[comic] Gabriel, pg.6 [02-08-'10]

[WhiteFox]

So is it safe to assume Felix is actually female?

Sure.

I mean, it's not like goblins will steal your liver if you make a wrong assumption, right?

It seems s/he is talking as if s/he has experienced both being a "mother" and having a "husband"

As the dialog suggests.

[WhiteFox]

I can't really formulate a proper introduction or description of how this piece of work came to be, so I'll just go ahead and link it:

Hairstyles of a Crime Fighting, Chinese Take-out Box for a Head, Chopstick Wielding Android. (Feat. Dumpring) (Note: FA)

[Inumo]

I find the hair styles amusing.

[Chairtastic]

"I pity the foo'd!"  <- Best food pun, evar!

That is all.

[WhiteFox]

"I pity the foo'd!"  <- Best food pun, evar!

That is all.

This whole thing started with due to comment I made on one of Grinds drawings of Dumpring on FA:

"I've never seen an anthropomorphic chinese-takeout-box-head person before.... I guess not all anthros have to be based on animals.

Food for thought."

It was well received.

Also: I get a kick out of the shades on the fight-hawk: it's the wire handle for the box, flipped forward, with a pair of clip-ons. Not sure how obvious it is.

[Drayco84]

All I know is that I'm hungry from some chinese food... AGAIN... Thanks a bunch, WF.

[WhiteFox]

DSOF#63

Yay! I love exposition!

Wait... no. What's the opposite of love?  Right; hate. That's the word I'm looking for.

Comments and critique appreciated... and, good golly gosh, do I ever need it.

[Chairtastic]

In the first two panels, Felix seems bulky.  Not muscled, bulky.  And the fox-whose name I am too lazy to go back and relearn, her head seems...odd throughout this comic.  Elongated.

Those are my only issues with it. 

[WhiteFox]

Emeline's head has been a constant headache for me; it always ends up the wrong shape, the features all end up misplaced, and the hair never looks like it's supposed to.

The last two panels had to be re-drawn twice.

[SpottedKitty]

How naughty of Felix...   

A fun episode, even with all the exposition.

BTW, I noticed the colours of Emmy's ears, but I wasn't sure if it was because she's turning her head back and forth, or if her ears are actually going like semaphores from her mood.

[Turnsky]

you know, Emmy could stand to have a leeetle support in the chest region, and given that 'things that support breasts' have been around since the fourth century BCE, there's really no excuse. 

[Keleth]

Was she morphine her headwings on and off? THey weren't there in the first panel, and only one for a few panels, until they are both there for the last 3.

[WhiteFox]

Thank you for the feedback; I really appreciate it.

BTW, I noticed the colours of Emmy's ears, but I wasn't sure if it was because she's turning her head back and forth, or if her ears are actually going like semaphores from her mood.

A little bit of both, actually. I'm so not too good at positioning or posing ears; I guess that's why they jump around so much.

you know, Emmy could stand to have a leeetle support in the chest region, and given that 'things that support breasts' have been around since the fourth century BCE, there's really no excuse. 

"Things that support breasts" have been around since men evolved hands.

There's a bit of story behind Emeline and her better halves. She's going unsupported for a reason, and it's deliberate on her part, but I'm really not drawing them with the look I intended them to have. I'm trying to be more aware of this when I draw her.

Was she morphine her headwings on and off? THey weren't there in the first panel, and only one for a few panels, until they are both there for the last 3.

The missing headwings in the first panel are my mistake.

Normally, Emeline has one wing sticking straight up, and the other tucked back. You can see the top of the tucked wing in the second panel. The tucked wing isn't always visible, depending on the position of her head, which is why it isn't there in the third panel. (Also, I screwed up the lines on the upraised wing in the third panel... fudge).

In the last three panels, both her wings are extended because she lost her composure. I drew them as though they're being seen from straight on, which better suited her expression. Her head is turned a little in the last panel, which is why the one on the right is broader.

I really don't like limiting myself to drawing things from one specific angle, in a limited number of poses... I shouldn't make things confusing by constantly shifting around the view, though.

[WhiteFox]

danman's gift for CCC#12 is finally complete: Maniacal Laughter is the Best Medicine.

This was an interesting little experiment; I wanted to see what my colouring would look like without lines.

The only thing that really bugs me is that (Spoiler warning: once I point this out, there's no way to un-see it) "The eyes look really off kilter." I could swear it wasn't like that in the sketch.

Since it was late, I gave danman mini-gift as well:


...And since I had it laying around, I gave The Basilisk a minigift too. Arial and Darkshine, our characters in the Lush Wasteland RP, having a post-mission conversation: Bicker, Bicker, Bicker...



EDIT: I finally finished my guide for how I prepare line art for colouring, and posted it in the Library. See it here: http://clockworkmansion.com/forum/index.php/topic,7731.0.html

[WhiteFox]

Basilisk's CCC #13 Gift (WIP)
Originally posted here.

The colours are a fair bit different then Bas's usual: I went with redish brown and a golden orange for the fur, rather then a grayish brown and a darker grayish brown.

