Okay, it's been a long time. A really long time, and that's bad. (7 or 8 months?) And it's not that I'm not drawing or creating anymore, because I am. But once upon a time I painted just so that I could show it off-- I thrived on positive feedback and used it to spur myself forward. And that's not a bad thing. In fact, in a way it was a good thing, because it kept me from hiding my work under a rock, which is sort of what I do now. It's not that I'm ashamed of it or anything-- it's just that most of what I paint nowadays is for my own fulfillment. I use it as a way of relaxing, or exploring character and story concepts that interest me. 

I'm going to try to get better, really. I am (yet again) exploring options for recording and sharing my process. I've been attending open life drawing sessions at the local art college to sharpen my gesture. I've reconciled my differences with my old enemy charcoal and we may yet find it in us to be friends.

In the meantime, though, here's a peek at the things I've been working on.

I've started up playing with a new D&D group. It's been going for a couple of months now and I've yet to actually attend a session, but at the very least, I've had fun coming up with character ideas.

My first idea was a death sorceress who is-- more or less-- a bit of a zombie. (A bit? I can hear you asking. How can somebody be a bit of a zombie? It's not a bad pun, I swear, but thanks for noticing.) In the Pathfinder roleplaying game there's a sorcerer bloodline devoted to necromancy where the character slowly transforms into an undead creature themselves. By 20th level, their flesh starts rotting and their personal hygiene in general goes down the toilet. I don't remember exactly how my character acquired this bloodline-- unsavory dalliances among her ancestry, I believe-- but she's under the impression that consuming the flesh of her enemies helps to keep the process at bay. So, cannibalistic funtimes abound-- she murders her enemies and then eats them in front of her companions. Lovely woman.

That's not the character I decided to play, of course-- as fun as she would be. Our group wound up with an abundance of sorcerers so I decided to create a different character. At that point in time I was on a bit of a Bollywood kick, so I chose a rogue with Indian flavor.

(Disclaimer to my D&D group: don't read ahead because character spoilers ahoy.) Kavya's got a bit of a Robin Hood complex going on. Daughter of an unjust king who seized the kingdom's vast fortune for himself, she leads a double life: princess by day, burglar by night. As a champion of the people she frequently breaks into the treasury and redistributes the wealth that she steals from her own family. This wealth was acquired when her great grandmother, a warrior, banished the dragons and seized their hoards. The dragon became the crest of their bloodline, hence the tattoo.

In addition to the new D&D group, I've been on a huge science fiction kick ever since Star Wars Episode VIII. In fact, I've been on a Star Wars kick more than anything, but sci fi flavor has been bleeding into everything I draw lately. 

This is Raxa Nor, a Star Wars based character of mine. Daughter of a Kiffar and a Mandalorian, she inherited a little bit of psychometry from her father's side-- that is, a special ability we see mostly in Jedi Master Quinlan Vos that allows a Kiffar to read the residual memories of objects. But her father died when she was young, so she was raised primarily by her Mandalorian mother, Arca Vex. (There's no letter "X" in the Mandalorian alphabet, by the way, but many Mandalorians are adopted into the culture from other cultures-- as was the case with Arca. Her name and Raxa's name a remnant of her original culture.) Raxa was raised to be a mercenary like her mother, but when Arca was injured during Raxa's teenage years, the two were forced to spend some time on Pantora to recover. During that time, Raxa learned a bit about the art of film making from a young Pantoran boy, and from then on she was passionate about the art. During the course of the Clone Wars, she filmed documentaries from the front lines while working as a Republic operative.

And this is Lorelei, a character based in an old sci fi (steampunk?) setting of mine. I never did get very far writing the book about this world, but in general it goes something like this: the east is a verdant, forested land of high culture. The aesthetic there is very art nouveau-- delicate, flowing lines, pastel colors, etc. The west is far more industrialized and still in the midst of cultural development. It's a red, parched desert similar to the land in southern Utah, and the aesthetic there is very art deco. Geometric, dark, heavy, making use of the metals that are a natural resource of the area. Lorelei lives in the west, in one of the mining cities. She's the wealthy heiress of a casino-- and the new head of a mob family. She sings in the lounge at the casino under the pseudonym Lady Luck.

And this lady, well... I didn't get very far in her character development. But the general idea was some sort of space paladin that isn't a Jedi. Someone more with a Warhammer 40K flavor. I don't know if I'll ever get around to finishing her, but if I do I'll be sure to post her here.

That's about it, really. Hopefully I'll have more to share soon. And hopefully I'll remember to actually share it.