What's the goal?
Similar to the first "season" I have three things I want to accomplish:
- Get better (a given)
- Update the designs and debut some alternative designs
- Introduce new characters
Say what you will about the improvements I've made during the first season. I'm under no disillusion that I am one hundred times better than I was before, but rather two or three times. I've learned some things, exposed some flaws and have started implementing some practices to iron them out but this will take time.
I want to go into more detail about the new and alternative designs as I have a large number of ideas I'm mulling over so I'll cover that shortly. As for new characters, I'll be the first to admit that my brain is fertile and I can think up X new characters whenever I sneeze. To paraphrase something I said to both
kagato007 and
Nocturnaliss,
I too tend to create characters to serve a role for one or two story arcs, to be a rival or antagonist to the main characters or help them as an ally but do little else besides that.
Unlike the previous project, I don't plan to have a deadline on when the pieces will be done, but I will still like to keep the once a month/one every four weeks turn around. However, my goal is to try and increase the speed of art I produce so I could maybe go from focusing on a piece for a month, with two weeks on traditional and two on digital to around half that. Obviously the main barrier to that is my life outside of art, be it my ever draining job, my social life and my other hobbies.
What about the Gift Art Project
I'm aiming to run these two side by side. I've yet to work out how best to do this; maybe three months of gift pieces then the same number of OC pieces and keep flipping between the two. I've promised those pieces for ages and I still want to get them done but I don't want to neglect my characters for nearly a year, especially when I have so much in mind for them.
What are the new/alternative designs
Heroines
- Theora "Snow" Daemond - Both toonartist and Zitruseis have drawn a new look for her, with the latter giving Snow an actual axe as opposed to the ice one. I've also recently commission kagato007 to draw her new design, as well as shrinking the size of the axe to fit the more one handed style I feel works best with Snow. I also like the way DEADMANNARTWORKS drew the back of her hair and aim to merge this with the front toonartist gave her.
- Mewrah Wilson - Mewrah will mostly stay the same, with only really some minor tweaks. I want to use more of toonartist's 2014 design but in her newer colour palette, as well as giving her the hair style ElenoideArt used in a few of the commissions she's done. ElenoideArt and DEADMANNARTWORKS both drew her in "Impractical Female Warrior" garb, with the latter giving her a sword made by his OC Elizabeth, and I'd like to draw both of them to serve as "Player 2" designs.
- Norika Olivian - Similar to Mewrah, I mostly plan for her to stay the same but receive some minor tweaks. I'll likely remove the purple stripe from the top I drew in favour of reverting to toonartist's 2013 design and give the sleeve more of the "baggy" look from the piece PactMaker did back in 2015. I'd also like to give her the whip and glasses from the piece richten recently did, as well as bringing over some of the rings, jewelry and accessories from the various pieces. I'd also like to brighten up her hair slightly as I feel it's gotten a bit too dark. I also have some new tops in mind, which I've been experimenting with as part of the bust shots I've done.
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AlliesParu Mariposa - The more I think about it, the more I want to combine elements from both toonartist and kagato007's take on her, rather than sticking to the former's. I'm thinking of keeping the shirt and jacket from toonartist's design, though the jacket will be getting some tweaks as per my discussion with Kathalia to help make it better for sea faring and give it more of a piratey feel, while giving her the hat and trousers from kagato007's design. The boots will likely be a mixture of the two, with the colour and design coming more from kagato007's while the white detailing will come over from toonartist's. Another thing that came out of my chat with Kathalia was both suggestions for a redesign to the "anchor flail" and giving me the idea for her to have a cutlass as well. The flail will have a chain rather than a steel cable and it'll be much shorter than what I originally planned, more fitting for a flail with a small head and the cutlass would serve as a secondary weapon in situations where her main one wouldn't be practical, such as the inside of her ship. I'm also thinking of keeping the mini skirt and knee high socks from toonartist's as a secondary/off ship one.