The piping and cuffs on the coat are a slate gray, while the hair bands, epaulettes, clasps, and gorget are silver. That'll be much more noticable when I get around to adding the metallic highlights.

The gun, an S&W .500 upsized for demons, took longer to ink then the entire rest of the pic... and it still needs lots of work.

Anyway: Comments and critique appreciated.

Over a month since my last post?! UNACCEPTABLE!



Last night in IRC, I goaded Basilisk into daring me to draw a seampunk gorilla mech ("with lots of gears in the arms and a little tiny viewport for the pilot." His words, not mine). He gave me 24 hours. Didn't get as far as I wanted, but Bas approved of it heartily enough that he conceeed the bet anyway. Awfully sportsmanlike of him.

So: The Guerrilla Warfare 'mech.

I don't do speed-sketches like this in Photoshop often. 98% of this was done with a 9pt airbrush and 4 hotkeys, and was about 2.5 hours of work total. The smoke in particular was fun to do, as well as all those little rivets. I love how that little thumbnail sketch of bas came out.

Comments appreciated.

(If anyone's wondering about the little hat, I found out that a Miter cap was a standard part of a grenadier's uniform in victorian times. Not just for bishops, I guess.)

[WhiteFox]

A double post. I'm being productive this week.

DSoF #64: Cursive is really hard to pronounce
[edit] ...Rembered my witty remark for the link.

tl;dr version: this page really got messed up.

<blog_ramble>
This is probably the most deliberately I've shown Felix shifting gender, so there were a lot of things that were critical for me to get right on this page. Which of course means that I ended up flubbing them horribly. Some of it is stuff I haven't done a very good job of showing in previous pages, so I'm not sure how apparent the differences are here.
In particular:
-Felix has only one eye. Quite often, it's heuuuge. There's a reason for this, which will be covered in the near future.
-Her eye colour varies between violet and yellow, though not always depending on her assumed gender.
-Felix has a slender, feminine, eyebrow in either gender.
-Feliciano is about half a head taller then Felicia, and much broader in the shoulders. In either gender, Felix is pretty well muscled.
-"Felix" is a gender neutral nickname. If anyone can tell me what the possessive form for Felix should be, I'd greatly appreciate it. (Felixes? Felixes'? Felix's? Friggin' english.)

Also, a while back I made a little breakthrough on drawing faces at a slightly different angle then usual. I'm not really used to it yet, so Felicia's face came out kind of awkward in a few places. Which had to be cleaned up in Photoshop. Which made things simultaneously better and worse. At the same time, I've made some progress on drawing feline faces in general, which has made things are a little more awkward. And I'm trying to incorporate nuanced facial expressions and varied camera angles at the same time. I just might be biting off more than I can chew.

Originally, I was going to have imagery of what was going through Felicia's mind in the background while she was talking. Then I realized that this wouldn't make sense, because Cubi can read minds, but they can't project. Zu wouldn't pick it up, not being a 'cubi, and there's no mnemograph this time around. So I had to redraw the whole page, there's a lot more talking for stuff that was going to be handled through imagry (I hate exposition), and there's a few things that are still not very clear.

This is the first time Mateo has been mentioned in the comic, though he has been alluded to previously. He probably shouldn't be confused with That Other Guy who has been alluded to previously, has appeared discreetly once, and was discreetly named prior to that.

I kinda like the BG in the first panel tho, even if the perspective is a bit overdone and off-kilter.
</blog_rambling>

At any rate... comments and critique very much appreciated... and boy do I need it.  

[Inumo]

-"Felix" is a gender neutral nickname. If anyone can tell me what the possessive form for Felix should be, I'd greatly appreciate it. (Felixes? Felixes'? Felix's? Friggin' english.)

I believe the rule is if the ending "s" sound is very "s"-like, then you do 's for possessive. If it ends in a "z"-like sound (like when you do plurals), then it's just the ' for possessive. So, Felix's

By the way, I noticed a typo in the third segment of the wall o' text. You misspelled baronies as baornies. Also, in the first segment, it's spelled "courier," not "couriour." I'll go ahead and remove this paragraph if they get fixed so it doesn't confuse later readers.

In terms of art style, Felicia's shoulders in the first panel seem over-pronounced, almost like she's got more bone there than normal. Not sure if that's part of her getting shorter, but hey. Also, the wings seem kinda... flat in the 2nd and 4th-6th panels. The lack of a black line bordering them is kinda odd among the black outline on the rest of Felix's figure, and there'd probably be a bit of shadow from the feathers, since they don't lie perfectly flat. That might be a result of you wanting to get the page redrawn and finished so you could move on, though.

One last thing, was the "If you see Mateo..." stuff meant to be as a P.S. or a separate language?

Hope this helps!
--Inumo

[Turnsky]

Okidoke, feedback time..

-arm and shoulder in the first panel looks a little funky. while the fifth panel's arm and shoulder looks like something out of a john carpenter flick. (seriously man, deformed)
-Wings: Learn to draw them in properly, or not at all.. it seems that most of the time you can't decide which and when you do put them in, the painted-in ones scream "afterthought" , and stylistically so? the headwings only thing makes them look like they're attending an "Asterix" convention..

