The Inkspiller

@deeprun, She’s beautiful! 😀 I love what you did with her hair – making it like a corona of flame around her head. I’d never drawn her with pixie-short hair but it fits her so well! AND IT’S SO DIFFERENT TO ACTUALLY SEE HER IN COLOR. THE EYES – THE EYES! And her gown is so pretty too! The dark blue is such a good complement to her hair – having…[Read more]

@purpleturtle What’s the character and their description? I might be able to give it a shot.

@elisha-starquill

One of the most useful “general guides” on medieval military strategy and tactics has been Christine de Pizan’s The Book of Deeds and of Arms and of Chivalry – there’s a modern English translation of it available (it was originally a military manual written in French in the early 15th century). If you want to get REALLY old…[Read more]

@claire-h Solid points all. Plus, if you can make a non-murder mystery compelling, that itself will set it apart from the majority of the genre. In your excerpt, the mention of her grandfather’s technical work immediately elicited expectations of some speculative machine / 1920s gaslight / dieselpunk technology. It may be something far more…[Read more]

@claire-h Honestly, I’ve always been scared to get into digital art. I mean yes it would dramatically improve my ability to render color and lighting in my art, it just requires… things… and patience…

Whether you render Myrrha on computer or in pencil, I’m excited nonetheless! I have a lot of drawings of her, but I think it best I refrain…[Read more]

@naiya-dyani

Oki dokeses – I have two drafts of Kokai. Neither of which I’m exactly pleased with, but I can no longer distinguish between satisfying the customer and my own particular pickiness.

Draft 1 has a messed up hand

Draft 2 feels lazy. 😛

I feel bad, but this is what my efforts have amounted to so far…

@claire-h I like it! It’s definitely very different seeing my characters in color, given that I pretty much only work in pencil. I like how you captured the intensity of her stare and the whole sharpness of her appearance. It’s quite a change from how I’ve often depicted her – that is in armor, and often encased in her helmet too.

I’m curious to…[Read more]

@claire-h

I get more and more excited each time I hear about her! AAAAAH my brain is all discombobulated with anticipation.

I’m curious what you mean about it being too much for your 20s story to also be a murder mystery. Do you feel that it’s somehow not optimistic enough? I guess I’m curious to see what your process is for evaluating what is…[Read more]

@claire-h

Thank you! The background’s a new technique I’ve been trying out – it’s very quick and low-effort, but you’re right, it dramatically improves the depth of even a very simple illustration.

You know — that’s actually a scene in one of the stories I have planned. Kyreleis is ordinarily a very austere woman to cultivate the image of a…[Read more]

@elisha-starquill

The others have already mentioned stakes and internal battles, and I definitely recommend listening to them. Based on the references you’ve made to other fantasy battles, my guess is that this is an epic scale military confrontation as well, not just a battle between our main characters and their nemesis.

My suggestion is to…[Read more]

@claire-h

I present to you Princesses Emory and Amara of the Kingdom of Faran:

I took a great many liberties with Amara in terms of props, posing, and costume. You mentioned she was the one scheming to take power, but also had a more energetic personality. Since I suck at open mouths and am still very much in training on the subtleties of…[Read more]

@claire-h

Hmm. Melodos… do I detect a certain tinge of Tolkien / Psalmic inspiration? (Tolkien’s creation story for Middle Earth – the First and Second Music…)

Old Testament! 😀 A bold place to go. No seriously, that’s a hearty undertaking, but a very interesting place to dwell for a fantasy story – a place and time when the world was…[Read more]

@claire-h, I know the feeling. That’s partly why I cheated and just used a historical backdrop so I don’t have to build EVERYTHING. Lol. No, historical fantasy just replaces brainstorming with research because unless one wants to go whole hog and rewrite an alt history with a rationale for why things changed, one still must follow the big…[Read more]

@claire-h

First off – that’s a pretty darn good excerpt. I can see you’ve studied well the art of evocative prose. I don’t know if I’ve seen your fantasy stuff on Story Embers just yet, but now I’m all the more interested in reading the rest. Also – that’s a darn good description for Amara. That helps a lot with making her look and feel different…[Read more]

@claire-h, You know, I seem to be getting that a lot lately on Story Embers… 😛

(Also, thank you very much! I’m glad you liked it. I look forward to Amara’s description, that’ll help make her twin different.)

Horns & Hair:

I’ve hemmed and hawed on her horns, so I guess I’ll nail it down finally.

Iron horns – texture of cast-iron, rough…[Read more]

First – your (first) character:

I did take some liberties with her other accouterments – I had wanted to do a more active pose, but that rapidly proved beyond my cogitative abilities (and I didn’t know what other royal / religious symbols existed in your setting – I guessed such things figured prominently since you have a cult as part of the…[Read more]

@patience

Well… you married a blacksmith. Possibly one of the noisiest professions in the world if I’m not mistaken. So… I imagine the name has come in handy at some point. 🙂

Also – GET OUT. Your husband’s a blacksmith!? AAAH (it’s a little nerd pipe dream inside me, that and going to join the Battle of the Nations once I’ve actually a…[Read more]

@deeprun, thank you!

@claire-h, I understand your situation (or at least I think I do). Rest for the Wicked began as a very different (and very generic) fantasy novel with a similar set of characters – then after many failed attempts to produce a novel, that turned into a fantasy cop drama…[Read more]

@claire-h, yes I would love to draw both the twins and your 20s mystery girl! I love the ancient setting too – it’s not commonly done. And I like that your main character’s flaw isn’t the usual recklessness and strong will – but rather being afraid and being all-too-willing to compromise.

You know, I somehow knew that the Countess and the…[Read more]