The fluffy stuff!
Comics were my first inspiration for art and learning to draw, and
it definitely shows here. There are two categories here, my work and art by
friends. The subject matter primarily is pure geek, either being a character
from a roleplaying game or fanfic that I used to write. Yes, ASCF'rs, I wrote
fanfic too. Feel free to point and laugh!
Portrait of Aeron
For just over two years and a half years I played a very intense(i.e.,
an asshole) sorcerer in a Dungeons and Dragons 3.0/3.5 game. He started out
as very easy-going but as time went and more shit hit the fan, this started
to become his most common expression. This is just a simple inked sketch,
although I may do more with it in the future.
Aeron in action
This was the first sketch I did to give the other players a guide as
to what he looked like. You may notice he's missing his irises, which was
deliberate because I planned to add them in via Photoshop when I'm finished
coloring him. In the original sketch he was also one-armed as the result of
a plot device trap, and required some digital surgery to regain his left arm
when he regrew it in-game.
Samantha
My first Dungeons and Dragons 3.0 character, Sam was my first experience
with the Sorcerer class. She was a very uptight and angry young girl who was
constantly fending off advances by the party cleric, played by my brother.
The gender-bending on my part and the weirdness of two brothers roleplaying
male-female interaction gave the rest of the players the willies, but we had
fun anyway.
Fiachra ap Fiona
The source of my LJ moniker. Originally invented by my soon-to-be-friend
at the time Ceiridwen as a character for me to one-shot in her Changeling
game, I enjoyed him so much that I wound up using him for a lot longer. Fleshing
him out, I played him in both a Werewolf game and Ceiridwen's "C-Verse"
Changeling game over the span of three years. I portrayed him as an unleashed
version of my id, which was incredibly fun.
SD Fiachra
SD, or "Super Deformed", is a common form of anime exaggeration.
I decided to try my hand at it and also show my idea for his version of royal
attire when he became Duke of the Duchy of Dogwood... i.e., Virginia in the
far future after a plague. The silver lion on red is the Fiona crest, and
I think I did a nice job of making a military-style dress outfit.
Fiachra's strange love
Ceiridwen was also nice enough to help me create a love interest as
plot background so I could take him out of the original campaign and transfer
him into a Werewolf game. I only gave her three requirements: That the love
interest be strange, dangerous and the most unlikely match for a Seelie Sidhe.
So she invented Morgaine, an Unseelie sluagh assassin. For you non-changeling
players, sluagh are fae that resemble uber-goths on their best days, and the
walking dead on their worst. Not the type you expect a sidhe to hook up with.
Sent to assassinate his Duchess, they fell in love instead and she botched
the mission for him.
Debbie the Pooka
A birthday present for the aforementioned Ceiridwen, this was her longest-running
NPC(Non Player Character) in the C-verse. Pooka are a type of fae that can
turn into one animal, in her case, a Pileated Woodpecker. She was the love
interest for our friend Hazel's character, Baron Janus. Poor Debbie. Like
Morgaine, she did not have a happy life. I think Ceiridwen hates her love
interest NPCs sometimes because they are never happy.
Kitty the Pooka
Another birthday present, this time for Ceiridwen's sister Bronwen.
Kitty was a very young Lynx pooka, hence the cat ears and the pout, which
incidentally is a dead ringer for Bronwen's own real-life pout. It wasn't
intentional...
Eclipse by Bronwen
Bronwen's own present for me, Eclipse was my character in a DC Superheroes
game run by our friend Rob. The dark pattern is an alien nanotech that he
was infected with. The more he used his powers, the more it exuded from his
skin, fading away when he stopped. The pattern on his skin was inspired by
the Shadow ships from Babylon 5.
Contact!
From the same superhero game, this was my concept of another player's
hero. Romance novel blurb writer by day, superhero by night. His powers were
granted by aliens, which was very nice of them. Except for the occasional
abduction and anal probing, that is.
Fiachra by Bronwen
Another present for my birthday, Bronwen did her own interpretation
of Fiachra. I decided that this would represent his original armor, before
he started wearing the more baroque armor depicted above.
Daniel
A present for another friend, Heather, this was her character in an
online roleplaying game/fanfic. Daniel is a MiB, or Man in Black, charged
with keeping reality safe by surpressing evidence of aliens and magic. And
by surpressing evidence, I mean killing said "aliens" and mages.