[WhiteFox]

By the way, I noticed a typo in the third segment of the wall o' text.

Spelling, my old nemesis... so we meet again. Note to self: Use the damn spell checker.

In terms of art style, Felicia's shoulders in the first panel seem over-pronounced, almost like she's got more bone there than normal. Not sure if that's part of her getting shorter, but hey.

Feliciano has much broader shoulders than Felicia, so you're seeing them in the middle of contracting. Likewise, her hips are widening.

Also, the wings seem kinda... flat in the 2nd and 4th-6th panels. The lack of a black line bordering them is kinda odd among the black outline on the rest of Felix's figure, and there'd probably be a bit of shadow from the feathers, since they don't lie perfectly flat. That might be a result of you wanting to get the page redrawn and finished so you could move on, though.

I seriously need to put some time into doing some wing studies... Thank you for the observations.

I actually took out the lines for the backwings, because I wanted to make them drop into the background a little more. Guess it worked too well.

One last thing, was the "If you see Mateo..." stuff meant to be as a P.S. or a separate language?

It's a PS, spoken in a subdued tone.

Hope this helps!

It has, very much so. 

@Turnsky:
Inumo said everything that you just did, and more, much more clearly, and politely.

As much as I appreciate the feedback and comments, yours has been more acerbic than informative. It sounds as though you are more interested in taking a strip out of my hide than actually being helpful. You couldn't even be bothered to mind your grammar.

I am trying very hard to improve my work, and at least bring it up to minimum standards of adequacy. You are not helping in that process.

[Turnsky]

@Turnsky:
Inumo said everything that you just did, and more, much more clearly, and politely.

Touche.

As much as I appreciate the feedback and comments, yours has been more acerbic than informative. It sounds as though you are more interested in taking a strip out of my hide than actually being helpful. You couldn't even be bothered to mind your grammar.

answering critique with your own? Again, Touche.

I am trying very hard to improve my work, and at least bring it up to minimum standards of adequacy. You are not helping in that process.

*sigh* Very well, you seem content that i want to tear strips out of you, so be it. To you, good sir, i shall indulge you upon this.
For starters, let me foist upon you the very dictionary definition of "feedback":
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/feedback
Stop complaining about the tone of the feedback, just the fact that you get it about something should say quite a bit.

Now, keeping in line with my somewhat "harsh and abrasive" tendencies, i shall point out various things that you should be looking at to not only improve, but to show that you're capable of doing so, and quite frankly, we haven't seen too much of that in these areas. This is also a rephrase for your benefit.

• Your habit of haphazardly putting wings in one panel, forgoing them in the next, and so on. This shows inconsistency on the artist's part, like he cannot decide whether or not he wants to draw wings. Hence my earlier "either you draw them, or don't" comment.


• Said wings, when you DO draw them (and evident with the headwings, too), seem to be an afterthought most often painted in via your image editor and lack any sort of definition. To be honest, they look like pieces of cloth and coat-hanger stickytaped to their back. (take that as you will, but that's the impression i get)


• There are numerous inconsistencies with the linework and coloring, like at the inking stage, you've forgotten to ink some lines in, again, like the wings, second panel, inner thigh of page 63, last panel of 64, left hand on lap looks as though you added that in after you scanned, just to name a few examples. it's things like these that show a lack of attention to detail. Which consequentially shows in the final product.


• Call it what you will, but the deformed shoulders and arm of felix in the latest just scream at me for all the wrong reasons. I don't care what anybody says here, but that's just bad anatomy. I've thought of playing 'devil's advocate' on this and say 'it's shapeshifting' but then i remember, it -should- be far more cleaner than that given the basic form shift.


• You do, however, draw hands well.

All i'm saying is, and it's a common gripe as far as i'm concerned (not just you, however) is that when folks say they improve, they just say it overall. As my mentor once said: "Talk is Cheap" basically if you say you're gonna improve, do so, at least show that you're capable of -trying- to improve by showing a sketch of your attempts or something.

If you think i'm being blunt? so be it, take into consideration that i'm trying to make a point here and not sugarcoating it with niceties.
However i do appreciate you not pulling a gabrielsthoughts and posting a rather large wall of text that i'd haveta read and type a rebuttal, possibly abusing the quote trees. 

[Inumo]

Hmm... Okay, now I'm curious: What do you two (Turnsky and WhiteFox) think the process of shapeshifting looks like?

[Turnsky]

Hmm... Okay, now I'm curious: What do you two (Turnsky and WhiteFox) think the process of shapeshifting looks like?

well, i'm going off the dmfa-verse as per DSoF, which has shown it to be a fairly subtle process overall.

[WhiteFox]

Inumo: I'm not really sure. My general impression is that it's a smooth shift from one form to another, maybe with a few slight SFX. (In DMFA#621, there's a slight glow around Dan's headwings.)

My first impression of shapeshifting came from DMFA 218, and I thought it was a warpy-bendy transition. In retrospect, it's probably just the wings doing that when a 'cubi goes completely berserkus.

