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Jun
18
2018

My stances are better than yours

Zara showing off as usual

Zul'jinn had seen the water fight starting as he'd been swimming in from his wingboarding lesson with Mu'tai, and it was in full swing by the time he got to his chosen vantage point, comfortably chest deep in the pleasantly cool turquoise water.  Anyone could be easily forgiven for thinking there was a severe mismatch going on between the combatants; comprising of the whiplike Avian Saun'de with the pocket rocket half-Avian Zara perched easily on his shoulders, versus the intimidating bulk of the Dragonkin Kae'lin with the buff Damian precariously and awkwardly balanced atop his.

Jun
16
2018

June ProgBlog #3: Noob Errors!

Obviously, I haven't done uv mapping for a while.  Last time was three years ago (jeez I'm so slow aargh it's too late for me save yourselves).  So while I remembered how they worked and seem to have gotten better at actually making/unwrwapping them, I managed to completely forget what they were.  So when I was setting up the paint object, I automatically selected the largest they had available (16k), because in Krita I always paint on 16bit canvases.

My working file blew out to 1.3Gb and as I mentioned previously was eating all my ram.

And then at some stage I remembered that the uv map is a canvas.  Which meant I was working on a 16k x 16k px canvas.  Which is slightly big.  Oops.

And then the second noob mistake, I forgot to subdivide the bake object, which was why it was doing a terrible job of capturing my sculpt details.  Oops again.

Sep
13
2017

Stars Glow

Zara and Megan chilling looking at the stars

Switch on the sky and the stars glow for you
Go see the world coz it's all so brand new
Don't close your eyes coz your future is ready to shine
It's just a matter of time before we learn how to fly
Welcome to the rhythm of the night
There's something in the air you can't deny...

- Owl City: When Can I See You Again

Saving as a png ate my colours again.  I really need a 16bit image format that browsers can understand.

 

Jun
07
2017

Neopolitan (partial nudity)

close up of Zara and Dak's tattoos

This has been the better part of a week in the making.  Almost full days because I stupidly thought that I would get it done next session.  I now have headache-caused-by-terrible-posture and my neck is violently out again.  Pro-tip: do not spend hours a day hunched over a tablet.  And while I'm not completely happy with it I'm happy enough to post it.  And obviously I need a hell of a lot more practice with dark scenes.

There is a story behind this one, but not one that I normally try to write to accompany pieces.

May
27
2017

In the heat of summer sunshine

Zara at her mother's tree

I miss you like nobody else.

The memorial forest was quiet.  It usually was, especially at this time of day.  Walking on autopilot with her head down, Zara unerringly wended her way to the tree she wanted.  The markers were all identical; elegant stone slabs extending a metre and a half out of the ground in their neat little rows.  The trees were a bit more individual, growing wild and free.  The marker simply said "In loving memory".  Zara absently touched the screen on the top of the marker.  It brought up a timeline of all the people that had been buried under that tree.

The most recent one was her mother.

May
25
2017

Tell me baby, what's your story?

Zara showing off while talking to Zul'jinn

Where you come from and where you wanna go this time?

Zara and Zul'jinn hanging out in a courtyard either at Zara's aprtment complex or more likely Juan's place.

There isn't so much rhyme or reason to this, it just kind of happened while I was listening to the chorus of Red Hot Chilli Peppers: Tell Me Baby.  As a young adult most of Zara's gymnastics skills simply augment her fighting style but every now and again she likes to randomly show off.  I think she's going into a straddle press handstand on the wall.

One of these days I will do nice rather than sketchy close ups of the tattoos.

May
12
2017

Stag leap

Younger Zara doing a stag leap

I dashed this one off instead of doing things I should have been doing.  I'm such a rebel.  The pony stag leap was so much...er...fun that I decided to do the human version as well.  Well before she was a thief and a vigilante, Zara was a gymnast.  The stag leap was one of her favourite jumps, though she doesn't do it often anymore, in favour of her favourite flip, the split-legged back sault which she happily adapted into her signature backflip kick.

Even with bases foreshortening is still my nemesis!

May
11
2017

Blind push hands

Zara and Dak playing blind push hands

Super quickie sketch before bed (and because I'm late getting to bed again (which means I've once more failed at trying to get to bed early, really need to stop it with the bloody late nights! XD), no story with this one, sorry.

Zara and Dak playing blind push hands during one of their common training sessions.  Zara is supposed to have her goggles around her neck but I forgot to draw them before I coloured the top.  Oops.

Apr
30
2017

Black Fingernails, Red Wine

Strike's crew at a meet

A prickle of nervousness crawled up Silver's spine and settled at the nape of his neck as he followed Aurelius up the very familiar corridor towards one of The Geisha's private rooms.  He didn't usually get nervous going into or even at meets.  He was good at what he did and had an excellent track record for getting favourable outcomes for himself and his employer (not necessarily so much for the other party but that wasn't really his problem).

He hadn't thought twice when Strike had told him that he would be sending his kids to this meet instead of attending himself.  He'd figured it would be a walk in the park, a regrettable occurrence for Strike and the Reavers and the pretty little lamb Strike was sending to slaughter.

Mar
09
2017

Black Fingernails wip

Work in progress

Worked on this the last couple of stream sessions, posted works in progress to Patreon and realised that I've been completely forgetting to post public wips (which is completely unsurprising as while I do post occasional works in progress they are occasional so it was actually pretty easy for me to forget with all the other stuff going on).  I also wanted to show @jedau the kind of stuff that takes me forrrreeeeeeeeevvvaaaaaaarrrrrrrr XD

This was supposed to be a sketch of Megan (to the tune of Black Fingernails, Red Wine by Eskimo Joe which is what spawned the original concept, I have several failed sketches in my sketchbook).  Then it kinda grew.  Out of control.  Like most of the things I do.