One of the great things (and painful things) about having a slight backlog is that when you go to post something, you immediately see everything that is horribly wrong with it. While this is good for learning purposes, it isn’t terribly comfortable if you’re slightly insecure. Which all artists are, trust me.

I’ve clearly improved in some ways, but I’m also making some of the same mistakes. I’m happy with my color choices and shading, but it just isn’t vibrant enough. In trying to make the skintones natural-ish, I undersaturated them. The contrast is fine, but the lighter skin and the metal bits are washed out and anemic. Annnd the overly precious monster is back. The ogre’s faces are actually really cool… but you can’t see them, because all that neat detail is on a tiny part of the picture. Oops.

From the WoWiki:
Ogres are large, brutish humanoids originally from Draenor. They were one of the last races of Draenor’s giants.

Ogre culture, such as it is, tend to revolve a great deal around warfare, violence, and acts of strength. Elimination of competitors is an accepted (in fact, it is the only) way to move up in the ogre ranks. The ogres have great admiration to those that can best them in strength or in combat, an admiration that far transcends anything else, including their hatred for other mortal races, specifically orcs and humans. There are rare but known cases of ogres bowing to the Horde when those have defeated them (such as the Stonemaul tribes) and even rarely the Alliance.

Regular ogres and two-headed ogres are not spellcasters; the ogre magi make up the smarter, spellcasting versions of ogres.

Remember what I said about brown? Here’s a great example of how not to choose colors to make a brown animal. Ooops.

I mean, it’s not bad. But it looks much flatter and less interesting than the Gorlock did, even though the shading technique is the same. I think the problem is that palette I chose is all midrange colors. I’ve touched on this idea before, but put succinctly: Limited palette good, so long as it’s broad enough. White through black in five steps is good. White through black in twenty steps is less good, and only using only steps 7-12 is bad, which is exactly what I did here. If this were a black and white image, it would be nigh incomprehensible.

From the WoWiki:

The Wolvar are a primitive race of “wolverine people” that inhabit the icy continent of Northrend. They are one of the major races of the continent, and are found in most of its southern zones. Their tribes can be found in the Howling Fjord, Grizzly Hills, Dragonblight, Sholazar Basin and Zul’ Drak. Though primitive, they are quite capable of diplomacy, and many of their tribes are friendly, or are open to friendship. with one tribe, the Frenzyheart tribe, being a faction in their own right. They speak low common, but their usage of it differs noticeably from that used by other speakers.

See, the reason this post is late is ’cause I got sick. Actually, I’m still sick. I sound like one of those bubbling mudpots at Yellowstone every time I cough. It’s attractive.

Uncharacteristically, I’d built myself up a little backlog of illustrations in case of just such an event, smiling smugly to myself about how good I’m getting at planning ahead and generally acting like a professional.

Then I couldn’t sit at the computer for a week. So much for my brilliant plan.

This week we have a Gorlock, specifically one of the Oracles. I love these guys. They’re cute, in a horrible sort of way. They have the personality of your three-year-old cousin who idolizes you, but in addition to the biting problem, amorality, bug eating, being generally slimy and nominally house-trained, they also… uh… Huh. I guess some of the game developers have kids.

I’m really very pleased with the color on this one. The critter is green and purple and yellow, but instead of being garish I managed all of the transitions so it just looks like a sorta greenish-brown. Which is of course how actual animals are- rarely is something just brown, it’s a complicated and intense palette of colors that you’re generally too busy appreciate. But you notice it when someone tries to substitute plain ol’ brown.

I’m also pleased with how the sketching lines came out in the final product, even if I’m not sure I’ll keep them on in subsequent drawings. They’re damn useful, and add a certain character, but when I get to the final touches they seem to bring down the quality of the picture. We’ll see.

From the WoWiki:

Gorlocs are “an arctic race of murloc-like creatures” that battle the tuskarr. This can be seen in the Borean Tundra.

They are said to be the “next evolution of murlocs.” Lead Game Designer Jeff Kaplan called them “an evolution to the murlocs” and said they were a “complicated race of murloc, both good and bad at the same time”.

The Oracles are a faction of several friendly gorloc tribes that inhabit Sholazar Basin. They see themselves as guardians of the titan technology that remains in the area (though they understand little of it). They find themselves in an escalating territorial war with the Frenzyheart Tribe of wolvar.

This series is going to be fun, I can tell. I’m flailing around madly trying to figure out how to make it do. ( ‘How does make do?’ is a common refrain at my house while dealing with electronics, photography, and elementary plumbing repairs.)