But... I'll be dead honest, I really like drawing warpy-bendy transformations. This is DMFAverse, but that doesn't mean I do everything exactly the way Amber does.

[WhiteFox]

All i'm saying is, and it's a common gripe as far as i'm concerned (not just you, however) is that when folks say they improve, they just say it overall. As my mentor once said: "Talk is Cheap" basically if you say you're gonna improve, do so, at least show that you're capable of -trying- to improve by showing a sketch of your attempts or something.

Capable of trying? If you want evidence of progress, read the actual comic. It has ups and downs, but I'm fairly confident that it shows steady improvement over time.

I don't share my sketches because I'm not looking for comments on them. If I'm sketching something, it's because I'm practicing or planning. I'm not looking for advice at that point. Besides, I do crap-tonnes of sketches and studies, and most of them are too messy to show because... well, they were never drawn to shown.

...But then, who doesn't love a good sketch dump?

I use 9x12, 100 page Canson Sketch books. I started my current one on Aug. 21st, and it's half full right now. Here's the highlights:
Shadow Study I realized one of my microns was actually a blue-black rather than black. I did this with a black micron for the line, and the blue-black one for most of the shadows.
Eagle Head Study Preparation for  future Gryphon characters in DSoF.
Jade on a Cliff Felt like drawing Jade using the thumbs on her wings for... something. This is more to play with her pose of the body and the wings rather then drawing the thumbs in particular. Man, I love drawing rocks like that.
Swoop! Rough Sketch One of many, many, many sketches of winged figures. I don't share a lot of sketches, because they come out this messy.
Hand Study Drawn from Real life. That is a picture of the hand I am using to draw the picture.
Fling! Rough Sketch Some figure getting spun around in mid air.
Angled Head, Development Sketches Okay, here's a good one. This is me trying to figure out how to draw a face at 30 degrees, rather then the 45 degree angle I usually use. I've been trying to figure this out for a while: in DSoF#61, the bridge of Emeline's nose is super wide all the time because I hadn't nailed it down yet.
-The human face, second from the bottom, was drawn using visual reference. It's not an exact reproduction, but I had a ref pic on hand when I drew it. I had a realization at that point.
-The second human face, on the bottom, was done freehand using what I'd learned from the first human face.
-The half drawn anthro face, up above, was aborted because I didn't like how the lip and nose were turning out.
-The upper anthro face was the final one. What i'd figured out was that the distance between the eyes was one eyewidth, the distance from the corner of the eye to the ear was one eyewidth, and the distance from the jaw to the side of the neck was half an eyewidth. Once I pegged down those measurements, things somewhat fell into place.
...Then I played around with how to place the ears on the head, which is why they're drawn in three different places, ruining a perfectly decent diagram.

The next few are development sketches for Andrace, who will be making a cameo in DSoF shortly.
Rawr! Study Drawing of a lionesses head.
Andrace Portrait, Rough Preliminary Didn't like how the widening jawline looked.
Portrait, Second Version Much better.
Profile, First Version On the one hand, this looks very lion-ish. On the other hand, I don't think it seems right for Andrace's character.
Profile, Second Version This is closer to how I usually draw feline faces in profile, but it doesn't look nearly as lion-ish. Final design will probably be somewhere in between
.
Felix Headlong Practicing foreshortened poses, and paying particular attention to the anatomy on the arms and the position of the head, from that angle. Messed up the bicep on the far arm, probably since I placed the elbow and forearm before considering where the shoulder should be. D'oh! Something else I learned on this one: I need to do some studies on the hips for this pose.
-Sometimes I'll ink half-done sketches, just to practice using the pen.
Deltioid, Bicep, and Pectoral Muscles, Rough Sketch (levels adjusted in Photoshop) Whenever I'm having trouble drawing a figure from one angle or the other, I'll do a quick one of these to get an idea of what should go where. I have literally dozens of them. These usually take me about 2-5 minutes, depending on how much of the figure I'm drawing. This was probably a fiver.

DSoF pg.65, Panel 2 Rough Layout Sketch I do a couple of these per panel. Lets me think about how much room I need for speech baloons, where to put them, and think about different ways to compose a shot. Of course, I suck at guesstimating how much room the bubbles need, and I usually think of ways to compose a shot that I don't actually know how to draw (especially if there are buildings in persepctive). Herp derp durp. But I do it anyway, and give it my best shot, and ask for comments.

CCC#13: Baseel
Preliminary Sketch This is the first version I did, before I knew what kind of outfit Baseel wore.
German Shepherd Study  (levels adjusted in Photoshop) Done from image reference. Wanted to get a better feel for the dog.
Final Sketch This is the drawing I actually scanned and inked in digital. If I were going to ink something on paper, I'd clean it up a LOT more than this.

Character Development: Chassi
This is a Transformers character I wanted to do since... forever ago. There are a lot of things I do and don't like about all the different styles of Transformers, so I eventually decided to design one myself just the way I wanted. Which means I had to start drawing robots and vehicles.

