I think about the nature of Haarlep’s “Raphael form” a lot. Like, obviously they are presenting a younger version of Raphael, but even so, on closer inspection there are facial features that are just…different.
Is it because Haarlep’s shape shifting nature doesn’t quite catch all the details? Did Haarlep take creative liberties? Can Haarlep alter their forms, and did Raphael have some criticism that made them alter the image?
Personally, I love to imagine it going down like this:
Haarlep: (Take’s Raphael’s form for the first time.)
Haarlep: “You like what you see~? 😘”
Raphael: “…”
Raphael: “…….”
Raphael: “You got my chin wrong. My cheeks are higher. Also—”
Haarlep, in Raphael’s exact image:
Haarlep then essentially real-time FaceTune’s themselves while Raphael obnoxiously projects his insecurities. Excessive skin smoothing. Brightening the under-eyes. Morphed features.
And, of course, Raphael has no shame in giving his criticism and sees no dissimilarities with Haarlep’s “Raphael Form V. 2.0.”
Tried something new this week—look ma, no line art!! The entire process simultaneously fried my synapses and brought back good memories from taking art classes in college.
Overall, I ended up really liking the outcome! Maybe even more than what it would have looked like as colored line art?? This was an unfamiliar process for me, but I don’t think I’ll stop here.
The hardest part was trying to resist getting too detailed and relying on the ol’ blender tool too much. Along with increasing my speed, I have a lot to work on improving going forward!
Anyway… Zevlor is occupying a valuable amount of space on my hierarchy of needs and I need to find inspiration on how I’ll provocatively draw this old man next.
“By the— what in the hells are you doing here? … What about me, you ask? I’m bathing myself, as you can very well see with your own eyes.”
“You wish to join me? Hmph… I’m flattered, though, are you sure you— by the gods! You should have warned me before you started to unrobe yourself!”
“Are you absolutely certain you wish to bathe with me…? No, don’t misread my chivalry as innocence or hesitance, my little light; I’m a grown man—and not a foolish one at that.”
“Ngh!~ Careful with those dangerous, wandering hands… lest you find that these tides aren’t the only things that can be hungry, rough, and commanding in these shallow waters.”
Whew!! I challenged myself to paint much faster on this one! I think there’s still a few non-focal point areas I could have dialed back on and left rougher, but I couldn’t help getting lost in all of Zevlor’s lovely details.
To make sure I didn’t get too lost in the details, I would regularly give myself timed deadlines like “you have only 10 minutes to finish that shoulder” which was surprisingly not as stressful as I imagined and gave me some insight on how fast I can actually render (if I do not constantly distract myself lol).
I am going to double down on focusing on speed for the next painting—and even time myself from start to finish.
ALSO (if I’m counting right), this is my 9th Zevlor drawing since I started using him as inspiration to get back into making digital art! I feel like #10 has to be special somehow or that I need to reward myself somehow… hrmmmmmmm…….
Mister Rolan isn’t in a very good mood… (● ˃̶͈̀ロ˂̶͈́)੭ꠥ⁾⁾
I hope everyone had a good Rolan Week! ♡ Here’s my (late and rushed) contribution!
Life happened and I was (very) far away from my computer to not finish this in time for Rolan Week, but for the sake of my feelings, let’s pretend it’s January 31st, a.k.a Day 3 of Rolan Week: Fight or Forgiveness!
Going into headcannon territory (cw alcohol/substance abuse), I don’t think Rolan’s affinity to drinking is isolated to the events of Act II—I really think Rolan intentionally escapes his problems through substances that affect his cognitive functions. He’s uniquely intelligent enough to be considered a prodigy, and that can be a burden when he’s stuck overthinking and overworrying. In other words, if his brain doesn’t slow down, he’s going to slow it down himself.
It’s an unhealthy habit, and he needs his siblings (and Tav/Durge) to help him find better days to distract himself…particularly ways that don’t end up with him starting fights at the tavern. (It doesn’t matter how well that boy casts fireball thunderwave — that wizard is going to be in the wrong side of a pissed off monk one of these days and get the weave kicked out of him!)
Finally, I’ve finished my 10th Zevlor drawing!! Huzzah!! And (as a special treat to myself), I included my current Tav build—Sage! (Why yes, I do name all of my favorite player characters Sage, lol.)
Anyway, this Tav was inspired by a “silly” Honor Mode run I did where I roleplayed myself in a isekai-esque scenario… it was the worst playthrough I ever had!! All the outcomes were super sad and unsatisfying because I made EVERY decision because on what I would do, from dialogue options down to whether I would jump over a chasm or not. Ugh, I could talk about it forever—it essentially put me through a weeks-long depression and forced me into a heap of self-discovery and soul searching. 0/10 would not recommend.
After that disaster of a playthrough, I wanted to get a legitimately silly playthrough in, so I installed a gun mod and gave my self-insert character an OP gun as their main weapon. It was funny, BUT then I started overthinking a background story and character arch until the Tav became their own strange non-lore friendly being. Thus, Sage was born!
Sage is a human from our universe who was transported to the world of Faerun, specifically Baldur’s Gate, through a multi-universal tear between the two worlds. For three months, she lived under the Society of Brilliance, who sought to study her origins and unnatural magic tethered to her home world. When they found out she could summon any item from her home world an a whim, it sparked discussions on the very ethics of her existence. After much experiments and debates, it was decided that she posed way too heavy of a threat and liability to the world. Before they could do anything about that conclusion, the mindflayer invasion that happened (at the start of the game) simultaneously saved Sage from the Society of Brilliance and doomed her with a mindflayer tadpole in her head.
I haven’t decided yet, but I might make more art including/featuring Sage!! I’ve played about 5 full playthroughs of BG3 and Sage has become my favorite Tav so far to roleplay (and I love Zevlor paired with Sage romantically… much angst and love potential!).
