A Sound Christmas!

Hey everyone! Welcome back!

And a Merry Christmas to you all! Well, Merry Christmas Eve, anyway, but close enough. I'll be sure to post up a message on my twitter and facebook on the actual day, but today is my blog day, so you all get this a day earlier.

So, I mentioned last time that I had a challenge of doing a Christmas image that involved at least one of the characters from the Naruto RPG in a Christmas theme and I had a week to do it in.

Uh...well, I would have had a week to do it in. This past week has had a lot of unforeseen events happening. Nothing that harmed me, but there has been illness, injuries and health issues that have had me working cover shifts or longer shifts at work, leaving me with....uh...two days - less, really, if one also adds taking care of my dog and general personal care like eating etc.

Still, I have done my best, and, while its not as good as I would like, and needs some polish to it to make it my usual standard of digital images, it is as close to finished as I can get it for now. I may add to it later to improve it, such as aditional shadows and smaller details, etc, but in terms of the challenge, this is what I have.

So, what was the image I ended up with?

Well, I decided to do a picture of the three youngest characters on the forum - the Yume Twins - Kuro and Shiro - and their recently adopted brother, Amatsu Hikaru. I had thoughts of the three of them dressed in Christmas outfits, presenting a present to someone, either to the person looking at the image, or someone standing in front of them (such as their parents).

This was the rough sketch I came up with:

So, from left to right, Kuro would be wearing a reindeer outfit, Hikaru wearing a Santa outfit and Shiro wearing an elf outfit. The hoodies on the twins is open, as the tops underneath would help indicate which twin is which to those who are a bit unsure about their personalities (Shiro being more outgoing than Kuro). Hikaru is meant to be mildly blushing as well, since he is generally unused to such things and also has the twins with their arms over his shoulder.

Using this as a base, I created the line art:

As you can see, I added a few things - the headband that Kuro wears now also has reindeer ears, while Shiro's hat now has the elf ears pinned to it, the way some Christmas Hats do, with his actual ears being a bit more obvious, since the initial sketch made out that he actually had pointed ears.The fluff around Hikaru's Santa outfit is also a little more fluffy, and the present now has writing on the tag. I wanted to keep it a tad ambiguous as to who the present is for, thus the present is 'for you', so the person looking at it can make their own decisions on that.

That done, I added the base colours:

As you can see, Kuro wears the dark top, while Shiro wears the light one. This is standard to what they do in the story, so people can tell them appart (unless they're playing tricks and they switch shirts). The present is a bit bland - unfortunately this is a part that I ran out of time to put detail in. What was going to go on there was holly images. I may add this later, but the characters were a bit more important. 

With the little time I had left, I put on the basic shadows and lights in eyes and hair:

The basic shadows helped to put a bit more depth to the image and the very blank present is a bit more interesting, while the lights make the hair and eyes look a bit less blank as well. 

There is still a lot more I would have liked to add, such as darker shadows, some extra details in the hair and fluff as well as the decoration on the present box. But For the sake of the challenge, this is the ending image. I'll certainly be adding more details and such before I upload it to my DA or website, however. :)

The image has two names. The first name is 'A Sound Christmas', since all three characters live in (the RP's version of) Sound Village. The second name was 'Dreams of a Heavenly Christmas', because the surname of the Twins roughly translates to 'Dream' and the surname of Hikaru roughly translates to 'Heavenly'. The first is easier to say, but both names relate to the image, so this pic now has two names. lol

For now, though, I just have to see how those on the forum will like what I have managed, and I hope you like what I have done so far as well!

Until Next Time!

Merry Christmas!

Tara

It's The Christmas Countdown!

Hey everyone! Welcome back!

Long time no see, huh? Sorry about that. For anyone who isn't following me on twitter (or missed the message), I wasn't able to post last week due to my rather erratic work hours. I work in a pub, and during this time of year, those hours increase and can be at any time of the day as well (at least during the hours it's open). A lot of people go out to celebrate Christmas (Or winter holidays, or whatever you might personally celebrate), so this month is usually difficult for me to keep to any other kind of rota when I could be called in on pretty short notice.