Enemies/RivalsEphea Pearl - I want Ephea's design to bear more of a resemblance to a ranger, as well as feeling like her jacket made her look too much like Mewrah, so I'm planning to replace it with a a cloak. RedRidah did a great job of compiling various interpretations so I plan to use his design as a jumping off point with her maybe wearing a long sleeved top. I also plan to make her boots knee high, as shown in the pic Keem-Toon did.
Amber Blake - Generally speaking I plan for her to stay the same as the "preview" piece I did a few weeks back. I may change up the colours of her leggings and skirt to work better with the turquoise top but otherwise it'll be the same.
Zoey Rogen - I've got a large re-design in mind for Zoey that will make her into more of a martial artist. RedRidah recently gave her a new belt and trousers, inspired loosely by the Dragon Ball Super villain "Goku Black" and while I had planned to give her an orange top inspired by one I wore when I did TaeKwonDo, I recently saw some in the game "Final Fantasy Record Keeper" that I'm aiming to use instead. The scientist design will serve as a secondary design which I hope to expand upon.
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Nephilims- Morgan Elanja - I'll admit I didn't like the palette used on her shorts, so expect me to revise that. Ideally I'd like to try and get a better balance of bronze and gold on both her armour and weapons as I don't feel they quite mesh right, or maybe make the brown on the shorts and leg armour much darker to give them more of a leath look, while changing out the bronze and cream brown for a silver/grey/metallic look. Speaking of weapons, I'd also like to design a second set of bladed tonfa for her, and maybe give her a secondary set of weapons, maybe a short sword and shield? I'd also like to give her a non-armoured look, perhaps something based on the work out clothes kagato007 drew. Ideally I'd also like to convey her buxom and muscular figure as well.
- Camilla Seaworth - I'll admit the more I look at the design I did, the more I've grown to dislike it. I think I'm going to roll the design back to the more leather armour style toonartist did for the "Celeste Syrian" commission he drew for me with maybe a revised colour palette that uses some of the shades of sea green and faded pink I had in mind for it. I may add on some additional armour, inspired by characters like Agrias Oaks and Nephenee, but we'll see. I also want her to have a "pear shaped" body which I feel wasn't all that well conveyed in the piece I did (thankfully kagato007 did a much better job than me) and finally I'm thinking I'll re-design the spear to be closer to i.imgur.com/MnR1Qfx.png
- Janine Odonic - One comment pointed out that the three symbols made her design a little cluttered, and I have to say I agree with that. Expect to see the cross shape on her top go, as well as maybe the diamonds on her skirt. I'm also strongly considering removing the Ankh symbol in favour of a new one and perhaps tweak the hair style a little.
FiendsWind Fiend Monicha - While I am generally happy with the design I gave her, I may make a few tweaks to it, as well as giving her a more buxom appearance, similar to the way DarklyWhite drew her. I'd also like to portray in her Harpy form at some point. I'd also like to give her the more demonic looking eyes from kagato007's interpretation of Saffina, as I feel it's a great way of making her seem less than human.
Water Fiend Saffina - As part of her redline, Nocturnaliss drew her own version of Saffina and some of the design elements in that diverged a little from my initial version. As I liked the tweaks she suggested, I want to combine them with the version I did for a “final” version. I'd also like to give the hair more of the curls that toonartist and kagato007 used in their respective pieces, as well as giving her the more demonic looking eyes from kagato007's interpretation. I didn't see this until I was colouring the piece and I feel it worked better than what I gave her.
Who are the new characters?
Allies
- Jen Lazill - One of two new love interests for Snow, Jen is a shy, meek (maybe), serious and slightly naive female ninja who needs to learn to smile more. I envision her developing a big crush on Snow, but struggles to admit or fully understand her feelings.
- Tabitha Cole - The new Earth Avatar. I envision her as a red headed, buxom female warrior/gladiator who wields a mace as her main weapon and a stern but friendly personality. She'll be both Mewrah's BFF, as well as her rival/sparring partner. I envision Mewrah seeking Tabitha out when she needs advice, and the two discussing things out whilst sparring.
