Random WIP dump

I've been having a bit of an art-slump lately. It's not really art-block or anything that clearly explained - it's more like a small crisis about what direction my style is going. I start a drawing, then stop working on it because I get frustrated at my inability to get it just right, then pick it up a week or so later and do the changes I wanted on it perfectly, then I'm happy with it again for a moment until I run into another problem with the same drawing. Then it ends up waiting on my hard drive for a couple of weeks until I feel brave enough to continue with it, fix the problems, and feel satisfied with it again until I find something else to nitpick about.

Here's a couple of WIPs that have been tweaked and re-tweaked way too many times over the past couple of months. I really need to get these two done so that the people they're for don't get too impatient with me. :P



The only things I seem to be able to manage to finish are pencil sketches. Here's one I did for my kinship in LotRO:
Oh well... with the amount of drawings I was getting done during the winter, I was overdue for some sort of art crisis I guess. Here's hoping this one won't last the whole summer.

LotRO: Luminari

A thank-you gift for a fellow kinmember. She helped me out a lot during my early days there.


Aaand what else is new? Well, I've created quite a few alts in LotRO by now, because I got bit by the rp-bug and just keep wanting to make new characters to rp with.

Sotur is still quite comfortable in the Militia. She also got promoted to Guard within the kinship! Even as a player I was quite excited at this, seems like all my hard work paid off and Sotur is getting some recognition.

Then I made Nyle, Mr. Lore-Master, elder brother of Sotur, and love-child of Indiana Jones and Charles Darwin. He's basically an eccentric biologist/geographist/naturalist (though with the last one, he's still trying to figure out which laws apply in Middle Earth). He dreams of making a huge encyclopedia of the flora and fauna of Middle Earth, and travels around a lot to make his dream happen.
He also loves to play mind games with people, especially his sister, and has a twisted sense of humour.

handsome and beardy <3

I have a few other characters still pending further backstories/actual rp. A hobbit minstrel, a human burglar and of course my elf hunter Ansadal. Ansadal has had some rp done with her already, but for some reason I'm finding it quite difficult to get in character for an elf. I'm able to play her, but I still don't get a good sense of her. Elves just seem to be a little too... well... perfect? Incorruptible? Aloof? I don't know... I like having characters who are all shades of grey instead of very clearly good or evil. All the little flaws, the little quirks in personality, really keep things interesting. With elves I just don't know how to go about making one that would fit in with the lore and still have an eccentric side.

LotRO: Sotur's Day Off

This was made for a contest over in our LotRO kinship, The Volunteer Militia. The idea was to think about what your character does on their day off, since those tend to be quite few and far between in the active life of a Militian grunt.
These were compiled from a bunch of sketches I did in between real work.

GW: Death By An Arrow

A portrait commission for Death by an Arrow, as a thanks for winning the contest over at the Guild Wars Guru deviantART group. Took a wee bit longer to draw than I intended, but I had fun with doing the light effects and the textures on the armor.

Enjoy!

LotRO: A little friendly rivalry

So, after discovering how easy it is to change a character's hairstyle in LotRO, I went ahead and gave Ansadal a new look. The dark blonde hair looks much better on her, and as far as I know is more canon as well considering she's from Mirkwood. She's also got a horse now! Yay!

Here's a half-finished drawing of the old Ansadal from last saturday, when I needed something to use as an example of how to colour manga-style drawings for a manga workshop I was hosting at a local library:
I don't think I'll ever finish it... especially now that she doesn't have that hair colour anymore.

Also, sketched a little this evening - did Sotur and Ansadal together. Work is taking up most of my drawing time, but every now and then I manage something small.

LotRO: books nomnomnom

Birthday/thanks-for-everything gift for xhii, featuring her lovely Lord of the Rings Online elven scholar.

Borderlands commission

Did a commission for AnxietyPatient, who wanted me to draw herself and her boyfriend in a Borderlands setting.
I haven't played Borderlands, but the game's style is interestingly unique so I tried to combine some elements from it to my own style. I'm quite happy with the result - this drawing definitely leveled up my texture painting skills!

Guild Wars: Ran

I figured I should post this up too, since it's my recent finished work.


Black and white version & lineart (sketch) version

This is Ravenhawk's Guild Wars character Ran. In return, she drew my assassin Tomie. I had a lot of fun drawing Ran, since I don't get the chance to draw male characters very often for commissions/art-trades. :D For some reason, most Guild Wars characters being drawn are female, even though the game itself seems to have an equal characterbase of both males and females.