I particularly wanted as much as possible for the robot to look like it was made out of parts of the vehicle, and I wanted the vehicle to look like a perfectly ordinary vehicle. Namely, a Lamborghini Diablo, which is hardly a perfectly ordinary vehicle.

...Should have gone with a Murceilago.

So, I came up with Chassis (Pronounced "Cassie"). She's kind of an army brat. I sketch her out every couple of months, and make some progress on her design a bit at a time. I hope make a 3D model of her one of these days, and see if I can animate the transformation.
Chassi: Alt- and Vehicle Mode development sketches This is a recent full drawing I did to figure out where all the pieces of the robot go on the vehicle.
Head: Comes out of the engine area.
Torso: Rear of the car (Excluding tail lights) forms the abdominals and obliques. A third of the hatch for the engine compartment ends up on the upper chest, and the rest as the back. Rear wheels end up sitting on the shoulderblades, flat across the back.
Wingie Jetpack Things: Section above rear wheel well, from the tail lights to the roof.  Yeah, I'm kinda ripping off Arcee with these, but they just look cool. Not sure how they attach to the back when the rear wheels are in the way... still under development.
Arm: Paneling between rear wheel-well and door. The vent in front of the rear wheel ends up on the forearm; in this sketch, I tried putting it on the deltoid to see how it would look there.
Battle Rifle: Roof of the car. Still in development.
Hips: Centre section of the hood, and the front bumper. If she had a decal on her hood near the windshield, it'd end up as tramp-stamp.
Thighs: (Not actually drawn in the sketch) Sides of the hood, and the front wheel well. The headlights end up on the sides of her hips pointing up.
Calves: Doors. The seats are drawn here on the inside of the calves. Not sure if they're to scale, though.

...I don't expect anyone to be able to actually follow all of this, but that's how I have it worked out so far.

So far, the only parts of her robot mode that aren't made up from parts of the vehicle mode are the head, feet, hands, and the lower/inner thighs. Those come out from inside or underneath of the vehicle, so I'm content with that right now.

Most recently, I did some work on how the rear of the car reconfigures into the torso. It's a pretty convoluted mess.
http://www.whitefoxart.com/artwork/sketch/sketch_16.png
I also did the math, and apparently Chassi comes out to about 5.2 meters in height.
(A lamb. Diablo is 2m wide. Assuming that the section that forms her chest is 1/2 the width of the car overall, her torso would be 1m wide.  The chest is 2 times as wide as the head is wide, and the head is 2/3rds as wide as it is tall, making her head apx. 0.66m in height. If the overall height of a figure is 8 times the height of their head, Chassi would be 5.28m tall. When I did it on paper, I lost 8cm due to rounding)

And on a final note...
Ten Thousand Hands! Well, maybe not, but 25 is still a bunch. These are simplified little diagrams I made of hands in various poses. Some of them are better than others.

Anyway... hope you enjoyed the tour. Comments appreciated.

[Chairtastic]

Hmm, I don't have much to say about most of them.  But for the lion sketch, the face seems blocky.  Also, your third portrait link goes to the hands, not another portrait.  ...As does your Final Sketch of the CCC gift.

In other news, Sheppy seems sad and miffed!

[WhiteFox]

Also, your third portrait link goes to the hands, not another portrait.  ...As does your Final Sketch of the CCC gift.

Fix'd. 21 links, not entirely in sequential order. I was bound to mess up a few of them.

[Turnsky]

now see, this is what i intended to do, to challenge you. I realise i might not have been pleasant, but i figure it like this: if i can somehow get an artist to rise to a challenge via one way or another, all the better. If they back down or wall up, they're not worth the time of day, or at least a good solid heckling. 
I also think that if you get less hung up about me being nice and more about trying to see whatever point i might be trying to get at, all the better. 

Truthfully, work in progress sketching is a far better indicator of work than finished product, as they also show your process.. once you get into the nitty-gritty of things, it's easier to work out where one needs to improve.

[WhiteFox]

It's quite well stated that Mythos in DMFA can get pretty weird. Daina and Aniad here is at this point as weird a Mythos as I have ever come up with. This is a rough sketch, about 2 hours work start to finish, but it came out pretty well as a design concept. I was in #wf_studios (the IRC channel I set up on llearch.net for art/writing chat) when Meany proposed the idea of a Mythos with a decoy head... my brain immediately went in it's own direction, and ended up here.

Just so we're clear: that's two views of the same character. Well, they're two people, with one body. Does that count as one character or two?  {Dhurr...)

Bending the lower arms like that is just so wrong for arms. Of the three standing poses I tried, though, it looked the best for legs.

Ideas for comics are already popping into my head:
(Waking up in the morning.)
Aniad: Heads or tails?
Daina: Flip you for it.
Aniad: Sure. (Gets out a coin) Heads or tails?
(Laugh track.)

Anyway... Comments appreciated.

[Chairtastic]

I like the colour scheme, very dualistic.  So the heads point opposite of one another?  Or does the inactive head retract into the body?  Another thing, wouldn't they be bit lower to the ground Daina is the legs, due to supporting Aniad's apparent superior muscle mass?

The final product is delightfully skewed from the original concept.    Kudos for creativity.

