Ten Character Facts: Ashling Maury

Hi everyone! Welcome back!

To continue the trend of my last two posts, I'll be covering ten facts of the last of the three (currently known) characters of Dreamwalkers - Ashling Maury!

1) Ashling was the first of the female characters to have been created for Dreamwalkers, though certainly not the last. She was created soon after James Remington and Somnus.

2) Much like the reast of the cast, Ashling has a name that is related to sleep and/or dreaming. The name 'Ashling' is a variant of the irish name 'Aisling', which means 'Dream or 'Vision'. It originates from a irish language poetic genre called an aisling, which was developed in the 17th to 18th century, but was only created as a name in the 20th century.

3) Ashling was one of the few names that was chosen from the get go, though her surname was changed a few times before I decided on Maury.

4) Ashling's clothing style was originally going to be more like a school uniform. However, I actually made her a little older later in comic development, bumping her up to collage/university age. Her clothing is now inspired by a 'punk' style.

5) Ashling, similar to James Remington, has an art based passion. However, rather than creative writing, Ashling instead is studying fine art.

6) Ashling is 18 years old at the start of Dreamwalkers, with her birthday being on March 2nd. This makes her the second youngest of the team.

7) If a colour was associated with Ashling, then her colour would be red.

8) Out of all the Dreamwalkers, Ashling has worked with Somnus the longest.

9) While a member of the Dreamwalkers team, due to her course, working for S.O.S is a part time job, though she still takes it seriously.

10) Ashling first appears in the second chapter of Dreamwalkers

I hope you enjoyed the last (at least for a little while) of character facts. Though next time I'm going to do a little on some of the Lore of Dreamwalkers. Either that or I'll be shoeing some of the art that I've managed to do lately now that I have my new laptop :)

Until next time!

Tara

Ten Character Facts: Somnus

Hi everyone! Welcome back!

Last time I gave ten facts of James Remington, the main character of my comic Dreamwalkers. This week, its now the turn of Somnus! So, lets get the show on the road! :)

1) Somnus was one of the first characters created for Dreamwalkers, along with James Remington, his creation beginning with the original concept of the comic. 

2) Somnus' name, much like all the cast, has a link to dreams and sleep, though his is the most obvious in origin. Somnus is the name of the Roman god of sleep. It is also the origin of the word 'Somnolent' - which means 'sleepy/drowsy' or 'to cause drowsiness/sleepiness', the latter meaning fitting quite well with his main role.

3) Somnus had a few alternate names which also had links to sleep and dreams. However, after thinking about it, those names later were used for the name and ranking of the Onreios.

4) There is an object that is carried by Somnus that he is never without. That object does end up the point of a joke or two, though it does have an important role.

5) Each character appears to have a colour associated with them. For Somnus, his 'colour' is purple.

6) Somnus is the founder of the S.O.S group. S.O.S in this case stands for Somnus Oneirology Specialists. As such, he has the most knowledge of the Onreios

7) Somnus's birthday is February 1st and seems to be in his mid twenties at the beginning of Dreamwalkers

8) Appearance wise, Somnus originally was supposed to have straight hair, while James had curly. This was later switched, though his hair length remains the same

9) Somnus favours a more Gothic Victorian appearance, despite the fact it stands out, as he feels that it is far more stylish than more modern styles. However, while he might wear a different variety of these over the course of the comic series, the colour scheme remains the same

10) Somnus is the most mysterious of all of the characters in Dreamwalkers, though his story comes through during events of the comic itself.

I hope you enjoyed the ten facts about Somnus. :)

Next week, we'll be covering the last of our current known main cast of Dreamwalkers: Ashling Maury

Until next time!

Tara

Ten Character Facts: James Remington

Hi everyone! Welcome back!

