Meet Laura, one of the very first characters I ever created for this Shadowdawn and Euterra setting… far too long ago to admit 🙂
I’ll be upfront and say now she’s the most “optional” character of the eight playable as she isn’t part of the main story unless the player convinces her to join Arashi’s team. But she’ll be worth it, as she’s one of the most powerful mages in the world, so she’ll add plenty to a party in need of firepower.
I apologize for only showing a rough concept, but since I’m still working on the final official digital artwork series for the website, I figured this would get the idea across for now.
In any case, she is probably my most developed character, even though she wouldn’t initially seem so given her cheesecake design – it’s kind of an homage to Jeane from Suikoden as they appear to have similar concepts on the surface. Actually, up until the Shadowdawn project, the curse that gives her the ears and tail actually kept her trapped in the body of a real fox, as opposed to an anthropomorphic blend, so her current incarnation is a bit new. Her role in the story is unique as she is most affected by the underlying themes beyond the personal conflict Arashi and the rest of the party faces.
For the few that don’t follow my Twitter and Facebook feeds, I also uploaded the first video showing the bare bones gameplay of the game. It also includes a more finished remix of the music track “Crimson Azure” which I uploaded in December. Since everyone always asks to see a video, I figure now is as good of a time as any just to show how the game engine essentially runs. There’s still a LOT of stuff the video doesn’t show, but since the animations aren’t complete I decided not to focus on it. I only use like 2 of the submenus XD This blog entry from XboxIndies outed me before my own blog did, which was actually pretty cool, and I love the brief write-up about it. The neogaf forums also got the same video, and it seems like it’s been fairly well received, so we’ll see. In any case, if you HAVEN’T seen the video yet, here it is:
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCxlsbRHC0I
“But she’ll be worth it, as she’s one of the most powerful mages in the world, so she’ll add plenty to a party in need of firepower.”
A mage? Well, when I look at her artwork, she looks more like a Beast/Fighter type for me.
Often mages (more specifically female mages) has a frail/delicate/cute design, with a dress or similar outfit. But that’s just my opinion.
The idea that she was cursed is cool, and explain well the reason why she has a tail and fox ears, but still, I can’t help but think of her with a lively, more aggressive personality, that matches more a character that has physical skills instead of mind/magical skills.
And, by the way, you draw on pen and paper, right? Have you considered drawing with a tablet instead? I know it is different from pen and paper, but you get used to it pretty fast, and has the advantages of being able to use layers, so you can separate pieces of artwork, you can draw a rough sketch in one layer, fix whatever you think is necessary, and then do the line art in another layer, and the eraser leaves no marks or stains.
I took me about a month to get used to drawing on tablet, until recently I only drew on paper, thought it was more comfortable, and used my tablet only for line art and painting.
But a friend convinced me that I should start using tablet for everything from rough sketch to the final artwork, that is was easier and more productive to use a tablet instead of pencil and paper, and well, he was right. So, if you tried once and you didn’t like (like happened to me), give it another try someday, I’m sure it will make things easier.
I am not really a big fan of their job/class/personality defining how they look, and vice versa. Laura has always been a mage, which is what got her cursed in the first place. Also, mages in this world are a bit unusual as is, since nearly everyone can use magic naturally, and power is not a result of sacrifice at the cost of physique or social skills. She IS a bit crazy because of the curse, which makes her tend to resolve things without thinking anything through, so in that way she’s an aggressive Destruction-based mage (have to know more about the world make-up to get what all this means)
Drawing entirely on tablet just isn’t my thing. I like being able to draw in sketchbooks and then use vector lines if I want to clean things up, but for some art, the pencils are part of the whole picture I am aiming for and add a depth just clean lines can’t.