The dragonborn, a scholar, the Nerevarine, and the Hero of Kvatch spending some quality time together at House Nivulirel’s gala. Some of them are enjoying themselves more than others!
Anja is representing the warrior, Elivarya the lover, and Rendrasa and Anithil the thief—guess which of those two actually enjoys her sign. ; )
Please click to embiggen! Lines, concept sketch, and ramblings under the cut~
Anja’s endgame armor was the ancient falmer armor, but before that she preferred glass, and I love the colors to the glass armor, so it seemed only natural to incorporate it into her outfit. Most of the glass pieces she’s wearing are custom-made fashion pieces, but those are her combat-ready greaves and boots. Her circlet is styled after the glass helmet, but with more exaggerated horns to emphasize her role as dragonborn.
I didn’t actually have a birthsign picked out for Rya before this, but how could she not be the lover? The design of her silk dress comes directly from the constellation, but in the white and red that I like to imagine the snow elves enjoyed and with a little added flair from the slits.
Rendrasa doesn’t particularly enjoy being born under the sign of the thief, so while she also took inspiration from common depictions of the constellation, she’s really just wearing a slightly modified, differently-colored version of one of her standard outfits—this time in a rich navy velvet with gold trim. She preferred to pay homage to the constellation theme with general stars more than anything, though the thief can be seen on her belt.
Ani represents the thief with far more theatrical flair. She’s having the time of her life stealing everyone’s coin purses, too, as she’s a thief to her core. She styled her outfit directly after the constellation, but she couldn’t resist more stylish thigh-high boots. I added more color to her outfit after spying my pink quartz marker, to differentiate it a little more from her onyx-bedazzled outfit from last year.
Captain of the Imperial Watch Hieronymous Lex and his partner Anithil—who may or may not have ties to the Thieves’ Guild, and may or may not have ties to the Dark Brotherhood—arrive at the gala. Poor Lexi would rather be anywhere else, but he agreed to come after Ani insisted. He’s still not too sure about this whole thing, or about her costume choice…
Closeups, lines, and design notes under the cut~
Lex has chosen the most obvious Divine and the simplest costume imaginable: he is representing Akatosh in his role as the God of the Cyrodiilic Empire, and as such, deemed his Imperial Watch armor as good of a “costume” as any—the tunic, hourglass, and painted cow and goat horns were added at Ani’s insistence to reflect Akatosh’s depictions in stained glass.
Ani chose Nocturnal, which is only fitting for someone who spends a lot of time skulking and sneaking in the shadows. She went all-out with her costume, adorning herself with black silk and onyx and feathers. I went for a combination of Nocturnal’s depictions for her outfit, and as a little nod to her eventually taking up the mantle of the Gray Fox, had her paint “shadow hide you” in daedric down her leg.
Guess who bought her first fineliners? The white paint pen will need more experimentation, but using ink turned out to be more fun than scary. ^^
I wanted to test them with my own characters, so here’s Elivarya / Rya [Skyrim self], Rendrasa [Nerevarine], Anithil / Ani [Hero of Kvatch], Anja [Dragonborn], and Elnora [~250yr old vampire as seen in Skyrim].
My HoK Anithil and Hieronymus Lex, or as I call them, Ani and Lexi. Ani is a thief and an assassin, but she still looked at the uptight and upstanding Captain of the Watch and decided, “That one. I want that one.” When she finally let him know about her criminal activity, it was certainly an adjustment for him, but he was already quite devoted to her. I love them. <3
I very much prefer graphite to full colored pencil like this, but I’m pleased enough with this. I’ve been wanting to draw them for a long time now and they were just asking to be colored. ^^