- Auris Imzadi - An OC toonartist once suggested and said he'll help create. I envision her as Paru's #1 apprentice and the other member of her crew to handle the Lava Soul Stone, meaning Auris also became a Lava Daemon. I also plan for her to be related to one of the main male OCs who I've not drawn for quite a while.
Enemies/Rivals
- Aleria Elianja - A younger sister for Morgan who was loosely inspired by Hyrule Warrior's Cia, and KI2013's Mira. Unlike her sister, she is not a Nephilim (child of a human and a God) and resents Morgan as a result, serving as a enemy/rival to to her. While I've yet to figure out her "class", I am thinking she'll wield a "Kukri Dagger" similar to i.imgur.com/mqMeZaR.jpg or i.imgur.com/DJbz6r3.jpg. Though I can't remember where, I once wrote the following to describe Aleria - “She resents her sister for being "chosen", due to her father being one of the Gods where as Aleria's is simple a mortal. As their Amazonian tribe values those favoured by the Gods over those who aren't, Aleria would feel her sister is unjustified favoured, and it would create a drive where she trains as hard as possible to prove her superiority. However that hate leads her to spit her sister at every turn, to the point where she'd let a village burn if Morgan wanted to save it.”
- Samurai Girl - When kagato007 did his recent Camilla piece, he initially gave her the turquoise hair from an earlier design. This was fixed but he, kaeveris and I all agreed it was a good combo and I decided to use this as a basis for a rival for Camilla and ally of Aleria. I envision her as a female samurai with a skin tone like Camilla, turqoise hair that comes down to her chin and either blue or green eyes. I want her to have a similar slender, pear shaped build to Camilla, and I envision her fighting with a Naginata and Tanto blade combination, and possibly gravity powers as either the Daemon or Savant of that secondary element. I am also thinking she could be related to one of Silrun's rivals named Tameto, with perhaps her father finding and adopting Tameto as a baby and raising him as one of the family.
- Mage Girl - Still very much a concept, though I once thought of her as being some similar to Kiria Kurono from Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE. I once considered giving her pink hair and grey eyes as a reference to Goku Black's "Rose" form, as I really liked the colour combo but as I reserve grey eyes for Nephilims that wouldn't work. An alternative would be purple hair and eyes, mostly due to seeing kaeveris' take on FFII's Maria. She'll likely serve as a rival to Janine and another member of Aleria's party.
- Felicia Pepin - The Fire Avatar, and someone I left off from this incarnation of the project. I envision her as someone in her 40s or 50s, so I may either try and attempt to draw an older woman, or cheat and draw her in her "prime". She's an artist who's learned how to "break" fire and wield it in none traditional colours.
Nephilims
- Olivia Riaz - Originally she started off as the other new lover for Snow, but I've found myself taking her in a different direction. For starters I picture her in an open relation with Camilla's brother Miguel so Olivia may still have a relationship with Snow (all Nephilims are bisexual). I see her as a friendly, confident, caring and forward woman who may be Snow's first female lover. I'm also thinking she'll be both a good friend to Norika, as well as her belly dance instructor. She'll have the ability to manipulate sand as the "Sand Daemon", and I'm considering having her using sand instead of veils and maybe a chakram as her main weapon.
Fiends
- Sunlight Fiend Sinxtor - I'm picturing her as someone with dark skin and golden hair. Her desire would be worshipers and has the power to turn into a Sphinx.
Of course, not all of the characters may get used. Some like Felicia may get ignored again or concepts like the rivals to Janine and Camilla never getting developed any further.
Where are Adrianna, Hazel and Velvet?
The TL;DR version is, these were re-worked adopted OCs who didn't feel "right" in my universe. I decided to retire them and either replace them with an old OC (i.e. Amber taking the place of Adrianna) or new characters (i.e. Jen replacing Velvet and Tabitha replacing Hazel). I try to use "replacement" in the looses sense possible, as while there may be an idea or two carried over, I mostly see them as mostly separate characters, perhaps only really keeping the ideas I added to the adopted OCs rather than aspects that were there to begin with.
