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A Storm's Lullaby Page 02

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A Storm's Lullaby Page 01

Drama | Romance | Adventure

The Storm King has been defeated, Equestria magically restored and Tempest Shadow has set off for a journey to share what she’s learned about friendship. But when she meets two ponies whose life has been irreversibly changed by the invasion, it’s up to her to fix what The Staff of Sacanus could not.

New Story

As promised, I'm starting a new story today :-) 

I’ll be posting at least one page per week, sometimes two - and $3+ Patrons  will read it two days  before everyone else starting with Page 3.

People asked me if it’s possible to include their OCs in my comic -- this time the answer is yes. Pick up the last Tier for one month and it shall be done. Please read the rules first!

Key

Patreon Resumes in June

“Artists don’t get down to work until the pain of working is exceeded by the pain of not working.”

― David Bayles

Hello,

I just wanted to let you all know that I will resume my activity next week. 

Inspired by my current journey, I have written a story "A Storm's Lullaby" and started working on the first couple of pages. You'll be first to get news and updates.

To keep myself motivated, I've decided to ditch Inkscap...

The Shadow Shard Deluxe Print Edition

I interrupt the hiatus/retirement  to share some photos of TSS printed edition, a top tier Patreon reward. It's printed on 100gsm paper with a matt laminate cover. The finished product is very impressive (not to toot my own horn, but it really looks nice).

Before it was sent to print, some work had to be done first. Mainly I had to apply various fixes, resize it all to A5 (from rather an unusual letter format), make sure the resulting empty spaces were filled with matching...

Patreon Paused in May

Thank you for all your support so far <3

As mentioned before, I'm going to pause my Patreon in May so that you won't be charged on the 1st of June. I haven't taken a proper break in years and I really, really need one.  Plus I have to rethink what I want to do next. 

Cheers,
Key

Old art - Caged

Last unfinished piece, this time from the MLP The Movie. 

The Movie wasn't exactly what I was hoping for, but my opinion of it improved with every watching.  I was  particularly impressed with how well Twilight was written and how sad this whole  
ordeal was for her in particular - from seeing her mentors fall, Canterlot  conquered, being betrayed, ignored, rejected, tormented by Tempest and then almost killed in a battle :(

Old art - AJ & mulled cider

Another old piece I've never finished but is good enough to share!  I experimented a bit with vectors and textures.  

Old art - Saffron Masala

This is old stuff, but I've never posted it anywhere before and I think it's still good enough to share.  Saffron Masala  from  "Spice up Your Life". This episode had one of the most catchy songs in the series! 

Eating curry is part of being a Brit. We have National Curry Week and Curry Thursdays. I eat one once a week - sometimes  take away, other times I cook it myself from scratch. Every time it's something different, too.

The Shadow Shard Epilogue

Celestia's eyes turned to the northern window of the throne room, and beyond it, as if she was trying to reach the Crystal Empire with her gaze.

"The Ponies of the Empire were dying, Spike," she said at last. "We had to do something. The Heart was the only artifact powerful enough to stop the magical storms."

Spike tapped his claws together and looked up towards the princesses. His eyes met Luna’s unfathomable stare. His throat ran suddenly dry. 

“And… th...

The Shadow Shard Page 95

 This story is dedicated to Justin Blum aka Cobalt The Unicorn.

Dear Fandom Friends,

22 months after it’s started, almost to the day, The Shadow Shard is now finished.

Thank you for letting me tell you this story about the purple Alicorn and her little dragon and my favourite ship. A lot of hard work and heart went into it. I hope it was entertaining, fun and touching.

Many of you contributed to this story in so many ways, from...

The Shadow Shard Page 94

Cover inspired by:

The Shadow Shard Page 93

 Long, long time ago I have mentioned the ending will be bitter-sweet. This is why.

Dear Patrons,

The next and last 3 pages of The Shadow Shard will be published here & on my DA on the same day.  I just need to get it over and done with.   

I will post few Patreon -exclusive pieces this month to make it up for you.

Thank you for understanding. 

Key

Sparkle's Seven Sort-of Follow-up!

I have posted short follow-up on my DA, take a look!

The Shadow Shard Page 92 Sneak Peek

The conclusion.

The Shadow Shard Page 89 Sneak Peek

I will upload the full page tomorrow. 

Buggos Process

Here's a quick guide to my process: (1) vector lineart (2) flats and  tapered  lines (3) light & shadow (4) final effects in Color Efex Pro 4 :)  There's also a Motion Blur filter applied on (duplicated) wings.

Buggos WIP

A little strip based on PB's  I Loeve Laemp ^^

[Commission] Starry, Starry Night

And that's the final version.

Today is Vincent van Gogh's birthday and  I was asked to draw Key and a pony van Gogh using one of his works as a  backdrop. It's been first painted with the rich oil brush, run over  with Filter Forge and painted over again.

I've picked "Starry  Night Over the Rhône" because of a personal connection - every couple of  years, in late summer my travels eventually take me and my hubby to the  banks of the Rhône River,...

Rhone Process

Making of  commission based on Vincent van Gogh's  "Starry Night Over the Rhône".  

To comply with the request (to emulate van Gogh's style and use one of his paintings as a backdrop), I've painted a simplified version of the background with rich oil brush and painted over vectored characters (1), applied a (modified) filter in Filter Forge 8 plugin (2), painted over the characters with oil brush to separate them from the background (3) and made final adjustments in Phot...

The Shadow Shard 87 WIP

Working on Page 87! And another commission. And some bugs, too...

[Commission] Forgiveness

And here's the final version that concludes the Smarty Pants saga.

Vectoring Process

I think it's fun to compare early stages of each illustration to the final product. 

Every single time I finish the 1st and 2nd drafts, I have this sinking feeling in my stomach that it sucks. And it does of course.  Still, I trust the process. With each gradient, light, shadow, detail, reflection etc slowly but surely emerges something that doesn't look so bad anymore. At the end I apply some Photoshop magic  (bottom left and right) and  usually I'm pretty ...

Commission scrapbook

I've been working on a new commission - here are some Patreon-exclusive sketches and almost finished vector still undergoing changes requested by the client.

Рэрити, хватай свой меч!

"Rarity, Grab Your Sword!" in Russian dub. Because why not? 

TSS 85 WIP (1)

This page will take forever to vector :P

Sunshine

 Dear Watchers,

Yesterday I found out about  Justin's passing.

You might know his OCs - especially the cheerful Dopple - from Pony-Berserker's and my comic strips. He was one of the most  generous, selfless and kind people I've met in this fandom. Even though I  knew him only for a short while, I feel like I've just lost a good  friend.

Rest in Peace, Justin.

~Key

The Shadow Shard Page 81

This was surprisingly difficult page to make. I wanted to show couple of things and I hope I managed to last least show how Spike's concern for Twilight would trump over his guilt. I also wanted to go back to one of the key issues -- that Twilight's past mistakes were understandable due to her young age. 

Trivia: I have changed how scenes are arranged in the top right panel, to make sure the viewer's eye is lead from the egg panel throughout the picture and then to...

The Shadow Shard 81 WIP

Illustrations from the latest TSS page.