Weekly Recap Part 6 (And Inktober)

Hello people, sorry for the hiatus in those blogs, Inktober really sucked out the few free time I had.

But I love it.

I love it because it's the occasion to re-learn the art of the single stroke, of conceiving a scene from the very start and not shifting an resizing pieces of the preliminary sketch. And it's pretty relaxing to draw with the familiar friction of the pen on the paper.

But, most of all, it's the occasion to give a shape of the various images of the story I'm working on, to make them more real.

I know, you're here for the hung sweaty guys beating the crap out each other, but I hope you will love also a plot more intense, without contrived sex scenes, but with a lot of sexy action.

What I am talking about? Well, this pic is a fitting example.

One of the characters of my story, Akhetis, inspired by Homer's Achilles. Do you love Greek Mythology? Well, maybe because you don't know it very much.

Greek heroes and gods are a gang of misogynistic jerks and psychos. But they still have that fascination, for their primal nature, and, in the end, the similarity with our family dynamics.

The unfaithful husband (Zeus), the wife that lives her marriage like a perennial abuse (Hera), the maiden aunt (Hestia), the problematic child (Ares), the bullied nerd (Hephaestus)the daughter that despise all other men except his father (Athena) and so on.

Achilles is one of the worsts. Cruel, childish, vengeful and irresponsible. He doesn't hesitate to use his godly powers on helpless humans. And I created a character inspired to him.

Some kind of general that gained his grades more for his image than his merits, more a mascot than a commited soldier, that everyone in the higher 

ranks would gladly kill.

If he wasn't immortal.

InktoberWA2018 day 2: Hero

Do you know the hero's cycle theorized by Joseph Campbell?

Well, I wanted to depict the second stage of the Hero' s Journey: the Call.

Still fatiguing a lot to make my usual lineart style with real ink.

InktoberWA2018 day 3: Predator

This will make actually part of the worldbuilding directory, it's inspired to Triton, the greek-roman version of the merman, offspring of the god Poseidon and the sea nymph Amphitrite.

But while Triton, like the northern mermaids, has a fishtail (sometimes two, like the Starbucks' siren, I wanted to make this kind more cetaceous.

Inspired to the orca, pretty obvious, it has no gills, but it can hold the breath for almost an hour. Its nostrils are on the shoulders, and due to the high concentration of myoglobin (an oxygen-binding protein) its flesh and blood are very dark.

Very intelligent and ruthless kind. Its preferred weapon is a very curve scimitar and a hook to grab preys (and enemies) from the land.

They elaborated the technology of growing cities and barriers out of corals and echinoderms, that make a big part of the oceans not navigable.

They're one of the several reasons why the empire hasn't just conquered the whole hemisphere.

InktoberWA2018 day 4: Oracle

I sincerely hate psychic seers in a story. Their power is totally prone to the conveniences of the plot instead of internal consistency.

Did someone say "Garnet"?

And Greek Mythology made an awful lot of stories pop out of prophecies and people trying to avoid o realize them.

But it was somehow interesting how the prophecies were usually ambiguous and came out with a certain cost.

One of the examples was the haruspices, a particular kind of fortune tellers that read the future in animals' entrails.

Guess how should be their work in a world inhabited by magical animal

InktoberWA2018 day 5: Infected

Let's admit it. Tritons are kind of hot.

And I'm very hopeful that you appreciate my efforts in using (actual) large brushes. I have to get the hang of that yet.

InktoberWA2018 day 6: Attack

Why do I keep making my scenes so friggin' complicated?!

Anyway, I'm naively happy about my growing confidence with physical tools. I hope that a chunk of the one-take approach will propagate in my digital drawing too.

I am too used to the existence of the "undo" operation and perfect erasers on a incorruptible support. That comfort makes me lose too much time with useless chaotic strokes.

That's why Inktober exists.

InktoberWA2018 day 7, Crawling

This was posted after a three day-hiatus. Too much fucking work for me.

For this theme, I decided to show one of the creatures of my world, the fairies, psychic arthropods that use their delusional powers to disguise themselves in good looking little people and allure or flatter humans.

I've stolen the idea from Isaac Asimov's short story Kid's Stuff, I admit it. 

InktoberWA2018 day 8, Matrimony

This time I leveraged the writing prompt given by worldanvil.com, the duality, so I decided to show the most effective conflict present in my story.

Daddy Issues.

The contradiction between the figure of the Sky Father cold and severe, and the Earth Father, humble and nurturing.

Those figures shape religion, society, and our psyche so heavily, and drive a good chunk of my story too. And my preferences toward big burly guys, obviously.

InktoberWA2018, day 9, Element

(Another three-day hiatus here)

I followed the writing prompt, and it inspired me to show one of the most important and limiting resources of a world conquered by dungeonpunk technology: the crystals, sentient inorganic creatures that can be used to give motion and intelligence to mechas, or support mages in their performing.

They can recharge just via quiescence, absorbing the environmental magic, thus making their use time-limited.

InktoberWA2018 day 10, Storm

The best occasion to hop on a mecha pegasus powered by magical crystals and steam? A storm evoked for defense by the druids of the sieged castle. Obviously

Oh my god, I'm fucking late.

But I'm getting more and more confident with physical tools, and it translated in more efficient digital writing too.

If you want my tough hairy men and boys get involved in the epic story I'm showing you, please keep supporting and tell your friends!