Currently, other than one picture I had finished before my initial computer struggles, I've not really managed much in way of digital art - though I've been gathering research, so I should have a new laptop soon. Thank you everyone on Facebook that helped me with that! It was a great help :)

So, I decided to do something Dreamwalkers related for those of you interested in my current comic, until I have my new computer and get really stuck into Part Two. So, I'll be doing some posts giving ten facts about characters in the series These can range from facts about the character's creation, to aspects of personality, interests and interactions. Only ten facts, mind, which will hopefully not spoil anything too important.

So, today is about the main character of the series - James Remington

1) James, along with Somnus, were the first characters created for the Dreamwalkers series, having been created as the concept was made, and was the first character to be finalized in terms of his appearance and personality, though oddly, one of the last in finalization of his backstory.

2) James' appearance was actually based off a short comic I made at university as part of a 'kids comic' series, 'Potty' which was created by the course. Initially, they were supposed to be the same person, but as time went on and his design changed, they ended up two different people instead.

3) James, like many of the Dreamwalkers cast, has a name based around dreams. Unlike the others, however, this is reflected in his nickname, Rem. Rem in this case, coming from the term R.E.M, or 'Rapid Eye Movement', a period of sleep where the sleeping person is thought to be dreaming.

4) James' birthday is August 15th. At the start of Dreamwalkers, James is 23 years old

5) James lives alone in his own apartment, where he also works as a freelance author.

6) James' room actually has a few cameos within it. If you read Dreamwalkers, see if you can spot them.

7) Oddly, despite James being one of the first characters developed, his name took the longest to be settled on. In fact, his nickname had been decided on before his finalized name. As such, other names that were considered that began with Rem, James could have had included Remus, Remuda, Remone and Remmer. However, I found the surname Remington worked a lot better than having it as part of his given name. His given name followed soon after, mostly as it flowed well, but also as I liked the name, despite the fact he would mostly be referred to by his nickname.

8) Family wise, despite living alone, James does have other relatives, including a kid brother who lives with his father. His parents were divorced, but are both alive and all get to cameo, if only briefly, so no oddly missing/ died of unknown plot disease parent here. lol,

9) As James' concept was created at the initial creation of the plot concept, James' inspiration comes from the song Byssan Lull, particularly the version by Carola, though more in the tune of the song, rather than the lyrics. Though he is also inspired by the song Prelude 12/12 by AFI

10) Oddly, in the first concept of James, he was supposed to have curly hair, and Somnus was to have straight. This was switched soon after,

Hope you enjoyed the ten facts for James Remington!

Until next time (when we should be covering Somnus)

Tara

Tech Attack

Hi everyone! Welcome back!

Is it just me, or does it seem that whenever you're getting somewhere with work, there are technical hitches? ...Well, admittedly some of this particular 'hitch' is my fault. Sentimentality perhaps? Or me just constantly saying 'it still works, it'll be fine!' despite dubious looks from everyone else?

Essentially what I'm saying is that, after a good....nine years or so, my laptop (which I use for all my digital work) is starting to die. Though it's probably been on a decline for a while. The fans in the computer broke a while go, so I've almost burned my finger on the mouse pad until I got myself a computer cooler pad to put underneath it, and it seemed to have been holding out. It also, for some reason, has problems remembering that I have a pen driver for my tablet installed, and I have to keep reinstalling it once, sometimes twice a month without warning and seemingly for no reason. The battery doesn't hold charge for longer than half an hour, so it has to remain plugged in when in use as well. But lately, it seems that the charger wire is also having some issues. Part of the wire, if it doesn't sit in just the right position, seems to disconnect to the plug, so the charge wont get to the computer. It literally cut out on me yesterday because I wasn't paying attention to the lack of charge symbol on the bottom corner of the screen.

It was annoying, since I had been in the middle of working on the picture for the competition for Foxhat that I mentioned a few posts back and literally lost all the shading and highlighting that I had done. I was really sad about it :(

As such, while this particular computer isn't completely dead yet, I'll be looking out for a new computer, one that's probably more suited to digital art than my current one, which I got way before I began any digital art.

