Joined Sep 2016
Tools
ink, G pen nib, Saji pen nib, Maru Pen nib, Kolinsky brush, Copic Markers, Watercolor paint,
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It's the Two year anniversary of bouts of the blind! I just want to take a moment to thank anyone who has read, glanced at or skimmed it! Even if you hated it or me for making it, I thank you for you time. It has not been easy to make, nor all that successful, but its still means the world to me and i hope i can continue to make it for the foreseeable future. here is to the continuing adventures of Adalyn and her friends!
"Good times!" My character Adalyn and her outfit for the new arc that's coming up. Generally, every arc I try to change up her outfit. I try to keep them similar to each other ( leather jacket, boots, waist sash, etc) this time I gave her a dress with yoga pants. I wanted to give a touch more Femininity to show jax's influence on her, since they their relationship has been going on for a little bit now. I really got the idea for an outfit like this when I was studying the works of Arina Tanemura and saw a dress plus leather jacket combo.I was like "that kind of looks like something Adalyn would wear". So a few rough drafts later and here we are.
My character, and mother of Bouts of the Blind protagonist Adalyn Quintrell, Clara Quintrell! She is one of the characters that took a lot of time to nail down the design for. Partly because she has two that have to play off each other, Her present time design and her teenage design. Her present time design is a more happy and confident. While the teenage design is angry, miss trusting, and aimless. Her present self being a happy with her life as a professional pianist and (more or less single) Mother. Her teenage design on the other hand is living on the streets trying to survive and only really trusting her two adoptive Brothers. Both of things were decided on before her design was really started. It helped that Adalyn was designed before her so had kind of a direction to go in. I started with her present design and age down. Which was tricky, because 1. I didn't want her to be generic mother 2. She really couldn't be. The problem is if I did just do generic mom is that her would feel too different from her teenage self. You would be like " she couldn't be the same person." Really the thought process for her is her present design is a ceremonial katana and her teenage self is a soldier's katana. The soldier's katana being a clear threat( but still beautiful in a way) and found in the chaos of the battlefield. Ceremonial katana is encased in a beautiful sheath in a calm temple, but still just as lethal as the soldier katana. I hope that made sense.
My character Rand Hardy Father of, Bouts of the Blind protagonist, Adalyn Quintrell! Rand Hardy, the once upon a time protagonist, of Bouts and "kind of there" father of the year. Rand design from day one was always influenced by Son Goku. Goku is one of my most beloved characters ever. So I knew I had to have someone just like him in my story. Of course I still wanted Rand to be his own character with his own unique quirks and damages, but still have a tip of the hat( or in this case messy hair) to Goku. In order to achieve this i broke down what makes Goku ,well ,Goku to the most basic elements of his design. I started with what really makes a character pop their silhouette. Goku has a a claim silhouette with a few sharp angles here or there. This show his core personality a fun loving guy with a little bit of a rambunctious ting to him. I stuck to a similar silhouette for Rand. Rand only really have a few more sharp edges to him do to his bread and also so I could hint at has guardian spirt be a wolf. When I really started getting into the thick of his design i decided to give him more cowboy/biker clothes over a martial arts Gi, because it made more sense for him as a character. Given he has a more boxing/street brawl influenced move set with very little grounding in the marital arts. Also, bikers/cowboy iconography is synonymous with with freedom which is at the core of his character to a detriment( his separation from Clara and his more reserved role in Adalyn's life). His face is a little more on the generic side, but that was also on purpose. Goku has become the standard model for all shonen protagonist and in that way I wanted Rand to come off as "standard". That way there would be a sharper contrast between him and his daughter who is not the standard protagonist. Rand is someone who has a firm idea of what he wants. Adalyn on the other hand really doesn't, but I'll cover this more in a later blog.
My character The Man-O-Dile! One of the first antagonistic forces designed for Bouts of the Blind ( boutsoftheblind.com or here!... say, WHAT!!) . He is basically a love letter to king from tekken. I wish I had a better reason for choosing a crocodile as has main theme, but I really just came up with the name Man-O-Dile on whim. found it really amusing and stuck with it. That’s not to say his design is was just as easy to decide on. He went through about five different designs before settling on the one you see here and in the series. His first design was kind of like a biker who rapped a crocodile pelt to their head and used crocodile skulls as brass knuckles/ gauntlets. The two after that where variations of that design. When I hit number three is when I came up with the idea that he should be more at one with the crocodile( also, shortly after this idea is also when I came up his cult followers). So I decided to give him a crocodile helmet mask thing. He still had the gauntlets until the last design, but I decided I wanted something simpler and that made him feel more unique. I made it a giant broke crocodile jaw for three reason. First, I thought it really gave a good sense of how strong he was (did he kill a giant monster and ripe its jaw off!?). Second, I also felt it gave a good sense of world building. It tells the reader “ this isn’t really our earth. We don’t have elephant size crocodiles”. Third, it look cool…yup that is….all I got!
"Jimmy Jim Jim Jim!" My character Soung from my series Bouts of the Blind! I really enjoyed designing him. After Man o dile and Minotaur, both bulky adversaries, I really wanted to change things up with a more slim set foe. Someone who had nothing really to do with the Bout. Someone who was more like a force of nature with a single goal In mind that swipes through and swoops up Adalyn as more of an after thought. I also wanted him to show how low (in terms of power) in this world she really is and how harsh the road is going to get. The reason I chose to give him the clay Kraken power is two fold. First, I want a ability that really felt like it could sneak up on you and once I had it was devastating. Like how Godzilla will will pop up destroy part of a city and just despair into the sea. Second, I wanted it to reflect soung himself. How the the tentacles sneaky and encompassing, so too did I want soung's cool/creepy personality to fill the air before he lets loose with his true murderous intent/ unshackled emotions