But I’m pleased by my spasmotic twitching, because it means I’m learning. As I’ve mentioned before, rapid and not necessarily linear changes in style are a strong indicator of learning. (Check out the difference over a period of months between a webcomic like Questionable Content, where the artist has only been drawing these characters for a few years, and Girl Genius, where the artist has been well established for a long time.)

To bring this back to specifics: I really didn’t do a good job on the areas of high contrast here. (Oops.) The fur is full of abrupt changes that aren’t particularly well mapped to the topography of the surface they’re supposed to be describing, and the gauntlets of the male look absolutely plastic. However, the skin shading and arm wraps on the female (the parts I did last) actually look pretty good.

From the Wowiki:

Centaurs are a half-humanoid, half- horse, war-like tribal race. They abound in central and southern Kalimdor, primarily in Desolace and the Barrens, where they engage in constant war against other centaur and Tauren tribes.

Each tribe of centaurs is lead by khan, who is generally a leader of above-average strength and intelligence. Some of the clans, if not all, practice cannibalism and will eat the flesh of other sapient races as well, such as the Tauren.

Centaurs follow a shamanistic faith, but their brand of shamanism is far different from the more gentle practices of the Horde. Curiously, most centaur shamans are female.

Filthy creatures, centaurs are always followed by swarms of flies, which are attracted by the centaur’s repellent odor. Centaurs have no qualms about leaving piles of dung strewn about their encampments, and no concept of privacy.

You know who I mean. All those other non-playable, yet clearly intelligent species in World of Warcraft.

That’s right, it’s series time.

Before we get started, let me define some terms: I’m not doing demons, elementals, or anything that could be described as a critter. I’m also limiting this to things that you can speak with in game, and which seem to have a distinct culture. Plus they have to amuse me. Most likely, this means I will not be doing Quillboar. (Frickkin Quillboar. With their stupid death squeal. And you never have to kill just a couple of them, oh no, you have to listen to that squeal eleventy-twelve times.) I have not however compiled my final list, so if there’s any species you’re dying to see me draw, just ask.

On the subject of artistic relevance, this series will serve as rapid-fire, low pressure sketching practice. See, I’m gradually transferring my years of hard-won pencil skills to my digital tablet. Unfortunately, that transfer is not automatic. Something about not being able to see the marks on the same surface as I’m making them, plus the different biofeedback from the digital pen is enough to impede my sketching ability. So I’ll do no physical sketching in this series. Additionally, all these very similar pictures will help solidify my painting process, and the unreality of the subjects will help keep me from getting too precious and narfy about it.

First up: Naga

From WoWwiki: The naga are former Highborne night elves who mutated into vengeful humanoid sea serpents….Naga culture is complex. A clear delineation exists between the sexes. Male naga are larger and more muscular, reminiscent of dragons. Naga men serve as soldiers and guardians. Female naga are more slender, with smaller scales and finer, more human-seeming faces. Naga women are natural spellcasters and rely on magic and poison to defeat their enemies. Naga men are more numerous, but as naga consider their women to be magically and intellectually superior, their society is matriarchal. Women occupy most positions of leadership, and all naga pay homage to their queen, Azshara.

Guys! Guys! Lookit, look what I did!

Let me explain why I’m so excited.

I have a historical problem, loosely referred to as line addiction. I draw edges. I draw them first, and hang the rest of the picture on them, like scaffolding. When my college painting teacher told me to build the image from the inside out, my first thought was literally “but- it doesn’t work like that.” [*]

More recently, this has meant that I’ve been doing line drawings before making digital color images. Which shouldn’t strictly be necessary. If I’m making digital paintings, shouldn’t I be able to do an underpainting as my laying out and on-canvas ‘thinking’, rather than a line drawing? (Trust me, this isn’t through lack of trying. It’s part muscle memory, part training. It’s like putting an accomplished downhill skier on cross country skis and expecting them to not go whup!SPLAT. [**])

Last week, inspired by Three Panel Soul, I decided to give this ‘painting’ thing another try. Miraculously, something clicked. I know what I want to do differently next time (bigger brush, for one thing) but this is an encouraging start in a direction which has previously been mostly blocked to me.

The subject is a Wolpertinger. I was surprised to learn from wikipedia that Wolpertingers have a historical basis, and were not simply created as an amusing Brewfest pet. (Dear non-WoW players: Brewfest is an in-game holiday involving a lot of drinking. When drunk, you can see Wolpertingers. ) Apparently, “The Wolpertinger is not a typical cryptid, as local people likely never believed in its existence. Rather, it is some kind of traditional prank belief, as is evident from the many stuffed Wolpertingers displayed in village inns along with real hunting trophies, which have been fabricated deliberately in order to make fun of gullible foreigners who may want to go hunting for this remarkable animal.” I find this hilarious.