I'm currently looking into what kind of computers would be best on my current budget, though it'll certainly be a good investment, I think, especially since I'm working on part two of Dreamwalkers. If anyone has any suggestions on good laptop types for digital work, or even must have programs for the new laptop, please let me know, I'd really appreciate the help :)

Oh! I do have some good news, however, in relation to TanraStudios. Pandora, our main show runner and currently drawn by Nadia Williams, my partner in crime, so to speak, is now completed and printed.

If anyone is interested in Pandora Chapter One, Dreamwalkers Chapter One, Unbound or Susanoo, you can email us on tanrastudios@yahoo.co.uk for more information, and, if you're interesting in buying any of them, we're also happy to ship them out to you. :)

Well, hopefully next post I do will have a bit more in way of productivity without technical issues causing....well, issues. lol. But if I do still have a lot of issues, then I've an idea of what to do! I'm thinking of doing something similar to what I've done on Deviant Art in the past, which was giving out some character facts for the Deamwalkers cast. Nothing to spoilerish, of course, but still, so you can learn a little about them :) I'll also do some pencil sketches until I have full digital capability back.

Until next time!

Tara

Character Talks: Ashling Maury

Hey everyone! Welcome back!

I know it's been a while, but I thought that I would use today to chat about one of the characters from Dreamwalkers, especially since that, despite the fact it is this blog's namesake, I've not really talked about it since the last convention and degree show other than in passing. Not to mention the last time I did a character talk it was back in December 2015. As such, today I'll talk about the first female of the Dreamwalkers team - Ashling Maury.

I've drawn Ashling as a flat colour version I tend to use it for reference for some of her current clothing, though the star on the shirt breast is still up for debate on if it will remain there during her first appearance.

Ashling, as mentioned, is one of the members of the SOS team, having been there as one of Somnus' employees before Rem's initial introduction, and is one of two female members of the team. Unlike the other female member, Ashling is one who takes an active role, and is capable of dreamwalking similarly to Somnus and (eventually) Rem. Unlike her boss' more mysterious, strangeness, Ashling is a no-nonsense tom-boyish young woman who likes punkish clothing and kicking ass, though at this point is so used to Somnus' strangeness that she barely bats an eye about it, even when Rem is utterly confused by it all.  Though if her boss get's a bit too overenthusiastic then she is not above dragging him back to something a bit more normal (in her opinion). As such, Rem sees her as a point of normality in SOS and gets on with her quite well, usually in terms of the two of them complaining about their insane boss.

Ashling, when not working for SOS, is attending university on an art based course, though she rarely talks about it during her dreamwalking job.

Hopefully, I will be able to finish this image as well. :)

Of course, if anyone has any questions about her and its not too spoilerish, then I'll be happy to answer them.

There are more characters to talk about at some point, but for now, that's all I can say about them, but look forwards to those character talks when they show up.

Til next time!

Tara

Doing a Thing!

Hey everyone! Welcome back!

So, with graduation over and my degree now sitting in a nice frame, I've had to get back to real life things. Along with more pub hours working (I'm bar staff when I aren't working on art), I have two new projects that I'm working on: a competition entry and a tattoo commission. I'm currently in talks with the client about what they would like from the tattoo - I don't think anyone would like something on their bodies they don't like, right? - so for today I'll be talking about the competition entry.

I've entered a competition before by Foxhat, which I did early on in the year and was one of the two joint winners. As such, I decided to have a go at the new competition that she set up. The perimeters are essentially to have the character 'Bubblegum' from her comic, 'Bubblegum and Marzipan' be in a comedic situation which results in Bubblegum being grumpy. Additional characters from the story could be included. Admittedly, the actual deadline for this isn't until November, but I thought it best to get started on it now and I can take my time on it while working on other things as well.

