the second form exists, but not yet (too) suspicious that it is fueled by darkness. I absolutely love the open handed glove too, I'm so glad you included that separate from the gauntlet so I could get a good look at it, that thing is just sweetness.

Nitpicks; the full-arm part feels less like a weapon and more like an armor. The dagger's focus to begin with is on offense over defense, and then when he does over to the dark side he sacrifices his defense even further-- in fact, he's quite vulnerable to anybody who can strike before he does (though, save for blind luck, there aren't many of those anymore). The gauntlet comes all the way up his arm, but it does very little for him in the way of defense-- if you were to hit him in the one arm he'd take just as much hurt as in the other. Finally, could we put the Tiger Eye a little further down his shoulder? The Tiger Eye represents the colors of the nation that defended it (amber, golden yellow, rich auburn) and so having it on his shoulder is almost as much a badge of his allegiance as it is the focus of his power. I promise, that's as petty as I'm going to get with this.

[Uncle Festy]

… that sorta combines my shock at your awesome, my happiness from seeing it, and my jaw dropping from awesome overload.

[Vulion]

*cracks knuckles and grins*

This is gonna be fun!

[OverWilliam]

I am so glad you're enjoying this as a challenge instead of getting offended by my finicky-ness. That just goes to show even further how incredible an artist you are. *serious nod*

It just blows me away how quickly you are able to sketch these out and yet they're still so precise, so professional. Like I don't think it was even four hours between my first feedback post and your second drawing. Unbelievably good.

[Echowinds]

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Do comment on this. As usual, I do want critical comments if possible. Currently named her Arileve, but that's a placeholder. I feel weird naming my own characters for some reason.

[Ninja Chocobo]

Do comment on this. As usual, I do want critical comments if possible. Currently named her Arileve, but that's a placeholder. I feel weird naming my own characters for some reason.

The left arm looks rather..off. As though it's basically just the gauntlet attached to the shoulder.
Else, really goddamn awesome.

[memnarch]

Yeah, the left arm is off. Looks very nice anyway though.

[Vulion]

Yes, the only thing bothering my about the whole drawing is that left arm.

Personally, I think the hand should be larger. It's reaching out to us, so it should seem like it's getting closer.

[Silence]

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Do comment on this. As usual, I do want critical comments if possible. Currently named her Arileve, but that's a placeholder. I feel weird naming my own characters for some reason.

The arm's perspective is a little off; consider changing it. The face is also a tad simplisitic.

Other than those thing, it's FREAKING AWESOME!

[Echowinds]

Well, I did notice that half way into colouring it. It's just that it does take some work to edit the sketch on the computer. I didn't thought it was that terribly noticeable though. Apparently I was wrong.

I did a bit of editing, so here's the same picture, with the left hand roughly twice as big. Hope it's better now. No loss of quality too, due to the fact that the original picture was around 3x the size.

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[Ashen Lilies]

Much better now, though is that cross-thing at the top of the arm meant to be the elbow or the shoulder?
If it's the elbow, well, your paladin-looking person is quite the contortionist.
If it's the shoulder, then the arm seems a bit too bent. I tried it out with my arm, and the pose seems a bit weak, if you get my meaning. Try raising the hand, so the arm looks 'straighter'. It also seems that her shoulder's been dislocated.

[Vulion]

Here we have stage two of the gauntlet, being modeled by Klaus, the evil model.

I don't know why he's named Klaus, I just called him Klaus and it fit like a glove.

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[Tiffanie Lirle]

Here we have stage two of the gauntlet, being modeled by Klaus, the evil model.

I don't know why he's named Klaus, I just called him Klaus and it fit like a glove.

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I see what you did there.

And you will be made to suffer greatly for it.

Edit- His neck seems pretty thin though.

[Vulion]

I see what you did there.

And you will be made to suffer greatly for it.

Edit- His neck seems pretty thin though.

Wow, I honestly didn't plan for that.

I love it now though.

EDIT: Yeah, it does. Crap.

[Silence]

Here we have stage two of the gauntlet, being modeled by Klaus, the evil model.

I don't know why he's named Klaus, I just called him Klaus and it fit like a glove.

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Try to study the shape of the human skull a little, and he has a little bit of man-boobage going on, but other than that, it's great.

[OverWilliam]

Try to study the shape of the human skull a little, and he has a little bit of man-boobage going on, but other than that, it's great.

*rofl*

Did not see that at the first glance.

That is almost PERFECT, I can't even think of any complaints.

Although on second thought, I wonder what it would look like with some kick-butt FF-esque completely unnecessary but +10 to Awesome leather straps just above the elbow? *imagines*

[Vulion]

Try to study the shape of the human skull a little, and he has a little bit of man-boobage going on, but other than that, it's great.

It's the top of the head, isn't it?

The bottom is purposely misshapen due to the particular style. I swear, none of my characters have chins.

EDIT:Yeah, I can add some belts.

[Uncle Festy]

I don't know why he's named Klaus, I just called him Klaus and it fit like a glove.

… was it because he has Klaus on his gloves?

[OverWilliam]

I JUST thought of something looking at that drawing again. On the dagger, where the two parts of the cross guard twirl around each other? Just for the final form only could you make those into snakes coiling around each other and then staring at each other at the end? Kinda subtle, like if you've seen the dagger before in the original form or in the first gauntlet and aren't really looking for it you'd miss it, but once you see it it's REALLY COOL?

[Silence]

*rofl*

*snip*

Awesome leather straps just above the elbow? *imagines*

Thanks, and....

Kinky.

[memnarch]

Finished!

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It took me a while because of a few things; school work and stuff, fixing the hand, making the water spin different, and adding boots.

Oh, I also played around with using the inkscape effects on the fire portion, but stopped after I ran into this.

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Note, I use vista with 4GB RAM in it.

I also have another request, but that can wait until you're not so busy,

[Mando Knight]

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Note, I use vista with 4GB RAM in it.

Quad-core? Nice. The pic's nice too... although the feet are a bit small...

[Vulion]

Dude, that is totally sweet!

The bottom of the legs are a bit shorty and stumpier then I imagined, but everything else is frackin' awesome!

And yesh, I will not be accepting requests for a little while cause o' school and such. Political Science and English research papers that need to get done.

[Uncle Festy]

Curses, and I really wanted to request an avatar of Uncle Festy…
Can you tell us when you're open again?

[Vulion]

Not for the next couple of weeks. Sorry.

[Lyinginbedmon]

Not for the next couple of weeks. Sorry.

Darn, still waiting on the Pop:0 goblin

[Vulion]

Just to help you guys along. I found some older drawings to put.

"I've fought dragons and learned spells that could melt the skin of your bones. Now, I have some little **** complaining about the fact that I was too hard on her in class."

-Archibald Thomas, professor of Arcane Studies

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"I'm one more assassin away from retiring from the Organization. Do you really think I'm gonna stop now?"

-Codename Jake, Ex-assassin

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