ZodiOCs: Aries

So, Aries it is. Aries is the ram, the male sheep. With sheep I associate wool and with wool (or any other fabric) I associate Samandra Elvennewt from the Witchphibians series. Moreover, mythologically, Aries honours the ram that provided the Golden Fleece. So, it was an easy choice to show her bewitching threads of wool forming into aforesaid fleece (and again, there is a version that would be too risky for WordPress on you know where or how to get there) .

This time I drew her without the salamander’s tail and showing her from behind, looking over the right shoulder. I not only wanted to practice this particular pose but also to show the trousers mechanic.

As mentioned before, Sam or parts of her every so often turn back into salamander parts unintentionally – the tail being the most prominent one. Therefore, Sam tailored trousers which’s back part would flip open by the force of the growing tail without revealing her buttocks when it isn’t around.

In a previous painting you also could spot the threads at her hips heigth which she can pull to get this mechanism back in form once the tail is gone again.

Another detail in the background is the star constellation in form of a frog. Perhaps you remember that I already included a constellation in form of a salamander in the Sagittarius ZodiOC piece (featuring Samandra’s friend and main protagonist Raven). This should’ve been a hint in which direction their relationship is going to go.

Witchphibians: Enchanting Moonlight

This piece felt like it had taken me way too long. It was two weeks of work with several edits to get the composition right.

The initial idea of the moonlight rite already originated in my last year’s 200 followers celebration DTIYS. It basically shows the same scenario, although in the meantime I underwent Raven and Sam some small design changes.

The dance is new, though. I wanted to show Raven dancing with Samandra like Luz Noceda and Amity Blight did in the Disney show „The Owl House“ in the amazing Grom dance scene (especially the drawing circles part). I didn’t even had to think about this happening during the moonlight right and even the title is a reference to the related episode „Enchanting Grom Fright“.

I even gave them similar „clothing“. Their magic forming festive clothes was another new idea I got when thinking about this piece. However, I swapped them, added gloves for Raven and gave her another kind of „shoes“. Like the witches in the background (you may recognize some of them) they still are in their „standard“ dresses because even behold the importance of the fiest, witches usually aren’t rich, they stick to what they have until it falls apart.

Only Kimeira showed up without parts of her armour and weaponry (aka I was too lazy to draw this too). However, if you look close, you will spot green lights in the background. This is her gear patrouilling the dancing ground to make sure nothing unintended will disturb the fiest.

It is no coincidence that I drew Mirro before I drew this art piece. When drawing Mirro I already had the idea to this one, but I wanted to introduce at least her before starting „the big one“.

All the other characters in the background who are not mere silhouettes are characters who already are living in my mind rentfree, though. Some of the m already for quite a while (the one floating in front of the moon since aforementioned DTIYS, for example). They will be introduced to a later point in time.

Speaking in technically terms of drawing, there were two, well, three challenges:

1. I had to get the pose of the dancers right. Interacting characters are a challenge as such, not only the touch of body parts like hands and fingers but also the directions of their eyes etc. But you also have to get the pose right, the anatomy. The lineart toll me several days before every leg, every feet, every knee felt right.

2. The size of the background characters and their composition. The farther away, the smaller in size a character appears. Kimeira should be more in the foreground than the two older witches and the white haired dancing witch behind the fire further in the background. Mirro is a tall woman, her companion a small and crouched one. It wasn’t that easy to avoid Kimeira looking like a giant in comparision.

3. Color scheme, lighting and shading. The night has a blue overall scheme and of course it has shadows, it is one big shadow. And yet, there is moonlight and there is the bonfire, of course. I added several gradient layers (most on multiply), added dark blue, yellow and dark green or erased parts of it to get all these right.

Attack om Titan fanart: The Only Regret

There are few shows that are as intense and thrilling as the anime Attack on Titan with an amount of loss of characters you are relating to that I never saw before.

It was time to do fanart about it.

Because I hate to get spoiled on social media and the Attack on Titan fandom is notoriously spoilering all the time (yes, Karon, I know you read the Manga, you don’t have to give away the death of a beloved character, though!), I tried to be careful to not doing this. Therefore, I did two versions. The first one only contains mild spoilers, things that have been quite obvious right from the beginning. The second version, however, gives away season 2 character developments and fates.

Therefore, please only read further if you are prepared for this.

Perhaps, there also should be a content warning: Grief, Loss, a romance without happy ending.

Ymir is somewhat like one of my secret favorite characters. She and Historia are no main characters and their subplot is only a small one among others. Still, their story, their characters, their relationship intriguited me, intriguited the part inside of me that responses to romance, to romantic tragedy, to drama.

It was hard for me to understand why Ymir made the decision she made. Then I realized, she perhaps figured that in the life in which Historia is going to be who she really is, there simply won’t be a place for her at her side. (Disclaimer: This doesn’t mean that she would’ve been right with this conclusion, but it may have been enough to let her act the way she did.)

I know, the Ymir we know wouldn’t show tears in public, but I wanted to show that she (supposedly) has a softer side, though, I wanted her to show emotions, grief, well, this The Only Regret.

Surprisingly, this piece only took me one afternoon and the evening, I learned that I am very much able to draw something in less than two days. I also think I met her design quite well in my style. And again it was a welcome exercise in lighting and shading.

At first I though of showing her in her final scene, her words to Historia from earlier episodes and her final words of the letter hovering in the background. Then I thought it would’ve been more impressive and more tragic to show whole passages of the letter and then to show the whole letter.

Another decision I had to make was if to show or not to show a writing utensil – and what kind of writing utensil. On trial I added a quill in some point of the drawing process. When searching for the look of the letter’s paper (which format, how many times folded etc.), I stumbled over a screenshot of Ymir writing this very letter. There was no quill, there only was a pen. So I changed it to a pen.

My initial idea didn’t contain any writing utensils. So I tried out to switch it off. But in this case it may have looked as if the letter was addressed to her. Fans of the show would’ve known (but perhaps they could’ve been confused), people unfamiliar with it would get the wrong impression. Therefore, I switched it on again and kept it this way.