[WhiteFox]

I like the colour scheme, very dualistic.

I'm amazed the brown didn't come out looking like crap. Literally.

So the heads point opposite of one another?  Or does the inactive head retract into the body?

The heads face back and upward. You can see Daina's horns under Aniad.

 Another thing, wouldn't they be bit lower to the ground Daina is the legs, due to supporting Aniad's apparent superior muscle mass?

I'd rather they both had a similar posture. Maintains duality.

The final product is delightfully skewed from the original concept.

...and that's why I just had to do it.


Open NaNoWriMo Incentive

To anyone on the forums participating in NaNoWriMo, I'm offering a free book cover illustration to anyone who reaches 35000 words before the end of the end of the month.  Paperback sized, full colour. This is an open open offer, so it's not limited to the first person to reach 35K, either.

Unless I get, like, fifty people.

Also as a note: The llearch.net IRC chatroom I started for art discussion, #wf_studios, is open for written as well as visual work. Stop in some time.



Well, don't I just love to write. DSoF is being delayed because I decided to put my foot down and iron out a few shortcomings in my work (namely perspective). Normally, I just patch up a problem spot and tell myself to try better on the next page, but I'm tired of all the shoddy backgrounds.

That opened up a fair bit of time on my schedule, so I'm taking a shot at NaNoWriMo myself. Here's the story so far:

Title: None yet.
Concept: Airships are cool, and I'd like to do some fantasy that isn't Tolkein-esque.
Rating: PG-13, I guess. One minor instance of harsh language.
Current wordcount: About 7.8K 2K [EDIT] Here, WhiteFox learns the difference between word count and character count.



   Ethan, draped carelessly in the lookout seat, listlessly thumbed his notebook. More than a thousand feet below him, an endless black ocean stretched from horizon to horizon.
   It wasn't dead black, at least. The moon and stars reflected off the waveless salt water, creating the illusion that there was no ocean at all, but of an entire globe of sky surrounding him.
   In the distance, straight ahead, a single spire of rock seemed to float in empty air, each half lit by twin moons.
   To novice airshipmen, it was an unnerving illusion. Ethan had gone sailing through mirrored skies for countless nights though, and it was an encouraging sight to him. No clouds to hide privateers. No mottled reflections from waters thick with algae, seaweed, or bilge. Still water. Still air. Still flying.
   It was quiet enough that he could hear the pulsing hum of the Ephenid's crystalline engines, above and behind him.
   Ethan stopped thumbing his notebook, and opened it to a fresh page. Humming meant resonance. Resonance meant wasted energies. He began scripting runic symbols in coulombs, occasionally ciphering phrases into practical inscriptions on the facing page.
Force, flow, motion. All energy followed patterns. Patterns written with the eighteen essential runes, and ciphered into the phrases that could channel, change, and direct those energies.
   Behind and below him, the Ephenid's engines channeled potential energies into motion, propelled his ship through a globe of stars.
If, and, or; greater, equal, lesser; true, false. Ethan's pen scratched black strokes across the page, ink flowing from the pen. Ephenid was something new. It used the same runes as any other airships engine, but the pattern was unique. The structure of the ship was unique. He'd spent the last four years scripting and ciphering, scraping together the resources to build it, and flying the ship as he was working it's kinks out.
   Kinks like the hum from the mid-ship impeller conduit.
   Ethan forced himself to stop writing. Rephrasing the ciphers for the middle impeller was pointless until the design of the envelope could be finalized. The long cylindrical spindle, filled with helium that kept the ship afloat, was creating too much resistance. It had finally gotten to the point where Ethan had to have it properly designed before the Ephenid could continue development.
He let out a sullen laugh. Here he was, captain of his own airship, master of the flows of intangible energies, and he didn't know a thing about airflow mechanics.
   The spire of rock was much closer now. White moonlight blanched the crags and crevasses of the sheer, vertical rock face, but he could still pick out the crowns of forestry on it's cap and myriad ledges. He could still see struts and spars of protruding air docks and the terraced pavilions. The grand halls, running deep through the spire, lined with homes and workshops. The little secret passages children would hunt for, forgotten over ages. Paths along the cliffs barely a foot deep. Wrought iron lanterns hung on the wall, the smell of baking bread drifting through the air, and wood shavings scattered over the floor.
   Ethan stood, tucked his notebook back into the breast pocket of his quilted leather tunic, and the wax pencil long with it. Rolling up his sleeve, he took a moment to shake his wrist out.
   Everything had a pattern, even people. His body had legs, so his pattern walked. His body had eyes, so his pattern saw. Rolling up his sleeve, he began murmuring a cypher low in his throat, and tracing lines over his arm to accompany it. The runes weren't visible, but that didn't mean they weren't there.
   Energy flowed. His self flowed. The material of his tunic parted for him, and a pair of slender appendages molded out from his back. Then feathers extended from the appendages: secondaries first,  primaries followed, then finally coverlets sheathed over the limb.
   He ruffled the hawk wings, settling them comfortably. They weren't real, just a physical counterpart to the pattern he'd woven. Just as his body had wings, though, his pattern now flew.
   Ethan kept his wings tucked for the moment, and picked up the intercom tube for the lookout station. He turned a ring at the base of grip, which shifted a section of the cypher, dialing in the bridge. "Basi." He said, and waited a moment.
   "Basima."
There was a quiet squawk from the intercom, then a reedy female voice answered. "Bridge."
   "We're on approach to Graycliffe, and I'm winging over now. Bring Ephenid in at one quarter, and when the dock-masters flash tell them we're berthing at the Kaleman-Ferrier shipyard."
   "Yes, Captain." She answered.
"They'll make some noise, but tell them that yes, we're absolutely certain that we're welcome there."
   "Yes, Captain Ferrier." He could hear her smirking amusement through the speaker. He couldn't help but smile himself.
   "When Deckan takes his shift, tell him we'll be suspending Ephenid at a gantry. I want him to cool down the engines and prep the ship for maintenance."
   "Are we doing any overhauling?" She asked.
   "No: the yard isn't large enough for that. We can re-script the ciphers and scrub out the works, though." Ethan answered.
   "Drudge work for the next four days, contrue." She said.
   "Drudge work coffal, Basi. for once, I can have the yardies handle it. " He said. This was probably the one shipyard in the ocean he wasn't afraid of having crawl through his engine.
   "Yes, Captain!" Basima answered. The com fuzzed at the volume she spoke at. Her excitement was understandable: The Ephenid had a crew of less than half a dozen, and she was one of those that couldn't read patterns. That usually left her with a lot of scrubbing and polishing to do, but this time the crew could have a decent shore-leave.
   "Make sure Deckan stays on the ship until get back, will you? I'm heading out."
   Basima dropped back into a formal tone. "Captain is disembarking: contrue and logged. Fair winds, sir."
   "Fair winds." Ethan set the receiver back on it's hook.
   He spread his wings out, their wingspan measuring twice his body height, and took a running dive over the railing of the ship. He let himself fall, picking up speed. Air rushed around him, and the illusion of the unbounded night sky closed in once more: There was no ground, no horizon. No up or down. It was the Ephenid that was falling away from him, and he was the one that was floating in an ocean of stars.
   He pulled out of his dive, and banked toward the Graycliffe pinnacle. Shortly he'd be finishing the longest journey he'd ever made, and was in fact the longest journey anyone ever made.
   No matter how long you spent traveling, the trip home was always longer.


