Wildcard Wednesday #14

This week, we can expect: developmental art on my new original project Kill the Goddess! (If you haven't seen the first pieces of teaser art yet, check out last week's art!) I'll put up the same disclaimer I did in last week's post: everything is still in development, so these aren't the finished looks/characters.

KTG! #1: This is a piece of developmental art for the big villain of the story, Bianca. She's goddess of the wilderness, fire, and the moon. I can't say much more about backstory and details, as I am still figuring bits and pieces out (and because spoilers!), but her reason for lashing out against the other gods and on the mortals down below will be known soon.

KTG! #2: This was a thumbnail of a scene featuring two of the Company, a set of elf twins. I can't say much yet, but in this scene, the twins have reached manhood. And as Bianca's oracle declared, they are met by Bianca herself, who comes to claim them for her own.

(I have the elf twins faceless here because I'm still trying to figure out their facial designs)

KTG! #3: Another thumbnail scene featuring another character of the Company, a sprite named Kallista. No thanks to Bianca, Kallista is the last of her kind. Her main motivation for coming on this quest is to free her kind from the curse placed upon them. As will be explained in better detail later, she has gloves that allow her to bypass or destroy nearly any hexes, charms, or spells placed by Bianca or her followers (they will provide many challenges for our heroes along the way).

Side note: I've just finished watching Stranger Things, and I love it! There will be fanart of that coming soon!

Kill the Goddess!-Teaser Art

Kill the Goddess!: This is a new concept that I've added to the list of many original projects I'm developing. This is inspired off of my fascination and irritations with the indie horror game Anna by Dreampainters LTD. Here's just the basics for now: when Bianca, a goddess from the League of Gods over [insert land name here], is treated harshly by the mortals in her attempts to win their worship, she lashes out. She kills the other gods and begins to sweep the land under a terrible curse-a curse to give their undying devotion to her. Before their untimely deaths, the gods managed to banish Bianca to a desolate mountaintop, but the growing faith in her is slowly waking her up from her sleep.
Five brave souls are sent to the mountains to find Bianca and put an end to her reign of terror.
So yeah, that's it! I want to turn this into a miniseries, but I want to test it out as a graphic novel/comic series on this blog soon. Here's not one, not two, but three pieces of teaser art (as always, keep in mind that many characters and designs are still in early development).

Nirvena's Temple: The gods may be dead, but that doesn't mean the mortals don't visit their temples anymore. One of the main characters (unnamed at the moment, but code named "Amazon") visits this temple belonging to the goddess of wisdom, Nirvena, in the hope of finding a way to free her mother, who was cursed by Bianca into becoming a doll that weeps every night.

Bianca's Twin Curse: Bianca craves either devoted followers or the souls to help stir her from her sleep. And as part of her reign of terror, she found a way to claim more of the latter. Any male twins who were born during or after the time she killed the gods shall be claimed by her upon reaching manhood. This will affect two main characters in the story. More details on the Twin Curse will be explained with backstory later.

The Company: These are the five people sent to destroy Bianca before she awakens. They each have their reasons for going on such a dangerous quest. For some, it's revenge. For others, it's to defend the mortals in their greatest time of need. And for one, as established in the first piece, it's for family. These characters and their backstories will be further explored in upcoming sketches and pieces.

Coraline vs. Pitch Black V1.0

Coraline vs. Pitch Black V1.0: Coraline managed to escape the clutches of the Other Mother and brave her twisted world. But when she stumbles upon the portal to Pitch Black's dark world, how will she fare against the man behind all the nightmares of the world?

Inspiration: Coraline is one of my favorite animated heroines of all time. I can't stop thinking about the movie ever since I saw it a couple months back. Whilst daydreaming, I thought, "If Coraline did so well against the Other Mother, how would she do against Pitch Black?" So I drew this little sketch.

It's version 1.0 because I want to do a better drawing of it sometime soon.