This was my one of my first attempts at an elaborate abstract background,
being a layered composite of circuitry, interlaced lines, and text.
Sascha DelAubre
Yet another present for one of my Canadian gaming friends, Hazel, this
was from another online RPG/fanfic based on the Super Nintendo game Final
Fantasy 3. This was a test bed for about four separate techniques I was learning
in Photoshop at the time.
Dee Arrowny
A character of mine from the same online game, Dee was the cousin of
Relm Arrowny and the love interest for Gau. Originally a scholar, she went
the way of the sword and was destined for great things until the RPG faded
away. For you anime fans, yes, the pose is borrowed from Arshes Nei in the
Bastard! anime.
Dee by Hazel
Originally a doodle by Hazel, she was kind enough to scan it and send
it to me. This was her impression of Dee after reading my stories of her transformation
from scholar to swordswoman. It actually captures her sweet nature better
than my own drawing above, truth be told. Too bad Hazel no longer has the
original, I would love to have had a bigger copy.
Original Dee
Very cheesy colored doodle, and one of the last ones done before I started
using Photoshop. I was still playing around with the anime style of big eyes,
small mouth, and tried to make a quick image of the original concept. The
outfit was based on a riding outfit I saw once.
Gau
My primary character from the Final Fantasy 3 RPG, and one of the original
game characters, I had a lot of fun with him, although the artwork for Dee
was much better. I don't know why I never really did a decent drawing of him.
And yes, I know he was supposed to be a kid, but when I started I thought
years had passed so I grew him up a little and gave him a girlfriend. When
I found out, I decided to simply say his shapeshifting abilities also gave
him some serious growth spurts. Later on, Dee had some serious issues when
she discovered she was boinking someone eleven years her junior..
Gau in living(anime) color
Yes, the inspiration was right out of Sailor Moon.
Gau the first
Concept sketch for when I first started writing the fanfics. Very crappy,
but it was a ten minute pen drawing, so sue me.
Ayrsayle
The source of my primary internet moniker for nine years. Ayrsayle is
a hatchling dragon I played in a Rifts game in '94-'95 (Great Horned Dragon
for fellow Rifts geeks). I thought I'd made the name up until I stumbled across
an old Choose Your Own Adventure type book featuring a dragon by the same
name, which I'd apparently subconsciously dredged up when naming him.
Humanform Ayrsayle
Rifts dragons are almost all shapeshifters, and Ayrsayle was no exception.
This was his normal choice of disguise, a big, dumb-looking barbarian.
Sailor Ayr
I can only plead insanity the day I drew this.
Stormblade and Triel
Original character and her hatchling dragon from the (former) fanfic
newsgroup alt.games.final-fantasy.rpg. The author went insane on us soon after
I drew this. What a waste.
Alex Rogan
Another drawing I did for a friend based on the fanfic he wrote for
our newsgroup, and one of my more involved pieces in Photoshop at the time.
It took about twelve layers, whereas now the same thing would take me four
layers tops now that I know my way around the program. Nice writer, but an
annoying character.
Natasha
One of two pieces I did for Travis, a fellow writer who later became
estranged from the group. Probably the most "cheesecake" drawing
I ever did. If you ever see this, Travis, drop me a line.
Enygma
One of my earliest attempts at computer coloring, along with Living
Color Gau and Original Dee (boy, those sound like rappers, don't they?), and
it shows. Ugh. But it was the thought that counted, I hope.
Raven
The second sketch I did for a friend on the newsgroup. Not proud of
the legs or the pose as a whole, but the shading was rather different from
my usual style.
Baram
The first sketch I did for someone on the newsgroup. Technically not
an original character, but the actual in-game Baram only appeared in a couple
of flashbacks so there really wasn't a whole lot on him.
Cyan Garamonde
My interest in the characters and artwork of the Final Fantasy series
for the Super Nintendo preceded my discovery of the world of fan fiction online.
Cyan was one of the more interesting and tragic characters from Final Fantasy
III. My only real gripe with this piece is my crappy lack of foreshortening
on his sword arm.
Atma Weapon
This was a thirty second doodle I did while flipping through the instruction
manual for FF3 of one of the tougher monsters from the game.
Golbez
One of the big bads from Final Fantasy 2, and like Atma, just a quickie
sketch.
Ugly
Random doodle of a sportswriter I did while killing time as a security
guard in '93. Bonus points for anyone who recognizes him.