Which was pretty much what happened on my last post day.

Either way, I will try to post properly over the rest of the Christmas/ New Year's season, but I'll be sure to post on twitter if things go a bit pear shaped.

Gripes and excuses aside, like I said, its the Christmas season! Less than 8 days until Christmas day! (At least at the time of my writing this - the day is almost over, after all). Is everyone ready for Christmas? I'm....surprisingly mostly done. One thing left to arrive and things to wrap. I pretty much needed to be, since I'll be working on Christmas day itself.

The reason I called this the 'Christmas Countdown' isn't quite about me hoping that last thing gets here on time, or simply counting down to Christmas, but I wanted to use these days leading up to Christmas, when not at work, doing a Christmas picture from scratch. Its a personal challenge I've given to myself here, but I'm also hoping to give it as a gift to the forum that I frequent, with at least one of characters from it as the subjects looking...well, Christmas-y. I currently only have some vague ideas in my head, so I'm hoping that this challenge will help push me a little.

I am hoping it'll be done by Christmas day itself, but if it isn't, I'm still going to at least finish it. If nothing else it'll be a belated present. But my goal is to have it done as a Christmas present to the forum.

Of course, I'll be showing it here as well.

My next post should hopefully be on Christmas eve (though work may get in the way), but if not, I'll be posting a message to let you guys know, and will give the update on the next posting opportunity.

Wish me luck, everyone!

After Christmas/ New Year's is done, things will settle at my pub job and posting should go back to Mondays every week. In the meantime, please bear with me! Thanks!

Until next time! Merry Christmas incoming to you all!

Tara

Falling into Dreams!

Hey everyone! Welcome back!

So, with all the Alice in Wonderland sketches I've been doing for the Mural, I was sort of reminded of another 'entering other kinds of world' thing - that being my own. So far, I've drawn three of the main characters that have been seen - Rem, Somnus and Ashling. However, there is one other character that eventually joins the team. Admittedly, since I haven't got quite that far yet, while I know her role, personality and where she's goings in the story, she doesn't have a set name just yet. As a beta name, she was referred to as 'Lucy', however, with all the names I've picked being dream/sleep related, I'm hoping to do the same for her too.

I have a few ideas - feel free to give me feedback!

So the names I'm considering for her are:

Penelope (Meaning Dream Weaver - likely to be nicknamed Penny)
Cassandra (Relating to the greek legend of a woman who could see visions - likely to be nicknamed Cassie)
Maya (meaning illusion)

Still a bit of a toss up, though I'm leaning to Penelope and Cassandra, honestly, but I'm happy to hear if people have preferences.

So, who exactly is the character I'm talking about? After all, in my Dreamwalkers talks, I've never really spoken about her. Well, firstly, I should show you my design for her:

The character in question is the girl, not the cat. The cat is....well, can be ignored for now. Suffice to say it has something to do with her introduction into the Dreamwalkers cast. Now, this girl is the youngest of the cast, being school age (Middle/junior school age, depending on your location), unlike the other characters who are 18 plus. This is even including the supporting cast, with the exception of Chris, Rem's younger brother, though not by much. Her first introduction comes after the introduction of the 'types' of Onreios, and basically is the start of what you could class as the next arc.

Now, you may be wondering why I decided to have a younger child.

Well, children do seem to have very vivid dreams, and considering how things work in the dreamscapes - that being that a persons imagination and mental states effect the limits the 'walkers can reach within a given dreamscape...well, it makes for an interesting way of showing the good and the bad about it, wouldn't you say?

So why show it at that point and not in the earlier times? Well, I didn't want to info dump in the intro arc. There is a lot that needs to be learned about how the world works - the types of Onreios, the characters, how the dream worlds work, etc. So, spacing it out a bit just seemed to be a better option. Not to say you might not see hints of it earlier, but it would let people have something to speculate on, right?

As is, this is your first peek at the fourth member of the Dreamwalker's main cast! I hope you like her! And as said, feel free to give your thoughts on her name as well :)

Until next time!

Tara