malacandrax

Sketchbook Update 84

Added 2024-10-07 21:35:14 +0000 UTC

Continued from part 83! [More Luke sequence tomorrow btw!]

This part contains the next halstarion sw au comic- it contains canon typical suffering, Astarion has a bad time, but it ends well. See the next section for a more detailed warning, spoilers for the comic.
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More detailed info/cw's abt the comic-
To me it didn't make sense to have the tattoo totally as it was in canon- so I've added cazadors name, and a crown symbol often used by traffickers. The tattoo is forced upon him, the same way the contract is cut into him in game. I also show a few frames of him with clients, the frames are cropped to hide anything explicit, but he's distressed (though more by something else, than the work itself)

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There's quite a bit of sketchbook woe in here, I wish there was a more solid way for me to incorporate sketchbooks, and digital experiments, into my career rather than trying to squeeze it in on the side. I'll never be the type that makes merch, or videos, and so much of my sketchbook is just studying! But I wish there was more time for it, and that it felt like a financially sound use of time instead of a cheeky detour haha. I haven't found a solution for this yet, but maybe one day.

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Halloween Pumpkin planning! Every year I try to do some different faces, though I admit I am running out of ideas haha. Halloween isn't a big deal in the UK, it's a pretty muted affair, and it's usually raining... but I still love to do pumpkins. Kids still go trick or treating, and wear costumes, but people generally just leave out a pumpkin and a few fake cobwebs on the night to indicate they're open for business lol, not that many people go ham on decorations :').
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Plein Air-

As with the previous update, I wanted to share the location photos of the plein air studies.
I've been watching Leigh Ellexson, and Sophie McPikes videos, which aren't necessarily similar to my work, but they're very inspirational.

These two above are both gouache! The paper is actually cream- as it is in the scans, my camera weirdly lost that! I added in some cadmium lemon yellow polychromos in the last, which really helped to bring out the sunshine.

These two are watercolour, with some gouache.- white, plus what was left on my palette from the last paintings. I wanted to try a more portable method, using my water brush instead of taking a pot of water. It worked surprisingly well!
Above is actually a photo I took before I added gouache, I wasn't sure if I was going to ruin it! I really like how it came out, I quite enjoy the milkyness of gouache, especially for this cloudier day.
The tractor actually got moved while I was painting, they often leave one tractor and come along with a different one- and swap! I still got most of it done before it was gone haha.