Avdank Fantasy Art

Avdank is a card game and a pet project of mine, which involves designing and drawing fantasy characters. I'll be posting my favourites here. Let's get started!

[beardednerdse]

Lanlei is a rather new character that I played in Dark Souls 2. She's an eccentric noble and a weapon collector, which is an excuse for her to gather my heroes' weapons from previous generations. Here she has found the sword of my first hero, Shaana: the Dragon's Toothpick.

[beardednerdse]

Caran was a stranger who approached Devyn's group. With Devyn being rather insecure, he instantly resented the newcomer who was a slightly better fighter, slightly stronger and slightly better looking. And worst of all, he was a really nice dude too. Drawn in 2021.

[beardednerdse]

Yoli began as a simple concept in 2017: a former maid who became a mercenary and mainly liked to punch things. Since then I've developed her a bit more and recently decided to make a new version of the same portrait. I put a little more thought into her outfit and hopefully managed to improve her anatomy. Her helmet doesn't really make sense in a fantasy setting but I wanted to evoke the boxer motif. Yoli remains a fun side character that I want to include in more things.

[beardednerdse]

Aradin and Emana are two of my oldest characters from way back in 1996. I've been drawing them ever since, but this is my latest rendition. Aradin wields a naginata and Emana a daikyu, because I was extremely into Japan at the time (and admittedly still am).

[beardednerdse]

Haruel is a naive young noblewoman who set out on an "adventure". Somehow she stayed alive long enough to hire a bodyguard and eventually met up with Devyn, who fell in love with her. She is a sweet and caring person, but her luck has to run out eventually. This picture is from 2019.

[beardednerdse]

Meguri was one of the last pen & paper RPG characters I ever played, and only for a brief time. But that was around the time I started drawing more, so she became one of the core characters I drew a lot. The concept behind Meguri is that she is possessed by a spider god (that takes the shape of a moving tattoo around her waist) and she uses its powers as a burglar, which is why I usually draw her upside down (and lightly dressed). I'm not completely happy with her anatomy and this was drawn right before I made some changes in my style, but I still like how it came out. The hardest part was finding a suitable background. For some reason I don't tend to take photos of ceilings.

[beardednerdse]

As I mentioned back when I posted my original picture of Devyn, he was due for an update and here it is. I wanted to change his outfit a bit, but his general design is the same. I've changed the way I draw metal as I noticed it looked very dull in most of my older pictures. While the shading on Devyn himself is simple, I like how it makes him look more anime. The background is from a local outdoors museum which has provided a lot of potential ideas.

[beardednerdse]

Here's something a little different I did last year. I made a simple quick sketch and liked it so much I turned into a full piece. Niereth is running away from something... which must be pretty nasty because she's quite a skilled fighter.

[beardednerdse]

Edwendi is one of my more recent characters, combining features of many of my favourites in fiction. She is a shy, introverted young woman who prefers the company of books and numbers. She was eventually sent off by her family to work for a prominent trader, hoping things would work out naturally. And as it turns out, they did, as he was only interested in her company and keeping up appearances. While Edwendi isn't your traditional swashbuckler, she became a hero in her own right when she figured out a way to free a friend from a tyrannical master.

My first picture of her is from 2017. The second began as a quick sketch in 2018 and turned out looking a bit younger. For the last, recent one, I wanted to show Edwendi where she enjoys herself most, and added a bit more scenery than usual.

[beardednerdse]

So I did say I was happy with the original version of this picture of Shinda from 2013, but I wanted to update it to my more current style. So I inked it again from the original sketch and did all the colouring again with a cleaner look. I still enjoyed figuring out the way the light falls on her, as she's cradling a small flame she created.

[beardednerdse]

Gondris was a shapeshifter and could turn into a bear. While the original character wasn't used for very long, I always liked him and eventually wrote him as the patriarch of a large family, eventually being the great-grandfather of one of my later characters.

[beardednerdse]

Rixi is one of my later characters. She was originally a silversmith, but learned how to create magic weapons to protect her.

[beardednerdse]

Asmalinde was the first "new generation" character I created after we stopped playing RPG:s, being the daughter of two of my former characters. The first picture was from when I first started drawing portraits of everyone in 2009, the second was one of the first to get an new take in 2014, and the third is my latest from 2022.

[beardednerdse]

Acaiya is a new character of mine. I was inspired by Rings of Power to add more black elves into the world, so here she is.

[beardednerdse]

I don't really do the undead thing, but a catgirl should fit the season well enough. Tarris came from a tribe of catpeople from the magical forest of Prei Dryae, but she never felt like she belonged and eventually left to join the magic academy. There she rose through the ranks and became a teacher.

[beardednerdse]

Ar-Zamantiron, the honourable pirate sorcerer, drawn in 2013.

And drawn again in 2022, looking a bit more lively.

[beardednerdse]

This picture of Kinsho is from 2015, but I like how it came out. Kinsho is a reliable and friendly warrior who uses his kusarigama to disarm his opponents if possible.