#mesoe

[astariaeverlasting]

Just a lil love post for some of my orc boys Barbaurak and Zathra <3

Art by my friends: Lulu and Lawyer, and myself

[astariaeverlasting]

Elvish Devilry

The theory that orcs are descendants of ancient elves corrupted by Morgoth leaves so many fascinating implications and consequences to be explored. And I love forcing my orc character Zathra to deal with that.

Art by me!

Yes Zathra is actually an orc, created in the third age in Mordor, despite his appearance. He shows far more "elvish" features than orcs normally should, seemingly like some sort of weird genetic throwback. For his appearance, he is considered a freak, even among orcs. The fact that he can wield magic doesn't exactly help Zathra's case either; magic is regarded with extreme suspicion by most orcs. Understandably, given how magic-wielders are often some of the most sadistic, cruel officers who use the replaceable soldiers as guinea pigs in their twisted and psychotic experimentation. If not for the fact that his appearance was mutilated by an explosion and that he hides his abilities, other orcs would make Zathra a prime target. The problem now is his magic has been changing and it's getting harder and harder to hide.

[astariaeverlasting]

Quick Sketch of my main characters Ar-Tashk and Alaesia in a scene from my fic.

I really wanted to capture the intense, feral fear Alaesia was feeling during this chapter. She is engulfed in an all-consuming, oppressive darkness, threatening to swallow her up if she so much as blinks; the only escape she can fathom is her in gaze, hollow, intense, and hopeless.

And yet, Ar-Tashk, the trollish monster wrapping his arms around her to help her calm down, shares none of her foreign, human emotions. He looks down upon the puny, frail thing, lost in deep contemplation, sowing the seeds of doubt in the brutal, power-hungry life he has lived thus far.

(The scale difference between these two is probably exaggerated here to amplify the representation of Alaesia's feelings of being overwhelmed by this great hulking beast of an olog. Also because I suck at scale.)

[astariaeverlasting]

Have some art: a line up of my characters from a fic I wrote. I really need to update this though. Lotta characters its still missing.

[astariaeverlasting]

A redraw of my olog-hai character Ar-Tashk.

Ar-Tashk is one of the main characters in my LOTR Shadow of Mordor/War fic. He is an olog warrior of Mordor, originally from the eastern desert whose war-campaigning, with the uruk Vezhir, took him westward to conquer a fortress near the Sea of Nurnen.

This is a first attempt at redrawing him from my character line up, which was a bit too sketchy for my tastes. I wanted to use this as an opportunity to test how I want to refine the other characters too, but I'm feeling like the line art is a little too chunky for my tastes (and of course I forgot his scars ugh). I'll probably take another crack at this to hone in on my desired style before redoing the whole cast which can be seen here.

[astariaeverlasting]

If he wouldn't fight an embodiment of nature itself for you, you picked the wrong guy. A quick sketch of my characters: Ar-Tashk the olog-hai vs Ammatar (a forest spirit in the form of a giant snake) in a scene from my fic.

The cast lineup of my characters can be seen here.

[astariaeverlasting]

I'm SUPER rusty, haven't drawn in a very long time… (most of my previous uploads were from a year+ ago) BUT I wanted to try drawing Alaesia as she would appear early on in my fic "You Reap What You Sow" (under the spoiler line because she's pretty beat up, no gore or blood, just lots of scars and bruises).

She's not having a great time.

I'm not the biggest fan of how this doodle turned out, but practice is practice🤷‍♀️ I'm trying to not be too precious about it. I think I'll leave it as is and keep trying to improve on other pieces. I'd love to push her design to be less generic in shape, but shape language is not my strong suit. Hmmm… That is a tough one.

I also don't remember how I used to draw things, so relearning the software is a challenge. There's weird artifacting on the edges of some of the color layers and I don't know how to get rid of it. For now... let's just call it a stylistic choice 🙃

[astariaeverlasting]

Ar-Tashk, murderous juggernaut that he is, has no business being this cute. But I love him.