   Ethan rode the currents all the the way in.
   The inhabited face of Graycliffe came into view: windows, ledges, and decks covered the entire side of the rock face. Getting closer, the architectural details became clearer: fluted columns, ornamental railings, peaked arches of the doorways.
   He approached one of the broader promenades, and back-winged to land. He rolled up his sleeve again, and deliberately wiped his forearm from elbow to wrist. As the ciphers cleared away, his wings faded from existence.
   Ethan strode over to the main gate. A watchman sat in the booth guarded by a wrought iron grill, waiting patiently for the new arrival to approach on his own good time. Ethan didn't recognize him.
   "Name and business?" The watchman asked.
   "Ethan Ferrier. Personal business."
   The watchman eyed him. "Y'have your fathers nose. I don't know your name, though." He said.
   "I've been away for a few years."
   "Apparently." He said, and picked up an intercom. "I'll see if your Master Ferrier is still awake."
   "I'm not here... to see my father." Ethan said.
   "Aye. I imagine he'll want to see you." He said, then looked up at Ethan. "If there's anything between you and your sire, it's no business of mine. But I can't let someone claiming to be family just walk in the door without someone coming seeing them in first."
   Ethanís mouth tightened, but he didn't object as the watchman spoke into the intercom.
   "Master Ferrier is in his office, but Carrigan will be down to greet you. The watchman said. "You can wait here till then."
   Ethan nodded. "Thank you." He said, then stepped to the side and turned to lean his back against the stone column that bracketed the iron grill.
   A few minutes later, the heavy wooden gate opened, and a portly  man stepped out. He was wearing a heavy leather apron, and was still covered in soot from the furnace. Ethan straightened up as he approached. Carrigan had gray around his temples that hadn't been there the last time Ethan had seen him.
   "Uncle Carrigan." Ethan said.
   "Ethan." Carrigan said, and stuck out a hand. Ethan clasped it firmly. "I was starting to worry you'd taken to the heavens." Carrigan didn't release his grip on Ethan's hand.
   "I came to see Jared" Ethan said.
   "Tha's it? You came to see young Journeyman Burke?" Carrigan said.
   "I didn't know he made Journeyman." Ethan replied.
   "Well, you didn't stop to exchange the appropriate pleasantries, now did you?"
   "Carrigan, I'm just here to talk with Burke." Ethan pulled his hand out of Carrigans.
   Carrigan crossed his heavily muscled arms. "Your cousin Amalise is having another baby."
   "'Another'?" Ethan said.
   "Sean married the Reed's second daughter. Two years ago." His uncle continued.
   "Well... congradulations to them both."
   "Your mothers been worried about you."
   "Carrigan!" Ethan barked. His uncle stopped, and waited to see just what Ethan would say.
   "Look, I promise I'll make the rounds with everyone." Ethan said. "But... right now, I've got a ship coming to port, I have to speak with Burke, and I just flew for twenty minutes."
   Carrigan eyed him. "Gray winds, boy, you work to hard. Burke's in his shop. I'll show you the way."
   "Burke has a shop?" Ethan said.
   Carrigan turned, and headed through the gate. "You have a ship?" He said.