[*] Convergently, I listened to a TED talk after I painted this which suggests that edges (and motion) are the foundation of human vision. Very interesting stuff for visual artists, video here.

[**] whup!(SPLAT) is the direct transliteration of the sound you make when your skis fly out from under you for no reason, and you land on your back. For people from warm locals: Downhill skis have a rigid connection between your ski and your foot, plus your ankle is mostly immobile. You walk like a flatfooted duck, but the ski does not slip out from under you while you’re standing around. Cross country skis, on the other hand, have soft boots and connect to the ski only at the absolute toe of the boot. This greatly increases your independent mobility, but also that of the ski. Which occasionally chooses to exercise its freedom when you’re standing around not paying enough attention to staying centered over the ski.

Sometimes, my fiance and I WoW together. These are our mains, gettin’ down with their funky selves.

I think I’m getting a closer handle on a consistent ‘WoW’ style, but this one is still a ranging shot. While I like it, particularly the poses, it’s too busy. I expected the shading to help direct the viewer’s eye more than it actually does. I was being too cautious about contrast…again. (Can I just hire someone to hit me with a wiffle bat inscribed with ‘too subtle’ when I do this? Please post resumes in the comments.)

This is also the capstone to my Valentine’s Day self promotion week! So if anybody wants to commission an illustration or a piece of jewelry for their significant other, drop me a line.

Just a couple of troll boys, playing around.

Okay, so trolls are hard. They have weird pointy faces, lanky proportions, and tusks. I meant to have the further troll have sort of a playful smile on, but there’s no way that’s happening with the tusks in the way. Also they have two fingers per hand, and physics-violating ears. On top of that I had a sudden attack of insanity, and thought it would be fun to draw them in a Capoeira exchange.

This was not totally out of the blue. Okay, so World of Warcraft noobs, here’s a brief tutorial. Part one: There’s this playable race called trolls. They have a decidedly Caribbean cultural flavor. Part two: all playable characters in WoW can dance on command, to the great amusement of the parties playing them. (And the discomfort of others, as this allows female collections of pixels to dance 97% naked on big city street corners in order to get ‘tips’. *twitch*) Each gender of each race has a specific dance, and the male troll dance is clearly based on Capoeira.

As martial arts go, Capoeira is particularly hard to draw. As an outsider, it seems that the art relies greatly on momentum switching, acrobatic athletic feats, and constant motion. This makes finding good reference material extremely difficult, because paused video tends to be fuzzy and most amateurs can’t take good pictures of a subject in motion.  It also makes my fallback (pressing my friends and acquaintances into services as models) quite impossible, because they don’t bend that way.

I realized recently that I was falling into a familliar trap:  I’ve been drawing only female WoW characters.

Well, other than perhaps the murloc. But I’m not sure I want to know how to tell boy murlocs from girl murlocs. Eesh.

So I decided to fight my natural inclinations, and bring you not only a male character but a burly male character. Plus I’ll admit to wanting to show off my digitigrade legs skillz.

I’m not thrilled with the shading on this attempt. I was trying to re-create the magic from the Alexstrasza drawing, but couldn’t really get it back again. Ah well. This isn’t bad per se, it just doesn’t seem nearly as engaging. Here’s what it looked like before shading.

Crap. I think I like it better this way.

I’m posting early this week because along with many people my age, I’ll be visiting the outlaws for Christmas. As I’m of the Jewish persuasion I didn’t think in advance to draw anything particularly festive, so, uh…

I figured I’d do my own version of a very popular subject in WoW art. You see a lot of fan-created versions of Alexstrasza, because, well… Alexstrasza is extremely hot. Plus she’s a very powerful queen, and leader of an ancient people with mysterious motivations. Also a dragon.

Korialstrasz doesn’t get nearly as much airtime, and when you do see them together, he’s usually in the background somewhere.

I really like this pose for them. It’s your classic ‘dragonrider and dragon’ or ‘witch and familiar’ pose, and the dynamic gets turned on it’s head a bit when you know who these characters are.  Korialstrasz has no official power, his title is ‘queen’s consort’. Plus Alexstrasza could clean his clock any day. So although he’s visually in the ‘power’ spot, he not only takes orders from Alexstrasza (as a witches’ familiar would) he also is not the most physically powerful.

I’m not sure yet about the style. The shading makes them look a bit like stone sculpture. In this case I don’t really mind, because this would be an awesome thing to have in the lobby of the red dragonflight, but for other pieces it might be a little incongruous.

Edit: Hahaha, I forgot the irises. Ooops. I am too punchy to put them in now though. I guess they are stone sculpture after all.