Livestream Redraw: Kelerain, from 1994. Plus, News!

Good news, everybody! (Anyone else hear Futurama when people say that?) Last week I successfully made Twitch Affiliate status, which means people can pay me if they choose! To make it worthwhile for them to do so, though, I need to actually show up and draw on a predictable basis, so I have set my Spring Streaming Schedule for Wednesdays and Fridays at 1 PM EST. (I want to change this later, because I'd like an evening stream for people who can't attend during their workdays, or who are in other timezones; but first I'd like to get into the habit of giving 2 hours a week to this.)

My twitch streams will be split between painting, if I have something on the board, and sketching, either prompts, or redraws... like this one! Friday night I decided to take three sketches from 1994 and re-do them. I did three sketches and spent about 10 minutes on each, and I really enjoyed it! I'll be sharing the results with you this week. This first one is Kelerain, my old FurryMuck character. I tried to stay as true as possible to the original with a few necessary hacks (like the fact that her cloak was kind of awkward to pin when it was supposed to go over her back, and the wings!). 

It was also fun to give her legs. I was not into legs in 1994. Lol. :D

For your amusement, I have dug up her old description (also written in 1994), with what I believe is the outfit she’s supposed to be wearing in this picture:

Before you, 6'6" from toe to tufted ear is a gryphon, her wings a smooth arch off her back. Cream feathers cover her to the midriff, shading to beige on her back; her waist, legs, and lion's tail sport medium‑brown fur. Her hands are slightly jeweled, like those of birds, and have wicked looking black talons. Kelerain's eyes are a dark blue, thoughtful and not unfriendly, but not inviting either. Her beak is that of a predator; you get the impression that she is rather dangerous. Kelerain is currently wearing a black jerkin over a white blouse with black breeches and boots; over all this is a cape crocheted, an afghan kept on with a thick pin; it sports squares of burgundy, dark blue, white, black, and dark vert. Her wings are folded neatly behind her back, held high and relaxed.

But she had some lovely other pieces of clothing, like this one:

Kelerain is wearing a white cote; over it, a silvery‑rose doublet embroidered with gold maple leaves laces down her front over a pair of breeches of the same color; her boots are white suede, and a darker rose cloak streams over her back, embroidered with gold circle‑designs.

Or this one:

Kelerain is wearing a thick, white, woolen tunic, fur‑lined, white suede breeches and white suede boots with fur‑lined tops and a white velvet, fur‑lined cloak with a hood drawn over her head; her tail, wrapped from rump to tip with golden cords that hang ten jingle bells, makes a mellow sound as she moves.

I was so much more into clothes then. As much into clothes as I wasn’t into legs. :D

So, why have I taken up streaming! Is actually a good question, to which there are a few answers:

• First, that I'd like to do more art, and particularly more painting, and committing to doing it on camera helps because it becomes two activities: one, working on the art, and two, entertaining people who might want to watch.
• Second, that I think the prompt sessions are a fun way to interact with fans; I did them previously in a coffee shop, and did the interact on Discord and photographed the results there. But while that’s real-ish time, it’s not literally real-time and doing it real-time lends an interesting quality to the results.
• Third, that I’d like to diversify my income streams, and make art more productive for me as a revenue generator. Merchandising is never going to do that for me, particularly since it goes against one of my quieter core values (“Do not contribute to the plague of random physical stuff in the world”)… but also because the margin is reeeeeeally narrow. You need to make that up in volume and I am never going to do that. Original sales are enormous when they happen, but they are erratic. Streaming, though, might start inspiring tips and subscriptions, so there’s a chance I might build it into something.
• Fourth, it might give me material for videos for Youtube, if I can get off my tail and actually come up with a video workflow that doesn’t feel like pulling teeth.
• Finally, that I think I might be a weird niche on Twitch that hasn’t yet been cored out: I only work traditionally, and I do family-okay stuff. Apparently a lot of twitch is digital art, and pin-ups. I might manage to stand out? We’ll see.

So this is a big experiment, but hopefully it’ll be an interesting one. At very least I am drawing more, and that works for me… and, I suspect, for people who miss seeing my art more often.

Here's my channel, again: https://www.twitch.tv/mcahogarth

Anyway, that’s the plan. Comments, thoughts, suggestions, questions, as usual, all welcome!