(Just realized I forgot to upload the would-be Wildcard Wednesday art with today's post! So I guess there will be a Wildcard Wednesday next week, it just won't be new)

Tools: Pencil (outlining), Prismacolor pens, Tombow grayscale markers, and Faber-Castell markers.

College-Related Break!

Hi, M³ here! Just needed to get a couple things out there today.
So this week's schedule (along with what's to come next week) has kind of caught up to me, and so there won't be any Wildcard Wednesday today. All the art that would've been posted today I'll post with this week's finished piece.
But I also want to announce that next week I'll be taking Wildcard Wednesday off too. This is because next Wednesday is the day I help my sister move in to Doane University. We're twins, and this is the first time we'll be truly separated from each other. This will not only make it a busy and chaotic next week but also very emotional. It's going to be rough, so I'm giving myself the day off. There will be a finished piece on the following Saturday though.

Pitch Black

Pitch Black: He thrives in the shadows. He feeds on your deepest fears. He is Pitch Black-administering nightmares to all the world's children since the beginning of time.

Inspiration: Rise of the Guardians by Dreamworks Animation is one of my favorite animated movies ever. And Pitch Black ranks among my top favorite animated villains. His abilities to manipulate shadows are amazing, and his design is one that inspires both fear and appeal. He looks like he walked out of a German Expressionistic film.

This was another experimentation I've had with my set of grayscale markers. Last time I tried with blending and gradients was with a Miraculous Ladybug drawing on Chat Noir, ending up with a mixed result. This attempt was better, but gah! Gradients are not my thing at all. Also I hate drawing nightmare sand.

Tools: Pencil (outlining), Prismacolor pens, Tombow grayscale markers, and one silver Infinity permanent marker.

Wildcard Wednesday #13

This week's theme: Brom's The Plucker. As cheesy as this may sound, finding this book felt like a fateful moment in a movie. I saw it from the top of the shelf at my local library-it was bigger and taller than the other books, and it jutted out awkwardly. The moment I pulled it down and saw the cover, without having to looking at the plot on the sleeve, I knew I had to read this. And over the course of one night and one morning, I read the book and absolutely loved it.
It is my dream to turn this book into an animated movie. There was one previous attempt at making a movie of The Plucker in 2008 (with Channing Tatum slated to direct and star in it), but it was dropped. And every time I read the book, even without looking at the illustrations, I can just see how this movie would play in my head. I've got so many ideas for the screenplay and animatics, I could lose myself in development. And since no one else seems to be making a movie out of it, I'll take on the task myself.
If you haven't read the book, read it. It's wonderful.

The Plucker #1: The hero of the book is Jack, a jack-in-the-box who's no longer wanted by the kid who owns him, Thomas. These sketches were done last year, and most of them are based off of some of the illustrations inside the book (although #4 was a stab at trying to draw Jack with a fusion of Brom's and my early art style).

The Plucker #2: These are some more recent sketches (done just this week, actually). Right now, as far as artistic duties go, my focus is on refining all my previous models for the characters in the book.

Wildcard Wednesday #12

This week's theme: you know, I go so sidetracked from the original theme. So instead, this is We Happy Few with a touch of Disney.

Disney #2: Sleeping Beauty was one of my first and remains one of my favorite Disney films, with Maleficent being one of my top favorite villains. She really is a thing to be feared.

We Happy Few #3: Being a perfectionist, I am always trying to revisit my models for characters of either my own creation or from various fandoms. Decided this week to work on revamping Miss Thigh Highs and Arthur.

We Happy Few #4: Reworking my model for Arthur, with the "Gone on Vacation" photo in mind. Also, I'm really enjoying learning more about his personality through his little quips and observations (his voice actor his wonderful!).

We Happy Few #5: Practice sketches for the follow-up on my most popular piece of We Happy Few fan art, "The Bouquet". Because I'm not simply doing a follow-up drawing. I'm going to do a little animatic of the scene! The tentative date for its posting is next Saturday, but it will at the very least be ready by the end of the month!