As such, I decided on a kind of pratfall, which used pretty much all the main cast, mostly for laughs, considering the personalities of each character. As such, I worked on the basic line art for the entry:

The characters are as follos. Bubblegum is the grumpy rabbit eared character at the front, with Marzipan being the other, more cheerful rabbit. The winged man is Nash, with Luna being the cat woman. The fox child in the back is Cinder.

Currently, I only have the flat colour done of this, using the colours of the character references, and there is still room for additional detail even before I do the fur/hair/wing shades, lights and shadows that the art needs. But this is what I have so far:

 It seems to be coming out so far, though I do hope I kept everyone in character. I'll enjoy putting all the finishing touches to it.

In other news of things that I've been working on, TanraStudios now has a Facebook page, so, if you're interested in what myself and Nadia are up to and want any additional news from the two of us without waiting for our blog posts, then come check us out.

Here's the link!

www.facebook.com/tanrastudios/

We hope to see you there!

But, until next time!

Tara

Graduation!

Hey everyone! Welcome back!

This week has actually been rather busy for me. It was time for Graduation! Puhuhuhu!

*Ahem*

Thankfully, for all that I have drawn Monokuma (such as this one here) and often times I draw myself in my Monokuma hoody, the 'Graduation' I'm talking about is thankfully not the Danganronpa form of graduation. No, I actually Graduated from Staffordshire University, having studied BA(H) Cartoon and Comic Arts, with a First Class! I was so happy, especially since part one of Dreamwalkers was actually my final project on the course. I've come such a long way in three years 

(If you check out my DeviantArt page www.chosha-kurenai.deviantart.com/ you can certainly see the difference between what I used to do (just sketch work) and the things that I produce now)

So, on the Friday just gone, I attended my Graduation! I even took some pictures, which I hope you'll enjoy:

The ceremony was quite fun - It was funny to see someone run with a selfy stick when there name was called to photograph himself with Lord Stafford, and thankfully I didn't fall on my face going onto, or leaving, the stage, so it all went quite well! Though admittedly I almost hit one of my classmates with my hat when we threw them. Oopsy? Thankfully I caught it before I accidentally shuriken-ed them in the head with it. lol.

Unfortunately it did rain after the ceremony, so I unfortunately couldn't get any more outdoorsy pictures. Its a shame - Trentham Gardens has some lovely views.

My week also had a bit of a bad turn with the funeral of my nana, however. I suppose you could say it was a bit of an 'up-down' kind of week. She'll certainly be sorely missed by all of us. Thankfully, the ceremony was nice, friends and family attended to say goodbye and there flowers were pretty. My Nana, unfortunately, didn't get to see my Graduation, but I'm pretty sure if she had, she would have been proud of me. She always was fond of my drawings when I was younger. I'm sure she would have enjoyed my Graduation too.

On another note of Graduation, I also graduated into becoming an Aunt. My older sister gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. 

Tabitha, as she is named, is now about a week and a day old as of this post, and I also got to meet and hold her during this week. She was so small, but adorable. I'm happy for my sister and partner and hope that I can be a good Aunt to her :)

That wasn't all I was up to this week either! I also 'Graduated' another year old - it was my birthday on the 13th. Admittedly I didn't do too much - I went out for a meal with family and went to visit my sister, held my niece for a while and had a relaxing day playing on some new games I got and planning my new laptop to help with my art - my current one is pretty old now (nearly ten years) and is slowly dying - I literally burn my finger on the mouse-pad at times because the fans don't work well, and this is even with a cooling pad! - so I think a new one is due). But still, it's not your birthday every day, right? (Although we have many Unbirthdays, lol) And even if I didn't seemingly do too much, I had a great day. :)

Honestly, it's been a busy week of many kinds of graduations, both good and bad. That's how one Graduates in Life, I suppose? But thankfully, this busy week has been mostly filled with good things and with very supportive friends and family. 

So, I shall be starting the next chapter of my life, and hopefully with many more 'graduations' to come.

So, until next time!

Tara