   The walk to Burke's shop took a few minutes. Their footsteps echoed through the vaulted avenue, a hallway five stories tall and wide enough for two dozen men to walk abreast.
   Burke's shop turned out to be a small, personal one, large enough to house maybe two or three light craft at a time.
Burke himself was seated next to a half built frame. In one hand he had a brush to lay down glue, in the other hand were strips of seaweed, pressed and dried to exact thickness, cut and trimmed to exact width. His brush moved steadily and smoothly along as he built up layer after layer of laminated spans. Ethan stood patiently by the door, and Carrigan left wordlessly.
   Burke finally set down his brush. "Thank you for waiting." He said, without looking over his shoulder.
    "Burke." Ethan said.
   Burke sat still for a moment, then stood and walked over to his workbench. "Ethan." He said, still not looking to the door. "You're back."
   "Well... not really." Ethan said. "I'm not done yet."
   "Really?" Burke started putting his materials away, sorting the dried strips into the shelves by width, resealing his bottle of glue. "After all that fuss you made about not coming back till you were done."
   "Yeah. I... kinda expect I'll get some turbulence about that."
   "I'll bet." Burke said, and started cleaning his brush out. "So, why are you back then?"
   "I need someone who knows about framework." Ethan said. "The engine works, Burke. The ship flies as it is, but I need a proper design for the framework."
   "Right." Burke finished cleaning, and hung the brush on a pegboard with all his other tools. He dried his hands off, finally turned, and took a moment to look at Ethan. "You're broader in the shoulders than the last time I saw you."
   "Well, manning a ship builds muscle the same way building one will." Ethan said. He fished out his notes book. "Look, I have the specs here." He took a folded piece of paper out from a pocket on the inside of the cover.
   He ran his thumb along one edge, wiping away a brief cipher. The paper unfolded, expanding like a blossoming flower, till it was stack of sheets three feet by two feet. "At least look at them."
   Burke sat at his bench, and Ethan laid out the stack of papers. Burke flipped through them halfheartedly. "What am I looking at, Ethan?"
   "It's the impeller design I came up with. It works."
   "So what am I looking at here?" Burke said.
   "Well, impellers draw in air, and push it back out to generate thrust. Ducting around them increases the efficency." Ethan said. "Ciphered impellers are the most energy efficent drives there are."
   "Right. I know that." Burke said. "I work with more than just prop-craft and gliders, Ethan."
   Ethan continued. "So, there's all kinds of factors to consider. The dimensions of the impellers and ducting are more or less efficient for different weights and speeds. It's like not being able to shift gear. Impellers are more efficient than most other engines, but they can't be used as main drives for airships because the size and weight they'd have to be to generate enough propulsion for cruising speeds would be ridiculous. The duct alone would weigh more than the rest of the entire ship"
   "Right." Burke said. "So what am I looking at?"
   "The Ephenid has a cylindrical envelope."
   "All airships have cylindrical balloons." Burke said.
   "No, I mean, it's a giant tube. The envelope itself holds the helium and acts as a duct for the impellers."
   "You're joking. The stress would..." Burke started, but Ethan cut him off.
   "The drives are high volume, low pressure." Ethan said. "Trading high force for high mass lowers the stress on the envelope, and still generates acceleration."
   "The impellers would have to be huge."
"Fourteen yards across. The energy cost is substantial, the conduits are high impact, the capacitors are minimal. It's all on paper."
   "Ethan." Burke said.
   "Burke, it works. I built it, it flies. It's a real thing. In the morning, you can see it with your own two eyes!"
   "Ethan. What am I looking at."
   "Look at the damn blueprints, Burke!"
   "Ethan. I'm not looking at the schematics. I'm not looking at the boat." Burke said.
   Ethan shut his mouth.
   "What am I looking at." Burke said.
   "You're looking at me," Ethan said finally, " I can't do this on my own."
   "That's right." Burke said. "You can't."
Ethan continued. "You know a lot more about aerodynamics and frame design than I do."
   "That's right. I do." Burke said.
   "I need your help." Ethan finished.
   "Yes, you do." Burke said, and spread his arms. "And that's the end of that."
   Ethan let out a terse breath. "Are you going to say 'I told you so?'"
   Burke stood, and rolled the sheets of diagrams up. "No... I've been waiting too long to see how this ship of yours turned out to waste time crowing." He said. "I'll look these over tonight. I can tour the ship in the morning."



[EDIT] Removed the part where I explain a whole lot of stuff. I need to know if the story is comprehensible as it stands, and providing reference material would probably "corrupt" feedback in that regard.

If anyone is curious, or confused, feel free to ask.